Special People, or: Tips and Tricks for the USCM Specialist

[Monoo]

Alright so since these casual advice and discussion threads are taking off I figured I'd help out. (now up to someone else to do an engineering one and complete the unholy quadrangle)

First off, BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, read this guide, courtesy of Steelpoint. It gives you a solid rundown of every piece of tech you'll ever trash wield as a specialist.

Since I'm a smartgunner by trade, I'll be focusing on that in the OP. I'm counting on players who are good with the other equipment to fill in for those.


My hero <3

SMARTGUN TIPS

1. BACK UP. As a smartgunner you're the definition of a support role. The next asshat I see chasing a drone across the river with a smartgun and no backup is getting keelhauled underneath the Sulaco. You should be taking advantage of the fact that you can shoot through your friends CONSTANTLY. Relax behind a row of meatshields and fuck the xenos up, and then tell said meatshields to shield you as you load in another 50 rounds. The only time you're permitted to chase is if you heavily injure a target and you're SURE you can make the kill without getting harmed yourself. Even then, try to stay behind allies when you make the kill - likely they'll see it and want to finish it off, too.

2. Be mindful of attachments. By that I mean don't try to mod your smartgun to hell and back. There are only a few attachments that can fit on it in the first place, and almost all of them detract from the smartgun's best aspects like firing speed and accuracy. If you're feeling confident in your ability to land all of your shots, maybe.... MAYBE slap a barrel charger on there. But don't be that guy.

3. Do NOT grab that second power pack from the vendor at round start. I repeat, DO NOT. I see specs do this all the time, and it's wrong on all counts. Most importantly, taking a spare pack down to the planet at the beginning of a round (before encountering the xenomorphs) is considered metagaming and will get you into all kinds of admin-y trouble. But, on top of that it's a stupid fucking idea in the first place. You have no way to store that extra pack on your person, so in order to carry it around you have to drag it behind you. Dragging important items is one of the EASIEST ways to lose them. If you run in to trouble down there, you might as well be throwing 200 rounds down the drain, and you will DEFINITELY need them later on in the round. Make sure that second pack stays on the Sulaco.

4. GRAB A FLASHLIGHT. The M56 harness has no shoulder lamp, meaning you won't glow in the dark like your friends. While this might be okay for you, since you have the technology to see in the dark, your friends won't be able to see you at all - they could accidentally shoot you when they see that xeno run in front of you, or they won't be there to fight off that hunter that's dragging you away. If you slip a flashlight into your pocket, you're showing that you're aware of your teammates and your significance in the squad, and not only will it help you and your squaddies, but it will make them want to stick by you more.

5. Skilled smartgunners are the bane of T3 castes. Your high firerate will hurt hit-and-runners like ravagers before they can retreat and can chase off tanking crushers if you hit them at the right angle. Despite their toughness, most aliens tend to get VERY scared when they see such a constant stream of lead heading their way. Your ability to sit behind the melee and pour out a stream of bullets wears down and kills even the most fearsome and robust melee fighters. When faced with a foe buckling your front line, take notice of the amount of tiles away you are. As they move forward, you move back steadily. In the event that your bullets are being deflected by superior armor, try to move up or down the line to work that angled shot in.

6. By engaging in jolly co-operation with a fellow marine, you can bait sentinels, spitters, and praetorians out of hiding long enough to shoot them. Fire as they peek out from behind their resin walls. This will damage them as their spit is taken by the marine in front of you. Feel free to help up your marine pal afterwards, shoot down the resin walls together, and move forward steadily to repeat the same strategy deeper in the hive as the spitter falls back.

Any other smartgunners can feel free to add to these tips as well. If you disagree with anything I said... fight me.

[Nyvrem]

If you slap a barrel charger on your smartgun you're a waste of, well, everything.

[Bigchilly]

As long as you are always shooting behind another people and taking every advantage of not being able to FF, then you should be fine as smartgunner. Becareful of crushers though, and the queen, the smartgun has the same pen chance as a smg so taking them head on is a no no.

[Monoo]

If you slap a barrel charger on your smartgun you're a waste of, well, everything.

PUT EM UP... nah. I tend to agree here, I think barrel chargers on a smartgun are pretty shitty. But there are people who apparently make it work, so I'll leave it up there for people who want to experiment.

