New Lavaland role: Hivers

[L_Nacho_Chaos_L]

WARNING: I SUCK at balance.
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Broodmind:
Whenever the Hivers spawn, there would be only ONE spawner, which spawns in the ghost that takes it as the Broodmind.
The Broodmind has one ability at this point:

Unburrow Drone:
This is a one-use ability which spawns a single Hiver drone. Once used, the Broodmind loses this ability and gains all it's other abilities.
Drones are AI-controlled.

Designate for Excavation:
This designates a wall/rock to be mined out by drones.

Designate Enemy:
This designates a creature to be attacked by your swarm.

Designate for Absorption:
This designates a corpse to be dragged to the spawning pool.

Morph Spawning Pool:
If you use this ability on a drone, it will morph into a spawning pool. You're going to want to do this on your first drone.

Create Larva:
This takes some amount of biomass (more on that later) from a spawning pool and uses it to produce a larva.

Morph Larva:
Converts a larva into any Hiver caste. How much biomass it costs depends on what the larva is being morphed into.

Create Commander:
Costs a LOT of biomass, but turns any unit into a stronger, player-controlled version. Not usable on drones.
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Biomass:
Biomass is used for every ability that involves creating something. You gain it from dragging corpses into the spawning pool. Any corpse will do, as long as it's from something biological.
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Castes:
There are various types of Hivers that you can produce. Some are unlocked at the start, some require you to assimilate genetic material from certain lifeforms.

Drone:
The most basic caste. Performs most tasks. Individually weak, but strong in numbers.

Knight:
Another basic caste. Stronger than a drone, but cannot perform nest tasks, only fight.

Nurse:
Support caste. Can heal other castes and speed up a larva's metamorphosis. Assimilate enough legion DNA and they also gain the ability to convert corpses into zombie-like "husks", which mostly act like knights, but slowly lose health due to accelerated rotting.

Hulk:
Absorb enough goliath DNA and you gain these things. They are slow, but strong, and their attacks have baseball bat-level knockback. They also have the ability to charge, which has a long cooldown but basically flings the hulk at whatever it's charging at, breaking EVERYTHING in it's way.

Bishop:
Absorb enough watcher DNA and you can produce these. They can fire freezing blasts, but have pitiful melee damage.

Scavenger:
Absorb enough humanoid DNA and you can create these. They are always player-controlled, and can use tools. Still have to listen to commanders.
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Some mechanics are inspired by the Goonstation Flockmind. Also, please suggest some way to make it VERY hard, but not IMPOSSIBLE, for these guys to get onto the station.

[Yakumo_Chen]

oh boy just what lavaland needed, another race of unga bunga 'griff the miners' lizards but this time they're the Zerg

[John_Gobbel]

Sounds kind of neat for a different sort of xeno on the station

[L_Nacho_Chaos_L]

oh boy just what lavaland needed, another race of unga bunga 'griff the miners' lizards but this time they're the Zerg

Honestly they're mostly supposed to "griff" the aforementioned lizards more than miners.

[adamkad1]

But everyone hates miners because unga bunga good loot

[Shadowflame909]

how do you assimilate legion dna if legions turn into corpses once killed

[TrumpetPlaya]

thank god for the antag freeze

[L_Nacho_Chaos_L]

how do you assimilate legion dna if legions turn into corpses once killed

Eat the soul they drop, duh.
Also, no, you can't get humanoid DNA from the corpse dropped by legions because scavengers aren't supposed to be easily accessible.