Update Discussion Thread (September 2018)

[CABAL]

I dont think skill has anything to do with the current state of balance, it was simply a series of buffs for marines (M41A massive buffs, SMG and pistols buffs, Explosion rework/massive buff, OB/CAS rework, B18 ammo increase, Sentry fixes and buffs, indirect defibb buff cuz of xeno corpse dragging change) coupled with a series of nerfs for xenos (stat rework/reduction, tackle massive nerf, queen dying larva loss, no dragging corpses, marine devouring nerfs, nesting changes, small nerfs here and there for bite/tail stab and warrior lunge).

I think the amount of skill among both sides is more or less consistent with time, its updates that cause these changes and also causes skilled players to desert a side/role sometimes, IMO.

Not all were simple buffs, or nerfs. Some of them were fixes.

Skill always have something to do with balance, especially with xenos that didn't required much to be effective. How much Skill you need to have as Queen before removal of Charge? Not much. Fire resistant, explosion resistant, high HP, high armor, faster than marines in armor, Screech and Charge. I still remember solo Queen just charging trough Almayer halls, Screeching, slashing and charging back to escape. Queen had to make a very stupid mistake to die, marines had no weapons/skills/abilities to do anything.

Xeno Vore changed from swallowing whole squad by single runner, to swallowing one in perma stun where there was no chance to survive, to what is now "75%-25%" fair by giving a slight chance.

Tackle nerf also added requirement for skill instead of simple "click and repeat" that even a trained monkey could do. Do you want to capture? Gather xeno friends, or pick sentinel. No longer a lone runner can capture a healthy marine.

Nesting change even did anything to nerf xenos besides removing meta xeno sentinels with watch in hand that would "unest" and neuro every atleast slighty robust players just before they could escape? Why do you think so many marines just ghosted? There was lik no chance to kill yourself, not talking about impossible escape and one meta sentinel could guard like 5 or more marines even when they were coordinated in "launching" resist timer. Now Queen have to order more sentinels to guard hosts if She want them to burst for sure and not kill any xeno, or destroy eggs.

Corpse Dragging removal also fixed meta/powergaming of xenos and now xenos require to defend a position they took from marines in order to remove those players permanently from round. And even if xenos wasn't able to defend this postion, they still removed those players for good 10+ minutes.

Warrior lunge... Point and click to 1vs1 even the most robust marine in the universe. It was and is like teleport for xeno. Skill is cool, warrior is cool when he rips marines heads off, but "teleport" portion of this skill is stil unfair in my opinion. Still... The best T2 to kill a single marine.

Now for marines:

SMG and pistols buffs: Like they are now any good against xenos without taking it to high powergaming level. How can pistol shoot 12 bullets faster than Pulse rifle?

M41A massive buffs: Without it every xeno complained about "Shotgun meta", how more than 50% of marines are taking shotguns and this is so unrealistic.
Even now I consider Pulse Rifle to be inferiour, but I might change my mind becouse of Shotgun Slug spread I writed before. Stuns hurt when you are the one to receive them, right?

Explosion buff is what I agree might be OP. One shot kills are unfair, but hey! There could be at max 4 specs with RPG's, but Ravagers and Boilers have more numbers.

I'm not playing Engineer and Delta don't sit much in FoB so I can't talk about Sentries and stuff.

HUGE Barricade nerf (But concept of "barricades" against xenos is broken itself).

[Sargeantmuffinman]

• Aliens now have a small amount of explosion resistance, increasing with tier.

• Explosion resistance from standard equipment has been reduced.

• Orbital strikes and shoulder-fired rockets have been tweaked. Exercise extreme caution with orbital strikes, and take cover whenever possible.

• Explosion falloff is no longer affected by ceiling type.

• Objects will be thrown further by explosions.

• AP rockets are more expensive for requisitions to order.

• Neurostimulator implant shock probabilty tweaked.

• Guns with magnetic harnesses and smartguns will snap back to suit storage appropriately when hit by an explosion.

