basically, imagine if a xeno player is doing really well: they’ve survived multiple fights, gotten a ton of kills, escaped certain death time after time, enough to get a name for itself.
This would be a codified mechanic to do it: xenos who have survived for X amount of time in combat, gotten Y kills or hauls, become something of a moby dick, and humans with enough leadership can name them so it feels all the more narratively impactful when they finally die.
Of course, there would have to be rules about what you could and couldnt name them, and the xeno player should have the final say if the name is approved. It should be appropriate and relevant to the actual individual xenomorph (Bone cleaver for a ravager, cauldron for a boiler, etc you get the idea), something that would make sense that a marine would actually give a name for.
As an example of how this might look, I give you: old one eye, a tyranid carnifex from warhammer 40k who has killed so often the imperium has a name for it.
I recall an ancient idea (maybe) where if a Xenomorph did particularly well in securing kills, they could be assigned a random name that is seen by the humans. Sorta as a nickname that was given to that xeno by the Marines.
If we were do make this kind of name system, I think a RNG setup would be somewhat ideal. To avoid “Dickfuck” as noted above.
Better idea: slightly battle-scarred or alternative skin options unlocked with Prime (not too dissimilar from original look), maybe even forced to be a mild prime debuff for being too good at the game.
I actually like this idea and it should become a markable icon that Marines will see on the xenomorph. Every class but the Queen. Could be cool to have a little trope to role play.
As for the battle damage debuff for Xenos only if you bring back Ancient and make the play time 1500 hours then you can debuff us but you REALLY have to bring ancient back
1500 hour Marines hmm. . . . Should be Staff Sergeants right. They can just be called Falcons or something cliche. Then they can have a Lead Metal for all the Lead they have used to kill our USMC enemies. That would be pretty cool.
If you are a Lead Metal Medal Falcon the CO should be able to immediately reform those Marines into a special forces squad. Sort of like Echo but not Echo. Could make Marine roleplay pop.
Bro what do you think xeno tags are if not designations given by the marines? This is why we should be allowed to call out things like “OWL ravager type, highly dangerous”.
OWL, BOO or GOD are not names I’d expect Marines to be giving to particular notorious Xenos.
Names like ‘Scar’, ‘Grid’, ‘Fang’ or ‘Mantis’ are the kind of names I’d be expecting. Actually aggressive or hostile names that real humans would be assigning, not a pseudo nickname that has to conform to a very strict naming convention.
Anyway, this just my opinion, for a RNG name system. Don’t take it as a blessing from the people in charge of stuff.
As far as I know, while the rules allow marines to identify specific xenos by their name, it isn’t an intended feature for the long run and in the future marines should not be able to identify xenos by name, same for xenos identifiying xenos by name as both are often used for metatargeting specifically.
I assume you mean xenos identifying humans, in which case its kind of impossible because you arent going to be looking at names unless you want to confirm someone’s identity. 9 out of 10 competent marines can be identified immediately simply based off their drip and sprite. It is basicslly impossible to get rid of metatargeting humans, hiding names wont do anything.
It does work the other way around though, since xenos all look the same.
I remind you, the designation for xenomorphs species is XX-121. So having a lurker with assigned id like BOO-123 makes a lot more sense than “Scar” (cringe). This ravager behaves exactly like OWL-666 from the previous encounter, so it is now designated OWL-667.
The name Xenos have it’s meant to be campy. Something unable to be communicated between the species. No xeno should be calling out Marines by their name. In my opinion, the designation is the species name to the extent that they decided to not give Xenomorphs a proper Latin science designation.
but you REALLY have to bring ancient back