My old thread may be gone, but now that I've played the demo and seen how the game works, I suppose I can add my own ideas to how the Flood could be playable. We'll start with the tech tree.
Flood
Tech Tree
• Proto-Gravemind (C: 500; E: 0): Three building slots
• Gravemind (C: 1000; E: 0): Increases building slots to five, adds four turret slots, and produces one energy
• Super Gravemind (C: 1000; E: 0): Increases building slots to seven and increases energy output to two
• Stalker Form (C: 200; E: 1; P: 2):
• Transform (C: 250; E: 0): Pure Forms get special ability
• Regurgitate (C: 500; E: 1): Tank Forms spew Infection Forms when not in combat
• Defense Curl (C: 800; E: 2): Turret Forms stop firing and quadruple damage resistance when under intense fire
• Juggernaut (C: 1500; E: 2; P: 10):
• Behemoth (C: 600; E: 1): Increases Juggernaut health and damage
• Doubled Aggression (C: 900; E: 2): Juggernauts are built two at a time for the price of one
• Calcium Roots (C: 50; E: 0): Produces calcium
• Deep Calcium Roots (C: 225; E: 1): Doubles calcium output
• Genetic Catalogues (C: 250; E: 0): General upgrades
• Empty the Warrens (C: 800; E: 2): Increase population limit by ten
• Medium Turret (C: 400; E: 0): Upgrade Turrets to medium
• Large Turret (C: 800; E: 1): Upgrade Turrets to large
• Frantic Growth (C: 500; E: 1): Increases rate at which Infection Forms are produced
• Biomass (C: 0; E: 0): Increases damage resistance to all Flood units and structures
• More Tentacles (C: 700; E: 1): Increases Tentacle Attack to two
• Most Tentacles (C: 700; E: 2): Increases Tentacle Attack to three
• Telepathic Link (C: 700; E: 1): Increases range of Dominate Will
• Mind Control (C: 1000; E: 2): Dominate Will lasts until used again
• Spawning Pod (C: 75; E: 0): Automatically produces Infection Forms and upgrades Combat Forms and Carrier Forms
• Infection Form (C: 0; E: 0; P: 0): Squad of five Infection Forms that can infect units
• Overwhelm (C: 200; E: 0): Adds extra member to Infection Forms
• Spread Out (C: 700; E: 2): Infection Forms less likely to pop each other upon death
• Penetrator (C: 400; E: 1): Decreases time taken for Infection Forms to infect units
• Combat Form (C: 0; E: 0; P: *): Cannot be built, must be infected
• Lunge (C: 200; E: 0): Combat Forms get special ability
• Memory (C: 400; E: 1): Combat Forms use the weapons infected with (Combat Forms stay in vehicle when infected)
• Advance (C: 700; E: 2): Combat Forms advance slowly on targets while firing before wildly charging for melee attacks
• Carrier Form (C: 0; E: 0; P: 1): Cannot be built, must be infected
• Unholy Charge (C: 200; E: 0): Increases Carrier Form speed
• Defiling Explosion (C: 400; E: 1): Increases Carrier Form splash damage
• Twins (C: 700; E: 2): Upgrades Carrier Forms special ability
• Turret (C: 125; E: 0):
• Spiked Pads (C: 100; E: 1): Anti-infantry bonus
• Grating Pads (C: 100; E: 1): Anti-vehicle bonus
• Suction Pads (C: 100; E: 1): Anti-air bonus
Powers
• Dispersal Pod (C: 300; E: 1; P: 1): Drops Combat Form unit at target location
• Tentacle Attack (C: 600; E: 1): Precise high-damage attack at target location
• Dominate Will (C: 600; E: 1): Ground units become unresponsive temporarily and air units are destroyed in area of effect at target location
Alright, now, for some noteworthy stuff. Let's see, where to start? Well, I guess the first big difference between this and other factions is that energy is produced at the main base, depending on what level you're at. You may also notice that supplies has been replaced by calcium as the general resource. Now, there aren't a lot of structures. This is because the Flood don't build units, persay, as much as build structures that build units. That is to say, by building a Spawning Pod, one is building a structure that automatically outputs Infection Forms at a set rate. So, what next? Well, for starters, Infection Forms, initially, are very weak. Pretty much, if anything fires once at a squad of Infection Forms, they all die, because the one shot pops and causes all the others to pop. There is a tech upgrade to prevent this, making Infection Forms slightly more resilient. Next, we can cover Combat Forms. They are a little more complex. When a unit is infected, it becomes a Combat Form. At the beginning of the game, Combat Forms do not use guns, and when a vehicle is infected, the crew of that vehicle get out and become a squad of Combat Forms. When a unit within a squad of infantry is infected, it becomes a Combat Form. Whenever more members of that squad are infected, they atuomatically become squadmates with the inital Combat Form (and automatically move towards it until they are next to each other). After the player researches Memory, Combat Forms will be able to use whatever gun they had to start, and will stay in vehicles if infected in them, allowing Flood players to use vehicles. Now, when a squad of Infection Forms infect a squad of Grunts, the Elite becomes a Combat Form, but the rest become a squad of Carrier Forms. Each Carrier Form has one squad of Infection Forms inside it (until Twins is researched, then it is two squads). When a pair Jackal or Hunters are infected, they simply die, instead. This is because Jackals have almost no calcium in their bones, and are too fragile to support the rigorous process of infection, and Hunters have no central nervous system. However, Jackals with the Beam Rifle have no affect on Combat Forms because the Beam Rifle is too precise and doesn't do enough area damage. Also, Jackals gain no benefits from their Defense Gauntlets against Infection Forms. It should also be noted that Combat Forms cost as much population as they would normally cost (the crew of a vehicle is treated like a normal infantry squad, though). Anyway, Flood buildings are generally cheaper and have less health, except the core building. That's pretty much it. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.
I like pi.