Update Discussion Thread (September 2018)

[CABAL]

Why don't let marines know this "might" be a bug hunt? Nobody likes bugs and nobody would shoot at the colony before first drop. Marines go, check, maybe rescue few survivors, fight, get rekt, evac and then level the colony.

Right now we always "think" that this might be UPP, CLF, or nothing at all becouse somebody was drunk and cut off power for weeks.

Saying that "intel" suggest this might be a bug hunt (I'm sure WY wants marine's victory on every single map, so they might "hint" something helping marines to better prepare, but not giving out their responsibility).

CL could get randomised informations on roundstart of what he might know, have to tell USCM and on what he agrees.

Nuke is not the only weapon of mass destruction, just use Napalm strike on the whole colony. Just after evacuation.
"Shoot" a big, tungsten rod at the colony. This would cause only highly localised earthquake, no pollution, or anything.

[solidfury7]

Planetcracking is highly illegal and doing so would be akin to a war crime due to the damage it does across the system and the fact it destroys a habitual planet.

You could argue that the napalm strikes and nukes would either not kill the xenos super deep in the caves or they'd do major damage to the planet.

[spookydonut]

I'd be very interested if we tried out letting the CO be informed of the Xenomorph threat and it would be up to them to decide to inform the Marines at their discretion.

This is an interesting idea.

[Steelpoint]

Going at this logically, there's no reason for the Marines to remain on the planet/station after finding the Xenomorphs.

Their only job was to find out the cause of the distress beacon. Mission accomplished, the giant xenoforms that slaughtered the entire colonies population caused it. Pack it in and request permission to nuke the helpless Xenoforms who (fortunately) cannot by coincidence fly a ship away or leave before you can toss some nuclear warheads on top of them, hell don't use nukes just fire off a few dozen railgun rounds and level the entire area then send in a mop up crew.

-------

So the logical thing to do here, is to give a reason why BOTH the Marines cannot blow up the colony AND why the Marines have to remain on the planet instead of pulling out when the Xenomorphs are confirmed to be present.

Perhaps go with reasoning that your battalion are under orders to delay the spread of a large hive of Xenomorphs across the target planet as long as possible to give civilian evacuations time to finish in a major city/colony located a few kilometers away. You can't nuke the area since doing so would endanger the civilian population and disrupt evacuations (hope that EMP does not kill all the civilian transport ships that lack EMP protection) but the Marines now have a reason why they need to keep the fight going as long as they can.

-snip-

Honestly I feel this would be worth investigating as it gives the CO role significant more control in the flavor of the round for the Marines.

[Tharinoma]

I always assumed the reason marines insisted so heavily on sending their troops to the planetside slaughterfest is weyland yutani controls most of the uscm and they want to both get their research station back and study the fighting of these fancy new bioweapons they just discovered.

[CABAL]

I always assumed the reason marines insisted so heavily on sending their troops to the planetside slaughterfest is weyland yutani controls most of the uscm and they want to both get their research station back and study the fighting of these fancy new bioweapons they just discovered.

Big red and prison station already have research stations that look very developed. By the "Map lore" it's not "new" for WY.
Besides, nobody ever argue about it. Nobody asked on comms: "Should we still fight?/They are too powerfull, let's retreat, we've got survivor secured and we are sure nobody else is alive".
No message for CL to press the command to fight, or anything.

Since there is no other option to do something to the colony and we all know so deeply in meta that xenos will come to the Almayer that we don't even consider anything.

[Blade2000Br]

I actually could foresee W-Y interested in seeing how USCM would fight the xeno threat. The best way to test your bioweapons is with people.

[Hughgent]

This is an interesting idea.

If you were going with the CO being allowed to set the tone of the round via pre-knowledge of the Xenos. I would make it a button on their computer.

Pressing the button sends a message to the Current Queen that there are marines up in the sky. This is similar to a war declaration. Give it some flavor text in that the few remaining survivors that were captured (now long dead) talked of people coming to rescue them in great force. That the queen is now just remembering this. Big bold Red lettering or maybe a popup window, something that catches the eye.

Thus the Queen can adjust her tactics much as the CO adjusts the marines tactics via briefing. This would allow CO's to keep the round normal if they wish.

[WinterClould]

Perhaps go with reasoning that your battalion are under orders to delay the spread of a large hive of Xenomorphs across the target planet as long as possible to give civilian evacuations time to finish in a major city/colony located a few kilometers away. You can't nuke the area since doing so would endanger the civilian population and disrupt evacuations (hope that EMP does not kill all the civilian transport ships that lack EMP protection) but the Marines now have a reason why they need to keep the fight going as long as they can.

