Hivemind Interception, or how I phoned E.T.

[Seehund]

!!MUCH OF THIS SUGGESTION RELIES ON THERE EVENTUALLY BEING A METHOD TO EFFICIENTLY INCAPACITATE XENOMORPHS!!
Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):

Add a new piece of machinery to the Research Laboratory, namely a "nest" reserved for incapacitated or dead xenomorphs. This would allow the researchers, and SOLELY the researchers, to briefly tap into the hivemind; see below for a more in-depth explanation.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):

- Make the researcher role infinitely more useful (Yes, I am aware a Research rework is in the works, though I believe this is worth a suggestion anyhow) by allowing them a position in the grand tactical play of the game;
- Encourage RP by allowing the hivemind to be "hijacked" (see below), and subsequent xenomorph reaction;
- Allow the xenormophs a sort of easy "Get on the Sulaco" card, where some simple coordination would allow the captured xenomorph to cause havoc.
- Allow the marines some insight on xenomorph tactics.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):

Ah, the W-Y funded Xenobiological Lifeform Interface (Read: Xee-LI). Officially, it was "generously donated" to the USCMC in order to interface with the baser brain functions of any given lifeform - provided it can fit into the physical cradle, of course. This would give the appropriate personnel SOME insight on the lifeform's baser functions, and so on.
The XLI, however, has another, hidden function. It has been known for a long time now, that some of the more... exotic alien species possess the ability to commune over long distances, seemingly without any external apparati. Hidden deep within the cradle is a complex neurogical "packet", designed to interface and intrude these channels of communication.

Okay, fluff's out of the way, let's get onto the juicy stuff.

Simply enough, should there ever be a way to reliably incapacitate any xenomorph, this item would allow the researcher to FINALLY do something with them, other than keep it on a leash and waltz around the ship. The cradle itself would be composed of THREE components, with one extra orderable from cargo for an ABSURD amount of points - alternatively, a buildable machine obtainable only upon a sufficiently high research level. Let's see a breakdown of the pieces;

Physical Cradle: quite literally, a hydraulic clamp lined with receptors, designed to hold down and interface with the lifeform. This would be functionally similar to a nest, complete with the ability to be broken out of after a... generous amount of time. For fairness, however, the escape should not be detectable by an outsider until a few moments before. What this translates to is, an external observer such as a researcher would get a message only a handful of seconds before the xenomorph breaking out. The Cradle would accept both live and dead xenomorphs, with differences explained below. Being in the Cradle is quite the experience; to negate constant imprisonment, constant damage would be trickled upon the xenomorph. Additionally, it is VERY possible for the hydraulics to give way if abused for a long period of time. This means, any researcher would think twice about slapping a xeno in the Cradle and forgetting about them. Proper containment SHOULD be followed.

Processor: an extremely complicated mess of electronics, this simply serves to translate the electrochimical signals in any given brain into a readable output. Serves no practical purpose to the user, however the simple act of translating a message from the hivemind would strain the machine, eventually breaking it. Any MT should be realistically able to fix it.

Terminal: the heart and soul of the machine. Two operational modes; should a live xenomorph be in the Cradle, it would provide a live feed of GARBLED communication, due to the machine's early status. This translates to understandable but quite heavily garbled messages, such as:

XX121-11D29: ASSAU** *** ME**A* B*R*
XX121-00C82: RE**F*****EN** A* N***S

Another option is to, via neurological stimulation, temporaily hijack the xenomorph within the Cradle and send a crude message to the hivemind. This would cause SIGNIFICANT damage to the alien, carry a HEAVY risk of breaking any part of the machine and/or accidentally releasing the alien and/or alerting the hivemind. To counter these risks, the successful message would effectively be undetectable as "forced" by the other xenomorphs. This message should have a character limit, to represent hardware limitations.

The other operational mode is to stick a dead xenomorph into the Cradle. This is, for obvious reasons, infinitely safer, BUT only the last five messages of the hivemind up until the xeno's death would be detectable. Uninteresting, moving on.

Cypher: EXTREMELY costly in terms of materials and research levels, this basically allows the messages to become significantly ungarbled.

EDIT: I should add, the caste of the xenomorph would influence the clarity of the communication by a slight margin. This carries OBVIOUS risks - a runner amok is a thing; a ravager is another.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):

Quite the huge amount of coding, I'd assume. Perhaps this could be similar to the Telecomms logs terminal, only for the hivemind?

Please excuse any incongruences or grammatical errors. This rant was conceived in the early morning.

[Azmodan412]

Holy ballsacks. I would LOVE doing this as the eccentric researcher. +1

[ParadoxSpace]

Actually.
I like this.
I like this a lot.
Plus One.

[Toroic]

I like the concept, but would never want to be the xeno that got captured in that way. Rather just get shot to death so I can respawn.

[Seehund]

I like the concept, but would never want to be the xeno that got captured in that way. Rather just get shot to death so I can respawn.

A very good point, actually. I tried to avert this by giving the captured xeno many, MANY chances to escape.

Any suggestions in this regard?

[Toroic]

A very good point, actually. I tried to avert this by giving the captured xeno many, MANY chances to escape.

Any suggestions in this regard?

The simple solution is to have it work on dead xenos, and instead of damaging the body heavily have a chance to gib.

[Gandalf]

+1 I like it

I do think the captured xeno should be able to 'give' a little too. Maybe a side effect of using the tcomms network causes the captured xeno to intercept garbled radio across channels which it can pass on via hivemind.

[MasterEggplant]

I think this idea need to be simplified.
It has a great concept behind it, but it seems like a lot of work for a pretty small outcome.

Maybe the components should be combined into a table and a console, and upon adding a xeno to it - it will give out a headset decipher that will allow the marine to understand xeno.
And as research works, it will be available to replication.

[Seehund]

Maybe the components should be combined into a table and a console, and upon adding a xeno to it - it will give out a headset decipher that will allow the marine to understand xeno.
And as research works, it will be available to replication.

Thing is, I'm sure it'd be better for everyone if the marines didn't have access to the hivemind 24/7.
On the other hand, yes, I may have gotten carried away.

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

I like the idea, not sure on implementation. As a xeno, I've noticed I can hear the radio if i'm standing over a dead marines corpse, or have swallowed a marine, because I'm near the headset. This could be like the inverse of that in a way.

[TeDGamer]

+1

However, with the new alien upgrades, it would be near impossible to get an incapacitated alien.

[Ithalan]

I've been incapacitated plenty of times as a xeno even with the new upgrade system. Thing is that unless another xeno can get me out of harms way immediately, death by marine beatdown immediately follows. Getting marines to stop executing incapacitated xenos is going to be the biggest challenge.

[Toroic]

+1

However, with the new alien upgrades, it would be near impossible to get an incapacitated alien.

You necro'd a 6 month old thread that wasn't a good idea to begin with to make an inane statement that is also false.

0/10.

[KingKire]

+1/+0 im okay to neutral about this. It kind of reminds me of the classic tapping into the enemy mind tropes such as starship troopers and independence day, so thats pretty cool. on the other hand, tapping into xeno comms seems a little over balanced on one hand( since the queen doesn't have a counterscan), silly on another hand ( alien slang anyone?).

[Snypehunter007]

This seems a littlllllille ridiculous.

Asking this to be locked.

[Snypehunter007]

We are currently rethinking research. This is going to be locked for now.