I remember when they were first added after a particularly heinous FOB rush, and I think their original intent was good. But they’ve been around for a while now, and I feel like they’ve done more harm than good to the game. I haven’t actually seen them serve their intended purpose yet, since the rounds where marines get stomped so hard they have an entire hive at the LZ before 45, they usually evac and just leave the hive to fight turrets. Unironically yesterday I saw a game where the turrets literally killed more xenos than the marines, and it was AFTER they evacced cause nobody wants to sit around and afk for 15 mins while they depower. The only purpose they seem to serve these days is mostly just one more delay factor.
I think they’ve taken away from the game for both backlining xenos and Bravo squad, and I have yet to meet anyone in game who actually enjoys their presence or believes they’re a positive addition to the game loop.
I would argue the better conversation to be having is not about the FOB turrets. It is about why are Marines losing the game so quickly that they become relevant. The FOB turrets have 20 minutes of power, the Marines take 20 to 30 minutes to deploy. So the game is ending quicker than it takes for either side to just prepare for the round.
That’s just not fun for anyone.
Personally however, I think the FOB turrets at least give the Marines a safety net so they have a chance to withdraw in these one-sided stomp scenarios.
Do you ever think marines having a safety net is what causes these one sided stomps? Before during lowpoop when you had a single commtech you actually had to use strategy and manpower to defend them. Now literally EVERY SINGLE marine unga’s and dies instantly, or momentum is killed by a pre-emptive fob retreat to utilize the turrets while they’re up.
The one sided stomps are the exception, not the standard to be strived for. Balancing for the exceptional stomp some rounds, at the expense of ruining standard gameplay for bravo and backliners EVERY round isn’t the way to go
But yes roundskips are more common than actual rounds these days, in favor of one side or the other. I think there’s a bunch of reasons that have snowballed to this, but in part I believe that was the original goal of the former dev team to reduce roundtimes. But I think that’s an issue that needs to be addressed separately, and requires a way more thorough conversation
I think FOB turrets are just too strong. They don’t need to be that strong to give some safety net to allow marines to cade. If they lose too fast, that’s on them. Let the weak die so the strong can adapt.
FOB turrets did nothing positive, artificially prolonging the round until sentries are down is not fun. Also Bravo quality is at it’s lowest now. I often see marines not even cading FOB until sentries are down.
I just want to point out that the reason that FOB turrets are a thing is largely in part because of xenos meta rushing the LZ. I recall the days when you as T3 were not allow to go near the FOB until the second drop less you want to get hit with a bowink.
The turrets are there so marines have time to build a fob.
If fob has been given time to be made then it has served the intended purpose. Edit: i reread what you said and have to say i am dumb. Still while yes the turrets do fail to hold off xenos some times that is rarity. but most the time they do serve the intended purpose.
Now this i agree on, they are too strong. If the marines are so weak its better for them to simply get wiped out and not artificially held alive.
I really like the idea of preventing early one sided stomps because I want rounds to last longer and hate when one side just immediately wipes the other.
However I feel like every time I see marines get pushed back to FOB while the turrets are still up, they always end up losing as soon as the turrets go down. In some cases they evac BEFORE the turrets go down. It feels really rare for the turrets to enable marines to push back and have an actual fight with the xenos. All they seem to do is prolong the FOB siege without actually turning the tides at all. And as much as I want longer rounds, I also think that FOB sieges are the least fun part of the game so having rounds be longer through an artificially extended FOB siege with super powered turrets feels like a monkey’s paw wish
FOB turrets don’t do anything against prepared xenos. They don’t fire inside boiler gas and have no effect on hedgehog ravs. Xenos that coordinate can plow through the sentries. Depending on how fast the marines are being pushed into the FOB, the turrets are likely to not have any barricades around them to prevent gas strikes. The sooner the xenos start rushing, the easier it is for them to end the round.
