Question: what happens when a multi ton piece of metal hits a space ship in orbit?
Obvious answer: it fucking explodes.
Lore and logic aside, hijack is just that. It’s violent and it fucks the ship in ways the crew can simply not repair. Kind of like throwing a fastball into a toddler’s temple. So let’s think of hijack with these facts into consideration. The drop ship comes crashing in. The entire ship shakes. Every system goes down. Emergency dim red lights replace the lighting and alarms blare in every corner. The ship is thrown out of orbit and falling into the planet’s atmosphere. As it enters and the exterior begins to experience drag from the atmosphere resulting in hull integrity to steadily decrease. As it does the shaking become more frequent and so do fires and explosions within. All the while the surviving crew is battling the hive in a frantic last ditch effort to get to a pod. Within minutes the ship breaks apart and all still inside are killed.
Now that is some atmospheric gameplay don’t you agree?
Question: what changed from the original?
Answer: for one it’s a lot faster and a lot less tedious for either side. Normally there would be an HvX round two on board that could last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes (correct me if I’m wrong) and on occasion the last survivor of the losing side would just hide in a corner making everyone chase after them for another good few minutes and end the round. A lot faster indeed. And probably more exciting. The adrenaline rush to get to the last pod while fighting with tooth and nail against ungodly monstrosities all the while everything around you crumble into a hellish inferno.
I think it’d be pretty understandable if you liked the second more than the first right? Besides CM is also a roleplay server. Having a cinematic moment integrated in the game loop would only elevate the experience. That’s what hijack is in a sense. Not quite great at that as it is now but it’s the closest we get. But for something like that there’d need to be a plan to create the proper environment described above.
Question: how do you map this out into the game?
Possible answer: for starters the ship cannot be completely disintegrated upon impact. The fact that everything crumbles to dust around the drop ship impact is anticlimactic as fuck. The drop ship is not a meteorite making a crater into a field. It’s an oversized metal fragment that lodges itself into the ship. To feel like so the walls around it must be damaged but largely intact to give the impression of it actually being lodged in.
Then the emergency systems. When the ships gets fucked beyond repair the power goes out and emergency lights light up. Basically the ship is somewhat lit red, often hinting the presence of a xeno lurking about like the franchise intends it. Atmospheric as fuck. Then the sirens. You are literally sealed in an oversized metal coffin falling from orbit. I’m sure the system should remind you that every millisecond in the form of blaring sirens. Regardless of where you are on the ship. Alien franchise has some really iconic emergency sirens that the game sadly does not exploit. Finally ARES and queen mother should keep announcing the current integrity of the hull as it drops, adding a sense of urgency both for xenos to finish off the crew and the crew to get the hell out of there every way they can. There’s space for extra announcement of other important systems failing as the ship falls that don’t really influence gameplay but instead just add to the urgency and the dread of imminent doom. Something like that could be gravity stabilizers, life support, reactor overloading etc etc.
Now onto evacuation. The ship falling at mach fuck from orbit down towards the ground is not gonna wait for you to refuel your life pods for ten minutes. You don’t have ten minutes. They should be fueled already. When the ship suffers catastrophic damage evacuation must naturally be automatic. Also remove the boats completely. They are for resupply not evac. If they stay they must be non functional and looking like actual cargo vessels. Since the ship is more or less destroying itself self destruct is not really needed.
Damage from planetfall manifests itself as explosions and fires. Existing system for pipe explosions is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t cut it by itself. We need explosions in other parts of the ship, randomized to simulate systems collapsing and pose hazard to those on board. Fire is also important for the setting. It can’t be temporary like fire tends to be in CM. When it engulfs a room let’s say it needs to stay there. As minutes pass more and more fires appear and stay lit in different areas of the ship. Some small like 1 or 2 tiles, some larger engulfing entire rooms. They essentially deny space for the survivors on board, both xeno and human to move eventually having to face each other and speed up the fight and process. Finally don’t forget the shaking. As the ship goes down it shakes throwing everyone off their feet. The more time passes the more frequent the shaking. Adds even more to the atmosphere.
So there you have a fast hijack filled with chaos that only increases by the minute. It doesn’t feel like a repetition of groundside gameplay and is instead a lot more frantic, forcing the players to think fast and provide them with additional challenge.
Ik contributors and maintainers are gonna look at this and be like nah fuck that 