Residential Asteroid Field & Mining

[FantasticFwoosh]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): This adds depth to the sulaco z level, rocky asteroid deposits are present on the north side of the sulaco where certain minerals can be found for use in cargo (and other) in order to flesh out the cargo tech responsibilities and give aliens somewhere alternative to retreat/hide, marines are also given 1 team's worth of space worthy armoured hardsuits kept in the armoury/a secure depository to use should a infestation happen outside the ship.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Offers a new angle for xenomorphs to hide, and assault the exterior of the ship with acid (making the experimental hull shield more important in research for blocking off this acid/physical attacks if its not already invincible) and a unprecedented access to having to operate guns in space with reasonable nerfs to both sides (aliens can plant weeds but no eggs/hosts due to deadly pressure, wheras marines are tied down by hardsuits and air/physics)

Miners add new depth to cargo's responsiblities besides hauling crates, and the mechs left lying around may see some use, finally aliens being blasted out of breaches will not be a end-all requiring admin intervention.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): bypassing the obvious issues of atmospherics which are VERY temperamental as of this post, mining would be a sub-responsiblity of cargo techs, but not a central point, there are no monsters out there like other SS13 servers, and the minerals do not reclaim particular rewards but do overall help the entire crew. Powerloaders are a safe way to mine, and because of the nature of space and asteroids, cargo techs (or maintenance techs) will have to lay down safe pathways to walk between the stationary floating rocks.

Aliens could base weeds and resin on what space they can get (already hollow/cracked asteroids or cleared out flat ones by miners) but huggers instantly die and pop in the atmosphere and it is unsuitable for hosts. Powerloader code (because they are renamed ripley's) already accommodates full mining functions via use of a hydraulic clamp, (for pulling the box into the interior to collect sand/minerals as you dig) and drill fittings.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Add some rocks to the exterior of the Sulaco map, repupose one of the large maintenance rooms into a militarised (with shutters naturally) hardsuit room and add a small secure sub-section to cargo where miners can come and go out of a airlock without disturbing all of cargo to walk outside pickaxe/mech controls in hand.

[McRipfist]

Nice idea. I hope it gets some attention.

[Joe4444]

+1 other than the xeno hive bit...xenos in spess don't count as alive freindo.

edit:meant to put +1

[FantasticFwoosh]

-1 other than the xeno hive bit...xenos in spess don't count as alive freindo.

Xenomorphs can survive in space initially (literally game mechanic wise and in lore, though that's a little bit more ambiguous as most iterations of xenomorphs in space often show them being deliberately burnt up in engines etc), but huggers for purely mechanical reasons of ripping off helmets shouldn't be able to survive in space, also credited to weaker body structure.

Aliens having a little prefab out on the asteroid is not totally unreasonable, and this group of marines with specialist space worthy suits to chase them woundn't have many problems. If aliens float away, then they might just go to a empty space space map, and float right on back again to the sulaco (the same way they came as to avoid deliberate strategical space jettisons)

Sulaco junk would be mass drivered into one of these naturally hollow asteroids via the disposals room giving a additional lore reason to why its there and another reason why the marines are out in a asteroid field (its useful for localised munition materials in ores and a place to offload space junk like empty magazines)

[Jroinc1]

-1
Aliens having a prefab in space is TOTALLY unreasonable.
I play mainly alien, doc, and MT/CE, so I know what I'm talking about here.
So, we'll assume your suggestion gets passed. Many players on this server have severe issues dealing with anything not directly related to killing xenos.
Among these things are suiting up for a space mission, maneuvering in space to find a hive, firing weapons with RECOIL in space/landing on the SMALL SPACE PLATFORM WITH WAITING XENOS AND NOT DYING.
Did you know spacesuits can RIP when hit by melee attacks or FF? Even the ARMORED low-pressure suit? You COULD remove ripping, but you're already removing all facehuggers from xenos, so I think we'll leave ripping in to avoid unbalancing it too much.

Xenos without facehuggers are at a severe disadvantage, as they can only kill by spitter/prae ACID (not a particularly effective means of killing), or slashing. Xenos have NO MEANS OF MANEUVERING IN SPACE. MARINES DO.

What this adds up to is a situation where xenos are in a small cave, and cannot freely maneuver. If they venture outside, they come under a hail of inaccurate fire from floating marines that they CAN'T HURT, because they can't REACH the marines.
On the MARINE side, they're safe as long as they float outside, but they can't do anything from there. If they land and try to attack, they'll fight xenos as normal. Except any hit landed by a xeno will RIP SUITS, so it can't be treated, and yeah. We have a situation where marines who go in OR xenos who go out get slaughtered. Stalemate city, and that's not counting the fact that the guy who gets FF'D by a AP round will die VERY quickly.

I would LOVE to see a space map with actual vacuum combat, but sadly, it won't fit the server. It requires a WHOLE different approach to combat, and the server pop's not ready for it.

