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

[ExGame]

9/10, pretty creative numbering there. I have seen 4 survivors hold defences against the entire hive for 30+ minutes, killing mutiple T3s. But marines get one glob of gas chucked at them and it's ''welp time to nuke ourselves''.

You're trying to compare a whole hive assault of multiple T3s to a few aliens sieging a survivor holdout T1/T2s. Once the survivors face T3s like crushers and boilers they'll fold pretty quickly, but generally they either get rescued or die and only meet stunnable T1s that can't really destroy defences or also stunnable T2s that struggle against shotgun or AP smg fire. You also overestimate the efficiency to marine ratio. Just because there's more marines doesn't mean they are automatically better off, partly due to baldies and FF.

Evacuating the planet should be a penalty to the marines, they should not be rewarded for doing so. Otherwise xenos are just being punished for being better than marines. When the opposite happens (marines stomping xenos planetside) xenos don't have a fallback, for xenos it's do or die, where as marines always know they can just go for SD instead.

An organized hive could also make a tunnel network to evacuate from when their siege goes badly, most usual xeno hive spots also have a corridor to escape like interconnected caves at LV, cave systems attached to Lambda or Eta on BR, and underground/overground on Ice. And when you don't have the option to do so, marines are just too good and have you pincered. But Queens can pincer marines just as much on the FOB siege by locking down the Alamo or killing all marines before they can escape.

It's a marine crutch that punishes xenos for doing well.

Right, xenos have crutches too that punishes good marine play. For example acid splashes when you manage to get close to xenos and land a PB.

[CABAL]

9/10, pretty creative numbering there. I have seen 4 survivors hold defences against the entire hive for 30+ minutes, killing mutiple T3s. But marines get one glob of gas chucked at them and it's ''welp time to nuke ourselves''.

Evacuating the planet should be a penalty to the marines, they should not be rewarded for doing so. Otherwise xenos are just being punished for being better than marines. When the opposite happens (marines stomping xenos planetside) xenos don't have a fallback, for xenos it's do or die, where as marines always know they can just go for SD instead.

It's a marine crutch that punishes xenos for doing well.

Yeah, lets compare one situation where 4 robust survs picked very good spot with only one way in were fighting few bald T3 benos with Queen still in Ovi to other, but real and common situation where multiple boilers shoot gas just after Queen screeches followed by crusher charge.

Marines evacuate only because they think they can't hold the ground any longer. Evac is already a penalty for marines. No OB, no CAS, no mortar, no medevac, no Req, no new marines, no surgeries etc.

What "reward" are marines getting for evac? Every marine is getting HPR with BC, Bipod and QF? Every marine is getting Apesuit?

The only thing they have is a little bit time to restock on ammo and heal. Is that such a big reward?

When marines evacuate? When they are winning, when they have control over colony? Or maybe when they were pushed right into LZ and they are constatly sieged by benos from multiple routes? I wonder.

Nearly every LZ siege ends up in benos breaking in. Without evac, nearly every LZ would end up in mass slaughter of all marines. Slaughter, not simple "death" of all marines. But I guess it is what such beno main wants. To marines be his toys, so he can play with them, because he can't stand a fact, that the opposite side doesn't want to be slaughtered.

[Steelpoint]

I do think stuns overall are something that should be looked at, no one likes losing control and being stunned for a ungodly 3 seconds (which lasts forever in combat).

That Neurostun rework that was git suggested would be a good way to balance the books.

[Chocolate_bickie]

You're trying to compare a whole hive assault of multiple T3s to a few aliens sieging a survivor holdout T1/T2s. Once the survivors face T3s like crushers and boilers they'll fold pretty quickly, but generally they either get rescued or die and only meet stunnable T1s that can't really destroy defences or also stunnable T2s that struggle against shotgun or AP smg fire. You also overestimate the efficiency to marine ratio. Just because there's more marines doesn't mean they are automatically better off, partly due to baldies and FF.

FF was buffed recently, the chance of getting broken bones/instant death is much lower.

An organized hive could also make a tunnel network to evacuate from when their siege goes badly, most usual xeno hive spots also have a corridor to escape like interconnected caves at LV, cave systems attached to Lambda or Eta on BR, and underground/overground on Ice. And when you don't have the option to do so, marines are just too good and have you pincered. But Queens can pincer marines just as much on the FOB siege by locking down the Alamo or killing all marines before they can escape.

If xenos even push marines back to the FoB (or even out of caves) just ones marines won't leave the FoB for another 20+ minutes unless mods get involved. Even when they know from bioscans that they outnumber xenos 4:1.

They are hoping xenos will attack the FoB so they have an excuse to evac.

Right, xenos have crutches too that punishes good marine play. For example acid splashes when you manage to get close to xenos and land a PB.

Acid splash won't even pain crit you whilst a PB buckshot blast in instant death for T1/T2s and for some T3s aswell.

[Chaznoodles]

Warriors. They're tanky, fast and hit hard, which is ridiculous for a T2. Not to forget their grab cools down faster than it takes a marine to stand up from it, as well as their throw/headbutt having short cooldowns that make them spammable, causing a lot of damage, and throwing a marine clear across the screen. Warriors need a clear rework.

[trustscience44]

Remove the Horrible Yellow Square from the Xeno Hud.

[Cobraman]

I'm not sure if we have this, but I'd like to see stats collected on rounds. E.G: Percent of Games Xenos win vs Marines, Xeno vs Marine K/D. That way we have stats to backup discussion on balance. If we really wanted to get into it: How many marines used each weapon, what the most common vended items are per role, distribution of Xenos by class and overall (I.E: 30% of runners became elder runners, runners in total made up 25% of the hive on average)

[CrackParrot]

You know what a good quality of life improvement would be for xeno? the ability for the warrior to knock over another marine or a group of them by flinging the grabbed marine at his comrades

[ContactDenied]

Spitter acid spray is pretty bull in my opinion. All it takes are a few spurts and you're in pain crit writhing on the ground. I feel like it should take time for the acid to melt through your footwear instead of instantly going through and dealing damage.

[MasterShakeEZ]

Spitter acid spray is pretty bull in my opinion. All it takes are a few spurts and you're in pain crit writhing on the ground. I feel like it should take time for the acid to melt through your footwear instead of instantly going through and dealing damage.

You don't want acid to actually melt boots. You will walk over broken glass and get rekt hard with no boots.