Maps are given substantially more pre-placed Hive defenses. Like, quite a lot.
Marine Operations begin with a squad headed planet-side to conduct reconnaissance. (Not a big squad, comparable to survivors.)
Xenomorphs are given respawns in the moments before first drop.
Pre-placed Hive Defenses:
Drone tax no more! This helps establish reliable round structure, similar to how marine SOP enforces a barricade line of non-makeshift defenses. Since a Queen cannot dictate the castes of the Hive, and it is perfectly understandable that no one may want to play a building caste; this is also a necessity for adding round start marines groundside. These should span most or the entire cave network (or equivalent) of a map.
Falling Falcons Recon Squad:
Essentially a more coordinated survivor/ERT role, these marines begin the round deploying to the planet. They should be given an arrival window like in the ERT structure. This helps make the round more immediately action packed and acts as a balancing force against additional pre-placed Hive defenses.
Predators should be encouraged to attack and hunt the recon squad, giving preds a window to play without worrying about front lines. Recon Squad marines can be set to perma on first death so that predators may fight, maim, claim heads so forth without worrying about round removal.
It might also be fun to have the Recon squad spawn in a “hunting grounds” style area, and must navigate towards the main area where survivors and LZs are located.
Xenomorph Respawns:
To not affect evolution and Hive size balance, xenomorphs can be given a free respawn, or waves of respawns similar to Whiskey Outpost (but not as limiting) for the early moments of the round. These respawns help ensure a reliable round structure for when marines drop, and should be null once Marines land.
Fun idea but a nightmare to moderate. Recon would probably rush xenos.
Maybe, as a type of surv on certain maps where xenos start evolved or have faster evolve. Or limit them to a tiny squad with pre made loadouts dropped in orbitally.
Could be fun as XO having recon try and secure comms early, or assist survivors.
Big fan. The main difference between rounds is how willing the Xeno’s Hivelord is to sit and click middle mouse for half an hour. BORING!
A survivor team with the specific goal to kill the Hive is always going to kill the Hive. Survivors are much stronger than Riflemen, and have nothing to lose (nothing to FearRP).
Big fan, this is one of the main things Xenos need that keeps getting overlooked. Survivors (Recon in your case) and Xenomorphs should be given free tickets to keep playing after 00:20 to discourage AFKing or Hiding.
The free hive structures is a good idea to discuss, but there are reasons why it has not been implemented yet. Because it just makes the game less varied. People would know where the defenses are and would meta around them.
The rest of your proposal is halfway there to my survivor rework proposal. But the issue here is that survivor mains seem to be more interested in removing the gameplay from themselves, so realistically the next game change for them that would actually go through would be them starting in a complete rwall hold. Oh, I’ve got an idea! What if we add rdoors?
Another thing is that lets say there are 8 survivors and 8 recon. If they die\get capped it’s one less squad for the main marine force a possibly lots of caps for xenos.
i like this idea, force the recon marines to recall after first drop so they don’t just become a free foxtrot, and let them join a squad of their choice when they return, or give them a free marine respawn when they die so they don’t fear RP