That said, we do have an airlock that I regularly use, and you can place rods to make lattices and floortiles to make floor. Wanna mess around with space combat to test it? Grab a partner, give him a sword, take a gun, suit up, make an arena, and test it out, then see what you think.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Military grade suits could probably be repaired with resin and plated with armoured chitin if it was really nessecary to rip-proof, your arguement is being nitpicky, these are military grade space suits after all made for by the USCM for extreme emergencies such as literally hopping onto enemy boarding ship from space, and there's going to be spitters and mature aliens able to survive the environment and pressure all over the place not to mention roaring. I personally would delight in seeing them rip upon a certain level of physical contact but i understand why its a levelling issue.

Not one asteroid, a field of asteroids, the aliens would be constantly on the move floating between the rocks with a aggressive fast pace. If you read the OP i have accounted xeno's floating off, in which they simply float off onto a clean space map, then loop back to the ship map from the same direction, same goes for marines if they lose their footing, only to bound back towards the sulaco/asteroid they launched off. If anything it benefits aliens to be out there, with spitters and fast hunters/dogs on the outside to combat the clumsy slow marines shooting in all directions.

The asteroids are not really far away from the sulaco, and you could make the calculated leap and land on either asteroid turf, or against a rock wall quite safely and typically the asteroids are directly outside of cargo, so there will be limitless munitions in a stalemate (especially if the queen is still on the planet and its just a guerilla group of xenos nesting there). Xeno's leaving the 'Asteroid' area dont account for the final tally if they end up in open space, locking down benny hill chases outside the hull for xeno survivors.

[Jroinc1]

I have read your post, and I AM nitpicking. You GOTTA deal with issues before a suggestion's accepted.

Yeah. Military grade suits so thickly armored that they don't rip... suure. If you don't rip the suit, then you aren't hitting the person WEARING it. Suits that thick exist, and are called MECHS. One xeno can roar, which is the queen, and it has a long cooldown. Crushers can stomp, for a smaller AOE, and similar cooldown. Spitters do exist, and do roughly 5-15 damage/spit.

Space tiles are PERMANENTLY lit. Humans can use jetpacks AND build lattices on space tiles for footing wherever they want. Xenos can only leap from asteroid to asteroid.

If a xeno leaps from an asteroid to another, the xeno is following a PRESET trajectory at a CONSTANT speed in through a LIT path. And marines fire guns in mass. That's a shooting gallery, not "combat". Have you considered the slipping chances too? Marines can recover with jetpacks/magboots, and xenos can't.

As for looping a xeno that misses a jump back through another z-level to the SAME spot, well, rine's can put 2+2 together. They'll watch the spot, and murderize it when it comes back. OR, just fly along it and shoot it to death straight-away while it can't touch them.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Course i understand why you're doing it, its just im a little disturbed that you are taking this so personally without a rest to think through your arguments and recuperate now that you've resorted to all caps shouting.

Im quite sure that xenos could direct where they fly by using the force of their spit to change directions in open space as a mechanic, though generally as of this point it hasn't been considered yet how aliens are meant to react to vacuum environment by the devs (xenos generally can't be stunned anyway and would get back up) so that can probably be addressed easily. If you need a mech, take a mech since baycode mechs do have EVA functionalities, but otherwise aside from helmet hugger damage, really why should the military grade suits rip at all when the default marine clothes don't break? Lower grade space suits ripping is a triviality that can be left in as its in-circumstantial.

When aliens colonise that asteroid field they are doing it as a retreat or covert maneuver, they want to be there when the sulaco is probably cosier and more welcoming. The interior of the asteroids themselves are extremely dark, and some can be larger than others.

The 2+2 is just a fact of life, as its the most reliable system to do in order to ironically enough, avoid exploitation by either side, the additional space z level would allow the xeno time to adjust itself and calibrate its plan to move out of the way using a ability or call for help. Either-way if the last xeno dies or is blown away by shotgun recoil into space then its a marine victory, alive or not, assuming its floated away from the ship long enough to get the hell out of there on a job well done.

[Jroinc1]

All caps shouting is to emphasize important points, sorry. As for personally, I'm on, and I'm one of the resident space, engineering, tcomms, and medical experts, and this is one of these... so...

Xenos COULD spit. That helps the Spitter, Sentinel, and Prae. Runner, Hunter, Ravager, Crusher, Queen, Drone, Hivelord, and Carrier are SOL. No huggers, remember?
Have you played as a xeno to know their abilities, as it seems like you haven't? Consider playing a xeno round to learn what they have to deal with if you haven't.

Because the default marine clothes don't matter if they break? I assume there are slashes in them when I treat someone with a slashed chest, but BYOND won't let it be shown (there IS a suggestion for that). Mechs would have the needed resilience to block slashes, but would be ABSURDLY OP for any scenario.

How are aliens colonizing the asteroid field as a retreat? They have to take the shuttle up to orbit and fight out of the hangar, and to the upper deck to reach the field. As for the interior being dark and large, you run into the problems in my first post.

As for 2+2 being a fact of life, only 3 xenos can use spit to maneuver. The others have to drift slowly to the edge of the map, while being shot by marines. Ghost one round, and go to the edge of the sulaco z-level. It's a LONG way off.

[forwardslashN]

We do not want aliens to screw off into space, and anyone in space does not count toward round completion. We want to keep the action either on the planet/whatever or the Sulaco. I do not believe this suggestion is workable.