Questions about Marine Play

[Shockpoint]

I'm normally not a Marine player (I really don't do well with the whole ground thing, I get lost enough on the ship), so I usually stick to anything command related or CL.

I've been debating on trying to get into Marine roles so that I could potentially have more fun, but I don't want to bring down my squad(s) by being unknowledgable on how to do the job effectively in any of the roles (imo the wiki just tells you what to do and not teach you how to do it properly).

Anyone here willing to drop a few tips for anything below Squad Leader?

[Sargeantmuffinman]

For the average "marine" Joe, your job is to just shoot things, help people up when down and try to save your buddies.

For the average "medical" Jerry, you are there for them, they aren't there for you. Your job is to make sure the marines don't die. Patch'em all up.

For the average "engineering" Jake, I seriously don't play this role enough.

For the spec, just don't die. We need those heavy guns.

[Kavrick]

It's kinda hard to teach you how to play a marine role, ahead of telling you how to get equipped and on the ground, everyone plays differently, i can give some tips though.

Always stay in a group, being alone will get you killed easily, if you get facehuggered and no one is nearby, you're dead

Keep your mags on you even if they're empty, especially AP mags, as they can be restocked and refilled.

Throwing knives dont work against anything except predators, it's highly recommended to NOT take them

Shake someone up if they have a facehugger on them, you can take out your knife or gun and kill it by clicking it on your face slot on your clothes section, if someone tears it off you, it'll damage you significantly.

Some items can be put in your helmet, a couple of these items are: cigarettes, lighters, cards, burritos, ballistic goggles and the rosari

Each weapon and loadout has their own uses (except throwing knifes) experiment and find out what playstyle fits you, lots of people are super elitist about what weapons to use, dont listen to them.

Normally predators wont attack you if you dont attack them

The queen is immune to fire and crushers are immune to explosives

Crushers take a lot less damage if you hit their front

Check your fire! this is an extremely important one, be very careful when you fire, to not hit allies, hitting allies can lose you the game, simply as people dont realise, friendly fire often causes broken bones, which completely takes them out of the fight because they have to go have surgery, i wish more people knew how important this is, marine numbers probably go down more because of friendly fire than actual aliens.

Other than those things nothing sticks out to me as vital knowledge, it's something you really have to play to learn, you'll die, a lot, but you'll get better each time.

[Halinder]

Squad engineer is basically following your SL around and plonking down fortifications in a manner that doesn't make marines want to strangle you.

1. You need to be aware of how different fortifications interact with projectiles. Girders block everything (but can be destroyed with enough shots/spits). Grilles block bullets but not flames. Racks block rockets but not bullets or spits. Sandbags and plasteel barricades will block projectiles coming from the direction that you are facing when you make them, but if someone is standing on the same tile as the barricade, they will still be hit. This also applies for flipped tables. Wooden barricades block bullets and can be used by runners to hide without a trace, I don't recommend them.

2. Runners and larva can maneuver past wooden barricades, racks, tables, sandbags, and plasteel barricades. However, everything but tables will cause them to bonk if they pounce (to include hunters). Notably, one-direction glass can stop pounces and ravager charges even if the glass is facing parallel to their path.

3. Familiarize yourself with how M56D's and sentry guns are maintained, made, and moved. Remember that M56D's can hit friendly marines.

4. Understand that you will probably only be able to carry a single gun and not all that much ammo.

It's pretty intuitive once you get started. If you don't understand how to piece together a machine/heavy gun then examine it.

[Sarah_U.]

The simplest most helpful thing you can do is learn how to quickly swap intent and raise your allies from the ground using the help intent. Even if I a spitter is spamming your squad with acid, help intent will immediately get your ally up and ready to fight.

Like that, you can avoid captures a WHOLE LOT if xenos don't suddently abuse huggers.

[Shockpoint]

These are all really helpful, thank you.

[Sarah_U.]

BTW, also remember to always shout out your calls. If you're gonna cross the LOF call it. If you're gonna lob a grenade call it. If you want people to retreat, call out several step 10 back, etc.

[TheMaskedMan2]

On the topic of explosives, stuns are a Xenos worst nightmare, cook that hedp grenade and toss it at a T3's feet. Light it up. Also I noticed since nobody else mentioned it, Ravagers are also immune to fire. Small tip for engineers, please take and use the light replacer, lights are a marines greatest ally.

Oh! Since marines don't do this nearly enough, please clear weeds and resin, don't be lazy, a single critical T3 and one weed patch can get it back up to full fighting condition.

[driecg36]

I recommend being very careful with grenades, especially cooking them, if you are new to combat. Grenades are pretty much guaranteed broken bones and paincrit if you get hit by one, and they have a 3x3 radius, which means in a worse case scenario you can take 9 marines out of combat.

