Player Report: Novus Luna

[Lorem123]

Your Byond Key: Just L

Your Character Name: Freddie 'Royale' Rogers

Accused Byond Key(if known): Novus Luna

Character Name: elite drone (698)

Approximate time and date of the incident (Central US Time for fastest results): Jun 29th 2:30 pm 2018

What rule(s) were broken: 1, 4, 5. Knowing where the Marines were going to show up (1). Metagaming, powergaming,

Description of the incident: The last round I played on CM had me assigned to Alpha Squad as the sole engineer. We were told to go to LZ1, fix TCOMMS, and then fortify the LZ. After everyone geared up and was sent down, we arrive and see that nearly the entire LZ is covered in weeds. IC, we obviously don't know what this is, but OOC I already knew that the xenos had probably broken the rules already and set up a whole base or ambush down here.

I go into TCOMMS with the rest of Alpha's fireteam and start fixing them, and then a minute or two after I begin fixing them we hear screaming outside and slashing. Our guys go out to check and there are at least 5 or 6 xenos out there that were lying in wait. They immediately went for the medic and killed them first, then took down some of the other marines. I manage to get tcomms up in time for someone in the squad to tell command that LZ1 is pretty much ruined, and then die a little while later to a bunch of T1 xenos. I think there were a couple of lurkers and a drone, I forget what they were.

After dying, I wait a few minutes while talking with one of the admins after filing my ahelp, and then waited again for it to be resolved. They said that they let the player off with 'a warning', which I don't really think is at all fair for taking 8+ people out of an entire round about 5 minutes into it. PMCs did get called in later to 'solve' the issue.

Ghosting at this point, I go and look down past TCOMMS and see that the xenos have an entire base set up south of it in virology with several lines of defense. Between this, the multiple xenos at LZ1 and weeds all over it upon landing, it's clear that they metagamed to set this up. Marines still won due to getting a bunch of PMCs called in.

Evidence (screenshots, logs, etc): I don't have any logs since the admins said they can't share ahelps with me.

If pictures are needed, I can upload them.

How you would punish the accused: This isn't really my call to make. I just want something more severe than only a warning. Temporary job ban? I don't know exactly if that's something that is done here.

[Saytkl77]

As an alien here is what I saw this round:

Queen decides to make Virology the hive at the start of the game, tells xenos to scout and build stuff around the area as usual. Xenos weed everywhere including LZ1 but also medbay, cargo, bar, office pretty much everywhere, so there was no real meta focus on LZ1. No structures were built in LZ1 prior to marines arriving. Xenos fortify the areas around virology, north of it , east and south of it. Marines sent about 7 or so marines to Tcomms and are spotted and the queen tells everyone to go kill them. While fighting the marines at LZ1 xenos builds weeds, resins and walls. Marines then start to flank from the south east through medical and xenos keep building stuff. Eventually marines lose the planet.

In terms of meta my opinions are:

1) A virology hive isnt meta, xenos even spawn there as larva encouraging you to use it.
2) Fortfying the area around virology isnt meta if that is your hive.
3) If you are fighting marines at LZ1, its fine to build stuff, there is no rule that says "While fighting at an LZ you must NOT build any structures". If xenos had built a load of walls prior to marines arriving obviously that would be meta because they are using advance knowledge of marines arriving. But once fighting breaks out its fine as its the same as any other area. I dont think building weeds at LZ1 counts as meta when its right next to your hive and you are covering the entire planet in weeds as well with no real specific focus on just the LZ. If anything it would be meta not to build weeds there as you are avoiding building weeds at one specific area for no real in character reason, while covering the rest of the planet in weeds.

Also as far as I can tell the Lurkers werent camping LZ1 waiting for marines, it took about 15 seconds for them to get there once marines were spotted because virology is almost right next to the lz. Though maybe there were some I didnt see.

[awan]

Why is the report against this specific xeno? It seems multiple xenos are involved.

Was there any building at the lz? Or just weeds?

[Saytkl77]

Why is the report against this specific xeno? It seems multiple xenos are involved.

Was there any building at the lz? Or just weeds?

When we charged into LZ1 from the east to attack telecomms, I saw only weeds, xenos started building walls after the fighting broke out, but the admin confirmed that is allowed in PM (Adralimas)

There were also people in ghost chat who confirmed that xenos only started building (non-weed) defenses in LZ1 after the fighting started,

[I_Solve_Practical_Problems]

I'll weigh in since I was Commander during this round.

