Distress beacon shuttles as a random event.

[Topwaza]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Make the distress beacon ERTs a potential random event around an hour or an hour and a half into the round.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): WY PMCs, Iron Bears, Dutch's Dozen, Freelance Mercs, and even pizza delivery throw another moving part into the game, and are ripe with plot potential and conflict that has a bit more to it than all out war, but usually only come into play in the chaotic final moments of a round squandering a lot of coding and spriting and gameplay mechanics. Making the ERTs random events gets ghosts who don't like to go xeno back in the game, and can go many different ways for the marines and the xenos depending on who shows up and how the players handle the situation.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): As it is, ERTs either show up towards the end of the round, with the xenomorphs boarding the Sualco and the distress signal sent out. And some rounds they never even show up.

There are so many roleplay elements that all this content already made for the server could add if ERTs showed up at the climax of the round instead of the end. The CL sending the WY PMCs on shady WY business, Dutch's Dozen hunting xenos to the potential chagrin of the USCM, the Iron Bear's raiding the Sulaco providing another antagonist, and freelance mercs being a total wildcard.

The specific objectives of the ERTs needs some reworking if they're going to come in halfway through the round, and a landing site for the ERT shuttle on the colony would go a long ways to allowing a wide variety of objectives.

WY PMC: Help the CL on some shady WY business. Its clandestine by nature so do it quietly and quickly without alerting the marines to the true nature of your mission, we don't want you to have to clean up marines. Remember, you're on the same side as the marines. Unless you need to quietly get rid of a liability to the company.

Dutch's Dozen: Hunt xenos. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Until the enemy of my enemy causes collateral damage or WY wants them removed because they weren't factored into their equations.

Freelance Mercs: Make a buck, loot the colony and if the USCM and WY don't like it try to strike up a contract. If they won't come to the table or you're feeling ballsy try some piracy against a military vessel, taking hostages, etc.

Iron Bears: This needs a rework, perhaps allow an iron bear logged onto the communications console to "hack" it? Then blow up the supermatter and GTFO? Or perhaps spawn a nuke disk on the colony and give the Iron Bears the code? If a USSR victory is round ending they should spawn less frequently, and if the final Iron Bear objective allows the round to continue just with a limping and embarrassed USCM then they can be more frequent.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): At what would be considered the "climax" of a round, which I would put as an hour or an hour and half in, roll the dice on a distress beacon responder. I'd put the numbers as follows but its up to admins.

Nothing(pizza?): 25%
WY PMC: 50%
Dutch's Dozen: 10%
Freelance Mercs: 10%
Iron Bears: 5% (perhaps higher if they're objectives are something other than nuking the sulaco)

[YungCuz]

This sounds nice. Spicing the round up is always neat. +1

[lucashunter608]

sometimes i choose to not play the round and wait for an ERT to show up, this would be amazing for players like me that wait the whole round just to play as a cool ERT, +1

[doodeeda]

This seems to favor the marines too much. Every ERT besides Iron Bears will probably target the xenos. You've also left out XRT. They're designed to come in when aliens are winning and marines could use a number boost, so letting them come in randomly would probably make things unfair. Also, players don't need another reason to not join in as a xeno. Too few xeno players means a boring game.

[lucashunter608]

This seems to favor the marines too much. Every ERT besides Iron Bears will probably target the xenos. You've also left out XRT. They're designed to come in when aliens are winning and marines could use a number boost, so letting them come in randomly would probably make things unfair. Also, players don't need another reason to not join in as a xeno. Too few xeno players means a boring game.

To be fair, most of the ERTs die without even having a chance against xenos, while xenos have their evolutions, we have our ERTs

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

I mean, if "Special mission objectives" were added, like antag objectives, I'd be okay with it.

[Topwaza]

This seems to favor the marines too much. Every ERT besides Iron Bears will probably target the xenos. You've also left out XRT. They're designed to come in when aliens are winning and marines could use a number boost, so letting them come in randomly would probably make things unfair. Also, players don't need another reason to not join in as a xeno. Too few xeno players means a boring game.

I left out the XRT because they should be a distress beacon only event, since they should only be in response to the Xeno's fucking up the Sulaco.

Interesting point on the balance, but by an hour and half into the game the arrival of 5-7 dudes won't affect the hive much, it isn't different from late joins mechanically. I'm thinking of this more as a way to provide different ways for the story of rounds to go than from a pure gameplay perspective. And everyone but dutch's dozen should be playing their objectives more than going pure xeno hunter. Maybe make dutch's dozen pred hunters and only spawn if there are preds?

What do people think? Too much in favor of the marines?

[Feweh]

Iron Bears should come randomly. Makes no sense sending them at the end when marines are about to lose.

Its just a waste and a slaughter.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Iron Bears should come randomly. Makes no sense sending them at the end when marines are about to lose.

Its just a waste and a slaughter.

My original desire for PMCs were as a round "antagonist" with unknown goals that could put them at odds with either side.

So some rounds their goal is to extract Xenomroph corpses, other rounds it's to capture one (while the marines try to exterminate), and other rounds they are asked to steal documents from the Sulaco.

[MrJJJ]

TBH iron bears have ridiclously low chance to really win, i have yet to even see one, no spare ammo for their guns, only 5-6 of them against hordes and hordes of both marines and xenomorphs, and MAYBE still the same ending (the marine major victory if they somehow win), for a antagonist PMC, they seem weak after 3 minutes of gunfire

[Snypehunter007]

+1 I do have to agree that the ERTs do seem to be little more than a few extra bodies for the marines at the end of the round when the aliens are either about to start wrecking the Sulaco or are doing so already. Sometimes the ERTs don't even get off of their shuttle because they are insta-stunned and killed by the aliens. I feel like having them become a more than just a few extra bodies to add to the marines side would switch up game play quite nicely.

[Snypehunter007]

Old topic, lack of continued interest.

Locking.