Queen branding ability

[Sarah_U.]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):
Allow for the queen to brand xenos with a special name.
Add a rule reguarding branding.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):
Will allow for further rallying and strategies.
Will improve the overall recognition of good xenomorphs.
Will promote OOC abilities and performance unconsciously (Or not).

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):
The queen is allowed a verb or ability that allows her to grant a name on a xenomorph that will either only show to xenomorphs or globally.
(You know why).

OPTIONAL: The ability can only be used on T3 and/or Ancients.

Add a rule that enforce serious naming and/or actually pass the name through an admin request (automated) to have a mod+ hit yes for it to apply. - Edited as per topic concerns.
Force the namechange to require the approval of an admin or mod before being allowed as a whole, to prevent griefing and limit actions required for reverting it.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):
Solution for growing-up namechange issues: Add a var where if true, it will copy the name and re-insert it upon the new lifeform.
Solution for limited name visibility: Add a secondary name variable that will be shown next to the xenomorph in such a format to xenomorphs => Ancient Hunter (###) - Queen's Guard.



PS: I'll let suggestions flourish, enjoy your brainstorming.

[YungCuz]

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll this could work...and theres been alot of suggestions for xeno customization so maybe this is the closest it will be?

[Sarah_U.]

Funny enough, I have thought of that ability actually being useful for xenos if it became a sort of 'tagging mechanic' for them to potentially brand and name marines for only them to see.

"Do not harm" "Dangerous" "Boomstick" "Anti-citizen one".

[Warnipple]

-1

Too much grief potential and everyone is going to bother the Queen for a nickname once they hit T3. Fixing a faulty nickname is not within a mod's powers.

[Sarah_U.]

-1

Too much grief potential and everyone is going to bother the Queen for a nickname once they hit T3. Fixing a faulty nickname is not within a mod's powers.

I understand that people may start bothering the queen, but if she suddently says "stop bothering me for nicknames" even once, then players harassing are OOCly harassing the queen and thus can be looked down upon by the entire hive.
Although I severely understand what you mean by mods not being able to revert it... So I'll actually change the suggestion to request admin permission automatically rather than do it. If a queen is spamming the ability it can just be accounted as either having a cooldown or being spam (bad).

[DeadLantern]

-1

As many staff and members have said before, the reason why we don't give names to xenos is for immersion. These xenos don't stop coming, and all of them look roughly the same. If we give them names, you assume that it is one enemy after another, making it easier to fight and morale goes high. However, if it's the same things, the same enemy constantly killing you. Then you have a problem.

This goes both ways. If xenos get a name, they can *maybe* feel scary. Or not.

If the name isn't visible to Muhreens, Neutral. If it isn't, -1.

[Sarah_U.]

Yea, suggestion to make it visible only to xenos (Much like the editor notes in WC3 and some other engines) was effectively to prevent that. I enjoy the idea of an endless tide of xenos (seemingly) swarming you, never giving you the ability to count if they're more or less. Only to approximate well or wrong their size by the strenght of their assaults.

Anyway, the idea was mostly to allow the queen for an example, to brand certain xenos as to be her field-leader and to have that xeno be much more noticable so that cohesion amongst the hive increase. Like the xeno in AvP1 that killed a yautja and gained a semblance of leadership toward the rest of his comrades. Although, that could possibly be achieved with current system.

[ParadoxalObserver]

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll this could work...and theres been alot of suggestions for xeno customization so maybe this is the closest it will be?

>Xeno customization
"I want my hivemind being that has no free will and is simply one in many to look different and snazy!" Xeno customization is utterly ridiculous and breaks the concept of the Xenomorph.

On the other hand, I do like the branding idea. Not because of customization but because it'll make it easier to identify Xenos that you might want to be easily identified. Like if you're setting up a hunting party, giving a name to its designated leader would make things far easier to organize.

[Warnipple]

I just want to say: I'm not against naming xenos. I don't think anything should be implemented for them to be named though. Also I'm pretty sure Apop said something about he was being against naming xenos too.

