On Prison Station (Discussion)

[Casany]

Since the last thread was closed down, I'd like to open a new one. This one for the SOLE purpose of discussing Prison Station, how to improve on it and for questions about it. Please do not close this one, I'm hoping for good discussion here.

Please be civil. This goes for everyone. I wanna keep this thread up, and in order to do so we must be civil

[Maxim Inc]

Maybe wall signs to help people navigate the station better?

[ThePiachu]

Hmm, it would be interesting to perhaps experiment with the map for a bit:

- Different Queen spawn locations - perhaps she could spawn on the opposite side of the first blast doors and make a hive in that slice of the map?
- Turning blast doors into padlocks - you want to go through? Melt them or blast them like on Big Red
- Removing blast doors entirely - give xenos an opportunity to build a hive anywhere, see how that affects the game

Devs willing, it would be interesting to see perhaps those three options on some sort of rotation and see if it improves the game.

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A small problem with Prison Station is that there aren't that many good positions for a hive to be built where the Marines don't have an incentive to go. South side of the map would be good, if it wasn't for the crashed ship. Max sec is very unwelcoming and close to LZ2. The Yard is too close to LZ1 and LZ2.

[Maxim Inc]

- Different Queen spawn locations - perhaps she could spawn on the opposite side of the first blast doors and make a hive in that slice of the map?
- Turning blast doors into padlocks - you want to go through? Melt them or blast them like on Big Red
- Removing blast doors entirely - give xenos an opportunity to build a hive anywhere, see how that affects the game

Hhmm, maybe we can have a trial period like we did with the general rules thing?

[ThePiachu]

Hhmm, maybe we can have a trial period like we did with the general rules thing?

*finger guns*

[Retrokinesis]

Wall signs would definitely be a good start, since navigating the map tends to be a nightmare. I'd go further and say something like colored flooring for each block or renaming them "Block A" and the like would help as well, since saying "north high-sec south" as a SO feels like the least helpful thing ever and having to find an APC to know where you are isn't fun.

As far as I see it, prison has a few key problems:

1. There is one possible hive location. Marines know exactly where it will be going in so the entire thing becomes "find an excuse to send the entire force there". The map gives them half of this excuse already, since the crashed ship is extremely suspicious and very close to civ residences. I've seen secondary hives set up in the panopticon and classified research, but only after the civ residences hive was broken and the xenos scattered.

2. Navigation is hell. The hallways are narrow and confusing. I'm pretty sure I have died in that hallway leading from the crashed ship to the civ residences entrance more times than every other spot on the map combined. Not having a crowbar means it's entirely possible for you to get stuck in the maze and picked-off. That plus the even narrower maintenance tunnels and the vents means you rather frequently end up with one entire squad being destroyed in research/chapel about five minutes after deploying. Honestly, I'd probably suggest giving prison off-map power in the same way LV has off-map comms. It's a space station, so losing power is something you would absolutely never want to happen anyway, and it would lead to fewer instances of "all of alpha is dead in research because the engineer ran the other way".

3. The entire northern half of the map mostly goes unused. The core of the map is a straight line from civ residences in the west through VIP, the central ring, the yard, the canteen, and the hangar. There are slight deviations from that to the south for the crashed ship and engineering, but the north has no real reason for anyone to be there after a squad has finished sweeping research unless you're hunting for stragglers. LZ2 is also kind of pointless since it's so close to LZ1 and comms are at LZ1 anyway, so it's not a great place for a FOB and splitting the squads on deployment often leads to one or two being wiped out instantly.

4. The specifics of the map actively make it more difficult to use certain tools. CAS can only be called in a very small number of locations which are almost never where the fighting is thickest. Medevacs are difficult for the same reason. Sandbags are totally useless since there's only one place to fill them and it's the xeno's primary hive location. The tank needs a ton of engineering support to move anywhere past the LZ as well. Marines are heavily incentivized to gear for close-combat, which makes shotguns even more powerful than they normally are. The simplest way to tweak these would be replace the sandbags in the essential engineering kit with C4 on prison or add more gardens around LZ1 and maybe VIP.

[Lorem123]

The map should be bigger, or at least redesigned to make the northern portion of the map less pointless. The only reason I have ever really seen a squad go to the north part of the map is to raid the research armory for that sweet tactical shotgun in it.
Retrokinesis made most of the points I wanted to make as well, a lot of the marine tools are made worthless/more worthless. CAS is already underpowered by how difficult it is to use it in a good spot, it's almost unusable on Prison.

Better locations for hives would also be great. The hive is almost always in the same western portion of the map, and the map design always leads marines there.

[NethIafins]

Just don't lock the civilian resedences. It might feel counter productive but it might help aliens to relocate

[Butlerblock]

it sucks

[Symbiosis]

Just don't lock the civilian resedences. It might feel counter productive but it might help aliens to relocate

This. The locks are a big negative to the Beanos. Give them the chance to hold whatever side they want. The north side would be the new meta Hive and the Marines would be in a REALLY hard spot to crack it.

[Jonesome]

My least favorite map ever. When I see it I know I’ll be shitcurity-ing for the next 3 hours.

[Grubstank]

My least favorite map ever. When I see it I know I’ll be shitcurity-ing for the next 3 hours.

It's my favorite map personally -- whenever I see it, I set squad engineer to high. It was agony at first, but it's grown on me since I started learning its layout via ghosting.

My problems with the map come up with the tank (if only windows were manually disassemblable), ambiguous rulings around metarushing, and when I *dont* play engineer. Squad survival really comes down to good engineers on that map, so when they're all occupied trying to get the tank somewhere useful, or if you just don't have one in your squad, then you're fucked. Aggressive barricading at chokepoints is the only real way to stop a full route once your front line gets downed.

[TastyCrabLegs]

The problem I see in prison is it is not a H v A map. It's a HvH map, Hell the whole reason you are dispatched is a human rescue op.

Now having the ayys being a possibility of spawning could still be left in via eggs or something in the Classified area meaning it could turn to a HvHvA or possibly a round where the CL is directly trying to recover said egg(s) to clean up for the company.


As it stands now , the vents are broken, the meta is in place, and I am sorry standing for 56 minutes firing down a 3x3 hallway or running down a 3x3 hallway as a rav / crusher just isn't fun.

The map took a lot of time and effort and should be used, perhaps just not as it is.

This map aint a water pump its an alternator damn it