I decided to try the non-conventional strategy of an LZ2 FOB on Big Red and sent down a fireteam of Alpha to set up and fortify tcomms. Comms quickly went up, but within 5 minutes of them going live, the team guarding them were totally wiped out by a large group of xenos. Furthermore, and while I don't know this for sure, I suspect they melted the south cave wall rather early as I saw numerous T3s attacking from the south room. At this point, I rerouted Delta from the bar, as well as Alpha and the tank to relieve them. Before they could give assistance, the xenos had built fortifications in and around tcomms as well as the hanger. We managed to eventually fight our way to tcomms, but we took many losses and quickly evacuated after that point.

To give my opinion as CO, I don't think the xenos necessarily meta'd by taking out the forces at tcomms. It was boneheaded of me to send such a small team to hold it down and they capitalized on that by wiping it out. I also don't think a viro hive is meta, it's just a very aggressive strategy. Where I do think the xenos started to cross the line was the weight of forces they dedicated to holding tcomms. While it wasn't the actual hive with eggs and hosts, the marines had to fight resin walls, T3s, and the Queen. While I know xenos are hyper-intelligent, I don't know how they would know tcomms is so worth sending the entire hive to, especially with 40+ hosts directly south of the main hive. Now of course, I was in CIC for most of this so it was just what I saw on my helmet cams, but I still think I had a good idea of what was going on.

Therefore, it's my opinion as CO during the round that while I don't agree the xenos used meta to attack tcomms or hive in viro, I do think turning it into a fortress after taking out the guard was a little suspect. However, an admin handled the situation in game, and punished the xenos by sending in PMCs which did ultimately result in a marine victory.

[Novus Luna]

This was my first round playing Xeno. I spawned across the entire map away from the Queen. She explicitly told me to plant weeds as I made my way to her, so I did. I wasn't thinking about where I planted them, I just planted them. That said, I'm never attacked T-Comms. It was the Queen that ordered people to T-Comms once we heard a whistle and gunshots from near the LZ. You are wanting to ban me from Xeno when literally ALL I DID IN THAT ROUND was plant weeds on the way to the hive and fortify the IMMEDIATE AREA AROUND THE HIVE. Literally the areas that come pre-weeded were the only areas that I set up defenses and fortifications, so not only has this already been handled, you're accusing the wrong person.

Once again, I did not specifically rush LZ with intention to weed it - I did so as I ran by, as I'd done to basically everywhere else that I could, under orders from the Queen. Beyond that, you're trying to blame me for things I didn't do.

In defense of my other Xenos - they didn't rush either. The second we heard the whistle was the first time the Queen told us to go places, and she send a LOOOOT of us to t-com.

[Saytkl77]

Therefore, it's my opinion as CO during the round that while I don't agree the xenos used meta to attack tcomms or hive in viro, I do think turning it into a fortress after taking out the guard was a little suspect.

Its worth nothing xenos didnt specifically fortify just tcomms/lz1. There were fortification in the virology hive, fortifications north of the hive in the caves, fortifications east of the hive in medbay and the path from medbay to virology, fortifications between medbay and lz1, fortifications in lz1 and tcomms. Because of the the location of the hive, all these areas were directly adjacent to the hive. Xenos werent meta fortifying a specific area (tcomms/lz) that they somehow knew was valuable, they were fortifying all the areas directly adjacent to the virology hive.

I don't really think the queen was meta'ing either, she seemed new as evidenced by the fact she choose virology hive, which would have resulted in a wipe 9/10 times for xenos if by chance the commander hadn't gone for a LZ2 fob and the fact she didnt lock the dropship and died instantly upon being called up in it. I don't think she had some kind of incredible plan to meta, rather she just spawned in virology and said "lets build a hive here I guess". The fact that telecomms / lz had a large xeno presence for alot of the game was a consequence of the fact they are literally one screen away from the hive, rather than any meta decision making by the queen to take advantage of out of game information about the importance of tcomms / lz.

[Bath Salts Addict]

I was a lurker that was part of the kill squad that round that wiped out the Alpha team.

Around ten-ish or so minutes before Marines landed, I was wandering around LZ1 when I saw a Boiler sitting in the virology caves, just standing there and not moving. I waited a bit to see if he was gonna start melting the walls, but he wasn't. It looked like he was just using far-sight to scope out the LZ. A little bit meta, but at least he wasn't melting the walls.

When we attacked telecomms, I don't recall anyone attacking from the southern caves, and instead we only hung out near the aerodome entrance to retreat and heal before making another pass. The thing that drew all the xenos in the first place was, of course, our 9 lurker-hive, inadequate defenses at LZ1 and the small team trying to repair such a vital location. We smelled blood in the water, so we struck. I can't attest to the drone doing much other than weeding for the attackers, as my power went out at the worst moment and I lost my xeno character, but when I was left behind on the planet as a runner I think I remember seeing some walls and nests in telecomms proper, but I just thought they were built there while we were waiting for the Alamo.

