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So, I decided it would be a good idea to throw a little constructive criticism into the void and go through the roster of enemies and give them a grade, sort of like that one thing I did with the mutators. This time, however, I'm going to also give suggestions on how I would improve these enemies, because some of the ones I hate the most are actually those that I have clear ideas on how to address. Even some of the ones I like I have ideas for. Obviously, this is just my opinion; some of you guys may absolutely hate exploders or adore the naedocytes, everything's subjective broskies. Also, as a minor disclaimer, I am a gunner main, but I've promoted all the dwarves and like them all, and I primarily play on Haz4 and barely able to keep up on Haz5; above average but hardly the Babe Ruth of dwarves. Now, let's get this party started.
--Glyphid Swarmer: C || While annoying, swarmers seem to do their job well enough, which is to keep the player dancing and give a distraction which, if improperly handled, can lead to disaster. Honestly though, while swarmy enemies are generally annoying, these little guys don't bother me too much.
--Glyphid Grunt: B || Nothing fancy, nothing bad, these fellas just do their job as primary mooks and do it well. Ditto goes for the subvarieties of grunt, they just add some extra flavor to the mainline targets and do it well.
--Glyphid Praetorian: B || At risk of repeating myself, the praetorian just does its job of tank very nicely and help shape the battlefield with area denial. I particularly like the touch that you can set their death farts on fire; that's a neat twist.
--Glyphid Exploder: A || Let me be clear here: I LOVE exploders. There's just something so satisfying about watching a chain of them just start a conga line of explosions, and I love the little heart burble you get when you're in the middle of mining nitra, then you hear that hiss and instinctively leap for safety. Even when I'm a scout or something else that doesn't kill them as well as a gunner, I just find it so exhilarating to dance away from a horde of them.
--Glyphid Bulk Detonator: B || Honestly, I really like how the detonator is such an immediate monkey wrench into whatever plans you have. However, if I had one criticism for it, it would be that this damn thing shouldn't spawn on solo Salvage missions at the final stage. I can usually make do if I'm gunner, mostly because I set Bosco up as a stun bot, but if I'm a driller then all I can do at that point is essentially lower my sword and beg for a swift death like Obi Wan Kenobi.
--Glyphid Web Spitter: C || Honestly, just annoying. They do their job well enough, but it strikes me as very odd that they're luminescent. I don't mind it per se, but I think they shouldn't stand out quite as much as they do; certainly more than the acid spitter, but you shouldn't be able to spot them at a glance from two hundred meters away with sunglasses on.
--Glyphid Acid Spitter: F || These things do too much damage for how stealthy and how tough they are. These are the things I would suggest. 1) Give them a freaking auditory callout before they start firing so that we have a chance to react, rather than just arbitrarily lose a chunk of health because the game decides to. 2) Make them glassy as hell. 3) Either drop the damage output or get rid of the damage over time thing; both the high damage and DoT combined are just downright irritating. These three can be tried separately or together to tinker around, but honestly right now these things just flat out aren't fun.
--Glyphid Menace: A || You know the funny thing? I really love these things. I know it sounds bizarre compared to the paddling session I just gave the acid spitter, but their hit-and-run tactics, suppressing fire style of acid spray, and general threat actually makes them more fun for me to fight. Also, someone pointed out that he nicknamed them "lewd bug" and "oni-chan" and now I can't get the image out of my head.
--Glyphid Dreadnaught: B || It's a boss, it's a good boss, and sometimes in the right environment it can catch you off-guard. I wish the game had more bosses, since just having the dreadnaught alone can get a wee bit stale, but if we can only have one boss, this is a good one.
--Glyphid Warden: B || Another candidate for the "it does its job well and that's it" school. It's not fancy to play against, it just provides a nice in-battle secondary objective to ignore at your own peril.
--Q'ronar Shellback: D || Weird thing, I just kinda don't notice the shellbacks all that much. They never really cause me problems, they just eat ammo and then go away. I feel like their pathfinding is the main problem, they just tend not to engage with the team all that much, so typically they just miss or wind up stuck in a pit somewhere. The funny thing is that I really love their design; this is my favorite enemy in terms of concept, I just think the AI needs tightening up. I'd totally get a plushy shellback if I could too.
--Q'ronar Youngling: B || By contrast with their parents, the younglings make for some pretty fun panic moments when an army of four come roaring into a room to reenact the Chainsaw Massacre: Pinball Edition. Their pathfinding is still a little wonky and there are plenty of moments where they just wind up dying in a pit, but with three to five of the little bastards spawning at once they have a higher probability of causing problems that the fullgrown shellback doesn't. Also, I'm not kidding about the plushy, they are SO CUTE!
