Metagame discussion

[Toroic]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to discuss how strategies/the metagame has been developing over the past few months.

One thing I've noticed is that marines seem to be aggressively patrolling outside the FOB more, as well as some high-quality assaults on the hive.

The other thing I've noticed is that when I first started playing, xenos tended to use tunnels only some of the time, and marines didn't seem to put much effort into finding and destroying them. As a result I got away with a lot of tunnels very close to the front line.

Last night and earlier this week, Marines seem to be tired of constantly having runners and carriers being able to use their huggers, disappear, and reappear a minute later with fresh ones.

What have the rest of you seen?

[Peachy2912]

I've seen the quality of hive defenses increasing gradually as well as the security of the nests. It's a common sight now to find checker board nests and sticky resin all over hives, which makes them a nightmare to assault or escape from, which is generally what you want from a hive if you're a Xeno.

[SkyeAuroline]

I'd say the quality of nests has dropped, actually; checkerboard nests are a low-effort solution to xenos not wanting to protect a nest themselves.

On the marine side, it's always fun to see the FOBs on Daedalus, since no one has figured out how to do them yet.

[Toroic]

I'd say the quality of nests has dropped, actually; checkerboard nests are a low-effort solution to xenos not wanting to protect a nest themselves.

On the marine side, it's always fun to see the FOBs on Daedalus, since no one has figured out how to do them yet.

I don't think you can say greater use of checkerboard nests is lower quality, when every other nest design is inferior.

When it comes to nest design,

1) You cannot store marines together ("recently unbuckled" hosts are significantly more difficult to deal with)

2) You want to maximize your response time once a marine breaks free.

I find that shallow (2-3 row) checkerboard nests are the best option. If you make them too deep, you end up taking forever to reach escaping hosts. If you can reach them within a few seconds, they often can't even get their knife out and the door down.

There isn't a nest option that allows xenos not to watch nests. Even if a knife didn't rapidly cut through walls and doors, they still could suicide.

[Arachnidnexus]

Gotta say the SADAR has become quite popular on the planet as well. There have been a few rounds with 3 or 4 rocketeers on Lazarus. Prison feels like it doesn't have a defined metagame quite yet because nobody knows what exact chokepoints to hold unlike how the Nexus has four very obvious entrances.

[Wickedtemp]

Every now and again the marines push towards the hive very quickly, normally because "Lel follow xeno there!" or "survivor told us!"

Also while it isn't really meta but instead a shitty thing to do: Hangar Fortresses. Two layers of grilles around the shuttle with a layer of tables and metal barricades around those.

As for the alien side... I don't know, I haven't played xeno in a while, mainly because I got tired of being outnumbered 6 to 1. Apparently now, since marines have their xeno prefs off, Xeno's always end up with like 10 SSD larvae... Kinda sucks to have additional numbers robbed like that.

[Toroic]

Every now and again the marines push towards the hive very quickly, normally because "Lel follow xeno there!" or "survivor told us!"

Also while it isn't really meta but instead a shitty thing to do: Hangar Fortresses. Two layers of grilles around the shuttle with a layer of tables and metal barricades around those.

As for the alien side... I don't know, I haven't played xeno in a while, mainly because I got tired of being outnumbered 6 to 1. Apparently now, since marines have their xeno prefs off, Xeno's always end up with like 10 SSD larvae... Kinda sucks to have additional numbers robbed like that.

The larva aren't a big deal, it replaced hosts just not popping, which then led to hosts dying without popping.

Hanger defenses have gotten a little ridiculous imo because the ship lands in a ring of electrified grills, and often the droppod doesn't exist as an alternative route up.

I agree that there doesn't appear to be a strong defensive location on the prison map, places like medbay are open, have vents, and can get overrun.

[Sadokist]

the way I meta game is, oops i mean *cough* ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)