• Plastic explosives will destroy walls properly.

• Wonky air alarm offsets fixed.

[MattAtlas]

Not all were simple buffs, or nerfs. Some of them were fixes.

Skill always have something to do with balance, especially with xenos that didn't required much to be effective. How much Skill you need to have as Queen before removal of Charge? Not much. Fire resistant, explosion resistant, high HP, high armor, faster than marines in armor, Screech and Charge. I still remember solo Queen just charging trough Almayer halls, Screeching, slashing and charging back to escape. Queen had to make a very stupid mistake to die, marines had no weapons/skills/abilities to do anything.

Xeno Vore changed from swallowing whole squad by single runner, to swallowing one in perma stun where there was no chance to survive, to what is now "75%-25%" fair by giving a slight chance.

Tackle nerf also added requirement for skill instead of simple "click and repeat" that even a trained monkey could do. Do you want to capture? Gather xeno friends, or pick sentinel. No longer a lone runner can capture a healthy marine.

Nesting change even did anything to nerf xenos besides removing meta xeno sentinels with watch in hand that would "unest" and neuro every atleast slighty robust players just before they could escape? Why do you think so many marines just ghosted? There was lik no chance to kill yourself, not talking about impossible escape and one meta sentinel could guard like 5 or more marines even when they were coordinated in "launching" resist timer. Now Queen have to order more sentinels to guard hosts if She want them to burst for sure and not kill any xeno, or destroy eggs.

Corpse Dragging removal also fixed meta/powergaming of xenos and now xenos require to defend a position they took from marines in order to remove those players permanently from round. And even if xenos wasn't able to defend this postion, they still removed those players for good 10+ minutes.

Warrior lunge... Point and click to 1vs1 even the most robust marine in the universe. It was and is like teleport for xeno. Skill is cool, warrior is cool when he rips marines heads off, but "teleport" portion of this skill is stil unfair in my opinion. Still... The best T2 to kill a single marine.

Now for marines:

SMG and pistols buffs: Like they are now any good against xenos without taking it to high powergaming level. How can pistol shoot 12 bullets faster than Pulse rifle?

M41A massive buffs: Without it every xeno complained about "Shotgun meta", how more than 50% of marines are taking shotguns and this is so unrealistic.
Even now I consider Pulse Rifle to be inferiour, but I might change my mind becouse of Shotgun Slug spread I writed before. Stuns hurt when you are the one to receive them, right?

Explosion buff is what I agree might be OP. One shot kills are unfair, but hey! There could be at max 4 specs with RPG's, but Ravagers and Boilers have more numbers.

I'm not playing Engineer and Delta don't sit much in FoB so I can't talk about Sentries and stuff.

HUGE Barricade nerf (But concept of "barricades" against xenos is broken itself).

I have a question, have you ever played Xeno? If so, how often? This isn't a bash or anything, I'm just curious so that I can understand your viewpoint better.

[Simo94]

Not all were simple buffs, or nerfs. Some of them were fixes.

Skill always have something to do with balance, especially with xenos that didn't required much to be effective. How much Skill you need to have as Queen before removal of Charge? Not much. Fire resistant, explosion resistant, high HP, high armor, faster than marines in armor, Screech and Charge. I still remember solo Queen just charging trough Almayer halls, Screeching, slashing and charging back to escape. Queen had to make a very stupid mistake to die, marines had no weapons/skills/abilities to do anything.

Xeno Vore changed from swallowing whole squad by single runner, to swallowing one in perma stun where there was no chance to survive, to what is now "75%-25%" fair by giving a slight chance.

Tackle nerf also added requirement for skill instead of simple "click and repeat" that even a trained monkey could do. Do you want to capture? Gather xeno friends, or pick sentinel. No longer a lone runner can capture a healthy marine.