Yo I love the idea of this. Gives marines something their actually fighting for AND gives us a new better source of ERTs. We can say our ERTs either come from WY ships helping with the evac or from the colonies own PDF depending on what stage of the game we're in.

[immaspaceninja]

So uhh, wanna know what you guys think about this change:

Girders can now only be secured to metal plated floors

According to the devs, it was introduced to stop from marines from using girders when securing things outdoors (aka only the hydro road).
And i really dont think that it was needed, since girders and walls are only good for temporarily stopping defender/lurker castes from roaming. Girders can be metled by any xeno with acid-related abilities and cut down by t3s, while walls can either be destroyed by the combination of spitter caste and a t3 xeno, or simply turned into a girder by any spitter. Turning girders into walls is very time-consuming and metal-consuming.

Also, i literally haven't seen anyone but myself use girders to secure the hydro road for atleast a year.
Its just a weird nerf that only affects a single place on a single map, because there is no real need to use walls outdoors on BR or ICE, unless you feel like it. And prison station gets a free pass on that.
LV already has enough problems, and now you can't even sacrifice your own time to partially solve one of them during a round. The only option left is to leave someone to guard that place - a fate that is truly worse than FOB duty, especially on lowpop, where you get 30 marines in total at best.


Also, just a heads up, there is currently a bug that prevents you from placing girders anywhere, but on the 'PLATING', which is a kind of tile that can only be found below the walls that maps start with. Any other floor without a floortile is named 'FLOOR' and wont let you place a girder on it. Fix is on the way.

[Solarmare]

Deleting the free girders would be a good option since it was Iz specific, only would really need to be done if people were continuing to do it past that point.

[immaspaceninja]

Deleting the free girders would be a good option since it was Iz specific, only would really need to be done if people were continuing to do it past that point.

Deleting a big part of those girders would have been enough.
And why using girders to secure the place, that became a meme for how easy it is to roam, is a bad thing and needs a nerf? Its super easy to counter, its very time-consuming.

[x31stOverlord]

RIP making lodges as Pred

[spookydonut]

There was an issue with being able to build/place girders in rivers and weird places, displaced girders can be positioned just fine.

[Novus Luna]

So, having just read the last several pages, I have seen maybe 2 people that seem to enjoy the Almayer side round end system we have...and a lot that are against it. Is that how he community consensus overall is?

[Sulaboy]

So, having just read the last several pages, I have seen maybe 2 people that seem to enjoy the Almayer side round end system we have...and a lot that are against it. Is that how he community consensus overall is?

Change takes time. The game won't be staying this way it's just a quick fix for long round ends before the proper changes are made.

[immaspaceninja]

There was an issue with being able to build/place girders in rivers and weird places, displaced girders can be positioned just fine.

What issue aside from "its not realistic"?
Why not just restrict placing them in water and maybe delete some of those free girders on LV?

[HKO20006]

The 'Join as Xeno' button will now attempt to join as a buried larva if some exist and the queen is on her ovipositor. This joining ignores the one-minute timer for ghosts to occupy them, and is only an option from the lobby.

This one is really good, removing one hurdle for joining xeno.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

The 'Join as Xeno' button will now attempt to join as a buried larva if some exist and the queen is on her ovipositor. This joining ignores the one-minute timer for ghosts to occupy them, and is only an option from the lobby.

This one is really good, removing one hurdle for joining xeno.

Now to just fix the issues of having people WANT to play as xenos

[CABAL]

Now to just fix the issues of having people WANT to play as xenos

Let's make them OP as hell. And let them be free of all rules. It's only partially implemented.

It's like... Impossible. Server is implicitly called "Colonial Marines" and Marines are the "main protagonists" of the game. Who likes to AFK first 30 minutes, slash, vore, being a dick, abusing mechanics, being stronger in every statistic than opponents, or melee combat in SS13? Guns are much more funnier. RP'ing as xeno (when someone decides to RP) is boring, "hard" and repetitive, not required at all and even discouraged by players (Topic about not calling dropship "metal bird", or tank "turtle"). Who plays SS13 just for it's combat mechanics? Besides of meme calling xenomains a pedophiles, degenerates and stuff, you really have to be "special" to enjoy xeno gameplay in SS13. It's not AvP first person shooter, combat is clunky and hand to hand is especially ponderous to click exactly at the sprite that just walks back and forth.

