All reclamation turning things to zombies

[PineappleSam]

I suggested that all units with the reclamation ability create zombies, in a similar way to the zombie guardian and botnet golem, on Mantis as I find the current system a little awkward. The ticket was closed pretty quickly, but the reason given was "I would be absolutely lynched if I changed reclaimed units to be zombies". Would people support the change, or would it go down badly? If there is support then I'll reopen the ticket, and if not then I won't bother

Leeches and parasites would change from there current role to something closer to a spire blade spawner, but instead of creating a stream of blades they'd zombify enemy ships. This would put a stop to using reclamation to gain a permanent effect (I believe that viral shredders are the only other ship that can permanently create more ships).

Thoughts?

For the curious, the mantis ticket is 0002107.

(This might be better of in the Development Discussion forum but I couldn't see a spot that it would fir)

[TechSY730]

I would oppose, if for no other reason that "reclaiming" doesn't seem to imply that the ship's computer will go into "beserker attack auto-pilot" mode. For a few ships types, that sort of reclaiming can be understandable, but reclaiming seems to me to mean just take the ship for your own, but maybe not at full capacity at first (like spawning at < half health on reclaim)

[x4000]

Feel free to discuss, but just know this one isn't one I'm going to budge on.  I'm willing to consider different reclamator mechanics, but turning them all into zombies has absolutely a zero percent chance of happening.  It's too popular of a mechanic to castrate in that fashion, there would be just unbelievable nerdrage over that.

[Lancefighter]

Perhaps then you may want to consider a zombie starship or something that can create zombie ships...

[lovekawakawaii]

Reclamation is just a weird mechanic in general. You reclaim ships and they reappear right where they died.. in the middle of the enemy fleet. Still it's pretty cool to get rare ship types (full mark 4 electric bomber cap much?) though they dont tend to have much of an impact unless carefully husbanded

[BigJake]

I think I player ship with the zombie mechanic would be awesome.  I think it's a bit more interesting and fun than the reclamation mechanic.  Unfortunately, I can't think of any other reason I'd use it over a reclamator--all else being equal.  Cool, sure, but the fully-functioning ship you have complete control over is just plain more useful than a zombified berserker.

Personally, I'd rather see some more Von Neumann-inspired stuff along the lines of the shredder.

[TechSY730]

Maybe if the zombie ship/starships had an easier time reclaiming than the normal parasite/leech ships, but of course you don't get the ship under your control as a tradeoff.