Nesting change even did anything to nerf xenos besides removing meta xeno sentinels with watch in hand that would "unest" and neuro every atleast slighty robust players just before they could escape? Why do you think so many marines just ghosted? There was lik no chance to kill yourself, not talking about impossible escape and one meta sentinel could guard like 5 or more marines even when they were coordinated in "launching" resist timer. Now Queen have to order more sentinels to guard hosts if She want them to burst for sure and not kill any xeno, or destroy eggs.

Corpse Dragging removal also fixed meta/powergaming of xenos and now xenos require to defend a position they took from marines in order to remove those players permanently from round. And even if xenos wasn't able to defend this postion, they still removed those players for good 10+ minutes.

Warrior lunge... Point and click to 1vs1 even the most robust marine in the universe. It was and is like teleport for xeno. Skill is cool, warrior is cool when he rips marines heads off, but "teleport" portion of this skill is stil unfair in my opinion. Still... The best T2 to kill a single marine.

Now for marines:

SMG and pistols buffs: Like they are now any good against xenos without taking it to high powergaming level. How can pistol shoot 12 bullets faster than Pulse rifle?

M41A massive buffs: Without it every xeno complained about "Shotgun meta", how more than 50% of marines are taking shotguns and this is so unrealistic.
Even now I consider Pulse Rifle to be inferiour, but I might change my mind becouse of Shotgun Slug spread I writed before. Stuns hurt when you are the one to receive them, right?

Explosion buff is what I agree might be OP. One shot kills are unfair, but hey! There could be at max 4 specs with RPG's, but Ravagers and Boilers have more numbers.

I'm not playing Engineer and Delta don't sit much in FoB so I can't talk about Sentries and stuff.

HUGE Barricade nerf (But concept of "barricades" against xenos is broken itself).

All you did was explain the reason behind an update or its effect, it still doesnt change the fact that the update did happen, and it did take away something from xenos/ gave marines something.

[CABAL]

I have a question, have you ever played Xeno? If so, how often? This isn't a bash or anything, I'm just curious so that I can understand your viewpoint better.

Few times as a drone and as a sentinel and one time defender, then warrior. Only two, or three times from round start. I wanted to stay pure marine, but when I'm really bored from waiting for next round I would set Xeno preference "ON" and by this mistake I had to start a round as a xeno.

How boring it was to play from roundstart. There is not point in fight with survivors that barricaded themselfs when there are monkeys around, so I spent it by building walls, nests, resin, planting eggs and weeding the planet. Drone has no real combat skills so after Queen's deovi I went to the frontlines where as mature/elder drone I could just stand in one place for sec to acid flares, since Pulse Rifle fire just gave me damage, I wasn't any slower, or anything. Only Shotgunners and Specs posed any threat since they could stun me. Boiler gas allowed me to easly melt barricades, Queen came, Screeched so few slashes and marines layed dead. Dropship hijack, short fight and win.

Second time I died early on LZ becouse I tried as drone to 1vs1 a marine with red headband instead of helmet which happened to be "Avalanche" and PB shotgun punished this bold move.

Now I regret those roundstarts and late round xenos becouse I could be a marine, or ERT.

All you did was explain the reason behind an update or its effect, it still doesnt change the fact that the update did happen, and it did take away something from xenos/ gave marines something.

I'm strongly after "50%-50%" mindset, but I can "tolerate/respect" "75%-25%". Those changes were needed becouse most of them "fixed" lack of chance to fight back for marines. Permastun tackle means "100%-0%", nerfed tackle means "75%-25%", or "50%-50%" and I'm happy with that.
I can't do, or write anything that would change that this update happened, it did indeed and it nerfed OP xenos and buffed marines without chance to fight back. How to fight back corpse dragging? Injecting a zombie virus to ressurect?

All it comes to the this question: Are we still 75%-25%, or we are going more for the 50%-50%?
If the frist statement is correct then fix every mechanic to give marines a chance, no permastuns, no one hit decaps etc, no goddamned single projectile weapons that can't shoot straight becouse their barrel is bent etc. And that's it, just a fair chance and some skill required for xenos.
If second is true then do what previously mentioned and try to balance it even more. No Xeno Metaknowledge, no xeno powergaming, no useless weapons, more variety etc.