Your underbarrel nade launcher is a godsend however. I recommend you set up 3 macros: unique weapon actions (for shotty), toggle burst, and toggle attachment. The UGL is a great alien stun, and if you can get it off the alien is most certainly dead. It's easier to land on slower aliens, because the grenade has a 2 second trigger, so faster aliens can just easily dodge it. I recommend using it as an area denial tool, shoot the nade where the alien WANTS to be, not where it is.

Also, dont use burst with AP loaded. Watch you shots even more carefully, and never load it against anything that isnt a crusher. Also, dont shoot downed aliens who are lying on the same tile as a marine, you will hit the marine more than the alien. Also, turn off burst to shoot downed aliens (with burst its fucking impossible to hit downed aliens), or pop a nade on their ass.

[Garrison]

I'm normally not a Marine player (I really don't do well with the whole ground thing, I get lost enough on the ship), so I usually stick to anything command related or CL.

I've been debating on trying to get into Marine roles so that I could potentially have more fun, but I don't want to bring down my squad(s) by being unknowledgable on how to do the job effectively in any of the roles (imo the wiki just tells you what to do and not teach you how to do it properly).

Anyone here willing to drop a few tips for anything below Squad Leader?

If you don't wanna do guides. the best way to get experience to do certain roles is as follows

General Combat: Just roll standard, and experiment different load outs until you find what you like, although I don't want to make it sound bad, your expendable, so if you die or fuck up, its not the end of the world for the rest of your comrades.

Specialist: There isn't very many ways to get practice for this role other then joining ERT's and hoping you get PMC or Dutch Mercenaries. Although you got great killing potential, marines lose an ace if you go down, so stay with your men and work with them.

Squad Medic: I'd recommend you play Doctor first, although your gonna have to learn to do Surgery, you will also be working with every type of medical drug and healing item in the game. Learning this will help you A LOT when you are desperately trying to stabilize a patient in the heat of battle or as soon as possible. Doctors don't have this issue since they are normally working in the safety of the ship or an FOB, but the line up of patients can be very stressful, your gonna need to learn to cope with that, my method is just focusing on one thing at a time, multi tasking can just lead to chaos/insanity if your not mentally prepared.

Squad Engineer: Playing a Maintenance tech will allow you to practice constructing and deconstructing on your own time, though you might get bored out of your mind while doing this. An alternative would be to look up guides, play Engineer on an actual Space Station 13 server, or just buddy up with another Combat Engineer and following his/her lead, and ask questions in LOOC if you get stuck. I'd only recommend this if your put on FOB construction duty.

Leadership: Bridge/Staff officer is the best way to get your feet wet in terms of Commanding and leading other people. You can start off just being an observer, listening to the communications and monitoring your assigned squad, and relaying that info to the commanding officer or other officers. Taking note of what tactics work, what doesn't, and what other Squad leaders say to get their marines in line. If your unsure what to do, just bother the commanding officer for instructions on how to proceed and plan accordingly. If you ever get the misfortune of being the only officer, congratulations, you just became the Commander, hope you learned enough to make it count.

If you want to be more combative, rolling squad leader during low pop times is also a good way to start. Usually the role is ignored in favor of Specialist or other roles, and most people will take what they can get. In addition, the marines will usually be more likely to listen to you as long as you are making a legitimate effort. (or that's how it was for me when I started playing Squad leader)

I'd also recommend browsing these two topics, they gave me a lot insight as to how you should play as a squad leader.

viewtopic.php?f=135&t=12165 (Passive vs Aggressive Squad leaders)

viewtopic.php?f=135&t=11958 (SL help, for those who need it/Are interested)

[Garrison]

I recommend being very careful with grenades, especially cooking them, if you are new to combat. Grenades are pretty much guaranteed broken bones and paincrit if you get hit by one, and they have a 3x3 radius, which means in a worse case scenario you can take 9 marines out of combat.

Your underbarrel nade launcher is a godsend however. I recommend you set up 3 macros: unique weapon actions (for shotty), toggle burst, and toggle attachment. The UGL is a great alien stun, and if you can get it off the alien is most certainly dead. It's easier to land on slower aliens, because the grenade has a 2 second trigger, so faster aliens can just easily dodge it. I recommend using it as an area denial tool, shoot the nade where the alien WANTS to be, not where it is.

Also, dont use burst with AP loaded. Watch you shots even more carefully, and never load it against anything that isnt a crusher. Also, dont shoot downed aliens who are lying on the same tile as a marine, you will hit the marine more than the alien. Also, turn off burst to shoot downed aliens (with burst its fucking impossible to hit downed aliens), or pop a nade on their ass.

Speaking of which, how do you get a macro set up? I've tried in the past but failed. In addition, how badly does burst fire affect your weapons accuracy? I didn't really think that burst firing a downed Xeno was anymore difficult then using semi-auto.

