A Standard's Guide to Loadout Management.

[monkeysfist101]

Before I begin, this guide is written from the perspective of a marine dropping in to assess the situation of a research station/prison in a world where the largest threat the marines know of is other humans. I will not be including things like, "Take three knives and four pistols for when you're cocooned." These are simply suggestions based on my experience and not a sure-fire loadout.

Suit:
Wear your BDU. Don't be the scrub that forgets to get dressed and drops in in his BVDs. As far as clip-ons go, you're a standard; leave the webbing for the engineers.

Feet:
A good number of players don't know that you can slip your combat knife into your boots.

Back:
First thing's first, the backpack isn't needed unless you're carrying things for the squad. I'm sure that a good number of players disagree with this, but in my experience, the back slot is best used for storing your primary when not in use.

Belt:
I find that bringing 2 magazines for your secondary and 3 for your primary is plenty. Few people will have more than three reloads in a round and those that do will find plenty of ammo laying around.
Two flares.

Armor:
Two more flares.
Put your sidearm into the suit storage so you don't have to worry about opening a bag is/when you need to draw it.

Pockets:
Flashlight in one, whatever you want in the other. I use the other to hold the cigarette pack for my characters who smoke.

Head:
While wearing your helmet is the obvious choice, I prefer to use the other headgear options so that I can immediately find my character on the screen among the sea of Ctrl-V's.


As far as primaries go, the M41 is the superior choice over the shotgun. The shotgun is best used as a tertiary weapon for close work. If you choose to bring he shotgun, make sure you have something for medium to long range as well.

Secondaries are left up to the user. Each has its pros and cons of power vs ammunition economy.

[Desolane900]

I feel like part of this was aimed at me with the whole "Take three knives and four pistols for when you're cocooned." thing.

[Wickedtemp]

Go all pistols. All pistols, all day. When you're nested you can be a REAL pain in the ass because you can do quite a bit of damage, one pistol mag can kill 2 tier 1/2 xenos.

[monkeysfist101]

I feel like part of this was aimed at me with the whole "Take three knives and four pistols for when you're cocooned." thing.

It wasn't aimed at anyone. Realistically, nobody would bring that many knives and sidearms into a fight.

[Peachy2912]

I normally fill up my belt with primary ammo as well as one of my pockets (9 mags in total), most of the time I don't use all of this but it does allow me to provide suppressing fire as well as to clear resin in hives by shooting it and then still be left with more than enough ammo for anything else that is needed.

[Egorkor]

Dual magnums and Colts ftw. Also a belt fulla 10mm mags.

[Desolane900]

It wasn't aimed at anyone. Realistically, nobody would bring that many knives and sidearms into a fight.

Pff. Casuals don't. I always have two knives and a bayonet on me.

[monkeysfist101]

Pff. Casuals don't. I always have two knives and a bayonet on me.

"Powergaming (or power gaming) is a style of interacting with games or game-like systems, particularly video games, boardgames, and role-playing games, with the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations such as storytelling, atmosphere and camaraderie."

[Desolane900]

"Powergaming (or power gaming) is a style of interacting with games or game-like systems, particularly video games, boardgames, and role-playing games, with the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations such as storytelling, atmosphere and camaraderie."

Well considering I play as an E-3 (Lance Corporal) three years of experience would say "Hey. Pack extra shit. You might need it."

[Edgelord]

You know, I never thought to ditch the backpack as standard, but now I do that and I enjoy it a lot more.

[Wickedtemp]

I don't really play as standard marines anymore. Too repetitive. Now I normally go MP. There's a lot more RPing that goes on as an MP from my experience, and one round me and the other MPs played a card game, which was the highlight of the round because it was a game called Mao. In Mao, the game master makes up the rules and doesn't tell anyone. The other players have to figure out the rules on their own. It's a fun game.

Anyways, as for loadouts, when the shuttle is boarded I normally grab a rifle and put it in suit storage, then another rifle in my hands, marine belt with mags, backpack full of sidearms. Or dual SMG's because with one handed weapons if you get a hand broken, you're still in the fight.

[monkeysfist101]

I don't really play as standard marines anymore. Too repetitive. Now I normally go MP. There's a lot more RPing that goes on as an MP from my experience, and one round me and the other MPs played a card game, which was the highlight of the round because it was a game called Mao. In Mao, the game master makes up the rules and doesn't tell anyone. The other players have to figure out the rules on their own. It's a fun game.

That's both interesting and in no way relevant to the post.

Anyways, as for loadouts, when the shuttle is boarded I normally grab a rifle and put it in suit storage, then another rifle in my hands, marine belt with mags, backpack full of sidearms. Or dual SMG's because with one handed weapons if you get a hand broken, you're still in the fight.

This guide was created to encourage people to not go with the backpack full of sidearms.

[Wickedtemp]

That's both interesting and in no way relevant to the post.
This guide was created to encourage people to not go with the backpack full of sidearms.

So it's... less of an honest guide then because you're trying to convince people not to pack extra weaponry instead of listing the pros and cons of doing so.