[Dauntasa]

Explosion buff is what I agree might be OP. One shot kills are unfair, but hey! There could be at max 4 specs with RPG's,

you mean 1. Spec kits are unique and can't be used by other specs, now.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

I have been thoroughly enjoying the new SADAR changes, being able to 1 shot anything short of an elder empress and stun everything around her many tiles away while your team mops up the stunned benos is a lot of fun.

[BillyBoBBizWorth]

Still have the issue of the roller stretcher bug(patient comes off until regrabbed) and zoombug(cant macro zoom) that have been around about the same amount of time.Is there any information as when these two particular issues might be fixed?

[MattAtlas]

-snip-

By being a """""pure marine""""" you don't understand how necessary some stuff is for the other team. How do you expect to be able to give good insight on what's balanced without having any idea what it's like for the other team?

Xenos need individual strength. They NEED to be able to win 1v1s and 1v2s, simply because marines have an extreme numerical advantage. There is often 1 Xeno per 3 or 4 marines. If any marine was able to 1v1 a Xeno, you do know it'd be marines would stomp, correct? Now let me reply to the points in your original comment.

Xeno devouring was an okay change. I don't mind it, but it makes capturing hosts in prison a complete annoyance, whatever. I hated the perma stun too.

Tackle nerf didn't add any skill requirement. It just nerfed xenos. You literally just wait until one marine is alone, middle click on them and go to town. I don't get how it adds skill requirement really, because lurkers can't 1v2 against a shotgun+rifle team without pulling off a tailstab crit and removing a guy's arm before pouncing.

Unnesting to reset the timer didn't work... it only worked if they used a different nest to renest you in, in which case you could ahelp. If anything it's even worse to escape now, what with the added delays. Also, what do you mean by "meta sentinel guarding 5 hosts"? That's literally their job. I don't understand how more sentinels are needed to nest hosts because that's just not true. Sentinels were never able to keep one host nested until Elite, right now it's the same.

Corpse dragging removal was an okay change, I don't mind it. It nerfed Xeno backlining and heavily nerfed attrition.

Warrior lunge is in a shit state. I agree with nerfing it to the point it's at now, but Warrior right now is a complete shit caste. It's in the same position of old pre-buff crusher, useless. It's only useful in 1v1s -- if at all. Complete pain to play.

[Kesserline]

Due to the recent changes, I saw an increase of ambusher groups, basically 1 to 3 Xenos from runners to lurkers.

The fact that they potentially meta comms don't bother me, it adds more spice.

But I find those little skirmish groups way way more efficient than pre-nerf single Rambo Xenos.

Forcing Xeno teamplay isn't a bad thing, even if, like marines, only a minority is able to do so, efficiently.

But, believe me, those ambushers are scary as fuck. Pre-nerf, I was super chill because I know that I would face only single roamers. Now, I shit my pants when I see the multiple hostiles lurking around.

I fear no man. But those ambushes.. It scares me..

By the way, I wouldn't mind allowing meta comms to Xenos. They are Hivemind anyway. Would make them deadly as fuck and challenging as hell to fight them.

[MattAtlas]

Due to the recent changes, I saw an increase of ambusher groups, basically 1 to 3 Xenos from runners to lurkers.

The fact that they potentially meta comms don't bother me, it adds more spice.

But I find those little skirmish groups way way more efficient than pre-nerf single Rambo Xenos.

Forcing Xeno teamplay isn't a bad thing, even if, like marines, only a minority is able to do so, efficiently.

But, believe me, those ambushers are scary as fuck. Pre-nerf, I was super chill because I know that I would face only single roamers. Now, I shit my pants when I see the multiple hostiles lurking around.

I fear no man. But those ambushes.. It scares me..

By the way, I wouldn't mind allowing meta comms to Xenos. They are Hivemind anyway. Would make them deadly as fuck and challenging as hell to fight them.

