Things you don't like about current balance and what you'd do to fix it

[TheDonkified]

I agree with most of this, except for the tankiness part (excluding crushers).

Nades in their current state are pretty shit other than for clearing resin structures (only eggs, sticky, and weeds pretty much). While I do not think marines should be able to chain stun, cause that is already AIDS enough from the xenos side, there should be a way to guarantee a stun that is a result of good marine play and xeno misplay. In its current state, explosive resistance just makes nade not scary while marines still get a shit ton of damage from nades. Xenos should not be able to get cheesed by a single marine spamming UGL with its short fuse, but xenos should also not be able to not pay attention, walk into an HEDP nade, and then act as if it was nothing.

In terms of fire, I just think there should be a debuff (other than speed) applied for being lit on fire. I like the pheromones disabler they have in TGMC, but ultimately it's up to devs to decide on a particular debuff. However, healing should 100% be disabled while on fire. Your priority should be to get the fuck out and put yourself out rather than having some wiggle room to do whatever the fuck you want before putting yourself out. If not handled ASAP, fire should kill you, as it does for marines.

Also, side note with barricades, FOB sieges are not fun for xeno. I don't know who would ever get the impression that wasting minutes upon end fighting lines of barricades with barely any end in sight, ESPECIALLY if you do not have crushers/boilers/queen, is fun, but it isn't. It is an annoying grind, especially with lines of plasteel cades that barbed with an active engineer and sentries/M56Ds. Big Red is probably the map with the worst examples of annoying, time-draining FOBs. Good engineers literally open up all the flanks and fortify them to shit, so wherever you go you're forced to spend minutes pushing, and god forbid the marines catch wind and decide to fortify the shit out of that position, especially with ASRS. It's a cycle of autism.
In lieu of autism FOBs and grindy sieges, I just think FOBs and sieges need to be reworked so xenos don't feel useless attacking an FOB without a boiler/crusher/queen, and marine FOBs aren't so weak that they are useless. I think marines should be able to come back if they hold their FOB well, but sieging good FOBs should not be an exercise in futility for xenos. How to make this happen is another story though.

[Boersgard]

In lieu of autism FOBs and grindy sieges, I just think FOBs and sieges need to be reworked so xenos don't feel useless attacking an FOB without a boiler/crusher/queen, and marine FOBs aren't so weak that they are useless. I think marines should be able to come back if they hold their FOB well, but sieging good FOBs should not be an exercise in futility for xenos. How to make this happen is another story though.

I don't want fobs to be total autismforts that xenos can't push through, but likewise marines really really need better tools to secure logistic lines for medics/reinforcements that can't get destroyed in a few seconds by a pair of lurkers. You CAN'T secure a marine push with fallback points because one xeno can undo in less than 5 minutes what it took an engineer 40 minutes to build.

Here's a couple ideas:

• Buff cade hitpoints a bit
• Allow xenos to push over cades instead of destroying them (e.g. a timer like how they can run up and acid a cade)
• Have pushing the cade over take less time than slashing the cade to destruction
• Obviously, marines can push a toppled cade back up
• When a cade is slashed to destruction provide more materials on the ground for rebuilding the cade than at present
• Remove acid destroying cades from the T1/T2 castes, leave it only to T3.

Bold for the item I think would have the biggest impact. It wouldn't deny xenos the ability to assault cades, but it would force them to commit something important to doing it - a praetorian, a boiler, the queen, etc. This way the xenos earn their flank, it's not something that 1 of the 30 T1/T2 can do by itself.

When it comes to the T1/T2 harassing marine back lines - they should rely on vents (there are ALWAYS open vents) and unnoticed back doors (like cades with no wires or an open plasteel cade). Not the inability of marines to even secure positions in the first place.

[DriedMilk]

Since people here seem to complain about marine issues when fighting xenos, guess I'll have to talk about the issues xenos have when fighting marines.

1. Queen Ovi mode is boring.
It's as boring as playing SO, it's pretty boring to just watch Mature Ravager (420) 24/7 and just heal his ass because his ego tells him that he needs to charge the RPG spec head-on like a dumbass. Yet, ovi mode is necesarry for the survival of the Hive so, being forced to just stare at xenos do their jobs is pretty boring and probably needs a rework.