Filling your backpack with extra sidearms is useful for when you're nested, if you get tackled and you lose one, you've got another. You do NOT want to get caught without a weapon. So bring spares.

However, this leaves less space for things like flares, which are quite useful. Also, grenades if RO ordered them. Or you can take a tricord injector and a Tramadol pill. You don't need to be a medic to know that the injector might heal you and that painkillers kill pain.

[Edgelord]

I don't really play as standard marines anymore. Too repetitive. Now I normally go MP. There's a lot more RPing that goes on as an MP from my experience, and one round me and the other MPs played a card game, which was the highlight of the round because it was a game called Mao. In Mao, the game master makes up the rules and doesn't tell anyone. The other players have to figure out the rules on their own. It's a fun game.

Anyways, as for loadouts, when the shuttle is boarded I normally grab a rifle and put it in suit storage, then another rifle in my hands, marine belt with mags, backpack full of sidearms. Or dual SMG's because with one handed weapons if you get a hand broken, you're still in the fight.

Two rifles and a backpack full of sidearms? That's absurd. I don't think it's technically powergaming, but what kind of soldier would have that many goddamn sidearms?

[monkeysfist101]

So it's... less of an honest guide then because you're trying to convince people not to pack extra weaponry instead of listing the pros and cons of doing so.

Filling your backpack with extra sidearms is useful for when you're nested, if you get tackled and you lose one, you've got another. You do NOT want to get caught without a weapon. So bring spares.

Before I begin, this guide is written from the perspective of a marine dropping in to assess the situation of a research station/prison in a world where the largest threat the marines know of is other humans. I will not be including things like, "Take three knives and four pistols for when you're cocooned."

This guide is for packing a realistic loadout for the upcoming RP changes. This is a completely honest guide. I don't know of a single real world soldier who carried three sidearms with the exception of maybe Patton.

[Wickedtemp]

This guide is for packing a realistic loadout for the upcoming RP changes. This is a completely honest guide. I don't know of a single real world soldier who carried three sidearms with the exception of maybe Patton.

Yeah, except these aren't real-world soldiers, they're space marines fighting space aliens with more weapons than they can carry.

Two rifles and a backpack full of sidearms? That's absurd. I don't think it's technically powergaming, but what kind of soldier would have that many goddamn sidearms?

I'm talking about when the Sulaco is being boarded by the Xenos, the job is to defend, and if you lose your weapon you can't do that. If you get knocked down, your first priority is to get back up and get AWAY from any xenos close-by, temporary retreat, grabbing your weapon if you're able. If you can't, you better have a back-up. Plus I don't fill the ENTIRE backpack with sidearms. I'll have the armored police suit there as well, normally a flare or an extra flashlight, a couple service pistols and a magnum and a first aid kit if the Docs say they can spare it. I don't believe knowing first aid as an MP is powergaming, since... first-aid is something most marines SHOULD know. At that point in the game it isn't wasting supplies, the marines are already geared up and there's still plenty of weaponry in the prep vendors.

[monkeysfist101]

I believe that packing multiple knives and a bag of sidearms for when you're cocooned falls squarely under metagaming. Tell me when you believe that someone would need more than one identical firearm in a combat situation? In addition to that, well me why someone would bring more than one knife?

[Arachnidnexus]

Well if the gun strap makes its way in we might get more cases of a marine actually just carrying one primary firearm and one backup.

[Wickedtemp]

I believe that packing multiple knives and a bag of sidearms for when you're cocooned falls squarely under metagaming. Tell me when you believe that someone would need more than one identical firearm in a combat situation? In addition to that, well me why someone would bring more than one knife?

Not when you're defending the Sulaco from boarding xenos, which is what I do as MP.

[Stivan34]

I believe that packing multiple knives and a bag of sidearms for when you're cocooned falls squarely under metagaming. Tell me when you believe that someone would need more than one identical firearm in a combat situation? In addition to that, well me why someone would bring more than one knife?

In case someone snatches your gun...

[monkeysfist101]

In case someone snatches your gun...

You're still thinking of it as a game. Think about it, have you ever see someone in real life/movie/game say something along the lines of, "I'd better bring two assault rifles in case I drop it and somebody grabs it and runs off."

[Stivan34]

You're still thinking of it as a game. Think about it, have you ever see someone in real life/movie/game say something along the lines of, "I'd better bring two assault rifles in case I drop it and somebody grabs it and runs off."

Talking about bringing pistols or magnums in case someone takes your gun, I seen that happen.

[monkeysfist101]

You're still thinking of it as a game. Think about it, have you ever see someone in real life/movie/game say something along the lines of, "I'd better bring two assault rifles in case I drop it and somebody grabs it and runs off."

Talking about bringing pistols or magnums in case someone takes your gun, I seen that happen.[/quote]
Taking one rifle and one magnum, shotgun, or pistol is rational. Taking two rifles, a magnum, and three pistols is not. Generally speaking, grunts do not carry sidearms at all. Sidearms are usually only given to certain roles such as support gunners, officers, tankers, etc...