Only Ravagers Are Capable Of Decapitations

[Steelpoint]

Summary: Make it that only the Ravager is capable of decapitating any Human.

Benefits: In the lore the only Alien who is not only outright made with the intent to kill hosts, but is also the only Alien lore wise that is capable of doing any form of reliable decapitations, is the Ravager (you can argue that the Queen may be capable, and some of the first person shooters are a bit more liberal with decaps). Decapitations serve not only to make it much easier to kill a Human, but to make it significantly more harder, if not impossible in certain circumstances, to clone or revive the victim at a later date.

Most Aliens, especially when they upgrade themselves, are capable of decapitating Humans on a regular basis, even sufficiently leveled Runners can decap a Marine in quick order.

The benefit of only having Ravagers be capable of outright decapitating a Human would firstly mean being caught by a higher level non-ravager won't be a near instant decapitation, secondly it may incentive Aliens to try and capture more Marines later on but finally it makes it a little harder to near permanently remove a Marine from the round.

[Derpislav]

Cloning is eventually getting axed so eeeeeh. But decaps make revives impossible too, and can result from as few as 2-3 hits. Sooo...
...Really dunno.

[Whistle]

Removing ones abillity to decap wont be an incentive to capture, there are times to kill and there are times to cap.

Do you know how often there are 10+ idle larva sitting around in the hive? When in reasonably they'd be scurrying around, growing into something big and scary?
Well it's alot.
Hence why as Queen It's almost always a good idea to kill alot of people with no hope of cloning so that you actually have a full team.

However if you were to say, only elites++ can decap, i'd still be ok with that.

That would essentially make a marker of combat readiness, young xeno should not be fighting.

[Toroic]

You already can't attack a dead marine, and since xeno melee isn't always accurate in where it lands decapping even aiming for the head isn't reliable.

Unless something changed you can surgically reattach a head to any body and still clone someone, so it isn't a death sentence. Also, it is absolutely correct that there are times there is no point in capturing any marines alive and xenos are making a tactical error if they continue to capture.

A big part of xeno combat in the movies is a headbite, which destroys the brain and makes decapitation unnecessary. Slashing the head takes longer and is less reliable.

There are many reasons marines aren't cloned, but usually it's a combination of apathy and losing territory.

[Steelpoint]

I don't know how it is for you Toroic but I've consistently witnessed Aliens easily decapitate Marines very quickly and with accuracy. Considering how long it takes to kill a Human you'll have a lot of time to decap a Human due to them being trapped in pain crit, and that a decap results in instant death.

Headbites are a factor, but in the movies they were generally done to either unaware prey OR against prey that had been subdued and unable to retreat or escape.

[Toroic]

I don't know how it is for you Toroic but I've consistently witnessed Aliens easily decapitate Marines very quickly and with accuracy. Considering how long it takes to kill a Human you'll have a lot of time to decap a Human due to them being trapped in pain crit, and that a decap results in instant death.

Headbites are a factor, but in the movies they were generally done to either unaware prey OR against prey that had been subdued and unable to retreat or escape.

Accuracy is related to caste and upgrade level, so it would make sense that elite runners and young ravagers would decap easily. Crushers have bad accuracy and I don't think I could decap consistently at young.

If a xeno doesn't want you cloned though, the easiest way to do it is to put you in the corpse pile in the hive, or just drag you somewhere marines don't go. Decaps make it harder in some ways but not all.

[forwardslashN]

Cloning is eventually getting axed so eeeeeh.

That. Aliens were made unable to touch dead bodies so they didn't decap them to prevent cloning; they can simply just eat them now, which will do a lot more to prevent cloning than decapping. Also, it's kind of a hassle doing something like this. Denied.