I can agree on this yeah, I like that too.

The issue is you can't tell a dumb kid to "just get smarter." It's the core issue of Xenos - do you want to buff them so that the bad ones can do something and good ones can wreck house, or do you want to keep the stats as is so you get marine rolls for months on end? The latter one isn't an exaggeration, by the way. It's just how the game will be. Most Xenos won't "learn" to get good in a few months. I don't have a good answer to this question either, it's just something to think about.

Also yes good lurkers teaming up is very scary, but it rarely happens. Most don't metacomm either, it's just very easy to team up as a xeno. Metacomming xenos would be very scary however.

Final note- for the love of God please fix the join as xeno button.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

I mean, metacomming xeno, if allowed, would actually be hot. You can coordinate with each other without having to take your time typing away in the chat box. Also, imagine the in-combat situations, where you can specifically call stuff out like : stun this guy, lunge that dude, kill this spec quickly, run like a bitch since SADAR Spec is here, etc ...

I mean, it would really prove that xeno does have a hivemind that they can communicate with each other on a whim.

But well, dreams will always be dreams.

[Kesserline]

Fact is Lyla : the git gud factor is important.

Marines are carried by their robustos/good marines. Who probably represent 30 to 40% at max of the marine player base (others are barely decent or baldies).

Those marines are used to nerfs, to get FFed, abandonned, shitted on by their own Command, ignored by their SL/SO.

Yet, they kill. They kill in 1v1, where the balance of the game would make 1 xeno death for 3 marines minimum.

Xenos got spoiled for too long. A xeno main, a good one, as lurker can rekt 15 marines easily.

Though, it's hard to promote the git gud if you're always anonymous. Maybe introduce some naming shit for Xenus.

Persistency encourages marines to be better. When you recognize a marine name, you cover him/follow him.

It's harder as a Xeno. Also, as they are faceless, it's easy to be a dipshit and not being recognized as dipshit. Sometimes humiliation and bad reputation is also a motivation factor for players to improve themselves, though, it increases toxicity and MOG-competition rather than RP.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

The suggestion of letting other see ckeys in Hive Status has been in the air for a while now.

[Kesserline]

Oh yeah, true, remembering that. Denied or in the Suggestion Purgatory still?

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

It was never suggested on Gitlab. It's just an idea that's been around the forum for a while, ever since AP meta.

[CABAL]

By being a """""pure marine""""" you don't understand how necessary some stuff is for the other team. How do you expect to be able to give good insight on what's balanced without having any idea what it's like for the other team?

Xenos need individual strength. They NEED to be able to win 1v1s and 1v2s, simply because marines have an extreme numerical advantage. There is often 1 Xeno per 3 or 4 marines. If any marine was able to 1v1 a Xeno, you do know it'd be marines would stomp, correct? Now let me reply to the points in your original comment.

Xeno devouring was an okay change. I don't mind it, but it makes capturing hosts in prison a complete annoyance, whatever. I hated the perma stun too.

Tackle nerf didn't add any skill requirement. It just nerfed xenos. You literally just wait until one marine is alone, middle click on them and go to town. I don't get how it adds skill requirement really, because lurkers can't 1v2 against a shotgun+rifle team without pulling off a tailstab crit and removing a guy's arm before pouncing.

Unnesting to reset the timer didn't work... it only worked if they used a different nest to renest you in, in which case you could ahelp. If anything it's even worse to escape now, what with the added delays. Also, what do you mean by "meta sentinel guarding 5 hosts"? That's literally their job. I don't understand how more sentinels are needed to nest hosts because that's just not true. Sentinels were never able to keep one host nested until Elite, right now it's the same.

Corpse dragging removal was an okay change, I don't mind it. It nerfed Xeno backlining and heavily nerfed attrition.

Warrior lunge is in a shit state. I agree with nerfing it to the point it's at now, but Warrior right now is a complete shit caste. It's in the same position of old pre-buff crusher, useless. It's only useful in 1v1s -- if at all. Complete pain to play.