2.Boiler Reliance.

Xenos rely WAY too much on Boiler, a Hive with no Boilers is usually a doomed Hive. I'd say this is on par with Marines needing the RPG to stand a chance versus high level xenos. Well, the same issue stands, Boilers are necessary for crowd control and to stop the massive unga wave of PFCs thirsty for some xeno blood ready to rush the hive at a moments notice.

3. Evolution

It's pretty fucking annoying to be locked to a certain caste because you evolved too late or because you actually decided to help the Hive by fighting survivors or getting monkeys while the AFK xenos get easy access to theur desired evolution alot whenever they want. This definitely needs to get tweaked.

[davidofmk771]

Neurospam-
Make it do toxin damage. Use it too much and you have a worthless, dead host.

Queen Screech-
Severely increase cooldown timer, add the queen charge back in.

Defcon-
Move colonist corpses out of the caves/labs/civ residence and place them closer to the center of the maps. If marines are that deep in the cave and capable of moving non-marine bodies back to the FOB, they've already won.

Grenades-
Just remove the stupid randomized fuze thing. There's absolutely no reason for it. Got played by a well cooked nade? Git gud.

[CABAL]

Neurospam-
Make it do toxin damage. Use it too much and you have a worthless, dead host.

Like neurospam is mainly used to capture. It's always to kill and if host survives 10 slashes, then beno starts to think about capturing.

[dauntasa]

add the queen charge back in.

fuuuuuuck no

Queen charge, when it existed, was the worst part of the game, bar none. Anything which allows the queen to infinitely outrun the marines will result in literally an hour of stalling at the end of every round that the marines win.

[ColonelCorazon]

The queen charge sprite was perfection though

[Boersgard]

Since people here seem to complain about marine issues when fighting xenos, guess I'll have to talk about the issues xenos have when fighting marines.

I'd honestly appreciate more input on this side of things. Personally, I don't find alien deaths and gameplay anywhere near as frustrating as marines, to the degree that I'm lost to think of anything that could really be a balance/frustration issue at all.

The closest I can think of is getting hit by SADAR from out of LOS, but that's still tempered by:

1. Paying attention to SADAR callouts in hivemind
2. Getting multiple opportunities to rejoin the round in any case
3. There only being one SADAR - and if he dies you never have to worry about it again

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

I'd honestly appreciate more input on this side of things. Personally, I don't find alien deaths and gameplay anywhere near as frustrating as marines, to the degree that I'm lost to think of anything that could really be a balance/frustration issue at all.

The closest I can think of is getting hit by SADAR from out of LOS, but that's still tempered by:

1. Paying attention to SADAR callouts in hivemind
2. Getting multiple opportunities to rejoin the round in any case
3. There only being one SADAR - and if he dies you never have to worry about it again

And then the 2 hour mark hits and ASRS takes a big shit on your 3rd point with spec kits to turn PFCs into Specs. Also, "multiple opportunities to rejoin the round" just feel like shit because you're still having to wait for 20+ minutes (5 minutes after each death to even get a chance for a larva) to get to a decent enough age to actually play the game (but the current flattened xeno power curve system will help with this somewhat)

[Swagile]

And then the 2 hour mark hits and ASRS takes a big shit on your 3rd point with spec kits to turn PFCs into Specs. Also, "multiple opportunities to rejoin the round" just feel like shit because you're still having to wait for 20+ minutes (5 minutes after each death to even get a chance for a larva) to get to a decent enough age to actually play the game (but the current flattened xeno power curve system will help with this somewhat)

We don't hit 2 hour rounds most of the time unless we get into a stalemate or Xenos AFK, so thats a pretty moot point. Xenos either win the first engagement then push hard and force marines to evac, then its a Almayer fight. OR marines win the first engagement, push hard, and win. The only circumstance where ASRS giving Spec kits matters is if we win the first engagement, push in, but marines are either bald and go one by one, or the last remaining T3(s) and Queen are robust and manage to hold. Then, and only then, do we hit the 2 hour mark as xenos wait for their captured marines to burst and evolve into T3's again.

And by then, Spec kits are a must, as we usually have lost a lot of marines and have no reinforcements.

But I see what your point is; on the xeno side, respawn is shit since it means you just AFK till you can play again.