PSA : Xenomorphs Queens and shuttle locking

[dylanstrategie]

Because this is still an issue even weeks after a fix was implemented, I wish to make this crystal clear, preferably in the best medium I can find to reach out to all possible Xenomorph players.

Once the Queen calls the shuttle down on the planet, the "Xeno Boarding" phase begins, where Xenomorphs are now (in theory) in control of at least one shuttle and preparing to strike the Sulaco. However, to prevent griefing, we still allow the Sulaco staff to manually recall the shuttle up until the Queen confirms the hijack by physically getting on the Rasputin and interacting with the pilot's console (so for example, a Queen can't rush LZ1 roundstart to completely screw the Marines over). This gives a confirmation message (maybe not obvious enough since Xenos will be busy generating attack logs from demolishing everything) in the likes of "You interact with the console and disable remote control". If you have the shuttle panel up from the pilot's console at ANY point, this should be good to go (we might add it to the UI in the future).

However, if you do not interact with the piloting console on either shuttle after calling them down as the Queen, you are allowing Sulaco staff to recall them at a moment's notice as soon as the shuttle cooldown is over. This WILL screw over the Xenomorphs in virtually all situations, since you will land in the good old Hangar campfest instead of -properly- crashing into the Sulaco and will probably be missing people or preparation due to it being called up early.

Also important to note, there are NO MORE ALARMS on just touching the pilot's console. This only happens when you physically call the shuttle UP FROM the planet TO the Sulaco (aka when it's going to crash).

It is absolutely quintessential that all Queen players understand this. Punishing Sulaco command staff for recalling the shuttle that has -obviously- went down without their permission and is now stranded in enemy territory is really not a durable situation.

Remember to remind Queens about this even to the point of annoyance while hijacking, and if you are a Queen, VERBALLY confirm that the shuttle was locked down to reassure your subordinates.

We really don't want to get into a situation where we have to babysit every single Queen for the next few months until this is common knowledge, or worse, whitelist the role itself, so please, PLEASE inform any Queen of this if their game knowledge seems dodgy.

[SUPERMAN112]

Just wanna make sure I got this down, as a queen when you interact with the shuttle console on the rasp it locks it so it cannot be called up?

[dylanstrategie]

Yes, that's the whole idea

[Sailor Dave]

This is good to know. I'm still adjusting to the Rasputin crash-landing rather than dropping on the ol' hangar camp, so I saw it as beneficial to allow the marines to recall it instead of warning them by calling it manually.

[shyshadow]

Welp, RIP Marine's Tacticool tactics of calling the rasp up to fuck up them ayys.

[dylanstrategie]

I will be pinning this for the benefit of playerbase knowledge, this is quite important

[Butterrobber202]

Good to know, thanks Coder Monkey, We might free you from the Dev Dungeon yet

[Mook476]

This is pretty important thanks for pinning it allows others to know instead of getting memed by memerine tactics

[Nick123q23]

Good to know, will keep this in mind.

[misto]

ha ha ha

we just had a round where our first queen died shortly after the fog fell because she ran at the marines, our replacement queen failed to lock the console so the ds got called up to the almayer hangar, and since the marines were too disorganized to try to trap ~40 xenos at the hangar, proceeded to crush the almayer. the admins even gave the sd room invincible outer hull walls in where the metal foam usually is, and we still managed to charge the sd room door area and slay all humans.

[Challenger]

And the round that just finished is proof that 9/10 times the exact opposite happens and the entire hive gets slaughtered when they're sent up, which really isn't fun for Marines who win a "cheap" victory or the aliens who die to the incompetence of one non-whitelisted person.

The engine cooldown upgrades, convoluted method of entry into the cockpit, and greytide season have combined to make it much, much more common for Queens to fail to lock the dropship and the hive to get irrecoverable losses as a result.

[SagaSword]

This was helpful, thank you dylan!