Lets talk about parasite version 1.02

[Exophthalmos]

Seeing as klei wanted to know what we thought and that the request for our opinions was made in a thread about rapier.......I figured I'd just make a new thread for the parasite discussion.

 

As a quick refresher.....

 

Parasite from last patch had a 1 turn cd and burned 1 firewall a turn for 1 power.

 

Parasite now (although the description needs to be hotfixed) has removed the cd and has a scaling power cost depending on the current number of active parasites. For example, no parasites in play will have parasite costing 1 power, 1 parasite in play will have parasite costing 2 power...etc. Parasite's functionality remains the same.

 

 

 

My opinion:

 

I am okay with it. It is not the change I was hoping for, but I do believe the change has proved to bring parasite up near the same level as the other starting hacking tools. I haven't decided whether I will go back to using it as my go-to program or not, but I feel like I wont mind using it in lieu of the others. That certainly wasn't the case from last patch.

 

To Klei I say well done, I consider this a solid job at fixing parasite.

 

Also kudos to fixing the instant shooting guard bug....I have yet to encounter it in over 11 (in game) days of playing. 

 

Exo

[jimwinsor]

The new Parasite is good IMO. We can no longer carpet bomb the map with Parasites on every gizmo we saw as we could with the original, but at least now it isn't totally crippled.

[Wizard1200]

I think the new Parasite is perfectly balanced, because you have the option to hack only one system per turn for 1 power or different systems per turn if you have enough power available.

[shigad]

but all the idea of parasite is to hack multiple systems for very cheap, at the cost of waiting for next turn.

[Nathya]

For version 1.0 it seems to be ok (even so I really liked being able to quickly scan for hackable things with Internationale in the first rounds and infect everything for nearly no power cost).

 

I have not yet seen parasite 2.0 in the new build: has it the increasing power cost as well?

I really hope 2.0 still only costs 2 power or the delay + increasing cost would make it far less efficient compared to lockpick 2.0.

[Boar Head]

I'd say 2.0 should just let you hack 2 things before it scaled up each time. That would be quite nice and balanced imo.

[Exophthalmos]

I haven't had the chance to check yet, but I'm pretty sure parasite 2.0 wasn't touched.......

[daimonahte]

Parasite 1.0.2 now seems very nicely balanced and now for the first time I think we have a real choice to make at the loadout screen, whereas before there was a clear better programme to pick. Very happy with this change.

[5thHorseman]

I finally got a chance to play and tried Parasite. I'm torn on it. It's better than Lockpick if you hack 1 thing a turn, about a wash (cheaper but with a time delay) if you hack 2 things a turn, and flat out worse (time delay with the same cost) if you hack 3 things a turn. After that it gets worse and worse. Then there's the things with more than 1 firewall which you have to decide if you want it now now now I want it now, or later.

 

I need to play a few more times but I think with a good strategy Parasite could be a godsend. There are a lot of turns where you don't hack anything, and a lot of things you don't NEED to hack right away. If you prioritize the necessary stuff over the unnecessary stuff, it may just work.

 

And if not I've always got Lockpick

[nomm]

Only change to Parasite 2.0 is that it now costs 3 PWR to install. PWR cost does not increase with number of systems infected.

[Sando]

It's about right, you can hack multiple systems and it's generally more power efficient even if you have to use it a few times a turn (say a 3 firewall camera for 2 pwr - that's still hella-cheaper than 6 with lockpick...but it takes 3 turns).  If you used it to hack 3 x 1 firewall objects = 6 power, same as you'd use for lockpick 1.0.

 

You do have to suffer the wait time though, and it's no longer worth spamming on everything in sight like the old old parasite (you'd end up using it on pretty much everything, because you always had spare power).  Workable as a starting pick now, but not the easy times of old...which were probably too easy.  Combine with Dagger and Fusion and you should have a pretty good time of it.

[Yarrr]

I think Parasite is definitely in a good place right now. It's not as absurdly powerful as it was before that there really was not much choice. I think it's definitely a great pick when combined with Xu, as you can use him to crack safes and the like, save Parasite for camera's and such.

[Sinderlin]

I can't claim insight into Klei's intended purpose for parasite but I get the feeling it was meant as a cheap removal for multi layered firewalls and the current iteration of parasite is actually pretty bad at that in my opinion.

 

Don't get me wrong: I like parasite but right now I mostly use it as a way to save power compared to lockpick with a deliberate and methodical way to move through the corp's offices. I scout out surveillance early with Internationale and stagger my parasites so I only have up to three active any given time. The extra cost of waiting one turn can be mostly mitigated this way.  It's a lot of fun and feels very rewarding.

 

If that is what parasite is supposed to be about, disregard the following. Otherwise feel free to read on.

 

When it comes to multi layered firewalls, the wait just becomes too long. Taking out a sentry gun early on that got buffed by a daemon to a triple firewall will cost you three turns in which you can't pass that tiny room it's standing in. You can't plan this far ahead when you are still exploring the map. Buying parasite v2.0 only helps until you encounter your first five tiered firewall.

 

My suggestion would be a parasite that gets more powerful the longer it is running. Make it remove one firewall on the start of the next turn and two firewalls on the start of all following turns for example.

 

As always with everything on the internet: This is only a proposition and if you find fault with it, let me know. I'll hear you out as long as you do the same.

 

[Sirouhei]

For the sake of coherence, do you guys think Parasite 2.0 should also have the cost increase?

[ildarz]

 

When it comes to multi layered firewalls, the wait just becomes too long. Taking out a sentry gun early on that got buffed by a daemon to a triple firewall will cost you three turns in which you can't pass that tiny room it's standing in.

 

I think Parasite (and any other starting program) isn't supposed to be the solution for everything. That's why we have 5 program slots - addition hacking tool (Hammer is my favorite) makes things much more easier at later game stages. There is also Buster chips and EMPs.