W-Y Research Detachment Brainstorming

[Nick123q23]

So, I've been playing some baystation recently, and they have a Government + Corporation mechanic with most of their ship being Solgov military, but the research division is made up entirely by Nanotrasen scientists and a pair of security guards, effectively making the entire ship a joint-operation between NT and Solgov with both independent factions working together for the good of the ship, or creating friction and conflict when the politics goes bad

With how under-represented the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is in CM, I was wondering if we could do something similar here. Turn the Almayer's Researchers into Wey-Yu Scientists, and expand research to include the Liaison, more scientists, a research director, and a guard, effectively making them their own department, to introduce this element to CM. It would make Weyland Yutani much more prominent ingame, and make ship-side roleplay far more interesting.


I want to see what people think about this, if it would be a good idea or not, and what could be changed to make this work.

[Zilenan91]

This would cause more shipside conflict and make that area more interesting. It would also make the Liaison an actual Liaison between the Almayer research department and W-Y Corporate Command.

[apophis775]

The only reason Weyland has a liasion, is because the Almayer is assigned to Tychons Rift, which is in/on the border of Weyland Space, so they frequently deal with Weyland.

[OatzAndHoes]

The only reason Weyland has a liasion, is because the Almayer is assigned to Tychons Rift, which is in/on the border of Weyland Space, so they frequently deal with Weyland.

Though lore-wise Wey-Yu supplies a lot of equipment and funding towards USCM missions. I get that they don't own the USCM or anything, but the main reason that the USCM is even protecting these fringe border colonies is because W-Y pays them to do it. I don't know if a guard would be necessary, but maybe making the researchers W-Y personnel could make for some interesting situations without causing too much of a change. I mean researchers generally work with the CL most of the time already.

[Sheodir]

Not only that, in the Wiki's lore Weyland also gave them the Almayer as some kind of mutual agreement. Weyland has no real power over the USCM, but it has de facto influence in the Higher Offices and probably a lot of favor here and there.

[MedicInDisquise]

I can see the research department being at least half W-Y, but I don't think W-Y would completely replace the research department.

Why not have Half and Half? A portion of the researchers are W-Y, the other portion are USCM and obviously they both have differing goals. That way there can be a bit of conflict but it won't completely replace the research team we have now.

[Mister Jeether]

Devs need to check how this would change the things Shipside and how it would affect the round.

As we know, W-Y and USCM interests do Conflict with each other, as USMC clears the Xenos, W-Y prefers to keep them alive and teach them tricks.
This is a good idea, but something that can create some REAL conflict shipside if things go south.

[Mark Wilson]

That's actually a really good idea. I would love to see something like this make it into the game, it would make shipside roll play much better. Overall it would make research a lot of fun to play.

[Gnorse]

Yes please.
You can even make it a secret as to which researchers are loyal to USCM and which are loyal to Wey-Yu, which would create a 'Traitor' Scenario if High Command and Wey-Yu order conflicting objectives.

[Steelpoint]

Setting the record straight.

The Almayer was constructed by the Marine Corp in 2171 with minimal to no Wey-Yu interference (outside of the fact WY provides a large chunk of funding to the USCM), however in 2178 (ten years prior to the events of the game, one year prior to the vents of Aliens) the ship underwent a large retrofit which mostly added new sensor equipment, however rising tensions between Wey-Yu and many outer colonies pressured a need to have a Wey-Yu representative onboard. As such the Liaison is onboard to assist the Marines in negotiating with outer colonies on matters involving the corporation, instead of having to get some guy on the horn half way across the known galaxy and wait a few weeks for a response.

On that note. I do think that re formatting the current Research department into a Weyland funded endeavor might be worth investigating. As it would help justify why the Almayer has a research section to begin with (why would a military ship have a research department fully staffed with researchers? No other ship has that outside of specalised ships OR if the need for in-field research is known in advance) However you have to ask, is there any content here to support this change?

Baystation has the entire SS13 RnD + more to support the NanoTrasen science department, we have literally nothing to do outside of Infection or """dissecting""" xenomorph corpses which comes down to the Researcher making stuff up that sounds cool.

Of course I'd love an excuse to see some PMC Security Guards added even though they'll just be doing nothing for two hours and likely inviting a administration headache.

[lcass123]

Setting the record straight.

The Almayer was constructed by the Marine Corp in 2171 with minimal to no Wey-Yu interference (outside of the fact WY provides a large chunk of funding to the USCM), however in 2178 (ten years prior to the events of the game, one year prior to the vents of Aliens) the ship underwent a large retrofit which mostly added new sensor equipment, however rising tensions between Wey-Yu and many outer colonies pressured a need to have a Wey-Yu representative onboard. As such the Liaison is onboard to assist the Marines in negotiating with outer colonies on matters involving the corporation, instead of having to get some guy on the horn half way across the known galaxy and wait a few weeks for a response.

