Share your little tricks nobody knows about

[ThePiachu]

So since this is a SS13 game, there are a lot of little tricks and mechanics people might now know about or miss entirely. It's fun to learn about them, so why don't we share them here?

Here are mine:

- You can put attachments on a taser. I once saw someone trying it with a burst fire adapter, after which the Requisitions got awarded with a "get out of jail free" note for donating a few BFAs.

- A Queen can fly down on Normandy, and then fly it back up and ram into Almayer again. This is very useful if there are either a lot or at least very useful sisters left on the planet.

- You can print a bucket from an autolathe which holds 120 units - a perfect alternative for a large beaker

[Hoodedhero]

I saw the taser thing, i assumed it dosent actually do anything but does it?

[Gnorse]

queen can't change flight modes, so if you set the normandy to fly-by, the queen will do a loop and come right back to the almayer into the middle of a hanger full of angry marines.

[solidfury7]

So since this is a SS13 game, there are a lot of little tricks and mechanics people might now know about or miss entirely. It's fun to learn about them, so why don't we share them here?

Here are mine:

- You can put attachments on a taser. I once saw someone trying it with a burst fire adapter, after which the Requisitions got awarded with a "get out of jail free" note for donating a few BFAs.

- A Queen can fly down on Normandy, and then fly it back up and ram into Almayer again. This is very useful if there are either a lot or at least very useful sisters left on the planet.

- You can print a bucket from an autolathe which holds 120 units - a perfect alternative for a large beaker

Taser thing was patched.

Queen flying down to ram again is deemed power game and punishable. Just thought I'd let everyone know to avoid boinks

[BadApple]

Takes about a clip of ammunition to shoot down a normal wall. Handy for flanking xenos, especially if you put a cade down first.

Miniflamers can be refueled with welding fuel, so hard to run out of.

[Gnorse]

Taser thing was patched.

Queen flying down to ram again is deemed power game and punishable. Just thought I'd let everyone know to avoid boinks

I played a round this week where that exact thing happend. about 3 admins and 4 mods were on and I don't think they said anything so I assumed it was an O.K thing to do.

good to hear it's not.

[Nyeshivuu]

Hunters were able to cloak behind alien trees and they would be nearly invisible, and if you were cloak on xeno corpses as a hunter you would be completely invisible. I haven't tried it as a lurker so i don't know if it works anymore.

[Heckenshutze]

EAT bars have healing properties.

[Casany]

The second you get captured but still have a gun like a shotgun and can escape, switch to harm intent and prepare to click the xeno who comes in to tackle nest you.

I see so many marines not doing this, it’s as simple as hitting 4 with hotkey mode on and waiting. It’s a GREAT away to run past the xeno and maybe even kill it.

Also, regular marines can wear B12 leader armor so always ask your SL for his extra pair. Better defense and you can move faster.

And if you have a sniper spec, he’ll usually never use his VP, so if you go medic or engineer and need a good sidearm ask your spec if he went sniper. It’s a godly tear weapon that many people underestimate.

Don’t bother waiting in line for attachments, just wait for fellow marines to die and steal theirs.

If you go flamer spec or just get a flamethrower always grab an extinguisher from a fire locker.

If you were BURNED by a flamer or caught on fire AT ALL dont try and light a cig. Never. You’ll be covered in something flammable and light on fire, and this can easily kill people who just got to the ship and healed. Shower first and than you can light that cigarette.

Engineers, you can still build walls. Build walls to secure areas you know there aren’t gonna be marines watching. Weld doors. Weld vents.

Regular marines can use trauma and burn kits, just takes them longer. If your hurt and there’s a dead medic nearbye take his belt and try and heal yourself the old fashioned way. He won’t need it anyway.

[Gookamungus]

Going into req line multiple times is pretty easy, especially if you're a squad marine. CT's rarely pick up on serving the same guy twice in a sea of faces. Unless the lines are ungodly long, I always have the attachments I want.

For the love of god, cover your claymores with trash.

[solidfury7]

I played a round this week where that exact thing happend. about 3 admins and 4 mods were on and I don't think they said anything so I assumed it was an O.K thing to do.

good to hear it's not.

Sometimes it slips under the radar or is allowed in certain situations.

However it's more likely that the staff in question just boinked the Queen about it, rather than announced it.