The FOB rework was complained about for much the same situation that it stalled the game when marines got wiped in a one-sided battle, because the transformer power had a shutdown timer before defenses dropped. The difference between the transformer and the landing turrets however, is that one instantly stops functioning when its destroyed.
Just make it a xenomorph objective that they have to switch it off and that switch is at the entrance of the FOB or something. Make it take the Queen like 10 seconds to operate the switch.
Turrets would be fine if they lasted five minutes (to prevent metagaming by rushing marines the moment they drop) and give a cushion for Bravo to cade. The current solution is ridiculously dumb, and it basically makes Bravo entirely useless as a DEFENSIVE squad for FOURTY FIVE MINUTES. The average round length is like 1:10 and the first FOURTY FIVE minutes you have turrets that are stronger than anything marines can do? Naw. Five minutes after drop for Bravo to cade and get their comtech sentries up. This is also why Brute is such a massive issue, because there is literally no point in buying a sentry when you have turrets that are about ten thousand times better than them ALREADY IN FOB FOR FREE.
Every round that xenos stomp early just ends up in a ridiculously prolonged FOB siege, that xenos will eventually win, but only after having to AFK for a longass period of time. Not fun for ANYONE.
Probably the reason why I hate transformers so much. In any situation where a siege begins and FOB turrets are down, transformer is taken out and marines are given a 5 minute brace time to orderly evac with xenos just being forced to stare at the incoming 70 marines Hijack they have to face.
Honestly I agree with what some have said already. The turrets were added because of the metarushes. The rules stated xenos had to wait at least until second drop to push FOB with T3s (the issue arose sometimes where xenos just wouldn’t know when second drop was, or marines would abuse this and keep the ship groundside indefinitely). So just let the turrets stay up for a period of time that is just enough for the ship to cycle (idk what it would be like 5 minutes?). Something reasonable that allows Bravo to get at least half a FOB up, not something that makes the LZ untouchable for 45 minutes
Or just get rid of them and go back to the old ways of just bwoinking metarushing T3s and giving marines a stupidly broken ERT to compensate for the xeno slime
I just wanna fight bravo as a backliner man this shouldnt be that hard
And from what I’ve heard most people on bravo also want to actually see something to shoot at too
It wasn’t just the FOB getting rushed almost immediately by T3’s, but also lurkers and runners rushing into the LZ when there’s like 3 guys in bravo and progressively wiping the entire fob force meanwhile marines don’t even have comms up yet, let alone any cadelines.
This would THEN be followed up by a general retreat to fob to clean out the backliners, which would cause all the T3’s to show up at the fob and force an evac after like 30-40 (total, including marine prep time) minutes.
This kind of collapse still happens from time to time, but the turrets usually either kill 2-5 xenos in the process, or give marines a chance to evac with the stragglers.
yeah but this scenario is just the game playing out. If it’s lowpop and youre in command, you should be keeping more manpower at the LZ to defend your 2 builders. It’s a strategy thing, you shouldn’t be mechanically handholding marines to ensure the round follows a specific railroad every time.
If that’s the case then why not just have FOB prebuilt every game? Then there’s no point for bravo to exist, and backliners will never get to touch the LZ.
Fob turrets was always a band-aid fix to replace admins having to enforce the no lz rush rule. The turrets can be removed if starting xeno pop was reduced so that queen cannot hell push at the start of the round. Also make it so survivor bursts only count for one larva rather than two.
The reason is the quadrillion marine nerfs to core features, medical, lighting, nvgs etc so marines as a whole are way weaker, then a bunch of hand holding and coddling happens, FOB turrets, and then marines rely on them, then repeat this a few times and you reach modern day where every marine is incredibly weak and doesnt worry about trying to win rounds because they have something they can fall back on rather than their own capabilities
Btw attacking FOB as xeno early was literally never an issue until it was called a made up rule on new varadero v1 then suddenly all of the marines are incapable of defending FOB