Maybe in the future, for one round, a badmin might have a game where he will name all the Xenos. It would be fun to observe the psychological effects of xenos players when they're named. Maybe they will play more cautiously and won't die as easily? Who knows.

[YungCuz]

>Xeno customization
"I want my hivemind being that has no free will and is simply one in many to look different and snazy!" Xeno customization is utterly ridiculous and breaks the concept of the Xenomorph.

On the other hand, I do like the branding idea. Not because of customization but because it'll make it easier to identify Xenos that you might want to be easily identified. Like if you're setting up a hunting party, giving a name to its designated leader would make things far easier to organize.

Well didn't intend something like that but still.

[Toroic]

>Xeno customization
"I want my hivemind being that has no free will and is simply one in many to look different and snazy!" Xeno customization is utterly ridiculous and breaks the concept of the Xenomorph.

On the other hand, I do like the branding idea. Not because of customization but because it'll make it easier to identify Xenos that you might want to be easily identified. Like if you're setting up a hunting party, giving a name to its designated leader would make things far easier to organize.

Xenomorphs aren't any less individuals than marines are, in the lore. They're psychic slaves of the queen, but they aren't robots she's controlling. In multiple forms of media xenomorphs have been given names for our benefit, but neither grid nor 6 were considered ordinary by other xenos.

Xenos perhaps don't name each other, maybe the "mindfeel" is enough, but it is likely that they'd be able to differentiate each other as well or better than marines can.

End result being that we could absolutely give xenos names, and like their language it would just be an approximation of what their hivemind would be communicating in a different way.

The only real reason to not give xenos names is so marines can't tell them apart. That said, I don't think the queen should be naming them.

Personally I'd just have xenos be able to set their name with naming guidelines similar to predators.

[ParadoxalObserver]

Xenomorphs aren't any less individuals than marines are, in the lore. They're psychic slaves of the queen, but they aren't robots she's controlling. In multiple forms of media xenomorphs have been given names for our benefit, but neither grid nor 6 were considered ordinary by other xenos.

Xenos perhaps don't name each other, maybe the "mindfeel" is enough, but it is likely that they'd be able to differentiate each other as well or better than marines can.

End result being that we could absolutely give xenos names, and like their language it would just be an approximation of what their hivemind would be communicating in a different way.

The only real reason to not give xenos names is so marines can't tell them apart. That said, I don't think the queen should be naming them.

Personally I'd just have xenos be able to set their name with naming guidelines similar to predators.

'Xenomorphs aren't any less individuals than marines are, in the lore.' In SS13 CM they get numbers and have tasks based on a caste. In actual Aliens lore they're presented as ant-like beings that only really gain individual "instincts" when separated from the hive.

They look like the same, they have strong instincts that lead them to act in a certain manner depending on caste, they're mind slaves, and the most preference they tend to get is how to most effectively perform their job. They honestly just sound like slightly more individualist ants. I don't really think you can claim them to be any less individuals than marines when their entire point is to live for the hive, not themselves. :P

EDIT: And biologically, they used to need jelly on CM so they couldn't evolve without Queen support and now they need a Queen at all times to evolve. I'd say that's a lot less individualism than Marines!

[Toroic]

'Xenomorphs aren't any less individuals than marines are, in the lore.' In SS13 CM they get numbers and have tasks based on a caste. In actual Aliens lore they're presented as ant-like beings that only really gain individual "instincts" when separated from the hive.

They look like the same, they have strong instincts that lead them to act in a certain manner depending on caste, they're mind slaves, and the most preference they tend to get is how to most effectively perform their job. They honestly just sound like slightly more individualist ants. I don't really think you can claim them to be any less individuals than marines when their entire point is to live for the hive, not themselves. :P

EDIT: And biologically, they used to need jelly on CM so they couldn't evolve without Queen support and now they need a Queen at all times to evolve. I'd say that's a lot less individualism than Marines!