--BET-C: B || Kind of a pain to fight, but also provide you with an ally if you can beat it. Can't get mad. Do wish she was less likely to push you off of ledges though.
--Nayaka Trawler: C || This is one that I've got a personal soft spot for, mostly because my introduction to it is hearing my friend let out this high-pitched squeal of terror and turning around to see this weird worm thing sailing through the sky like the Disney star with said dwarf in its mouth. That said though, I think its hitbox is a little too finnicky for what it does and it's a little too easy to get stunlocked by it. Honestly, just tweak the animation so that its back is also out of the ground when it's going to grab someone and everything would be kosher.
--Carnivorous Larva: C || Meh, they exist.
--Mactera Spawn: C || I think I generally agree with the consensus that their damage output and durability need to be tweaked, but other than that I think they're fine. Personally, I'd either drop their durability or their damage output; either make them the glassiest cannons to ever canon or make them an annoying pest, but don't dance around the issue. But yeah, generally I like 'em.
--Mactera Grabber: A- || Soooo much fun shenanigans. I really do like the dynamic they bring to the game and the paranoia they immediately spark when you hear that whistle. Also, like the trawler, my introduction to them was just hearing a whistle then my friend going "What? What's going on? Oh sh*t, oh nononononononononoooooo!" However, they do have a small problem of phasing through walls. Fix that, and they're perfect.
--Mactera Goo Bomber: C || Honestly, bombers just kinda exist for me. Don't sh*t in my cereal, don't oil up my chocolate starfish.
--Naedocyte Shocker: ZERO || Okay, deep breath, constructive criticism. I loathe these things. Why? Simple, they are a pain-in-the-ass to hit--either being impossible to stop or eating too much ammo--have an easy time surrounding you and stopping you in your tracks, and unlike swarmers are kinda hard to get rid of in a tight spot with a grenade or beam cutter shot. I'm not certain there is anything that could salvage these things for me, I would have more fun with them out of the game. Maybe start with making them a little bit bigger so that they're easier to hit, but honestly I'm not sure that would be enough.
--Naedocyte Breeder: C/D || Okay, so, my cards about the naedocytes hurled onto the table with enough force to break the table in half, I actually don't mind the breeders so much. They don't typically spawn the tidal waves of hatchlings that you get with the shockers, they tend to stream in hatchlings at a manageable rate, and they actually provide an interesting gameplay dynamic to give you one more immediate objective. I do really hate it when two spawn however, because then we're getting back to the shocker plague problem. However, if the shocker problem were mitigated, I weirdly wouldn't mind that so much, because then the double-breeder hatchling extravaganza is a rare panic button moment, not a recurring source of exasperation. So, basically what I'm saying is, the breeder's fine, the hatchlings are fine, but the shockers bring them down.
--Glyphid Brood Nexus: D || Just kinda boring. I don't really have issues with the small numbers of swarmers they spawn, even on death, and really I just wind up having to grind everything to a halt to pickaxe it to death. Not really sure how to improve it though without making it annoying. Maybe fewer spawned on death but more spawned while alive? I dunno.
--Spitball Infector: B || Honestly, not much to say. It's a good turret unit that keeps the team on your toes and will wreck you if ignored, but is perfectly manageable with decent environmental awareness.
--Cave Leech: B+ || I suspect this'll be my most controversial opinion, but I love the dynamic the cave leeches bring to the table. It's not even that I think the cave leech itself is an especially fun enemy, it's just the extra spoonful of paranoia it adds to proceedings, especially when the players don't use that leech detection perk. That said, I would recommend one little tiny tweak. See, if there's not a scout in the party, spotting them is nearly impossible until they begin to attack, which can be a touch unfair. Might I suggest very small, very dim red lights on its auxilliary tentacles? The sort of thing that would be very easy to miss, especially in the heat of the moment, but rewards attentive players?
--Deeptora Honeycomb: F || Just annoying. Would be less annoying if the swarms didn't just follow you relentlessly, no matter how far you got from the hive.
--Loot Bugs: S || <3
--Huuli Hoarder: A || Honestly, I really like these things. They're hard to kill and something you have to ask yourself regarding the worth of hunting it down, weighing up how much nitra you have and such, but a nice piñata if you want it.
Welp, that's your lot. I'm curious what other people think about these, and in particular what people think of my proposed alterations? Think they're good ideas? Bad ideas? Got better ones that I missed? I genuinely want to hear them; I want this game to be the best it can be. I want all these rankings to become A's, I want to love every unit in this game. Oh, and please keep it civilized lads. I want this to be about helping the game, not bashing the devs for perceived mistakes or each other for different opinions.
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