[Balance] Boarding

[Swagile]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Make it so, as a xeno queen, you can only bring down / up the Rasp and bring up the Pod ONLY if 75% of the marines have retreated to the Sulaco. 75% is a decent number to go for considering some people stay on planetside no matter what / would try to stall, so this prevents that, while making sure if a majority of Marines have fallen back to their ship, then Aliens can raid.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Stops FOB's being constantly in only one or two locations on Ice (this is a big problem more on Ice than on LV due to the fact that Nexus is usually made a FOB). It also stops from mid game rushes by a coordinated xeno team that will just go around your neat FOB in Engineering (Ice) and just goes up the Rasp.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): Read above.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Coding.

[Snypehunter007]

Having FOBs in certain areas isn't only because they are guarding the LZ from xenos. It simply isn't feasible to not choose a place without close access to the LZs.

[Swagile]

Having FOBs in certain areas isn't only because they are guarding the LZ from xenos. It simply isn't feasible to not choose a place without close access to the LZs.

Can you explain your reasoning on that?

From my understanding, the only reason (besides stopping boarding) you would have close access to LZ is bringing in wounded. This can be achieved by getting a doctor to your FOB and setting up a field hospital.

Supplies? SL's have supply beacons for RO + BO to bring goods down to them at almost any time.

What other reason is there besides stopping a assault on Sulaco via Rasp?

[Snypehunter007]

Actually all three of those are why.

Supplies only last as you have beacons and a competent Cargo team. If that fails, the Rasputin is the back up.

Not all doctors are willing to go down to the planet or, sometimes, the CMO is unwilling to allow a dochord to go down.

Reinforcements are another thing. They only come down if you have a secure LZ and, usually, only reach the FOB if the way is clear or the FOB is close to the LZ.

Also you wouldn't leave your route of escape undefended.

[KittyLava]

Actually all three of those are why.

Supplies only last as you have beacons and a competent Cargo team. If that fails, the Rasputin is the back up.

Not all doctors are willing to go down to the planet or, sometimes, the CMO is unwilling to allow a dochord to go down.

Reinforcements are another thing. They only come down if you have a secure LZ and, usually, only reach the FOB if the way is clear or the FOB is close to the LZ.

Also you wouldn't leave your route of escape undefended.

I'll add this bit as someone whom does try to stay IC and responsible as a CMO. There have been times where I've got a doctor or two, or been requested to see if there's a volunteer to head FoB side. Now there's a few things running around already, one of which is actually asking the Bridge team or SLs if the FoB and LZ are secure. If that answer is no, there's no way i'm authorizing my medical personal to head down there as a civilian into some live combat zone which will likely put them in greater risk.

If both are reported as secure, no second hesitation about heavy attacks present that's causing doubt, then I'd proceed with the second part; asking for marines to safely escort my civilian personal whom volunteered for such a task safely to the FoB. This shouldn't be too difficult as either the marines heading down could be tasked with escorting them safely to the FoB whilst getting some idea of the situation, rendezvous with their acting squad's commanding officer by chain of command or where command directs those reinforcements to. However if my personal at the FoB do not feel secure, do often recommend they be escorted safely back up to the Solacu where they'll be safe and resume their previous work.

Now getting to the latter part, if the marines need supplies or reinforcements it's important to keep the LZ secure as that's the marine lifeline right there for away operations, if that falls for whatever reason, it's safe to assume hot LZ and not many may wish to head toward the LZ right away for risk of injuries or wounded being put down by hostile forces. Personally don't mind making medication for marines field medics or personal deployed, even being there to recommend actions to stabilize or relay the urgency to command if needed. Heck we could pull a freezer out if needed and load that with medication, give it to the PO to deploy for the marines or have them escort it in for resupplying operations whilst hoping that crate returns back.

[Surrealistik]

+1 to this idea or something like it.

The biggest issue with boarding is that both the Rasputin _and_ Droppod can be boarded, which means that the aliens will always be able to circumvent the bulk of the marine force to rape and vent a relatively undefended Sulaco, murder all the support staff, and thereby win the game. It is simply not viable to adequately protect both LZs, AND push objectives.

[Sarah_U.]

I'd rather have roleplay and gameplay compensate for this failure of a marine defense team over a mechanic that will forcibly weight on the game's balance.

AKA: If 25%+ of the marines are planetside, they'll find a way up or exterminate the planetside xenos and then go up to support their allies. Furthermore, with that many marines still down and not retreating like cowards it'll actually involve that marines are just camping upside not going out to send reinforcement and will most often result in a long drawn out battle between xenos and marines up there.

But yea, as stated: I don't want tactics to be blocked by silly mechanics.

[Surrealistik]

I'd rather have roleplay and gameplay compensate for this failure of a marine defense team over a mechanic that will forcibly weight on the game's balance.

AKA: If 25%+ of the marines are planetside, they'll find a way up or exterminate the planetside xenos and then go up to support their allies. Furthermore, with that many marines still down and not retreating like cowards it'll actually involve that marines are just camping upside not going out to send reinforcement and will most often result in a long drawn out battle between xenos and marines up there.

But yea, as stated: I don't want tactics to be blocked by silly mechanics.

Invading the Sulaco en masse by where the marines are not is a 'tactic' that is impossible to counter and almost certain to result in a win. Any Queen that isn't a mouthbreather will do it every time and the marines cannot practically stop it, because you cannot adequately guard two LZs while simultaneously making progress on objectives.

[Sarah_U.]

Invading the Sulaco en masse by where the marines are not is a 'tactic' that is impossible to counter and almost certain to result in a win. Any Queen that isn't a mouthbreather will do it every time and the marines cannot practically stop it, because you cannot adequately guard two LZs while simultaneously making progress on objectives.

If you keep your ship off-planet to make sure there are no illegal boarding and actually set a camera system you could prevent most of the rushing with some supervision (Unmanned). I know your point, but I'm also not in for a mechanic like that.

[Surrealistik]

If you keep your ship off-planet to make sure there are no illegal boarding and actually set a camera system you could prevent most of the rushing with some supervision (Unmanned). I know your point, but I'm also not in for a mechanic like that.

That won't really work, besides being meta.

[Sarah_U.]

That won't really work, besides being meta.

Not quite meta since you would be identifying if the LZ is clear for landing and protecting it againt unknown hostiles in the landing site while your troops are away.
It is perfectly fine imo, since you're not just blatently placing bombs and traps just baiting aliens to the rasp, but using prevention to make sure your EXPENSIVE MILITARY ASSETS AND LOCATIONS are relatively safe.

[Surrealistik]

Not quite meta since you would be identifying if the LZ is clear for landing and protecting it againt unknown hostiles in the landing site while your troops are away.
It is perfectly fine imo, since you're not just blatently placing bombs and traps just baiting aliens to the rasp, but using prevention to make sure your EXPENSIVE MILITARY ASSETS AND LOCATIONS are relatively safe.

Always having them under all conditions on the ship is meta.

Beyond that it's not necessarily effective; on an average game I bet the pod vanishing goes unnoticed.

The problem is even if you take every reasonable precaution you still cannot prevent this tactic from working.

[Sarah_U.]

*Snip*

Oh I mentionned that so the cameras are outside, not inside. I don't really care about internal cameras, but they're useless for knowing if xenos are outside your LZ or not if you're sitting in hangar.

[Swagile]

Knowing your RASP is being taken means nothing if when they board it, they will crash it into a random place on the Sulaco while venting atmos.

Unless you have a team of marines always on standby near the Rasp to protect it at all times while reinforcements come, you can easily just call down the Rasp, then call it up with your entire xeno team without the marines being able to do much.