Updates discussion thread

[Chuckachu]

Almost to the point were there needs to be a medic xeno to free the queen to egg or screech. Haha

[LocalizedDownpour]

What does everyone think about the autodoc?

[TheDonkified]

Clicking is definitely fast again in some respects, but switching guns/loading buckshot is still clunky. I don't mind having to get extra clicks in to stab a xeno but it's extremely annoying when you're trying to switch to a different gun and the game doesn't respond to your clicks when you need them the most.

[MrJJJ]

What does everyone think about the autodoc?

Well you have to first scan the person, then remove the automatic surgeries and replace them with manual
No reason to use automatic mode, because you can just set everything on manual and it will do it very fast, which is...really odd to say the least.

Other than that, i wouldn't use it for something like, 1-3 broken bones, but like multiple injuries, because it does them preety damn fast, by the time i finished with 4 surgeries in one person , a autodoc was already finished with 7 surgeries in one person, thats insane, i even was the CMO, who has faster surgery time, and it still was able to match me while i was healing somebody with less injuries.

[conthegodoffire]

Well you have to first scan the person, then remove the automatic surgeries and replace them with manual
No reason to use automatic mode, because you can just set everything on manual and it will do it very fast, which is...really odd to say the least.

Other than that, i wouldn't use it for something like, 1-3 broken bones, but like multiple injuries, because it does them preety damn fast, by the time i finished with 4 surgeries in one person , a autodoc was already finished with 7 surgeries in one person, thats insane, i even was the CMO, who has faster surgery time, and it still was able to match me while i was healing somebody with less injuries.

I can agree with this, it won't take the place of a good doctor and is a bit of a waste if you use it on one broken bone or something. But it does help on that late game clusterfuck in medbay where there are so many wounded.

[Sulaboy]

I played as CMO one round and a big problem I had was marines asking to be put in the auto doc. Can we make it so you need a medical ID to put in or eject a patient from the doc. I saw a marine pull a patient to get in it. They didn't even have a scan. Maybe we can build a small door to block the auto doc off from the main area, but I think just limiting access by id would fix this.

[Karmac]

smells like delaylmaos and longer rounds to me tbh

[Symbiosis]

smells like delaylmaos and longer rounds to me tbh

Thankfully it's not. We still lose a bunch of Young Runner (420) memers, but we've been doing far better. So far. Back to back Xeno wins, first time in 2018!

[Surrealistik]

smells like delaylmaos and longer rounds to me tbh

More like an egregious mispricing/overestimation of what rando baldie PFC 43415 is actually worth vis a vis a xeno.

[LocalizedDownpour]

Where do the Larva spawn? I think that's an important calculation. When is it considered 'latejoin' If it's too late these larva won't get far due to an unsac'd queen. Just my obsevations

[Bronimin]

They just spawn randomly across the map. 'Bloody Larva pops out from the soil' is the flavour text.

Latejoin is any time after the lobby countdown hits 0

[Surrealistik]

They just spawn randomly across the map. 'Bloody Larva pops out from the soil' is the flavour text.

Latejoin is any time after the lobby countdown hits 0

Wow, that's even worse than I thought then; the definition of 'latejoin' should be at least after the 25-30 minute mark when the first wave of marines disembarks.

[Blade2000Br]

This change made xenos literally go up ti 50-60 xenos. AT ROUND START.

theres like 5 crushers one round with 56 xenos.
They siged FOB in 5 minutes.

[davidofmk771]

Yeah, the only problem I see here is that many people who play shipside roles tend to wait until the round has started so they can get a choice in their job if the one they want is already filled, rather than relying on job preferences. At the very least it should only begin around 5-10 minutes into the round.

[Bronimin]

Wow, that's even worse than I thought then; the definition of 'latejoin' should be at least after the 25-30 minute mark when the first wave of marines disembarks.

The 'abuse' noted in the update text was that it was possible to sap the xeno team of numbers if a lot of players refused to ready up at the beginning of the game.
Having latejoin larva start at t-0 counters this idea.

I don't think that anyone actually did it of course.

[Blade2000Br]

The 'abuse' noted in the update text was that it was possible to sap the xeno team of numbers if a lot of players refused to ready up at the beginning of the game.
Having latejoin larva start at t-0 counters this idea.

I don't think that anyone actually did it of course.

Actually they meant there was that abuse that transictions of low pop to high pop caused bigger chances for marines to win, since a gigantic influx of marines would come.

[Surrealistik]

The 'abuse' noted in the update text was that it was possible to sap the xeno team of numbers if a lot of players refused to ready up at the beginning of the game.
Having latejoin larva start at t-0 counters this idea.

I don't think that anyone actually did it of course.

?

How does that work?

Do the xenos get larva in proportion to the number of marines that ready up?

EDIT: Okay it seems you may have misunderstood things.

[Bronimin]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that that is how it works. Same with RO points right? Proportional to the number of players that ready up at the beginning of a game.

[Sulaboy]

?

How does that work?

Do the xenos get larva in proportion to the number of marines that ready up?

EDIT: Okay it seems you may have misunderstood things.

I'm pretty sure the amount of larva that Xenos start with is based of how many marines are present at round start. What this is meant to do is to add larva to the game in the case that more marines join to even the odds. During some round depending on the time of day the server may receive many late joins, it could be that students are getting off of school or work or whatever. When a pfc wakes up from cryo as a reinforcement the game is now giving the Xenos reinforcements as well. I don't think that this is a good idea, because that same marine that woke up is now a host that can be used to make a Xeno. They should just add a buffer to the round start that would spawn more larva if people joined right after round start. that way it would not be easily exploitable, and Xenos wouldn't have random larva spawning in all the time. The cut off for late join ought to be at 12:25 when the dropships unlock.