[Hoodedhero]

Now for my small share
>Normal mp's can get shoulder holsters, it's in the lockers
No one seems to use them

[Meatshield]

The second you get captured but still have a gun like a shotgun and can escape, switch to harm intent and prepare to click the xeno who comes in to tackle nest you.

I dont know what this means. I find once captured you cant do anything.

[Pilawa]

You can put your lighter in your cig pack after you take out your first cig. That way you get two pack, shocking I know.
Demo Kit is the only spec kit you should go, hand down.
If your clearing weeds or resin walls with your gun, put the safety on and you eliminate the chance of FFing, again very shocking I know.
As an MP, always tell someone else to brig criminals you catch, that way you'll never get in trouble with the WO with breaking procedure.
Also as an MP, there a a bunch of little hidey-holes you can well hide in. Perfect place to hide if the WO is causing a riot with his "We're arresting req because they have shit on their floor" Crusade.

[BillyBoBBizWorth]

Engineers, you can still build walls. Build walls to secure areas you know there aren’t gonna be marines watching. Weld doors. Weld vents.

Pretty sure i read on a FAQ post on the forums here that engineers building walls instead of cades or sandbags is powergaming, dont quote me on that though, could be wrong and read it wrongly or something.

[Rohesie]

EAT bars have healing properties.

All EAT bars have is nutriment, and in rather low quantities compared to other food, such as protein bars. Nutriment heals and replenishes blood slowly. Unless you know about something else here?

Going into req line multiple times is pretty easy, especially if you're a squad marine. CT's rarely pick up on serving the same guy twice in a sea of faces. Unless the lines are ungodly long, I always have the attachments I want.

Ask for the stuff you want. As RO I rarely deny an order that makes sense as long as it's done in a single line. You can ask for 6 attachments plus special ammo and gear alright. Lots of people don't get stuff because they just don't ask.

[Meatshield]

Pretty sure i read on a FAQ post on the forums here that engineers building walls instead of cades or sandbags is powergaming, dont quote me on that though, could be wrong and read it wrongly or something.

No way is it powergaming. In theory, engineers can construct entire buildings in the game (a feature horrendously underused for being considered dull and boring), with windows, floors, lighting and energy supply, etc. Walls are great but there's a lot of disadvantages to them. I think building walls is the only way you can shore up holes in a building, or reinforce aspects of a building. But some issues with walls - 1. you usually need to deconstruct and then construct, so they take a very long time to build compared to cades, 2. you can't shoot over them, so DECONSTRUCTION is often more important than construction (i.e., you want to create long gulleys and bottlenecks, or even combining rooms to allow marines to form firing lines, and not just build rows and rows of concrete). I'd say wall construction is essential for solid turtle strats, and I feel intended to indicate "repurposing". In most other strats, they are pretty useless since it will take 30 mins of game time for 1-2 engineers to re-purpose a small building (like TComms in Big Red) into an FOB HQ.

Also, not sure why they would have that feature at all if you can't use it.

[Hughgent]

All EAT bars have is nutriment, and in rather low quantities compared to other food, such as protein bars. Nutriment heals and replenishes blood slowly. Unless you know about something else here?

as a correction to that, the Eat bar has 8 nutriment. this is the same as almost every MRE/Meal except the chicken meal which has 10, and the tofu which has 2. (source: I've ground every meal up in the grinder.)

the packaged foods, (burritos, hamburgers) have less nutriment but contain some salt.

[BillyBoBBizWorth]

No way is it powergaming. In theory, engineers can construct entire buildings in the game (a feature horrendously underused for being considered dull and boring), with windows, floors, lighting and energy supply, etc. Walls are great but there's a lot of disadvantages to them. I think building walls is the only way you can shore up holes in a building, or reinforce aspects of a building. But some issues with walls - 1. you usually need to deconstruct and then construct, so they take a very long time to build compared to cades, 2. you can't shoot over them, so DECONSTRUCTION is often more important than construction (i.e., you want to create long gulleys and bottlenecks, or even combining rooms to allow marines to form firing lines, and not just build rows and rows of concrete). I'd say wall construction is essential for solid turtle strats, and I feel intended to indicate "repurposing". In most other strats, they are pretty useless since it will take 30 mins of game time for 1-2 engineers to re-purpose a small building (like TComms in Big Red) into an FOB HQ.

Also, not sure why they would have that feature at all if you can't use it.

