Change B18 Armour to M4X Armour

[Steelpoint]

Summary: This is more a aesthetic suggestion simply for the hell of it, but my proposal is to change the Specialists unique armour, the B18, into a pre-existing armour called the M4X Armour.



Lore wise the M4X is intended to be a replacement for the ageing M3 Pattern Armour, but it is still in experimental testing.

Benefits: The reasons I want to suggest this is twofold.

Firstly it would be a more lore friendly change, since this armour actually exists in the lore whereas the B18 does not, heck the actual entry for this armour states "While the M4X is superior in all aspects to the M3, the armor is still undergoing field testing with several Marine combat units before being issued to the entire US Colonial Marine Corps.".

The second reason is that the M4X would look more unique in game, and be easier to identify to both Marines and Aliens, considering that this armour in game already has many qualities the M4X has (acid proof, pounce proof, more resistant to attacks and has better facehugger protection).

Also makes more sense that this armour would offer better protection from facehuggers due to the visor.

Implementation: A new sprite would have to be created.

[Tetsip]

I really like the look of this. I'm sorry spriters that'll have to work, but I give this a +1.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Believe me when I say that I considered making the M4X armor originally. But the design of the armor, in my opinion along with those I asked, looks closer to a spacesuit than a military uniform.

We opted to design a new set of armor that fit the theme of the server. Additionally, the M4X armor set is said to be lighter than the M3 armor set. This does not make sense for balance purposes, because we intentionally created the B18 set to slow the user down. The M4X suit is airtight canonically, which would cause issues in keeping squad cohesion.

For these reasons, we created the B18 armor set. I'm sorry you do not appreciate the design I created for the B18 armor set, but I will be firm in saying that I do not see the purpose or need to switch to the M4X suit.

[Steelpoint]

Its not that I dislike the B18 sprite design, its just I've always had a thing with the M4X since I played AvP E a lot when I was younger.

Considering that the M4X is still being tested we could argue the version available to the spec's on this mission is a earlier generation of the M4X that is still bulkier for balance reasons. Also being airtight is not a huge problem considering we're operating on the planet.

Does the B18 cover the entire lower body? Including hands and all? That's also another suggestion I would put up if not otherwise.

Editl: I mean hell, we could literally just rename the B18 to M4X and claim this is a older version without the full face protection.

[Tetsip]

The B18 armor crate does not come with gloves or boots, if that's what you're getting at. I do however see the developer's points in why the suit would be a major balance issue.

[Steelpoint]

I was just thinking how a tactic for aliens is to aim lethally for the hands to disable a marine's ability to use two handed weapons. If the B18/M4X covered the arms and hands then that would be ineffective against this armour type to a extent.

[Steelpoint]

The only other alternative I can think of is to make this something issued to the Heavy Marine Infantry while keeping all the powerful abilties the M4X has.

If this was given to Spec's it would have to be explained how this is a earlier version of the M4X that is bulky and loses some of its future cousins abilities.

If its given to the HMI then it could keep these advantages.

E: Only problem with the HMI is that the armour would be very rare to see.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

The only other alternative I can think of is to make this something issued to the Heavy Marine Infantry while keeping all the powerful abilties the M4X has.

If this was given to Spec's it would have to be explained how this is a earlier version of the M4X that is bulky and loses some of its future cousins abilities.

If its given to the HMI then it could keep these advantages.

E: Only problem with the HMI is that the armour would be very rare to see.

While the Heavy Infantry are not in Alpha, we do have an armor set reserved for them based on the Weyland Yutani Commandos from Aliens 3.

[Steelpoint]

Ah the Apesuits. That seems actually fitting.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Another issue with the M4X armor is that the model used for it lacks any detail. It's not symmetrical, and there's only a single image of it available on the internet.

It does not appear to be a suit of heavy armor. The legs are almost completely unprotected except for some small black knee pads. Unlike the M3 armor, there are no shin-plates. The helmet is smaller and lighter than the standard infantry helmet. The chestplate has some lights, but is roughly the same size as the default vest. As I mentioned before, it looks closer to a custom spacesuit than a military uniform.


While I do like AvP Extinction, the designers strayed pretty far away in terms of designs. None of the USCM units really match with eachother, and (because of the scale) they used a lot of vibrant colors and extravagant designs to make it easy to distinguish between units.

There's not a lot of uniformity. The flamethrower units wear a large red mech-suit, the snipers wear blue shiny armor, the USCM fields synthetics in navy civilian jumpsuits into combat and the riflemen wear green. Since AVPE is a strategy game, the designers viewed it as nessecary to make the units look as colorful and crazy as possible. Otherwise, given the scale, it would be hard to tell the difference from afar. That being said, AvP Extinction breaches the lore a lot because of this.


I (and the rest of the dev team) thought about this pretty hard. And a decision was made not to use the M4X armor.

[Steelpoint]

Well at the very least thank you for the explanation.

[Steelpoint]

One last thing, but here's a frontal view of the armour in game.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Sorry. I hope you can understand my reasoning. The B19 armor makes the user almost impervious to damage (circa 90%), and that wouldn't make sense considering how little extra armor there is on the M4X.

I'd much rather work on getting custom icons for everything we don't already have icons for.

[Steelpoint]

One last suggestion then is to look at the possibility of making the B18 helmet a full face visor that degrades when damaged.

So when its pristine its a full face cover like in the above image, if its taken a facehugger hit the visor should show a crack. The second facehugger should crack the visor more. The last facehugger should fully break the visor to represent the helmet being ineffective anymore.

[TopHatPenguin]

One last suggestion then is to look at the possibility of making the B18 helmet a full face visor that degrades when damaged.

So when its pristine its a full face cover like in the above image, if its taken a facehugger hit the visor should show a crack. The second facehugger should crack the visor more. The last facehugger should fully break the visor to represent the helmet being ineffective anymore.

You could have it so instead of changing the normal helmets to have facial visors, you could have the specialist have facial visor instead?

Just an idea anyway.

[Steelpoint]

That's what I meant.

Normal Marines get the M10 Ballistic Helmet which has no visor, my suggestion is to give the B18 Helm a visor to not only help represent how much damage its sustained, since it can block three hugging attempts, but to also help distinguish it easier on the battlefield for attacking aliens.

[TopHatPenguin]

That's what I meant.

Normal Marines get the M10 Ballistic Helmet which has no visor, my suggestion is to give the B18 Helm a visor to not only help represent how much damage its sustained, since it can block three hugging attempts, but to also help distinguish it easier on the battlefield for attacking aliens.

Glad that is cleared up then, as you can tell i'm not exactly someone who remembers or knows names well also +1 for having the specialist get this.

[apophis775]

We are keeping with the B19, unless joshuu changes his mind. He's the one, who does all the spriting, and he's in charge of the overall "look" of colonial marines.