As I said I'm not 100% pure marine anymore, but what I expected from their gameplay when I never played beno was mostly true.

If you mean by "win" to kill a marine, then it's OK. Capturing should not be simple and it needs to require atleast two T1 benos, becouse capturing not only removes a marine, but also adds new beno.
Single xeno (T1) don't need to 1vs2/3/4 marines at the same time. They have fast healing from any damage by just existing on a weeds. Runners and lurkers are designed to pick off single marines at the time, Warrior and defender are designed to harm multiple targets at one. Especially Warrior that can rush quadrupedal, go bipedal, punch and slash, go quadrupedal again and escape.

It worked on the same nest if sentinel unnested you just before timer runs out. Unnest, spit and renest. Resist again, wait exactly the same amout of time for resin doors to open, the same sentinel unnesting you, spitting and renesting.
By "meta sentinel guarding 5 hosts" I meant exactly that type of sentinel that would unnest, spit and renest every marine. Even coordinated "resist" wasn't able to do anything. One sentinel could make group of 5 coordinated marines to not be able to even scratch the resin door.

[MattAtlas]

As I said I'm not 100% pure marine anymore, but what I expected from their gameplay when I never played beno was mostly true.

If you mean by "win" to kill a marine, then it's OK. Capturing should not be simple and it needs to require atleast two T1 benos, becouse capturing not only removes a marine, but also adds new beno.
Single xeno (T1) don't need to 1vs2/3/4 marines at the same time. They have fast healing from any damage by just existing on a weeds. Runners and lurkers are designed to pick off single marines at the time, Warrior and defender are designed to harm multiple targets at one. Especially Warrior that can rush quadrupedal, go bipedal, punch and slash, go quadrupedal again and escape.

It worked on the same nest if sentinel unnested you just before timer runs out. Unnest, spit and renest. Resist again, wait exactly the same amout of time for resin doors to open, the same sentinel unnesting you, spitting and renesting.
By "meta sentinel guarding 5 hosts" I meant exactly that type of sentinel that would unnest, spit and renest every marine. Even coordinated "resist" wasn't able to do anything. One sentinel could make group of 5 coordinated marines to not be able to even scratch the resin door.

Currently the only T1 able to 1v1 marines is elder sentinel. Ancient can 2v1 with some luck in neuro RNG, but runners are more often than not useless.

Warrior can't 2v1 at all. Too slow in bipedal, too slow in agility mode. Ability switching is too slow to reliably do what you're saying. If you try that, you'll just get buckshot PB'd and killed immediately. Defender is a joke caste right now and can't even 1v1.

It didn't work. You'd still be able to resist out because the timer wouldn't get reset until you were renested in a different nest.

[Chaznoodles]

Xenos mains salting because they got two nerf changelogs.

Marine mains laughing because, after three years, the tables have turned.

[CABAL]

Currently the only T1 able to 1v1 marines is elder sentinel. Ancient can 2v1 with some luck in neuro RNG, but runners are more often than not useless.

Warrior can't 2v1 at all. Too slow in bipedal, too slow in agility mode. Ability switching is too slow to reliably do what you're saying. If you try that, you'll just get buckshot PB'd and killed immediately. Defender is a joke caste right now and can't even 1v1.

It didn't work. You'd still be able to resist out because the timer wouldn't get reset until you were renested in a different nest.

I don't know exactly, but when I experienced it myself as a host marine I wouldn't able and I had to wait new timer to resist out of nest. Maybe this is applied now as a stealth update?

Too slow in agility mode? When warrior's speed was nerfed from the last time I played? Not all marines carry shotguns with buckshot also. Grunts with Pulse Rifles can just "pew pew" at you to lower your health while you keep speed and damage.

Tail sweep, slash and escape. Repeat. If you are quick, or you ambushed marine you can even do that to the shotguners.