[Nyvrem]

PUT EM UP... nah. I tend to agree here, I think barrel chargers on a smartgun are pretty shitty. But there are people who apparently make it work, so I'll leave it up there for people who want to experiment.

The only thing it increases is ammo efficiency and unless you can counteract the loss of accuracy (with a smartgun, I don't think you can), it's a waste.

[lucashunter608]

I used the charger on a smartgun, its a big no no, but the smartgun will be more powerful, remember, smartguns aren't to be powerful, they need to be fast, as the smartgun itself is pretty powerful

[Tristan63]

If you slap a barrel charger on your smartgun you're a waste of, well, everything.

I put a suppressor and quickfire on my SADAR once.

[Warnipple]

B18 best armour.

I've been bringing it a lot lately seeing as Specialists can get 3 attachments from RO. You basically become a super marine. Sure its nice to have a smart gun, sadar, GL or sniper rifle but nothing beats the feeling of being a super space marine.

[Steelpoint]

B18 Armour is viable as I've witness Specs with it take a absolute beat down and emerge from a massive fight with only a few bleeding wounds and no fractures. The biggest drawback being that once you're helmet cracks you're in a very bad position. I would recommend the B18 once a way to repair the B18 helmet is introduced.

SADAR is a shadow of its former glory, but it is nonetheless still one of the most viable Spec weapons on offer. Your ability to fight T3 xenos and Queen's on a head to head, one on one, basis in the worst case scenario makes it a powerful and versatile weapon. So long as cargo is sending down regular ammo crates the SADAR is a very powerful weapon. T1s and T2s can be easy to dispatch as a HighEx rocket in their general direction will stun them, while the AT/Phos rounds are perfect for hardened T3 xenos on direct hits.

Sniper is a iffy weapon. In my experience I've found it rare for me to engage targets at long range due to the combination of the slow bullet travel time and that any Marine or object can suddenly get in the way. The Sniper seems best for punishing Aliens pushing out of cover in defensive situations, but even then its hard to get a good angle due to the friendly fire possibility. The Sniper is however a good weapon nonetheless since it can pierce Crushers and a direct hit will screw over any Alien.

Grenade Launcher is a great weapon. Sadly its utterly unviable due to the fact ammo is realistically impossible to get. If ammo is made easier to acquire for the Nade Launcher I see it becoming a popular weapon. Its ability to hit xenos around corners, and its projectiles being invisible and thus Aliens can't see it when its about to detonate, makes it a powerful weapon, sadly you'll likely use half your grenades to stun/kill a T3 xeno. May as well get the SADAR.

Smartgun is a bad choice in my opinion. Its a good weapon in its own right but it simply lacks the stopping power of the above weapons. I call the Smartgun a upgraded M41A and simply put you can have up to 20 to 50 Marines toting M41As. Yet only four of them have access to special weapons. Wasting a slot on a upgraded M41A is waste.

[Toroic]

Smartgun is hilariously bad against crushers. I mean, if they let you shoot them in the ass it will hurt them but in general they're just going to deflect everything and waste your ammo.

[Surrealistik]

B18 is great, especially when you're using a riot shield and combat drugs prepared by a certain afro haired fucker from MedSci.

[Tristan63]

B18 is great, especially when you're using a riot shield and combat drugs prepared by a certain afro haired fucker from MedSci.

IF you get B18 follow this
Gyro Battlerifle and charger it.
Red dot/Quickfire. If you quickfire it with the charger and gyro it will be inaccurate as fuck but will blow through your ammo like a smartgun
If you red-dot it it will fire slow but painful projectiles.
Add a riot sheild and your a fucking tank

[Rocco Ward]

IMO a smartgunner is GREAT when you have a few dedicated marines doing melee with a riot shield and a machete. I recall a round about a month ago where both me and another specialist picked smartguns and teamed up with a rambo outfitted with CQC weaponry. We had a medic tag along and sweeped the caves. It was a lethal combo and we got some good kills. We ran into trouble once our helmets broke and we started getting hugged, but until that point, we kicked ass!!!

I don't see why the hate on the smartgun + charger combo. It makes your hits more powerful, as opposed to the spray n' pray tactics. Most of the time xenos are in LoS very briefly anyways so the few shots you do fire, should do maximum amount of damage hopefully.