At one point I'm pretty sure someone did melt into telecomms, so it'd be logical to build defenses there to protect an easy entrance into your hive, as the xenos had set up their hive in Viro.

[420MYK]

Which game was this? If this was the big red game from roughly 11oclock/midnight NZST i was delta squad SL. We were tasked with getting power running then linking with alpha at LZ1 FOB and exploring lambda. We got off DS2 (about 4 minutes late i will admit as the PO was waiting on my spec to board so id have all essential squaddies dropping on the first run) My engie barely had time to touch the generator before we were under attack from a Rav, spitter and other assorted xenos. While early game power attacks arent unheard of it was VERY obvious this was a preplanned attack at a juncture that xenomorphs have no reason to know marines were gonna be there. Due to the surprise and strength of the forces very few deltas actually made it out and one of the first people i saw getting pounced was my engie.

After managing to save the engie and with the help of my SG i managed to get the both of them to FOB before Going back to power to try find the rest of my squad. I managed to find what remained (i think a medic and a PFC, my spec also having been aparently the first or second to be dragged off.) I died trying to establish a foothold in power again which im not gonna complain about because it was my own fault for pushing so roughly as SL.

After ghosting i checked out LZ1 and saw that tcoms was already under heavy attack by a screeching queen and her hive, all south tcomms walls were melted fully and the main xeno force was in full swing of attack. This was all by the time the alamo had made its third planetside run. I can only attest to this much because shortly after seeing how the round was going i left the game for the night as i had the feeling the rest of the rounds were just gonna be each side trying to out BS each other.

Assuming this is the round in question this is how i saw events: A preplanned full attack force ready and waiting outside the research podlocks to attack whichever squad was set on power duty (I had a MD on my belt and there was ALOT of pings all around the area more than a couple of scouts plus there was at least one t3.) Specific targeting of essential roles (spec got dragged away very quickly although she was playing stupid and trying to bait the rav into a trap, and engie getting pounced on even though it put a PFC between the lurker and his exit) Meta preperation of the LZ (i know your allowed to weed but theres noway a queen goes "oh look tall hosts at LZ1 MELT ALL THE TCOMS WALLS") even late game i usually only see one or two of those walls melted/broken). Beyond that i didnt see much else id consider rule breaking but by the sounds of it there was more than what i saw.

And if im talking about the wrong match apologies and ignore this reply though i dont think it is a different one i just cant be sure as the timezones are different where i am.

[solidfury7]

I was late joining but I remember the full staff team talking about the metagaming being pretty on this round

Structures in medical designed for an arriving party at LZ1 and a few other things were discussed. I'll ping slack tonight and see if I can hail the mods to give their piece.

[awan]

I still have not been told why the report is against this specific xeno?
How was the conclusion made that this xeno is the one who metagamed and did this?

[Emeraldblood]

Unless you can give us specific xeno and what they did to deserve being punished, we can't go back and review the round itself at this point. Saying that a group of the hive needs to be punished isn't a valid report.

[Lorem123]

I was told to leave it to the mods to get the xenos that did this, so I made the player report against the one that the mods spoke to.

[Novus Luna]

So, just so I can get this straight: because you know that the admins messaged me about something as a Xeno, you're assuming that I did every single thing wrong as a xeno that round? I was a drone. I only play drone. That was my first round as a xeno, as well. I spawned the entire map away from the Queen and had to spend a good 15 minutes finding my way to her. In the process, she told drones to plant weeds as we came to her. I did that. I didn't specifically target LZ1 (which could be argued to the legality of it if I did since you can practically smell LZ1 from a Virology hive, which was our hive during the round). I dropped weeds as I went. I don't think I even weeded telecomms - I don't think I even saw t-comm this round, but if I did, I sure as hell didn't fortify it like you're claiming, as I was at the hive basically the entire time after reaching it - the only thing I did before reaching the hive was plant weeds. Furthermore, as I've stated before, we weren't preemptively camping any area, at least not as a plan of the hive. I heard a whistle a bit after you all landed. I told the Queen that. She then ordered the fighter castes (and I believe we had a metric fuck ton of runners) to telecomms. I, again, never left the hive.

This entire report seems like if the entire Delta and Bravo squads were griefing a round, but you only knew that Specialist Johnny Mimefucker had been talked to by admins, so you're trying to blame every last issue in the round on him. And the squads weren't actually griefing.

To be blunt, this is a report about something that a moderator has already handled, about things that I mostly didn't do. If anything becomes of this I'm going to have an appeal up within the hour of me seeing such.

[Imperator_Titan]

As emerald stated, reporting a group of the hive isn't a valid report at all. The one particular person you intend to report was already handled regardless by a moderator.

Resolved - No action will be taken.