That talk seems to point that Xenos can't do anything against marines right now becouse tackle and HP nerf. How xenos were winning before those nerfs? Shotgun stun exist from the start I think.

[MattAtlas]

I don't know exactly, but when I experienced it myself as a host marine I wouldn't able and I had to wait new timer to resist out of nest. Maybe this is applied now as a stealth update?

Too slow in agility mode? When warrior's speed was nerfed from the last time I played? Not all marines carry shotguns with buckshot also. Grunts with Pulse Rifles can just "pew pew" at you to lower your health while you keep speed and damage.

Tail sweep, slash and escape. Repeat. If you are quick, or you ambushed marine you can even do that to the shotguners.

That talk seems to point that Xenos can't do anything against marines right now becouse tackle and HP nerf. How xenos were winning before those nerfs? Shotgun stun exist from the start I think.

No - you misunderstand. I think xenos right now are OKAY. The only things that need adjustement are some castes-- defender, warrior, prae namely -- they need a buff.

Try playing defender. You're too slow to properly engage, with rifle buffs you'll die to a vanilla rifle in 7-8 shots with your crest lowered.

It's not just shotgun PBs, rifles are crazy strong right now too. Warriors had both their agil mode and normal mode speed nerfed, point is they're slower than a marine on weeds while on 2 legs... until elder, where they're SLIGHTLY faster. Four legs doesn't give much of a buff anymore, it makes playing warrior a pain.

[WinterClould]

You don't need to play both sides to form good "ideas" on how balance should be or could be changed for the better.
I was a pure marine player but since I'm not dumber then shit I can tell how xenos getting curbed isn't great.

Last time things seemed to be this far in the marines favor was at the start of this year when marine a could do fucky shit with clicking and whatnot. Marines were clearing house back then, so like 7-6 months time since the last marine hype train left the station. Not three years.

SADAR needed to be rebuffed but it and the GL/B18 specs might be a tad to strong at the moment after how nerfed the benos got.

Benos need something that left's them build rep like marines can. Anything. Without it they don't have the motivation to get better to get clout and shit. People only know guys like Chubs bring a kick ass xeno player because he's been big the the community and played queen a lot, so people got to noticing how good he was at it. But most xenos players don't have the rep like he had so they never get noticed. Every xeno player on the forums is a "literally who?" to me, and that's not great.

Xenos being allowed to meta comm would suck dick and just make a mess. Staff will never allow it because that would be a fucking disaster.

Give spooks some time to figure out how he wants to rebuff the benos. He's recognized the problem so just let him have some time. Enjoy the marine steamroller for the time being.

[Vispain]

I can support named xenos or some alternative idea that has the same effect.. Of course names would have to not be meme shit but I can see the point made. It'd certainly add a 'recognization' factor to xeno players.

On the flip side...I know we don't have named xenos to purposely create that anonymity idea of things. It's a hivemind after all.

[Renomaki]

The thing is, Xenos metacomming would be hard to regulate even IF it was allowed.

Imagine, if you will, two xeno players who are communicating via discord, they are really coordinate and all that shit, yeah? But say one of these xenos suddenly dies...

What is to say this xeno player won't abuse his ghost powers to give his buddy an insane advantage? Moreso if said player is a queen, meaning she can adjust her orders and tactics on the fly because a dead xeno player is able to read Marine Command's EVERY MOVE and relay it back.

Metacomms is bad for a reason, and it isn't just because two living players can coordinate via an outside source, but because the same players could easily help each other even when death splits them up.

And don't say that these players will have some kind of honor-code when it comes to metacomms.. I play a LOT of marine, and lemme tell you, if a marine can find a way to get cheap and easy kills, they'll do it. They don't give a SHIT about playing fair when fighting xenos, and xenos don't give a shit about playing fair ICly either.

[spookydonut]

Xeno ckey/names is a double edged sword, yes it has the benefits as described but is it worth the elitism and associated toxicity that comes with it? Previously the answer to this has always been no.