Title basically, with how many different options both combat oriented and more style oriented stuff there is telling a difference between what weapons a marine is carrying and other equipment that should change how you approach a situation is a bit lost, or atleast muddied.
UBs for example, are completely undetectable on an Mk2 without prior knowledge, so them starting to knock down doors with it to chase might be very hard to read, other examples includes:
Oxy medicated marine running at full speed with low health, actual blood visuals are generally obscured and an examine would let you get a better read on a fight
Rainponcho thing that was removed for making marines too hard to read
New Brute launcher looking alot like the sadar tube, especially if laying on the ground
Angle snapping to north to hide a shotty/flamer you have two handed
Even further combat relevant equipment and medical things such as splints, if would be nice to know if that guy that has been chasing you through the dark and hitting shots is just lucky, or if you need to call for help against the NVs, Splints also showing on an examine would make hitting vital targets on a singluar marine more relevant, if skilled enough to hotswap
The list goes on, but either way it would give xenos a tad more information, in a very close quarters fight its not really relevant since you wont have time to examine and read, but it could help with making better decisions in fights.
It would also help newer players that might have a hard time seeing a two pixel shotgun on a marines leg sticking out or telling what attachments are being used, as many change the guns alot. IMO it wouldnt change much balance wise, but be a simple QOL.
i believe it is intentional, just like most of the strains don’t got a visual clue besides i believe acid runner, carrier and vampire lurker, things like hivelord, rav, prae , crusher, drone stay visually the same no matter their strains until you see one of their abilities. If the xenos had all the visual clues pointing towards all their strains, i would say it is valid that they can somehow identify some aspects of marines.
this was removed in 2017-2018 because people complained they kept getting meta-targetted for their role
frankly who cares, marines can know every single thing a xeno has(strain/caste) at a glance, why cant xenos. and 90% of the time you’re going to be wearing blatantly obvious gear showing your job.
“but muhh 3 pixel waist shotgun or 4 pixel north facing sadar!!!”
The truth of the matter is there is no reasonable way nor need to convey to xenos what guns marines are using down to the attachments in the heat of battle, and it remains that xeno strains are more important information to marines than marine guns are to xenos
Dosn’t have to be attachments, at all. All i want to know is if a dude has a shotgun, a flamer, an M39, a sniper rifle, or an M41A, without having to either have them shoot me first, or me having to get a magnifying glass to see if its an M39 or a shotgun.
Either make it more obvious, or let us examine. Imagine if the ravs only had a slight difference on their head with a hint of a symbol on them, or if the acid runner only had some acid around their mouth.
And its especially usefull for when specs just throw away their special armour to blend in with the rest of the pack so you gotta remember that x generic looking marine is actually the pyro/sniper/grenadier/sharp/whatever.
Thats not entirely true, xeno strains are relevant, in the same way that if a marine is carrying a Sadar tube is relevant to xenos, my main point here is that information that is relevant to xenos in a fight, especially in a 1v1 or a low health scenario, is very hidden behind clutter, and having more available information can inform your choices alot more, and add nuance to your choices instead of effectively having to play around every possibility.
The flow of information shouldnt get hidden behind the clutter, but removing the clutter and limiting choices isnt that good either, from a coding perspective its not a hard change to make, and the balance impact wouldnt be massive either
i got 1.3k hours as human and 70%% is about groundside, truly i noticed some with more different visuals, but as i got low xenos hours and in the heat of the battle i can’t notice most of the strains shown in the image it all becomes one big blorb of rav,prae,crusher,hivelord (prob just me), i will try paying more attention (i blame the wiki for the lack of such a good image to tell the xenos apart)