[Warnipple]

Some people may argue but I always get B18 as spec.

B18 is not to protect me from the enemy but to protect myself from friendly fire.

That being said, anything you get as a spec can make a big impact on the battlefield. Thats my preference.

I still think Sadar/B18 is top tier. The downsides to B18 is that the helmet can't be repaired and downside to Sadar is you need ammo from req and you can't use it on the Sulaco.

Sniper rifle is great too but once again the ammo issue.

The problem with the smartgun is the late game impact is not as great and little armour protection. Not to mention it suffers from the ammo problem too.

GL is straight up crap tier.

My tier list for spec weapons:

S Tier - B18, Sadar
A Tier - Sniper Rifle
B Tier - Smart Gun
C Tier - ??
D Tier - GL

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

B-18 has the potential to be an extremely strong tool, but again, helmet can't be repaired.

A personal loadout I use, and it tends to work, is first? Ditch your backpack. You aint taking that shit. Carry a shield on your back instead like a real man.
Second? Get a SMG and put it in your belt loop. Cram ammo into any spare crevises on your person.
Third? Supe that bitch up. I suggest an RDS, and a barrel charger. An SMG's damage output is kinda bad compared to everything else, so the charger fixes that. The RDS counters the accuracy loss, so you're good to go in that regard. Make sure to ask RO to order extended mags.
Fourth? Grab a machete. I've had an expierence, where I block a ravagers charge multiple times, because I used both the shield and machete, leaving the smartgunner behind me to fire freely as I went toe to toe with the sonuvabitch.

Congrats, you have a chance not to fuck up horribly as a b-18, just make your shots count.

[Yacobpo157]

As I always go B18, I take a mag har, charger, and a pulse stock.

I always lead the charge, and I'll explain why later, if the marines see one person taking large hits and returning the favor in equal if not greater amounts, they'll follow you anywhere.

Even if your B18 helmet is ruined, tough luck. But guess what? They're going to aim for your chest with that valuable little baby in you. So time to fuck 'em up. That C4 you got? Set one to the max time and leave it in your webbing should they get you. Your grenades? Fuck that T3 and everyone around it. Those T2's? Good thing you filled your belt with AP rounds. Your incendiary grenades? Light the way. Have another C4? Happy Birthday Queen! Anyone else standing during your mad rush of destruction in their hive? Yes? You don't deserve those stripes, Sergeant.

I even recorded myself doing this, and escaping. Sadly, the file was corrupted due to my laptop being ruined during a thunder storm.

But I'm sure you could imagine it.

[Mech__Warrior]

I'm not sure if it counts as a spec weapon, but I certainly love to use the flamethrower whenever I can get my hands on it. I wish it had more of a cone to it, but as for area denial, there is no other weapon probably more effective than it than perhaps the Smartgun. The bright flash lights up anything around the fire and burns away weeds, eggs, walls, anything with carbon in it really. You can catch yourself in the blast and get seriously burned, but the same can be applied for the aliens and as a side note, you can kind of bank your shots with it to get some aliens that are sitting behind a wall and force them to move. However, the amount of plasma tanks you need to carry is ridiculous, and if you don't frequently adjust how much fuel you use per shot, you will run out of fuel quickly. Be sure to only fire it once, as multiple clicks in a firefight (Ha) will burn up your fuel like you wouldn't believe and the tedious reloading process will leave you hanging.

It kind of works like this: More fuel = longer range, more damage. Less fuel = More sustainable during fights. You can also use different gases in your flame mix, but I personally have to fool around with adding more O2 or whatever to a tank to see what it does to the effectiveness. You can also hang on to the flamer with one hand and store it in your armor, freeing up the other hand to do other things.

TL:DR

Pros

Area of denial weapon, can do extreme damage.
Burns away weeds and eggs.
Can be held with one hand and stored in armor.
Creates a light source.
Slight banking around corners.

Cons

Run out of ammo quickly and need cooperation from engineering to get more.
Shots have a delay to them.
Probably has the slowest reload in the game.
Friendly fire is quite hazardous to people's health.

