Suggestions for objectives to give to marines? (admin suggestions greatly welcome)

[Renomaki]

Whenever I go as commander, I always take my time to plan out my speech ahead of time save squad selection (because you have to be flexible, don't want to waste all that time writing that speech only to learn that alpha has no engineers). In every speech, I have a squad set up camp, another fix the power, a squad search a selection of buildings for survivors and assets and another squad to search the rest of the buildings for assets. Once all buildings have been searched, I normally intend to send the two patrolling squads across the river/underground to search for other survivors and other assets that might have been lost.

The only problem with this is the marine's speed... Marines tend to search through buildings pretty quickly, and since people get really grumpy when marines cross the river too soon, I tend to struggle to find logical things for them to do on the ground to kill time. That is why I made this post: In the hopes that some admins and experienced players might be able to suggest things I can put in my future speeches so that I can provide the marines something to do before I send them to scout across the river and of course discover the xeno nest.

What can I make the marines do down there that'll take 5 or 10 minutes to complete before sending the two patrolling squads across the river to trigger the nest discovery event and move the round along without going too fast?

[YungCuz]

I mean to be fair there isn't a whole lot to do on the maps unless the admins have something spicy planned to add in the map to spice the round so the idea of objectives might be a bit difficult to do considering the way everything is laid out.

[Renomaki]

I mean to be fair there isn't a whole lot to do on the maps unless the admins have something spicy planned to add in the map to spice the round so the idea of objectives might be a bit difficult to do considering the way everything is laid out.

Surely there has to be something we can figure out. It gets very awkward when I go forward with my plans and suddenly get bwonked for moving too fast.

If a member of staff could comment here and give advice on how to keep the marines on a leash without making them scream "SHITCOMMAND" for trying to keep them from metagaming.

[completelynewguy]

Assuming it's high pop... sweep the colony west and east. Then tell them to lock down the riverfront.

[Shyguychizzy]

Well I do suppose depending on the amount of marines you get say 20+ or perhaps say 15 for a low pop, I usually wing it with my speeches. Hope that everybody would settle down and not leave, yelling at MPS and pressing on the"Settle The Fuck down button". I do suppose, I make it you must delay briefing time or when low I do think it's ok to have a short time briefing on low pop, though that's my personal opinion (Any admin feel free to correct me on this). When there are quite a few marines and RO is cluttered, I start off with ten minutes, I let fifteen minutes go by sometimes. Then have five minute or more briefing, wait a good five minutes to settle transport then launch em down. I mean if the xenos openly hunted and captured marines out in the open, it be there fault. Putting weeds or fortification past the river I think would be a sin for them. Generally you would want the river bed be a no man's lands, making it a border no marine should cross either telling the SLs on command channel to relay em to marines or even announcing it. I'd wait till FOB is heavily fortified, which if engie be good a solid maybe fifteen minutes or however it takes. Though these are only ideas.

[Renomaki]

Really, the best thing I can come up with at the moment is asset recovery.

With all the junk that litters the map, it is nice for it to have some kind of value to the marines, and since we are not just collecting survivors, I suppose loading the dropship full of weyland assets is a nice way to pass the time.

[Desolane900]

This falls into a topic that grinds my fucking gears like nothing else, and I try to stay level headed because I'm in the minority when it comes to metarushing.

On this server nothing is clean cut dry. Everything has to be sloppy and confusing and borderline rage inducingly autistic, or else the round wouldn't be fun. In the movie Aliens the marines were in the xeno hive within 5 hours flat, and they had to search an entire goddamn colony, not just 9 domes you could peek your head in and know they're clear. On this server, if the marines played legitimately, they could, without meta, be in the xeno hive within 30 minutes of landing. But that's not fun. So on the topic of objectives, I can fully understand why it'd be difficult to find something legit and normal to give marines to do until they get steamrolled.

I'd suggest breaking into secure areas, finding clues as to what happened, or even scouting north after the colony is scouted. I never understood why crossing the river is taboo if every single inch south of it has been thoroughly documented and stomped over. But that's just my rant/2 cents.

[TopHatPenguin]

I'd suggest breaking into secure areas, finding clues as to what happened.

You can already find clues as to what happened on the engineering notice board and the science notice board, which are both full of notes. Albeit nobody ever takes a look at them or uses them.

I think more clues as to what happened would be quite a nice touch.

[hawkshot86]

I read someones article on this,though I forget whose and where, I'll try and find it to share it but personally it is my favorite approach to Commander. Basically it focuses more on recon early game rather than bases.
Basically try to remember two things when making your plan:
1) your mission is to find survivors
2) you have no idea the aliens are there.
So this guy had 1 squad fix power and then go on patrol, and the other 2 squads also patrol. 1 squad sat on the Sully in reserves in case either LZ needed reinforcing. No early game FoBs, etc. Personally I am a fan of forward bases and map control, so if I ever play Commander, which I probably will give it a shot here, my orders are probably going to be to patrol the map before setting up. That way you have the opportunity to actually save survivors, encounter the threat, and build your base where you need it rather than fortifying the two tiny LZs and surrendering 90% of the planet to the aliens for free roaming and hives. Traditionally military doesn't establish an FoB until it becomes clear that they need one.

The best performance I ever gave as a marine was as an SL with a commander who read the same article. When we found the aliens, we fortified the medbay/hydroponics/research/fitness area and began fortifying the river. I then (only surviving/active SL) had every engineer start building a series of fortifications. Marines would push across the river and secure a beach head, engineers would flood across and start building. Rinse and repeat until the aliens have literally bled themselves to death on the walls, begin bug hunt into caves for last 4 aliens. Bring sentry turrets to force them into a corner. Devastating marine victory. All the praise and love from both my squad and command (got recommendations for a promotion, a medal, and squad agreed completely/expressed their love).