Yeah i agree with you on your points there, it does seem to take quite some time.I know that standard marines cant be building any walls or something, maybe thats what im thinking of, because you dont see many walls made by engineers (even just one to block off a specific pathway, maybe like comms area on prison map), you could almost assume it wasnt allowed.I take it the amount of time it takes to construct like you mentioned is the deterrent to almost prevent it directly.

[ghost120]

Yeah i agree with you on your points there, it does seem to take quite some time.I know that standard marines cant be building any walls or something, maybe thats what im thinking of, because you dont see many walls made by engineers (even just one to block off a specific pathway, maybe like comms area on prison map), you could almost assume it wasnt allowed.I take it the amount of time it takes to construct like you mentioned is the deterrent to almost prevent it directly.

I believe it just takes a lot of metal as well.

[Meatshield]

Yeah i agree with you on your points there, it does seem to take quite some time.I know that standard marines cant be building any walls or something, maybe thats what im thinking of, because you dont see many walls made by engineers (even just one to block off a specific pathway, maybe like comms area on prison map), you could almost assume it wasnt allowed.I take it the amount of time it takes to construct like you mentioned is the deterrent to almost prevent it directly.

I think there may be a deterrent to build stuff that makes no sense, like a maze of walls. But if your on FOB duty, it would not be hard to build a snazzy looking outpost with a few engineers. TBH I quite like the idea of alien minecraft, so want to git gud at engineering because i like the idea of creating nice looking fortresses.

[Renomaki]

Welp, time to pass on some wisdom that I hath gathered during my time here:

Cover such as sandbags and barricades are designed to stop projectiles in whatever direction they face. However, if you walk right up to one and "hug" it, it is possible to shoot OVER it and thus completely bypass it. Nifty when you need to hit a target that managed to sneak behind your cade line and don't wanna shoot up some perfectly good cover (while still getting a minor benefit from it)

If you are playing as an engineer and find yourself desperate for more metal, you could always gather up all those metal rods that litter the floor and melt them down into sheets. it takes about 4 rods to make 1 sheet, and all you need to melt them is your handy dandy wielder. A little can go a long way, I say.

Barbed wire has an odd quirk where if a xeno's pounce happens to go anywhere near it, it'll still stop them mid pounce as if they hit it directly. So if you had 3 cades but only barbed the middle cade, then pouncing over said cade will be similar to if all 3 were barbed! Won't stop them from just bashing down the unbarbed barricades, though...

You can put most holsters, if not all, on your suit slot! There is even a sprite that represents its location as well on your avatar. Funny thing I discovered awhile ago.

And lastly, an engineer trick that is rather rare, but possible. If you are in a large indoor area and you build a new light fixture, it is possible to power those lights using the building's local power. Try it out on a map like Big Red in the LZ1 hanger sometime! If you know how to make your own APC, arguably you could probably make your own headlights just about anywhere, but that is something I had not yet tested.

[Meatshield]

And lastly, an engineer trick that is rather rare, but possible. If you are in a large indoor area and you build a new light fixture, it is possible to power those lights using the building's local power. Try it out on a map like Big Red in the LZ1 hanger sometime! If you know how to make your own APC, arguably you could probably make your own headlights just about anywhere, but that is something I had not yet tested.

I think its possible to create mobile telecommunications servers?

For CO, what's stopping an order to people to build a lot of stuff for the FOB prior to first landing on the ship? I dont think marines would land without being able to build a solid beachhead rapidly.

If you can build telecomms and local power, you could actually have a large FOB within minutes of landing, have no need to scout engineering or tcomms, saving a huge amount of manpower.

[Casany]

I dont know what this means. I find once captured you cant do anything.

You can resist to try and escape the nest. If you have a gun switch to harm intent once you can break out and click the xeno, it’ll point blank them and if your using a shotgun it’ll stun them.

[Renomaki]

Pretty sure i read on a FAQ post on the forums here that engineers building walls instead of cades or sandbags is powergaming, dont quote me on that though, could be wrong and read it wrongly or something.

I dunno how it could be powergaming, unless it was done in a way that helps promote cornershooting, an issue that I believe is still possible today.

Otherwise, the building of walls is not a big deal, although it is a hefty investment. A single wall can take about... I think 10-11 sheets of metal to complete (which, when you consider the math, is just a single sheet cheaper than if you tried to make two barricades with barbs). If you plan on making walls, you better make sure to plan your construction carefully to make the most of it.