CM has changed a lot of the life cycle because the most "canon" lifecycle would not translate well to a multiplayer game. Of course, there are also multiple ways that a praetorian is made by different licensed media.

6 for example evolves from a drone to a prae to. Queen. Grid was similarly exceptional without being separated from the hive the same way.

The reality is that CM could go either way. We've made up entire castes. I ultimately think that xenos having names is ultimately better for the player base, for similar reasons that it would be worse if every marine was given a rank and a number.

[N8-Toe]

+1

Sometimes as Queen I like to appoint some Aliens as "Officers" to lead charges, lead defenses or so on. an ability to mark them in char would be awesome

[Jeser]

Maybe in the future, for one round, a badmin might have a game where he will name all the Xenos. It would be fun to observe the psychological effects of xenos players when they're named. Maybe they will play more cautiously and won't die as easily? Who knows.

Welp. It doesn't help marines to play more cautiously and not diying stupid and awful death all the time. So...

[Moonloon]

This allows for some limited ayylmao individuality, as well as allowing the queen to designate prominant ones and reward particularly robust ones with a name.

If you're worried about griefing, it's hilariously easy to spot and adminhelp a grief-name, and it allows the admins to ban griefer-queenas before they do any more damaging acts. Fixing this is as easy as varediting, though I'm not sure if mods have access to it.

Regardless, if there's no mods on, an alien can just live with being called "Ancient Hunter (420) - Lolwtfgay" for one round and make a player complaint later, assuming name branding gets logged.

If naming would require staff approval, this isn't even an issue, so long as it's not too intrusive to mods and mins.

+1

[Sarah_U.]

The ability to 'mark' them would be nice if anything. Adding a sort of way to have them noted as a more remarked and/or important member of the hive that can properly handle his task and should be looked upon for serving better its fellow hive-members. (Think of a senior teaching its ways to people with less talent so that they can measure themselves to his skills and rank and serve better)... You know where I'm going. The idea as a whole has the "Only let xenos see it" for the simple purpose I don't want marines metagaming it.

Furthermore, if it needs only to be a symbol next to the name or anything so be it. Just disallow marines from see'ing it and grant this ability so that xenos can get a whole lot more cohesion beyond the "The crusher is the best caste so lets listen to him and him only or fuck off and die in the FOB because we don't do zeh listening." Stuff like that.

[Snypehunter007]

This was denied in the other xeno naming suggestions.

Asking this to be locked.

[Halinder]

Okay, but why not just have a pool of names that the queen/the xenos themselves can choose from? Labels like "pack leader" or "hive builder" would be nice, and as the feature is implemented, people can suggest more names to be added to the pool based on what they think is necessary.

[Snypehunter007]

It was already denied in another topic, the same idea that you are suggesting that is.

[Swagile]

Why exactly was it denied however?

Id think that if you survived long enough and listened to your queens orders, being rewarded with a name to distinguish yourself from the horde would be a non-gamebreaking way to reward good xeno players. Its like how if your consistently a good marine player, your name will be remembered and people will listen to you a lot more.

The same deal is going on here and will allow the acknowledgement of the more robust xeno players; people will also listen to the advice of Hive Leader (423) than a random Young Runner (444). That is honestly one of the worst parts of being a xeno player; you don't feel like you are being rewarded for being a team player and/or leader because your just another number in the hive.

Its one of the reasons I like to play marine tbh, because people acknowledge your hard work when you do a good job since you have a unique name. They are also much more likely to listen to a order, especially if your a SL, if they know that you know your shit.

[Jeser]

Yeah, this is one of things, why many players prefer to play as marines. As marine, you can keep your reputation by having the same name and it's goes between rounds. Having a way to keep reputation for aliens at least within one round would be benefecial and encouraging for xenos to play.

[Snypehunter007]

This has been DENIED due to the fact that Xenos are a faceless swarm that will either snatched you in the middle of the night or overwhelm you with their numbers.

[forwardslashN]

Likely won't happen, though nothing is impossible. I have changed my mind about xeno uniqueness in the last couple of months as well. This is denied for right now.