Weed hivesence

[Sarah_U.]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):
Grant the mechanic for xenos to receive a single warning message per 30 seconds or so (Perhaps more) about any object belonging to xenos (Resin, weed, membrane, etc) being damaged in an area.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):
Grants a new mechanic, makes xenos much more coordinated and perhaps much more aware of what happens in their hive(s) like the movies and games intend.
Makes xenos much much more dangerous by giving them the ability to spread rapidly and gain easy visibility on several areas.
Would perhaps force certain players to greatly increase their teamwork.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):
Marine A attacks a serie of weeds.
A validation pops up on weed death, checking a timestamp relevant to the last time such a thing happened occured.
The timestamp is validated based on a timestamp relevant to the current time and the last time, making a higher or equal equation to validate if it's okay.
It's okay? Well alright, now here comes the feature:
All xenos receive a message similar to this (Not necessarely this): "The hive suffer from a presence in [area], the area is being damaged."

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):
Look at details, and add a check if the player is xeno thus it can be avoided that a xeno trigger it constantly.

Code example (Pseudo-code, not valid, wrong language):
if (Area.TriggerTime - TimeNow() >= "Time desired")
{
if (player.IsXeno())
{
Broadcast("The hive suffer from a presence in " + triggerArea + ", the area is being damaged.");
}
}



PS: I obviously put so-so points in benefits, I know, it's just that the mechanic has been wandering in my brain for a while and I want to share it.
PS2: Please don't judge on code, it's just a very rough example I made up in a minute or so. I know it's really not valid, but it's made for the logic IF similar in any way to SS13 coding (Still hasn't entirely checked that).

[Polkjm]

So a warning message of hostiles being in a resinated area? With a long timer? Yes, +1.

Edit: Also, I feel like this could be meta-abused

Marine 2 wants to flank the aliens.

Marine 1 destroys resin in the barrens, the warning appears
Aliens rush to the barrens because they think the marines are attacking

Marine 2 destroys the back walls and flanks the hive without anyone noticing because the warning is on cooldown

[Sarah_U.]

It's based on damage not movement, I'll re-read myself just incase, but I think that's what I intended to say... Movement would be a pain since, well... It'd literally make xenos aware of everything and I personally think that mechanic would be imba considering drones would spread weeds all-over afterward to know everything instantly.

EDIT: Yea, I did mention it was based on things being damaged, but if you want to make a movement one, go ahead.

[TopHatPenguin]

This seems like a massive buff to aliens and just encouraging them to sit inside the caves and wait for the marines to damage a resin wall or door etc, this also seems like another crutch for them as well in the respect that if nobody is keeping watch of the other hive entrances then a team of flanking marines should be able to get the drop on them, not be outsmarted because the weeds are all knowing. Even if it's a long timer it's still an advanced warning, which imo shouldn't be there.

On the plus side however my dream would come true of everyone clearing weeds.

[Sarah_U.]

Oh god I just realised:
If there's close-up areas with weeds it'll spam like **...

Damn, still need to ponder on how to work this ouuut, hgnn...


AKA: Most likely denied for server-spam and stress, would be annoying af.

[Polkjm]

Oh god I just realised:
If there's close-up areas with weeds it'll spam like **...

Damn, still need to ponder on how to work this ouuut, hgnn...


AKA: Most likely denied for server-spam and stress, would be annoying af.

Well perhaps there's a timer for every area in the game so there's no spam but also you can't abuse a global timer like I said

[Sarah_U.]

Yea well, it's not a global timer. It's per areas.

I'd like ideas on how to improve it though, I kinda want to find a way to make it work properly.

[Polkjm]

Yea well, it's not a global timer. It's per areas.

Then it's fine. We get a lot of spam from queen laying eggs and drones building etc. Useful messages wouldn't be a problem

[Sarah_U.]

Thing is, imagine areas like Cargo and Engineering, where there's literally 8~ areas next to eachothers ... Idk, maybe the suggestion is still valid, but still a bit spammy if you gotta read 8 USEFUL messages.

[Polkjm]

Well, marines aren't gonna hit 8 weeds from different areas at once. Even in the worst case if it's a spam of 8 messages it's really fine, it tells the aliens there's a LOT of marines in there

[Joe4444]

...this would just discourage marines from destroying hive things even more than it already is.1-2 marines actually clear out resin and stuff.
-1.

[Butterrobber202]

I think its cool, just coool.

But maybe add timers per area that last for 5 minutes.

+1

Aliens are a hivemind, makes sense their hive would report to them

[Sailor Dave]

I think this is a really nice idea, but I'm hesitant to give xenos such a significant advantage at this time. Maybe something to consider for later, but I don't think this would come into play just yet, if it was approved.

[Sarah_U.]

The thing is, you can expect that idea to also backlash at Xenos at times. Runner XYZ will think "Oh my, this area is under attack" and most likely go there, getting killed by Marine ZYX that was with its group and sitting near the FOB.

It's not 100% fair I understand, but it's an idea like another and I kinda like the idea since I've heard and seen some parts of lore mentionning this/a similar ability that xenos have.
Otherwise, I could always joke about the blob in regular SS13 being able to see areas linked to the current node it starts from. Queen having that would be cool.

[Eenkogneeto]

I would be 100% for this, I cant count the number of times a single marine has run through the caves, shot open all the doors, and broken into the larva room he somehow knew was there and killed them all and not been punished because 'why wasnt someone watching the SSD larva?'

[Casany]

Maybe then drones won't weed the whole planet because of spam... maybe

+1, not a giant buff from my POV, so

[forwardslashN]

Maybe something to consider for later, but I'm not sure this is going to work out without giving it a lot of thought or pending other reworks. Xenos spam weeds everywhere, and they can be destroyed whoknowswhere, and then they won't receive a notice that actually affects for 30 seconds. Mechanically, this isn't hard to implement, but I think this is not something to really consider at the moment. Maybe in the future, where resin is reworked.