I'm torn on having them playable. It would no doubt be sweet being a Hormagaunt and leaping onto someone's face in a flurry of razor sharp strikes but how would the game accurately depict/enforce the way Tyranids act? You'd have to break some serious boundaries if everyone is to have control of a single Nid while doing their own thing.
I think the only way you could implement tyranids sucessfully would be to entirely revamp the resource system so that EVERY unit is purchased. Tyranids have no tanks or heavy units, and get "biomass" as an RP equivalent, but in greater levels than the folks in other races. That way, every single unit could be balanced in terms of "cost", removing the necessity to balance around a baseline power level. Hormagaunts and Termagants cost next to no biomass and are used primarily as suicide classes, letting players rack up kills via their lightning speed between runs as the heavy units. Genestealers are a basic class, with an average biomass cost that makes them a mainstay, while Warriors, Raveners and Lictors are slightly more expensive units with special abilities that let them really rack up the kills when used skillfully. Then, at the top, for a massive biomass cost you can evolve into a Carnifex or a Trygon, where you're a tank level monstrosity of destruction. Spawning as a Tervigon allows you to become a mobile spawn unit for the ultralight classes, while Zanthropes are buffing units that spur the 'nids around them to greater ferocity. Finally, you can spawn as a Tyrant, Death Leaper, or Broodlord as hero units, and become an unstoppable horror of the hive mind. It'd be super hard though and probably not worth it. I'd prefer they concentrate on Tau and environmental/gameplay expansions.
Not with every unit costing RP, as then inevitably players will end up with depleted resources and can't play for however long it takes RP to replenish. Not a good way to retain the playerbase.
See "At greater levels than other races", first sentence. Either units cost less for nids, or you get a lot more "biomass" per minute than RP. The objective is not starving the nids, simply balancing them.
''We don't know how to add Imperial Guard, their troops are weaker than the other race's, they should be dead in moments. They rely on superior numbers, etc...'' ''Oh, hey, playable Tyranids...'' Wha.. Nids should only be an NPC race imo.
Yeah, even as I suggest a way they might be implemented, I still think NPC is probably the way to go. There's just not enough reasons for, and way to many against. They'll be hard pressed getting all the Tau, hero units, and extra continents out, they don't need to revamp an entire NPC faction for basically no reason.
To be honest except gaunts and probably gargoyles the rest of the nid army will need a big nerf or they will destroy any other class in a 1 vs 1.
good, I like nids, I would play nids. This isn't an RPG, you don't need to roleplay or break your imagination to play nids in an action shooter.
Though i still feel that's its highly unlikely... Sure, I'll take it! I'll run around as a lowly gaunt expressing my free will as a Tyranid and show that silly Hive-Mind of mine that i am free to make my own choices. Synapse range and Synapse Creatures telling me what to do and where to go? No no no! Not in my forty-kays!
I have been promised the world across all sorts of pre-release hype trains, my friends, but never once have I been delivered this. Keep your feet on the ground.
