With the prevalence of multi-z levels on maps, I was thinking how it can be rather arduous to go up and down them. Depending on the circumstances of the round, some areas may be completely blocked off from going up, if for example, xenomorphs have control of a passage way that goes upwards and towards marines, giving them unfettered access to shoot down at them, and run back to heal as necessary. You can shoot back up, but they still have a very significant advantage.
I have once, made a wall underneath a Z-level for the purposes of climbing it (There were no nearby walls to climb, and ladders upwards were blown up.) But that took time and effort, as does the actual climb animation. I had an idea, what if com techs had access to a sort of combat, retractable ladder? Something they can place down next to a z-level that allows marines to much more quickly go upwards?
Gameplay wise, I think this would help challenge the strict superiority that xenos can have when they have full control of an upper floor. Realism wise, many militaries sport boarding ladders and assault ladders and things of a similar suit. It would fit perfectly into the equipment as a comtech.
A negative I can certainly see though, is continued item bloat. More stuff needed to be taken, with less space to do so. It’s certainly not an item every comtech would have to bring, let alone every map. And not necessarily a negative, but if the ladder is absentmindedly forgotten (or it’s owner killed), then xenomorphs should also be able to use it for swift traversal upwards.
Should xenoes even need ladders? They should go at the same speed across most surfaces, no? Make a drone build a wall that’s missing and that should be all.
I would give the ladder to PFCs, maybe with same storage and stack rules as the porta-cade, providing the same buffs as boosting from wall-leaning.
My only worry is mappers might balance multi-Z around not being able to climb some places, like the Almayer catwalks actively blocking wall scaling in most spots, but you can just make it exclusively wall leaning in that case.
I didn’t even think of inflatable walls for quick-assembling a climbing wall, thats so amazingly niche!
Meme idea, fireman trampoline or resin-landing pads for rapid decent when?
go with earlier suggestion to have it made from metal/metal rods, so it makes metal more versatile instead of needing to pack bespoke ladders. I think a comstech could macguever a simple ladder out of metal, though it wouldn’t be very tough. Maybe add additional rods/metal to give it an anchoring ability so it can’t be moved?
Can confirm at least as a marine. I had an engineer build me a wall that I then climbed to get up. Perhaps there a wall there before and it got destroyed. Happened on Solaris Ridge, southern LZ, in the cargo area. Felt very clever doing it, but it still takes a while to climb.
you could allways climb metal walls build under roof edges, and with bumpclimb you can climb resin too, not sure if it is inteanded but I like it for xenos