On that note. I do think that re formatting the current Research department into a Weyland funded endeavor might be worth investigating. As it would help justify why the Almayer has a research section to begin with (why would a military ship have a research department fully staffed with researchers? No other ship has that outside of specalised ships OR if the need for in-field research is known in advance) However you have to ask, is there any content here to support this change?

Baystation has the entire SS13 RnD + more to support the NanoTrasen science department, we have literally nothing to do outside of Infection or """dissecting""" xenomorph corpses which comes down to the Researcher making stuff up that sounds cool.

Of course I'd love an excuse to see some PMC Security Guards added even though they'll just be doing nothing for two hours and likely inviting a administration headache.

Would also allow a valid IC justification for somewhat antagonistic actions via the CL.

[StephenNelson]

I've been playing CL recently and I would love this. I'd say that 4/5 CL rounds we don't get a response to our faxes, so this would give the CL a group to collaborate with. Most marines are outright hostile towards the CL so this is a major +1 from me.

[edda]

I also like this idea.

Also, W-Y research might dispatch a team like Bishop's, with a synth (or some researcher) and W-Y apesuit commandos, to give that Aliens feel to things. Naturally, much like their relation to Ripley, they would veer somewhere between neutral and hostile, and are definitely antag-like.



I don't like what a team of M41A/2s would do to balance, though, so while I like the idea of W-Y apesuit commandos, ehhh.

But what CM really wants are W-Y dogcatchers with some means of capturing xenos. Right now catching a xeno is letting a marine burst in containment. Something that can stun and restrain xenos consistently would be nice, with some appropriate balance mechanisms to ensure it can't be abused in actual fights. Availability only to W-Y dogcatchers would be a means. Making it melee would make the job reasonably high-skilled, and it would probably be lore-friendly, since dogcatchers literally use, well, poles with strings on them.

[Steelpoint]

If you really want some sort of PMC guards I'd consider making them akin to the dead PMCs on Big Red.

Spawn them with the uniform but a bulletproof vest and a white retextured M39 SMG or a M41A Mk2.

[apophis775]

The thing with adding something like this, is that it can shift the round focus from Marines Vs Aliens to "OMG LOOK AT RESEARCH". This results in Research getting frequently stormed by marines, or resources being sent to deal with the Xeno Pet instead of the Xeno Threat.

Research, for the near future, will probably remain a sort of "add-on" area with not much to do if there isn't an admin spawning bus items.

[Crab_Spider]

Baystation is HRP, trusts its mature playerbase with such a thing, and is slow paced and calm. I see nothing but shenanigans and metagaming, and circlejerking in this.

[Zilenan91]

The thing with adding something like this, is that it can shift the round focus from Marines Vs Aliens to "OMG LOOK AT RESEARCH". This results in Research getting frequently stormed by marines, or resources being sent to deal with the Xeno Pet instead of the Xeno Threat.

Research, for the near future, will probably remain a sort of "add-on" area with not much to do if there isn't an admin spawning bus items.

But is that a bad thing? It's always a spectacle for interesting things to go shipside, and it makes shipside roles directly more interesting. A problem I personally have with shipside roles is that once you find your routine to be as efficient as possible you're just kinda done and there's no more growth or really anything interesting of note going on up there for you. If an antagonistic-ish faction was strengthened on the Almayer it would give a large number of players who decided to spawn on the ship more fun.

[Jonesome]

Research, for the near future, will probably remain a sort of "add-on" area with not much to do if there isn't an admin spawning bus items.

So no means to bring back the Sulaco era research department? I always thought research’s primary purpose was to develop new toys for the marines, like armour, weapons, and neat gadgets (like exo-suits perhaps).

[Crab_Spider]

So no means to bring back the Sulaco era research department? I always thought research’s primary purpose was to develop new toys for the marines, like armour, weapons, and neat gadgets (like exo-suits perhaps).

Exo suits cannot be made without materials, you'd also need diamond to be most cost effective.

[Tidomann]

Exo suits cannot be made without materials, you'd also need diamond to be most cost effective.

Unfortunately even if recovering the exo computer from lv there is still access restriction in operating the interface. Currently no way to actually build them in game.

[Jonesome]

Exo suits cannot be made without materials, you'd also need diamond to be most cost effective.

Well I wasn’t thinking the exact same format as the other servers, but maybe an armored exoskeleton that’s the weaponized version of the power loader. Similar to: http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Exosuit

Something that’s balanced and lore-friendly. But I don’t mean to derail the topic, I was just thinking it would be nice to have R&D as another logistical arm of the USCM that could help out all the departments, especially medical.

I read somewhere that research was being reworked extensively behind the scenes, so I assumed it was going to be more than just a special event type thing.

[Winter]

I miss old RnD. I loved making fast machines like autolathe, helping with surgeries and cloning. I remember making healing and HE grenades, too.