All of this was possible because the commander DIDN'T have the FoBs built early game. All 4 turrets (+2 from RO) were on the front line, all the metal barricades and all the engineers were there too. Medics had an easy time evacuating soldiers cause the map was marine territory, not alien territory, and the bases made it so that marines had somewhere to hide when aliens tried to surge/landed a facehugger.

My character's (Ana "Sapper" Lolani) profile says cautious behavior, this is what I meant by it. Slow, defensive tactics. It doesn't have to be balls-to-the-wall Rambo tactics every round.



Found it! Go figure it was Apophis lol
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=4631

[YungCuz]

-snip-

So just curious how long ago was this?

[Renomaki]

So just curious how long ago was this?

A very long time ago, before aliens had the upgrade tree.

I don't know if such a tactic still works, but then again, anything can happen on CM.

[hawkshot86]

A very long time ago, before aliens had the upgrade tree.

I don't know if such a tactic still works, but then again, anything can happen on CM.

Nah I only started really playing a few weeks ago lol it was my first game as SL so I wanna say 2, 3 weeks ago maybe? Upgraded aliens were a thing.

[SPACEpotato1]

I read someones article on this,though I forget whose and where, I'll try and find it to share it but personally it is my favorite approach to Commander. Basically it focuses more on recon early game rather than bases.
Basically try to remember two things when making your plan:
1) your mission is to find survivors
2) you have no idea the aliens are there.
So this guy had 1 squad fix power and then go on patrol, and the other 2 squads also patrol. 1 squad sat on the Sully in reserves in case either LZ needed reinforcing. No early game FoBs, etc. Personally I am a fan of forward bases and map control, so if I ever play Commander, which I probably will give it a shot here, my orders are probably going to be to patrol the map before setting up. That way you have the opportunity to actually save survivors, encounter the threat, and build your base where you need it rather than fortifying the two tiny LZs and surrendering 90% of the planet to the aliens for free roaming and hives. Traditionally military doesn't establish an FoB until it becomes clear that they need one.

The best performance I ever gave as a marine was as an SL with a commander who read the same article. When we found the aliens, we fortified the medbay/hydroponics/research/fitness area and began fortifying the river. I then (only surviving/active SL) had every engineer start building a series of fortifications. Marines would push across the river and secure a beach head, engineers would flood across and start building. Rinse and repeat until the aliens have literally bled themselves to death on the walls, begin bug hunt into caves for last 4 aliens. Bring sentry turrets to force them into a corner. Devastating marine victory. All the praise and love from both my squad and command (got recommendations for a promotion, a medal, and squad agreed completely/expressed their love).

All of this was possible because the commander DIDN'T have the FoBs built early game. All 4 turrets (+2 from RO) were on the front line, all the metal barricades and all the engineers were there too. Medics had an easy time evacuating soldiers cause the map was marine territory, not alien territory, and the bases made it so that marines had somewhere to hide when aliens tried to surge/landed a facehugger.

My character's (Ana "Sapper" Lolani) profile says cautious behavior, this is what I meant by it. Slow, defensive tactics. It doesn't have to be balls-to-the-wall Rambo tactics every round.



Found it! Go figure it was Apophis lol
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=4631

I remember that round!

I played Holden Ward, the 'Greatest Bravo Standard in the world'

AKA the guy who was arrested by MP's not even a minute into the round, I was in requisitions.

But I made a comeback and murdered a ravager, then some dude exploded a mine while they were dragging a runner corpse. I laughed at them for being fucking stupid and not a minute later after dragging MY ravager corpse I stepped on a fucking mine, ended up dwelling on the Sulaco for a while...

[Warnipple]

Have the marines loot each dome for resources.

Loot medical dome for both vends.

Not sure what other stuff in the other domes there are but most importantly, don't let them cross the river.

[Renomaki]

Have the marines loot each dome for resources.

Loot medical dome for both vends.

Not sure what other stuff in the other domes there are but most importantly, don't let them cross the river.

Sounds like what I already been doing as commander, although I call it "recovering assets" rather than "Loot the place".

I feel it makes more sense to get more than just survivors, since there has to be a lot of expensive stuff that Weyland would want recovered. Sadly, there aren't a LOT of interesting items on the map that look like they are worth recovering minus what you find in Secure Storage.

The only problem is the no crossing river order.. I can think up a number of a handful of excuses why, but I can only do so much before it becomes too difficult to keep the marines on a leash due to aliens getting horribly aggressive.

[hawkshot86]

I remember that round!

I played Holden Ward, the 'Greatest Bravo Standard in the world'

AKA the guy who was arrested by MP's not even a minute into the round, I was in requisitions.

But I made a comeback and murdered a ravager, then some dude exploded a mine while they were dragging a runner corpse. I laughed at them for being fucking stupid and not a minute later after dragging MY ravager corpse I stepped on a fucking mine, ended up dwelling on the Sulaco for a while...

Haha I was the alpha SL. Someone put a dead face hugger on my face and I didn't notice for awhile because I was too busy shouting at everyone lol odds are if you were in that round I called you some variation of idiot.
And yeah, that fort was robust. 6 turrets, mines for the entire length of the map... I do not envy the xenos that round at all.

[SPACEpotato1]

Haha I was the alpha SL. Someone put a dead face hugger on my face and I didn't notice for awhile because I was too busy shouting at everyone lol odds are if you were in that round I called you some variation of idiot.
And yeah, that fort was robust. 6 turrets, mines for the entire length of the map... I do not envy the xenos that round at all.

Yep! You called me a moron, I saw that, actually

"You hear something about...moron"

I laughed so hard when I triggered the mine, legit.