[Kavrick]

Speaking of which, how do you get a macro set up? I've tried in the past but failed. In addition, how badly does burst fire affect your weapons accuracy? I didn't really think that burst firing a downed Xeno was anymore difficult then using semi-auto.

Burst fire will make you significantly less accurate, well less accuracy, more bullet spread, which makes it a lot worse at a range.

to set up a macro you right click at the top left and then go to macros, then you select a key you want for it and then type in a command

[Casany]

The best thing I can give you that hasn't been said yet is... Don't, EVER, use fire, on ravagers. THEY ARE IMMUNE and it gives them a free charge and HEALS them. It's basically a buff.

So many times I see flamethrower marines try and burn the big red Ravi and get a face full of charge. Don't be like them

And, if you're shaken up with a hugger on your face pull out any weapon you can, and hit the hugger on your face door. Any weapon, such as a pulse rifle or pistol, can kill the hugger on your face. Always do this, I've seen so many guys run around like a chicken with its head cut off yelling GET THE HUGGER OFF OF ME while standing with a gun in their hands.

Also, don't rely heavily on macros. You should definantly use them, they really help but don't use them as a crutch.

Anyway, that's just my input here

[Kavrick]

The best thing I can give you that hasn't been said yet is... Don't, EVER, use fire, on ravagers. THEY ARE IMMUNE and it gives them a free charge and HEALS them. It's basically a buff.

So many times I see flamethrower marines try and burn the big red Ravi and get a face full of charge. Don't be like them

And, if you're shaken up with a hugger on your face pull out any weapon you can, and hit the hugger on your face door. Any weapon, such as a pulse rifle or pistol, can kill the hugger on your face. Always do this, I've seen so many guys run around like a chicken with its head cut off yelling GET THE HUGGER OFF OF ME while standing with a gun in their hands.

Also, don't rely heavily on macros. You should definantly use them, they really help but don't use them as a crutch.

Anyway, that's just my input here

Casany, that was mentioned.

[Casany]

Casany, that was mentioned.

Well fuck me then. I only skimmed over the topic, I guess it's my fault...

Either way, it doesn't hurt to reinforce it

[Shockpoint]

On the topic of explosives, stuns are a Xenos worst nightmare, cook that hedp grenade and toss it at a T3's feet. Light it up. Also I noticed since nobody else mentioned it, Ravagers are also immune to fire. Small tip for engineers, please take and use the light replacer, lights are a marines greatest ally.

Oh! Since marines don't do this nearly enough, please clear weeds and resin, don't be lazy, a single critical T3 and one weed patch can get it back up to full fighting condition.

I was wondering how you cleared weeds/resin as well, actually. How is that done?

[Kavrick]

I was wondering how you cleared weeds/resin as well, actually. How is that done?

click on it with a knife, you can use a gun but you can see how that can mess up

[Shockpoint]

Okay thanks

[Renomaki]

Well, I might as well toss in a few tips before I lose my chance.

1: If you plan on going as a standard, make use of the inventory freedom that comes with it. Engineers and Medics often have to pack their kits in a way that sucks up a lot of inventory space, leaving them with little in the way of options (moreso if you are a medic, who probably will be lugging so much medical supplies that he barely has any ammo for his gun). Standards, due to the simple nature of their job, have a lot more freedom in how they pack. You could pack extra ammo in your backpack, basic medical supplies, extra food rations, or even just leave slots empty for later use when you hit the planet. You never know when you might need to carry a wrench around during the mission, you know?

2: Burst Fire is overrated. Not only are you less accurate when you burst, your reaction time is also crippled due to the fact that it refuses to let you fire another volley until the current volley is complete, meaning if you miss, you waste 3 perfectly good bullets and have to wait until all 3 leave your gun before you can adjust your aim again. Made worse when it comes to Friendly Fire...

Keeping your gun on single fire might mean not being able to do as much damage in a single burst, but it allows you to fire more freely as a moderate pace. This is VITAL if you plan on leading targets on the move, or simply if you need to quickly change targets in the middle of a fight. Plus, it does make Friendly Fire a lot less dangerous, even in the case of AP. I know I had been shot at and shot at people with AP accidentally and survived simply due to the fact that it was just a single bullet, and it is a lot less dangerous for a single AP round to pierce your amour than it is for a trio of them to hit you.

[Steelpoint]

Burst fire is good for close quarters combat where accuracy and leading shots is not as necessary, and on some weapons Burstfire is very powerful, more so on the M4RA Battle Rifle.

I highly recommend you set up a macro to let you quickly swap between single and burst fire, so you can rapidly switch to burst if a xeno pounces into melee distance.

[Garrison]

SNIP

I was told/under the impression you had to use a knife to remove a hugger on your face... I didn't know a gun also worked.. guess I outta give that a try. I am seeing a lot of good tips in here. Thanks for the Macro help Kavrick.