Rundown
As someone familiar with both sides in CM Xenos and marines I usually end up in the hive by the nests whether as a Marine about to burst or as a Sentinel watching over them, this topic is mostly about how the Nests work in current CM and what I would like added to make this part of the game better(?) Because as it stands most Marines when they get the chance will Kamikaze instead of making a run for it, they resign themselves to death instead of trying to live and I find this annoying and boring. I will start off by letting you know that I will add what I would like added into the lower half of this post and why I think they should be added.
Nesting
I find that from a certain standpoint Marines, should be given a better chance to escape, whether that be on their own or with other nested marines. Now, in my experience as a Sentinel watching nests that there are only Three situations (technically 4 and that is when they all happen at once) where Marines have a chance to escape and they are.
1. Shit hive design, as in xenos have to go through a maze of doors and walls to get to a Marine that stood up on the other side of the maze has plenty of time to free others or destroy their way out whilst you are still trying to get to them.
2. Luck, Whether it be a shit guard that is less robust than you or they're lagging the fuck out, giving you ample time to kill them and escape
3. Teamwork, in the rare chance that a nest is setup well, you can actually see other Marines also nested, this allows you to communicate with each other and co-ordinate. The way you escape is you all break free from your nests at the same time, with this you are able to over throw the balance as the guard can't be everywhere at once. And Voila prison riot occurs and the great escape starts.
How to prevent escapes.
As you can see most of the ways Marines escape is due to their competence and the Xeno's incompetence which brings us on how you stop these from occurring and the fix may surprise you!
1. Good hive design, Have a competent Drone or Hivelord construct a proper nest with easy access to captures.
2. Robustness, Luck tends to go both ways, either the Xeno or Marine gets lucky and when a marine is able to wiggle free it comes down to a proper fight where a Xeno is trying to incapacitate a Marine and the Marine is trying to kill the Xeno, in the event a capture gets out by luck you must counter them with skill.
3. Teamwork, What a surprise more than one Xeno can and should always be on guard duty in-case of multiple getting up at once. (side note having more than one Xeno guarding almost guarantees you won't escape)
A Chance to Escape (Marines)
Despite what this post might lead you to believe I actually want to argue for granting more chances to escape from nests because as it stands it is boring as fuck for both sides, and granting additional opportunity and options for nested Marines will help make guard duty less boring when there is more that could be done on both sides, What I would love to be added.
1. Marine Escape Tools, the use of certain items to reduce the time it takes to escape i.e Blowtorch, knife, machete or even a glass shard. Just a way to give you more time on your limited lifespan
2. Knowledge, knowing how close you are to escaping without prior stopwatch testing, Examples examining yourself or the nest to see how close you are to escape.
3. Wiggle Room, this ties in with point 1 as it stands you are unable to use any items when nested, let alone open any storage you have. My suggestion is depending on how long you have been resisting, you are able to open your storage might not be able to take anything yet but you can see what you have at your disposal. After a bit more time you might be able to grab something from your storage and use it. (Don't really know how I feel about this, because I know Marines will just pull out a nade) Or perhaps loot/use a nearby item.
[SIZE=3]4. Remove stun delay when you escape the nest.
A Chance to Escape (Xenos this part is mostly optional)
1. Ability to Strip Marines, pretty self explanatory
2. Knowledge, currently you just examine nested marines to see if they're awake or not and keep an eye on the ones that are, however you can sometimes miss if a Marine is struggling to escape and would be nice if that detail is added when you examine them, and maybe the ability to see how close they are to escaping
[SIZE=3]3. Text Warnings, in the case of wiggle room, text will appear in chat that a Marine is grabbing/opening something, however you need a clear LoS for this to occur.
I could go on, but I have been writing this on and off whilst playing CM which doesn't make for good writing. So tell me what is what your opinions are, they don't even have to agree wtih what I have said, I just want the boring bits to be slightly more entertaining. Also I wasn't exactly sure to post this, and if there is a more appropriate place please let me know.