Alpha Official Discussion Thread

[Evilkyle24]

Hmm .. Night/day cycle in ss13. Could it be done or nah?

In real time... maybe?

Possibly. Potentially.

We could have a night/day variant of the map, but Marines would have an easy time of it.

[Abbysynth]

It can be done, it's more a question of if it can be done without lag.

[Lostmixup]

Hmm .. Night/day cycle in ss13. Could it be done or nah?

Well, some invisible light sources could be set on a cycle or something around parts of the map that would be lit up by them. They turn on after X amount of time and off after X amount of time.

[Tranquill]

Sounds like it to me, I swear it has been done before in other BYOND games..

[Felkvir]

It probably will lag horribly, won't it? And i doubt there'd be much more time for testing something like this in Alpha

[Fire and Glory]

So what exactly are the specialists?

[TopHatPenguin]

So what exactly are the specialists?

They are basically another job for you to fill in a squad.

The Alpha squads go:
SL
Specialist
Medic
Engineer
Standard

So in general the only thing the specialist gets over the others is abit better armor but they will move slower and a more powerful arsenal.

[Abbysynth]

Specialists are the heavy weapons users in a squad. They get a variety of dangerous weapons that require more skill than regular marines get, but also get some pretty major drawbacks and are more reliant on their squads to help them out.

[Anon McAnon]

Specialists are the heavy weapons users in a squad. They get a variety of dangerous weapons that require more skill than regular marines get, but also get some pretty major drawbacks and are more reliant on their squads to help them out.

So they're the designated 'ATTACK THESE GUYS, THEY LITERALLY WON'T BE ABLE TO FIGHT BACK EVER' class because teamwork is for losers?
For real though, this'll be interesting.

[MrJJJ]

They can try to rambo
It will just end badly for them, far more badly than you can imagine

[Feweh]

Question regarding tunnels.. which aliens can build them and how spammable are they going to be?

Obviously you can just wait for more Plasma but I'm fearing a massive map filled with hole's everywhere. Also, what stops them from making these inside buildings?
Or is the vent system in for the buildings currently?

[Abbysynth]

Question regarding tunnels.. which aliens can build them and how spammable are they going to be?

Obviously you can just wait for more Plasma but I'm fearing a massive map filled with hole's everywhere. Also, what stops them from making these inside buildings?
Or is the vent system in for the buildings currently?

Only hivelords can build them. They have a VERY long cooldown, about 10 minutes, and can be destroyed by explosives (which also blows both ends of the tunnel). The hivelord also has to physically walk to the end part to actually finish it, which can be dangerous. It's also very expensive in plasma.

There's no vent system on the ground map, and the tunnels can ONLY be placed on the ground map's sand or jungle turfs, nothing else.

[TopHatPenguin]

Do we have jungle turf in yet?
I mean on the ground map last time i played it was mainly a dark grass turf...so will we eventually get foliage etc ?

[Abbysynth]

There's a placeholder dense turf in now, but it doesn't look super great so far. Sprite perspectives are hard!

[TopHatPenguin]

There's a placeholder dense turf in now, but it doesn't look super great so far. Sprite perspectives are hard!

okay would be nice for some foliage like bushes and stuff :3

[RoswellRay]

Alpha DESPERATELY need more crowbars. I was able to find everything but crowbars stationside or even on the sulaco. Meanwhile there are a billion supply crates never opened because no one has a crowbar. I'd just like the marine survival kit back.

[Dragon2323]

The Scoped Rifle's damage should be increased to be capable of one-shot kills against Runners or Warriors, if not both. It's clear that with the weapon's armor piercing round that it should be capable of doing so against the Xenomorph's shell, and the fact that it's most likely firing a fifty caliber round, if not a .50AE round, would cement this.

[Evilkyle24]

The Scoped Rifle's damage should be increased to be capable of one-shot kills against Runners or Warriors, if not both. It's clear that with the weapon's armor piercing round that it should be capable of doing so against the Xenomorph's shell, and the fact that it's most likely firing a fifty caliber round, if not a .50AE round, would cement this.

So whats the downside? Because that sounds pretty bullshit right now.

[UnknownMurder]

What would bridge officers be able to do anyways? Steer the ship into orbit and out of orbit? Would be nice to include hostile in space including meteors, enemy fighters (Klingons), or EMP Waves.

[Dragon2323]

So whats the downside? Because that sounds pretty bullshit right now.

The weapon is only safe to use at a lengthy range. Going up into someone's face with a sniper rifle is a ridiculous prospect that will inevitably get you killed. Given that there's no proper, if not actually safe cover for a Designated Marksman, you're most likely going to have a Ravager run up from behind and tear your intestines out of your arse.

[Abbysynth]

The sniper rifle already does a) the most damage in the game besides a direct hit with an AP missile, b) has bonus penetration against armored xenos (ravager, queen, praetorian), and c) doesn't have miss dropoff due to range like every other weapon. Making it capable of one-shotting anything is a definite no-no.

[Clayton_Kelly]

The weapon is only safe to use at a lengthy range. Going up into someone's face with a sniper rifle is a ridiculous prospect that will inevitably get you killed. Given that there's no proper, if not actually safe cover for a Designated Marksman, you're most likely going to have a Ravager run up from behind and tear your intestines out of your arse.

There's nothing that makes it unsafe to use in close quarters. A marine can random run to be safe in melee. It would be a shotgun named sniper rifle. And a ravager can run up from behind anyone and tear their ass out no matter what they're carrying.

[Evilkyle24]

There's nothing that makes it unsafe to use in close quarters. A marine can random run to be safe in melee. It would be a shotgun named sniper rifle. And a ravager can run up from behind anyone and tear their ass out no matter what they're carrying.

Exactly this. "Long Range Weapon" means jack shit in space station. You can use any ranged weapon at any range, except rockets at point blank.

[Abbysynth]

Actually, that's not entirely true. There's a miss chance for every weapon depending on range, you'll see "The bullet narrowly misses <blah>!", which occurs more often depending on the distance from the target. The shotgun has very high accuracy falloff while the sniper rifle has none.

[UnKuT]

So when is the Alpha being officially implemented?