Helmet Cams

[Jake Banto]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Have all marines have a helmet cam on their helmet, allowing BO's to view any marine of their respective squad from their console.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): As it stands, only SL's have helmet cams. Ill use this section to discuss the negatives of this.

First, correct me if I'm wrong as it has been a fair minute since I've watched the movie, but as I remember in Aliens when the marine squad investigated the colony all members of the squad had a helmet cam which ripley, the liason, and the officer monitored. If this is the case then currently the server is not in sync with the lore on the subject.

Second, having an SL get captured, die, or just have their helmet get destroyed by huggers and them not picking it up SEVERELY hampers command's ability to accurately assess what is going on on the ground with said squad. If the SL died or got captured in the process then the squad itself generally falls apart unless a specialist takes charge, and even in this rare case it causes another single point of failure that command cant even view.

Third, I have noticed the "meta" to the game (describing the evolution of how players play the game) as people have less and less respect toward command. Generally they will follow the initial orders of where to go and what to do and as long as the marines have been winning they generally will continue to do so. But the first defeat causes a large amount of chaos. And why is this? Well a lot of times if marines get defeated in a skirmish the SL is trying to get the squad to hold the line and complete the objective given to the squad by command, which makes them more likely to be among the casualties as they are less likely to break. This causes the aforementioned break in the ability of command to comprehend the situation planetside and causes a degradation of the quality of commands given and compounds the issue. And when this happens in the majority of rounds it causes a predisposition in people to regard command as more fair weather direction. Which in reality, you would be conditioned to and trust in your commands abilities and orders in this life or death situation. This paragraph only covers commands that are good to start with, not even counting a fair amount of rounds where command isnt actively involved or is understaffed to begin with.

Fourth, as it currently stands as an SL if your helmet gets destroyed by face huggers its pretty much just a delay in the inevitable by picking up your helmet and putting it back on and continuing the fight. This means either, you forsake the benefits of having command watch your squad. Or you make the long trek back to the ship, and try to get the RO to have another ready for you when you get there. Meanwhile, the orders are generally given for the squad to sit tight and wait for one person. Which in turn generally causes half of the squad to fuck off and not reform.

Fifth, being a BO that has had their SL die makes the round rather boring after that. The CO and XO dont need to hear you relaying information they are also hearing on your squads comms, your main benefit is relaying information that isn't passed over comms that you are watching and able to type because you arent actively fighting the aliens.

I can understand that the chaos ensuing from lost SL's might bring certain interesting aspects to the round, but really I think it can be toned down a bit.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): I will use this section to discuss the benefits of having all marines having a helmet cam.

Command will be able to be actively involved in directing the troops planetside from deployment to retreat (or victory)

Billy bob who fucks off to another squad for no apparent reason at round start will be easier called out on it. "Yo billy bob, get the fuck out of Hydro and back to the FoB with alpha squad" "Your just gonna just ignore me? Charlie squad dudes, does billy bob look like he has pink fucking armor? Give him a swift kick to the ass and send him back to the FoB!"

I would recommend if this is implemented to give the tracking button an argument that a marine is only trackeable if he has a helmet on, to proactively squelch the argument that command shouldnt be able to just see the aliens base if marines are captured. Which if they are captured, then they certainly wouldn't have a helmet on.

This will make the game a bit more realistic. This is 2d spessmans, we have to type to relay information which turns your character catatonic whilst doing so. In the real world conveying information is much more quick and less cumbersome. Frankly what would be so expensive/unrealistic about putting a camera on every marine in the first place when you are traveling across the stars in a fucking space battlecruiser with a whole battalion of marines. Hell, if it wasn't that it would be gamebreaking I would recommend that it would be realistic that the ship that is in geosynchronous orbit above the installation would be able to use a telescopic camera to watch what is going on independant of the marines movements.

Gameplay wise this wont really hurt the aliens other then their enemy being more organized. Rarely a BO might be watching a marine separated and be able to call out for help. This to me is more beneficial to the gameplay then negative though.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Call up Oprah and have her tape a helmet cam underneath every chair in briefing.

More seriously my knowledge of coding isnt that great and ive never looked into ss13's code, so anything I could say on implementation would mostly be guessing, a dev's opinion would be much more valuable.

[Kerek]

Bro, change the fucking highlight or im gonna say -1 right away

[Kerek]

However I do agree with what you've said, I have played BO a few times and I loose interest fairly early cause SL's always die fucking first. Overall aside from the fucking highlight...
+1

[Jake Banto]

There ya go

[HalfdeadKiller]

I think this has been suggested before, and was denied due to lag reasons. I could be wrong. I'd like it to be a thing, but not if it costs a lot of server performance.

[Jroinc1]

+1 if not lag issue.

... Hell, I'd be up for the telescopic camera free-roam mode, just keep it outta the caves and remember that it needs light to see.

[Doc]

-1
Marines are not supposed to have precise knowledge of what goes on with their subordinates- If the Bridge could see exactly what is going on with everyone, all the time, there would potentially not even be a need for an SL, just have the BO do everything over radio while watching the marines from Overwatch. This chain of command is what makes the marines a team effort. The fact that a dead SL cripples a squad is intentional, they shouldn't be able to be replaced by any marine that picks up some beacons.