I can imagine playing singleplayer CM13 as a marine, but I can't as a xeno. Everything that was "holding" players to xeno side was its brainless combat where you had nearly every adventage besides numbers, no RP, no rules etc. Even as PFC you have to think about things you shouldn't be doing to not breake the rules/go to brig. One mistake and you are pretty much done, or atleast cripled untill visit in medbay.

If the game can't guarantee high chance of success as a reward for that "sacriface", you don't want to play. Atleast for me. Giving out being humanoid that can interact with world and RP with fellow "mates" for some death machine without personality (Xenos are aimed to always be "faceless") then I will just quit. Only times I play xeno is when I died and xenos are not in the point of assaulting Alamo becouse I like even CLF ERT more than xeno gameplay.

[Garrison]

Enjoying Xenos is all about finding your niche. I find myself enjoying Hive lord or Carrier, because your less likely to be screamed at for being bad, and they are rather underrated but very contributing roles.

[Sargeantmuffinman]

• Changed Carrier to tier 2.

• Added tier 3 drone caste, the Burrower.

• A backliner and ambusher, it can make large resin holes that can be charged by Boilers or Praetorians to make xeno land mines.

• It is also able to burrow underground and wait there for short amounts of time, either to emerge and ambush prey or to use its other ability, tunnel.

• Tunnel allows you to move underground regardless of any above ground barriers, the further you want to tunnel the longer it will take.

• Acid spray effects greatly reduced in length.

• Carrier created resin holes can only contain a facehugger. Burrower created resin holes can only contain pressurised acid.

• A Carrier can convert a Burrower hole for hugger use and a Burrower can convert a Carrier hole for acid use.

• Binoculars no longer miss-target if you try to point at places you can't see.

• Same for any weapon with scopes. You will no longer shoot backwards at your friend just because you accidentally clicked on a dark tile.

• Splints can no longer be stacked over max capacity by removing them from fully splinted person.

• You can now point and examine thru scope (or while being in a tank) without firing.

• You can now PM staff memeber that Autoreplied to you, except when they WARN or NR you.

• Food ingredients crate has been added to Cargo Console. For minimal price (almost fully recovered by returning the crate) you can get yourself lots of flour and some meat.

Whelp, here are the big changes and additions today.

[BillyBoBBizWorth]

• Added tier 3 drone caste, the Burrower.

• A backliner and ambusher, it can make large resin holes that can be charged by Boilers or Praetorians to make xeno land mines.

• It is also able to burrow underground and wait there for short amounts of time, either to emerge and ambush prey or to use its other ability, tunnel.

• Binoculars no longer miss-target if you try to point at places you can't see.

• Same for any weapon with scopes. You will no longer shoot backwards at your friend just because you accidentally clicked on a dark tile.

These changes are still very fresh so i dont have too much to say about them aside from these two things :

Over the last three rounds ive been in since these changes ive seen the Burrower used for frontline assaulting from what i imagine are experienced xenoe players judging from how they were moving,etc.They might end up being a frontal assault caste whether the intention was meant for it to be a rear guard caste or not, exactly like we see with drones now with their high tackle chance, speed, face hugging capability, basically a better runner almost is how quite a few player use it.

With the darktile bug, i had a few experiences with this X amount of time ago and i nearly got noted for improper escalation or intentional FF(griefing) because i reported to the admin this exact bug and i was laughed at pretty much and told that it didnt happen(think it was a mentor/mod), well now its known that it certainly was a issue with scopes/binos, however im glad its resolved anyhow.Just thinking of how many people may have actually got noted over that bug though, as it was very close to happening to me personally.

Maybe admins should take a bug report ingame abit more seriously and not dismiss it because for whatever reasons you think it cant possibly be a real issue, even if they end up making a proper Gitlab bug report later as most admins suggest, dont dismiss the ingame ones.Its lazy and abit insulting to say the least, as im trying to help you guys with the game and nothing else in that sense.


Server has been abit laggy performance wise as well, anyone else? Not sure whats going on, had several dropouts, freezes and crashes which started about roughly a week or two ago.Nothing has changed on my side connection wise either and is more noticeable the higher the population.

[Heckenshutze]

I still stand my ground about shotguns. They should crit anything below t3 if all shells hit and even so, since we now have more t3s and t2s at round start an 1-tile buckshot shot with all shells hitting should put them into either critical or one shot next to critical

[Butlerblock]

make shotgun hold 2 rounds and extremely inaccessible and sure