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You are expendable.
You are a grunt marine of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, you follow your superiors orders and don't ask too many questions.
Cog In The Machine
As a Standard Marine you will be assigned to one of four squads, alpha through to delta teams. You start the round having just woken up from cyro sleep, you'll need to get something to eat before going to gear up.
This is my rifle
Once you've geared up your next task will be to suit up and prepare for the mission. Go down to your team's locker room and open any locker. Once you've suited up go find a free weapon vendor and start getting your weapons ready.
As a standard marine you have access to five firearms, two primary, one secondary and two sidearms. You can only easily carry one primary weapon but can carry multiple secondary and sidearm's. Your primary weapons are two-handed meaning you must carry them in both hands in order to fire them, unless you use a gyroscopic attachment to force them to be one handed, but the secondary and sidearms are one handed, in addition your primary weapons will only fit in your armour slot, you cannot put them in your backpack but you can sling a primary weapon onto your backpack slot, which is not a bad idea since you can use webbing and your Marine belt to carry your ammo, thus allowing you to carry two primary or secondary weapons into battle, such as a SMG and a M41A.
- Pistol -- Sidearm. Easily carryable sidearm this weapon has a slow rate of fire and deals mediocre damage, but is a reliable fallback weapon in a worst case scenario can can be placed in your pockets or other small containers. 12 Bullets
- Magnum -- Sidearm Powerful pistol capable of dealing a lot of damage, but suffers from having similar weight to the SMG. Consider getting a holster webbing to carry this on your jumpsuit if you take one, however this weapon is oft used by Specialists wielding very heavy weapons. 7 Bullets
- SMG -- Secondary Usually used as a primary weapon for Specialists, this can make a acceptable fallback weapon in a pinch. Suffers from dealing low damage to targets and being ineffective against high tier aliens. 35 Rounds
- Shotgun -- Primary Good for close encounters. Powerful weapon that can deal a lot of damage to any target. Suffers from having to reload each shell individually as well as having to cock the gun after each shot. However in comparison to a M41A, or even a upgraded Magnum, this weapon is really poor. 8 Shells
- Pulse Rifle -- Primary Overall robust and effective long arm. Deals good damage against most targets and is overall a reliable gun, upgrades from attachments can further increase the power of this weapon.. 30 Rounds.
Your Squad
As a Marine your squad is your lifeblood, if you go at it alone you will die alone and quickly. You may not like it but do whatever you can to stick togther with your team's Squad Leader at all times. Your Squad Leader can communicate directly with high command, allowing him to quickly relay orders to you. In addition he can order in orbital supply drops and orbital artillery strikes.
Attachments
As a Standard Marine you are given the privilege of having access to two attachments from Cargo, to get these attachments you must go to the Cargo bay, located to the east of the mess hall, AFTER you have suited up in your gear, Cargo will not serve you if you rock up in your pyjamas.
Again, because you're a Standard Marine you have the LOWEST priority in weapon attachments, this means virtually everyone above you in roll has priority access to more valuable attachments. Do not expect to get the good stuff, items such as the Barrel Charger or Red Dot Sight are all but out of your reach.
Listed below are some simple attachment set-up's to start you off, these listed are for the M41A Rifle, but you can customise virtually any weapon.
- Bayonet/Rail Light - This loadout is free, in that you do not need to order these attachments from cargo. The Bayonet can be made by attaching some wires to a Combat Knife, while the Rail Light can be made be using a screwdriver on a stock Flashlight (check the briefing room for these).
- Bayonet/Red Dot sight/Forward Magazine Grip - While it might take a hard dice roll to squeeze a Red Dot Sight from the RO, this loadout is a stock and simple loadout that maximizes your accuracy, thus allowing you to accuralty hit even the smallest of Xeno's at the longest of ranges, while allowing you to deal a respectable amount of melee damage.
- Extended Barrel/Rail Light/Gyroscopic Stabilizer- This loadout allows you to fire your M41A with one hand instead of two, thus granting you a massive tactical advantage, such you still being able to fire you weapon even if you lose a arm. The Gyro Stabilizer serves to make the weapon one handed while the Extended Barrel cancels out the accuracy penalty of the Stabilizer.
Be sure to examine the attachments page to get a overview of all the attachments in the game, and when you feel comfortable (and you promote yourself to a more difficult role) to experiment with weapon attachments for your guns.
Center Mass For Fuck's Sake
When engaging hostile targets ALWAYS AIM FOR THE CHEST. Your marine armour is designed to block incoming bullets, meaning if accidently fire on a friendly (which will happen a lot versus Aliens) you'll deal little to no damage against fellow marines. However if you aim for the head you'll deal significant damage as a marine's helmet offers little protection against ballistic attacks.
Being shot in the head usually forces the victim to be pulled of the battlefield and be sent off for a surgical operation to correct the wound. Whereas being shot in the chest is usually just an annoyance.
Aliens take no additional damage from head shots, as such there's no reason to aim for the head when fighting aliens.
Only aim for the head if you encounter hostile Human survivors or PMC's.
You’re the not-so-intelligent grunt of the group, knowing a wide variety of run and gun tactics! Your job is simple, shoot and kill. You bring the trusty arsenal of a full range of weapons. Not to mention that stylish M41A rifle and the M37 shotgun. Just follow orders from your Squad Leader and you’ll get the job done, and likely be awarded a medal.