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Thread: Your guide to the convoluted AA/picking where DS lands meta

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    Dev Team Manager Stan_albatross's Avatar
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    Your guide to the convoluted AA/picking where DS lands meta

    PREFACE

    This guide involves a lot of mindgamey and meta-shit. It is only applicable to the current metas of cic holds and current tablet abilities. This guide will be useful to the average CE, XO, or CO player in deciding where they want the AA to be set, and will also be useful to any queen thinking where to land on the Almayer. It also features my opinions (tm), please feel free to disagree with them in replies.

    A QUICK RUNDOWN ON THE HIJACK PHASE

    Right, this can happen in one of two ways. The standard way, where marines evac the planet and take a large amount of their forces back to the ship, before the queen calls down the transport DS and then hijacks it back up, or the oh god oh fuck way, where the queen does not call down the DS and instead skips straight to hijack while the DS has been piloted down to the LZ, resulting in no evac. If this happens, someone has fucked up real bad, and you might not have enough time to set the AA gun (presuming you did not set it before the OP).

    For marines, they can set an AA cannon that prevents the xeno DS from crashing in that part of the ship if the queen picks it to land in. The cannon can only be set before the hijack announcement. If the queen and marines pick the same location, then the DS will be sent to another area of the ship, with a 20% chance to crash in the remaining 5 parts.

    Simple explanation : if cannon is set to [cic], and xenos pick [cic], they will be deflected and crash somewhere else random.

    THE SIX SECTIONS OF THE SHIP AND THEIR UTILITY FOR BOTH SIDES

    UPPER DECK FORESHIPS - The CIC. This is the ONLY place that ERT can be called in from, as well as the ONLY place SD can be triggered from. Rip SD, it's gone rn. Evac can also only be triggered from here, but it can be triggered during the flight prep phase while the DS has not crashed yet, so if you want to evac just set red on hijack, call it, and gtfo of cic. A xeno crash at the CIC leads in the locking down of the comms console (and its potential permanent breaking) as well as offering them two easy ways out to astro-nav, which xenos basically lock down if they crash in the cic, and medbay upper, which has the med ladders that take you fast travel to briefing and has the pods section a little bit after. It is also on upper deck, which is always better for benos, as the tank can't get to upper deck, the secondary DS is not on upper deck, and upper deck in general is more cramped and has less opportunities for marines to flank/bait xenos into killing fields.

    N.B. there are a few spots that xenos can crash in the cic/brig now that the brig is at the front of the ship. Brig crash typically gives them a few flanking spots down and is quite good but they can also crash right in the middle of the cic which kinda cucks their ability to get out, since rn meta is to push the DS. Basically aim aa at cic, cade it, then suicidally push the ds when it crashes at somewhere that's not the cic.

    UPPER DECK MIDSHIPS - Typically morgue or research. Good because it is next to the cic and AA is never aimed there, good because it is very close to med ladders. Bad because it does not destroy CIC equipment, and has only one close way of going down - the ladders or stairs. Also this usually blocks some of the DS exit walls which can be a blessing or a curse.

    UPPER DECK AFTSHIPS - Upper engi, IO room, tcomms. This is a very rarely picked spot by either AA or Xenos, as it has even less easier a time of getting to lower deck, and it is much harder to assault briefing (and the cic) from the east than from the west. In conclusion, only if SD is made good will this be used. Disregard, SD was removed. It has a natural advantage due to being on upper deck. SD is currently awful due to the abilities of xenos to slash walls, and only occurs in the case of a stealth SD, where it is armed, then a man delays in a locker next to it while the rods raise, then runs in, wirecuts the APC and blows the ship.

    Lifeboats are naturally crash-proof so you don't need to set the AA there, they only have 1 way in and out but cannot be locked down like the cic, in conclusion they are a bit shit to hold.

    LOWER DECK FORESHIPS - Tank bay and hangar. AWFUL spot. You will have the shit rushed out of you by marines upon landing, as well as rushed from anyone in cic. The only saving grace is that it is easier to assualt briefing from the west.