[Warnipple]

IIRC Bad things happen with you mix plasma and oxygen in the same tank. I mean thats how you made bombs in normal SS13!!

[Surrealistik]

Let's get Specialist weapon buffs where they're needed:

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7918

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7917

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7842

[Mech__Warrior]

IIRC Bad things happen with you mix plasma and oxygen in the same tank. I mean thats how you made bombs in normal SS13!!

Not in Baystation. You can mix the two together provided they are the same temperature, I'm pretty sure. Plasma is not going to immediately ignite in the presence of oxygen, otherwise leaving a open canister of plasma in the engine room would instantly cause a meltdown rather than an atmospherics lockdown. The only thing a surplus of oxygen would do would help make that fire burn hotter. I'm not entirely sure how fire damage works on this server, and I am tempted to find out with a volunteer monkey or two.

[Kreydis]

Snipers - DON'T FUCKING GO SNIPER DURING GREYTIDE

And if you use the fucking sniper, play it like a shotgun, a heavily piercing doom stick. Incendiary for t1-2, piercing for t3, flack if you've got nothing else / know you're going to be fighting mostly t1. Nothing is scarier then a point blank sniper flack shot, literally kills t1-2 if they don't murder you. (Shotgun point blank buckshot usually just stuns though)

Smartgun - best choice if you don't want to use a standard weapon during greytide, can't FF those fucking idiots. Carry a spare pistol to murder marines just in case. Also keep a grenade in your pocket for just in CASE you run out of ammo and can't afford to charge to knife the fucking stunned spitter. Also pick this if you're a greytide shit that can't aim or stop firing.

SADAR - Pair up with a smartgunner, you can stun the shit out of tons of aliens, and the smartgunner can finish them off, piece of cake. Also T3's beware a combination of a skilled SADAR + anyone with explosives, killed 3 xenos hiding behind a wall this way.

B18 - #1 recommendation, Friendly fire is going to be 99% of your fractures / wounds, couple variants / weapon loadouts, few people have talked about riot pulse, I'm going to talk about Tac.

If you get command to give up their Tac-shotgun, (or if you make a couple macros [auto reload macros are for babies] so pumping isn't a bitch) get a fucking magnetic harness. Buckshot is good for landing, but slowly loses value as the game progresses. I recommend loading with 1 buckshot to start, 2 slugs, 1 buckshot, 2 slugs. For standard t1-2 doomcannon. As the game goes on longer you'll likely want to go straight to slugs only. If you somehow get incendiary go 1 buckshot, 1 incendiary, 2 slugs, 1 buck, 1 slug.

that's my fav B18 loadout, plenty more to play around with. It's like a super shotty standard.

[Kerek]

B18 Armour is viable as I've witness Specs with it take a absolute beat down and emerge from a massive fight with only a few bleeding wounds and no fractures. The biggest drawback being that once you're helmet cracks you're in a very bad position. I would recommend the B18 once a way to repair the B18 helmet is introduced.

SADAR is a shadow of its former glory, but it is nonetheless still one of the most viable Spec weapons on offer. Your ability to fight T3 xenos and Queen's on a head to head, one on one, basis in the worst case scenario makes it a powerful and versatile weapon. So long as cargo is sending down regular ammo crates the SADAR is a very powerful weapon. T1s and T2s can be easy to dispatch as a HighEx rocket in their general direction will stun them, while the AT/Phos rounds are perfect for hardened T3 xenos on direct hits.

Sniper is a iffy weapon. In my experience I've found it rare for me to engage targets at long range due to the combination of the slow bullet travel time and that any Marine or object can suddenly get in the way. The Sniper seems best for punishing Aliens pushing out of cover in defensive situations, but even then its hard to get a good angle due to the friendly fire possibility. The Sniper is however a good weapon nonetheless since it can pierce Crushers and a direct hit will screw over any Alien.

Grenade Launcher is a great weapon. Sadly its utterly unviable due to the fact ammo is realistically impossible to get. If ammo is made easier to acquire for the Nade Launcher I see it becoming a popular weapon. Its ability to hit xenos around corners, and its projectiles being invisible and thus Aliens can't see it when its about to detonate, makes it a powerful weapon, sadly you'll likely use half your grenades to stun/kill a T3 xeno. May as well get the SADAR.

