The whole reason we have had this rule (which is, as far as I can find, is actually completely unwritten right now) was because overwatch couldn’t overwatch SL’s, but now they can and yet I get the feeling people are going to say you have to wear the helmets just because you have to.
It’s not like you can’t just make someone else the SL when the first guy gets his head popped off 1 minute after drop. Let squad leaders be protagonists again.
I’m pretty sure you could always not wear a helmet. I don’t recall anything that explicitly says SLs must wear helmets, anyways.
The only reason SLs were ‘forced’ to wear helmets was because they have to follow any reasonable order given to them according to the CoC, and as such if your SO saw you were helmetless and went “; Listen here you narcissistic wannabe protag dumbfuck, put a helmet on NOW”, you couldn’t disobey them IC. (Realistically you could get away with it, SLs don’t follow orders all the time without consequences, but if the SO ahelps you, you are 100% in the wrong rules-wise.)
A helmet is still an objective upgrade to a naked jarhead’s skull, and as such if an SO decides that they in fact, don’t want the most ‘important’ marine leading 25% of the platoon to be decapitated or killed by a falling brick, you still won’t be able to refuse the legal order to put on a helmet.
yes, it’s amazing. Some SOs (as Basil says above) will still try to force you to wear a helmet but most just want to be able to see from the POV of head marine.
It’s kind of a noob trap because you’re opening yourself up to be decapped, and Xenos will just target your head but the aura you get by not wearing a helmet more than makes up for it. In 180 hours of SL (most of which with no helmet) i’ve gotten decapped maybe 5-6 times, all by FF.
In my book, you get points for wearing a helmet.
Rules wise it is not a OOC rule issue if you chose or don’t chose to wear a helmet as a Squad Leader.
SOP states that the current Commander can order key personnel to wear a Helmet, this includes Squad Leaders. However, the requirement to wear a Helmet at the discretion of the Commander is not stated to be due to the fact a helmet has an inbuilt camera, but for its own sake of being made to wear a helmet.
So basically, the issue of wearing a helmet as a SL has been, for recent history, an IC affair, not a OOC issue.
Thanks but I’ve had some players yell at me OOC that I need to wear a helmet (while its literally in my hands) or I’m breaking rules. Rules I haven’t been able to find written down anywhere, but I know we’ve had something about SL’s being forced to wear helmets for awhile now.
Personally going helmet-less actually reminds me to play a little more conservatively and act more like an SL than a frontline unga.
I’ve consistently played characters without helmets for years and actually think the current situation has gone a bit overboard - it’s not the decap chance that’s the problem (although that is also significantly more common for the past year or two) but actually the new brain damage mechanic that makes you drop shit. It’s unplayable not just because you can’t fight at all with it, but because getting a medic to fix it is a pain in the ass, especially when not even 1/20 medics carry their penlight AND bother to check.
But you can’t convince people that some things should be rolled back. It was perfect a few years ago, and now even the decap chance feels closer to 1/6th odds per stun+attack encounter, it’s actually very common if you get stunned AND the xeno player targets the head. The saving grace is more that 90% of xeno players don’t swap to the head (I AM convinced a few of them, rav players in particular, do have a macro to swap limb targets every slash to maximize broken bones though).
The solution, unfortunately, is to just ask them for IA or tell them you’re going blind. Most Corpsmen don’t take penlights and brain damage isn’t too common for ungas with helmets. A little LRP but if you ask them for IA directly, most will have some on them. I’ve noticed it a lot, my main problem is the same as yours. Ravagers (and any runner-caste really) breathing on you snaps your bones. You’ll be fine all game, getting thrown around by Warriors but one contact with a Ravager and they snap your ribs, and cut your right foot off 
.
If someone says to me they cant see, and their blood is fine, I just give IA without thought. if its not blood, it’s brain eye damage. ezpz
The main hassle with unprotected heads isnt decapitation (ultra rare) or organ damage (IA is carried by every medic, just ask for IA or say you’re blind), but rather the absolutely fucking absurd amount of IB you accumulate. It’s really frustrating as a medic to have the same dude come back every 10 minutes because they got IB again. IB is a relatively time consuming operation and it kinda sucks having to fix an avoidable issue when other people need help.
Started using the surgical kit recently, I toss out my retractor for a fix o vein and its a bit faster overall. FN for the blood loss, gold
honestly i makes fighting both castes kind of unfun, it would be better if they made slashing less accurate, to where it will still land a hit but it might not hit where you are aiming cause Xenos will only really target legs and head