[Surrealistik]

Actually they meant there was that abuse that transictions of low pop to high pop caused bigger chances for marines to win, since a gigantic influx of marines would come.

I'm pretty sure this is what they meant.

I don't think any substantive amount of people deliberately delayed joining to deny larva, especially given the powerful incentives not to like winning the Req olympics, getting the roles you want, etc...

The definition of 'late join' should absolutely be 25-30+ minutes in; after the first planetfall.

[misto]

a clumsy brute force solution. this probably could have been accomplished by just upping the number of monkeys around. then you dont have the strangeness of larvae popping out of nowhere. a lot of these bonus xeno numbers are cut down on by dumb asses charging in as youngs and getting slaughtered though. however, overall, it doesnt address the fact that, at certain times of day, most players simply dont want to play as xeno, so it just gives extra lives to the ones that do instead of increasing the actually active hive numbers. the best remedy to people stacking into marine team is to make xeno more varied and interesting to play than they currently are, probably with minor customization options.

[Symbiosis]

I'm pretty sure this is what they meant.

I don't think any substantive amount of people deliberately delayed joining to deny larva, especially given the powerful incentives not to like winning the Req olympics, getting the roles you want, etc...

The definition of 'late join' should absolutely be 25-30+ minutes in; after the first planetfall.

Well, I'd argue that the time frame of Minute 3>8 then after 30 minutes is a good time frame.

A lot of people have Spec on High and the rest off, return to lobby. They don't get it - they join what is available.

It's been helpful and may require tweaking to better handle its intent, but it's been great at giving Xenos victories and its not a direct Marine nerf, more a Xeno buff.

[Kesserline]

My playing is sample is about 10 rounds.

Out of 10 rounds, only 2 were won by USCM.

1 groundside.

1 shipside.

____________

The huge numbers of Xenos crush any resistance basically in early/mid round. Marines have little chance to resist and if any further flaws appear (Tcomms down groundside/shipside, Command is unresponsive/mediocre, Medbay is unresponsive/mediocre, Req is unresponsive/mediocre, Spec are crewies/mediocre) grounside is fated to be lost.

One player cannot change the tide of battle anymore. Many players are required to do miracles each round.

Counter attacks to ground are doomed, no matter what. Before, marines could be routed and evac the planet without Xenos to have very huge numbers (For example, Marines evaccing to 6 Xenos. But morale was so low, disorganization was so hard that Marines thought they needed to evac. Counter attack was succesful).
Now, any counter attack is like facing a full hive on ex-regular rounds.

ARES scans displaying usually huge numbers of aliens (majority of time Xeno 30+ while the battalion is already exhausted and already lost 50% of its manpower groundside) have a critical effect on morale and leads to encourage retreats, early or not.

____________

On this sample, Xenos just steamrolled marines groundside, every, single, time.

____________

Suggestion : limiting crippling flaws occurence.
Limiting Spec mediocrity ? (Answer whitelist ?)
Making Tcomms enabled at all time, or only damageable to to make comms going 3/5 instead of 0/5 (making people repeating comms instead of having no comms) ?
Having LTs enabled to make Req if RO AND CT roles not filled ?
Making larvas extrapop working only with latewaking COMBAT ROLES (PFC, Medic, Engie, Spec, SG, SL) ?

[Heckenshutze]

I really hope someday survivors spawn with high skills all the time instead of being random. Or being able to choose the skill set at spawn. Not an update but an opinion/desire

[Blade2000Br]

My playing is sample is about 10 rounds.

Out of 10 rounds, only 2 were won by USCM.

1 groundside.

1 shipside.

____________

The huge numbers of Xenos crush any resistance basically in early/mid round. Marines have little chance to resist and if any further flaws appear (Tcomms down groundside/shipside, Command is unresponsive/mediocre, Medbay is unresponsive/mediocre, Req is unresponsive/mediocre, Spec are crewies/mediocre) grounside is fated to be lost.

One player cannot change the tide of battle anymore. Many players are required to do miracles each round.

Counter attacks to ground are doomed, no matter what. Before, marines could be routed and evac the planet without Xenos to have very huge numbers (For example, Marines evaccing to 6 Xenos. But morale was so low, disorganization was so hard that Marines thought they needed to evac. Counter attack was succesful).
Now, any counter attack is like facing a full hive on ex-regular rounds.

ARES scans displaying usually huge numbers of aliens (majority of time Xeno 30+ while the battalion is already exhausted and already lost 50% of its manpower groundside) have a critical effect on morale and leads to encourage retreats, early or not.

____________

On this sample, Xenos just steamrolled marines groundside, every, single, time.

____________

Suggestion : limiting crippling flaws occurence.
Limiting Spec mediocrity ? (Answer whitelist ?)
Making Tcomms enabled at all time, or only damageable to to make comms going 3/5 instead of 0/5 (making people repeating comms instead of having no comms) ?
Having LTs enabled to make Req if RO AND CT roles not filled ?
Making larvas extrapop working only with latewaking COMBAT ROLES (PFC, Medic, Engie, Spec, SG, SL) ?

Thing is, gameplay is intended for marines to loose 8 out of 10 rounds.

But I see the issue here, xeno swarm coupled with 2 year of updates that made a hive of 20 xenos deadly created a vacumm of monstrosity with 50-60 aliens that are strong as a hive if 20.

This is a really deep gameplay change that hurt the marines alot. Its actually scary in a way.