    LOWER DECK MIDSHIPS - Ah yes, briefing. This is no longer the meta hold-spot for marines as it is SUPER wide open, making cading all of it super hard, and has a fuckton of good boiler angles. The west is easier to attack than the east due to the cover of MP rooms and the slashable walls. AA is never set here anymore, rather it is set to the CIC, DS is typically now aimed only to the CIC. Go figure. This is also a very good spot to assault south pods from. Obviously, if the DS lands here, it will kill everyone in the area.

    LOWER DECK AFTSHIPS - The WORST spot on the entire ship - cryo bay and lower engi. On lower deck, hard to assault briefing from, only one ladder to get to upper deck with. Why anyone would voluntarily choose to crash here or to set AA here I have no idea, as reactor room holdouts are very much a thing of the past. If you crash here as xeno, you have hit some bad luck.

    SO, WHERE DO I AIM THE ANTI-AIR?

    The two places that the AA is almost always aimed at are CIC and briefing. CIC to allow for ERT call, and briefing to stop the DS from gibbing 40 marines. As Xeno players landing in briefing would objectively be catastrophic, your objective is to get them away from briefing while also getting them away from CIC and upper deck. As many queens do not pick briefing to crash in as they assume the AA will be aimed there, a trend has developed of marines to aim the AA at CIC, which is the secondary goal of the xenos. This successfully keeps them off both spots, but also gives a 20% chance to crash on briefing, and a 40% chance to crash on upper deck. Allowing the xenos to crash at cic however holds a 100% chance of letting them crash upper deck, if they pick CIC and you pick briefing, and if they pick briefing they still have a 60% chance of crashing upper deck. In short, pick between CIC and briefing. If you win a CIC bluff, then xenos will have a 1 in 5 chance of fucking over marines and a 2 in 5 chance of landing upper deck, if you pick briefing they still hold a very high chance of landing upper deck.

    SO, WHERE DO I CRASH THE DROPSHIP?

    Let's start off by saying to NEVER pick anywhere on lower deck other than briefing. Objectively, picking upper midships will give you a near 100% chance of landing upper deck, so this is usually a good choice. CIC is another high chance of upperdeck landing, as scared marines will usually pick briefing. Beware of cic bluffs! You could find yourself at tankbay if you fall for one. Finally, there is briefing. The true spot of a madman. You could gib 60 delayrines before you even land... or have a 2 in 5 chance of being rushed by them. Your pick.

    Now go out there and delay for 20 minutes with an autistic cic cade hold.
    Last edited by Stan_albatross; 09-23-2021 at 02:33 PM. Reason: update part 1
    Karl Karlsson, the man (and sometimes Captain)
    Maxwell, the synth
    Enhath'vot Guan-Dha, the predator
    Also a feature Coder & CM's Maintainer Team Manager

    Timeline :
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    what happenes when AA picks the same spot as DS? does it make it fly to a random spot? why would queen not just pick the safest non meta spot to guarantee a decent spot?

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    Senior Member LynuahSororitas's Avatar
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    When the MGAD deflects the ship from the location the Queen chooses, it will go off randomly on the Almayer, from any of the 5 areas remaining.
    Captain Elzbieta Brygida




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    Dev Team Manager Stan_albatross's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kooarbiter View Post
    what happenes when AA picks the same spot as DS? does it make it fly to a random spot? why would queen not just pick the safest non meta spot to guarantee a decent spot?
    Xeno players and Queens are greedy and want their cic crash to stop delayer ERTs or worse yet pizza man.
    Also cic is so much better than say upper med that it makes sense to go for it
    Karl Karlsson, the man (and sometimes Captain)
    Maxwell, the synth
    Enhath'vot Guan-Dha, the predator
    Also a feature Coder & CM's Maintainer Team Manager

    Timeline :
    Spoiler Spoiler:

    [CENTER]Retired Synth councilman, forever a member of IO gang

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