Smartgun is a bad choice in my opinion. Its a good weapon in its own right but it simply lacks the stopping power of the above weapons. I call the Smartgun a upgraded M41A and simply put you can have up to 20 to 50 Marines toting M41As. Yet only four of them have access to special weapons. Wasting a slot on a upgraded M41A is waste.

I got dragged off as a b18 spec by a rav and he was trying to cut my head off. he slashed me a good 5 ir 6 times and i too NO damage. Pretty powerful.

[Renomaki]

I always preferred the smartgun as my main spec weapon, since being able to fire away without risk of hurting friendlies makes it a great support weapon. Easy to use, easy to understand. Sure, it might not be as tough as it used to be, though.. But deep down, I still have hope for it.

And my love for the smartgun is made stronger after my time with a SADAR. Sure, it is a strong weapon that can kill aliens real easy if you got a clear shot, but other than that, it is a really high skill, complex weapon that, if you fuck up, could blow a marine to gibs. And since ammo for it is little, you have to make sure shots count, and also load up the right ammo for the job.. Or at least try to, since you can't swap out ammo types once loaded. I wish someone could share a few Sadar tips, because after my time with it, I admit it wasn't as much fun as people make it out to be.

I myself have yet to really use a sniper rifle yet, but like the SADAR, it looks to be another hardcore, high skill weapon that is hard to get kills with due to it's gimmick. From what I hear, it is really deadly, to both aliens and marine alike.. I'd like to try it one day, but only if allowed to.

The Grenade launcher is a weapon that I feel has a great deal of potential. Grenades in general can be really useful if you can get a good throw in, so being able to lob 2 or 3 at a time with ease sounds like a dandy time. If you could get science to make more ammo for you, than dandy dee, I bet I'd have a lot of fun with it. Easy to use and understand, just like with a smartgun.

I also never used the B18 armor yet. It seems like an iffy choice, what with the fact that you give up a weapon in return for somewhat stronger armor. Then again, you get a free flamethrower for a reason, so I suppose if you go B18, you pretty much dedicate yourself to being heavy "fire" support, burning down everything and being able to survive your very flames.. I think.

Whatever weapon I end up choosing, though, I never do it without asking my SL what he wants me to bring. I always find it rude when a spec just rushes for his gun without considering what his SL might want. Had I not asked my SL in a recent round, I woulda just stuck with a smartgun, but of course, you have to consider the other platoons and what their specs might be carrying too. I don't want another 3 smartgunner incident again..

[EXOTICISME]

Don't let everyone that say GL is shit and crap make you hesitate to use it. Every weapon has it's pros and cons and trust me even the GL has it's own pros.

Pros:
+Grenades explode faster when you use GL. Making it's easier for people who can't count the byond time for that split second grenade throw
+You can quickly fire 6 grenades and it's easy to reload
+The best way to use it is for area denial. ALWAYS use GL at narrow space since the alien won't have much place to run
+Death sentence for those slow big ass xeno

Cons:
-Ammo is hard to get, a crate of 50 point only give you two extra frag (The mine is good tho)
-You found yourself rarely use the incendiary grenade that comes up with it
-Doesn't work at open space since alien can waltz away easily
-Nearly impossible to kill runner caste with it unless with great timing
-Fuck those marines that run in front of you when you fire the GL

And the last question is, should you choose Grenade Launcher?
Nope. Take SADAR instead. Unless they are changing all the bandolier ammo to frag or make frag grenade crate ready for order.
You can use it for meme and be that guy that rekt the alien using Grenade Launcher and be known forever

[Casany]

I also never used the B18 armor yet. It seems like an iffy choice, what with the fact that you give up a weapon in return for somewhat stronger armor. Then again, you get a free flamethrower for a reason, so I suppose if you go B18, you pretty much dedicate yourself to being heavy "fire" support, burning down everything and being able to survive your very flames.. I think..

Let me give you some interesting info about B18. First off, it's not somewhat stronger. I have survived an elite ravaged, ancient hunter, mature runner, an elite queen and a drone slashing me for 7 minutes. If that's only somewhat strong then i don't know what "strong" means. And B18 is great for the guys who like melee. Get the riot shield and machete and you can kill anything save for maybe an ancient empress.