It takes 1 second longer than the untrained splint time to climb a wall (this is an absurd amount of time). Idk how long it takes if you have a marine boost you by leaning. But the leaning thing isnt practical for large-scale movements across z-levels and most people dont know how to do it.
There should be PORTABLE LADDERS – for balance and realism it has to be hand-carried/carried on your back, so its not something everyone has. If the devs want people to actually engage with multi-z rather than just OBing it (which they currently can’t even do), then this is a NECESSITY.
I think I’ve stated before that I don’t want a focus on deployable ramps, ladders, or otherwise as a means to interface with multi-z. Natural stairs and ladders already exist, and Marines can climb anywhere they don’t otherwise exist, being able to create access where it otherwise should not be possible isn’t a can of worms I particularly want to open. That being said, the feature system (monolith lol) isn’t exactly fully put together, as mentioned. Yeah, it takes a long time to scale a wall, because it should take a long time. Freedom of movement is more or less uniform for Marines, but has a risk as sticking everybody in one place makes you easy to surround, where as xenos do not have uniform freedom of movement, which makes sticking together in one big ball difficult.
We’ll talk about Solaris because that’s obviously what the conversation is about –
As is I’d argue xenos have by and large the only benefit of the 2nd z-level (Z2) on Solaris.
Yes, I’ve shot xenos from above with an XM88.I know marines CAN have the benefit.
However, xenos get the time/coordination to establish positions on Z2 that marines don’t. And htat’s part of the asymmetrical nature of the game but right now it’s just not balanced. Those existing ladders, stairs, etc. are very intentionally made impossible to get to by xenos; they fucking brick that shit harder than the chokepoint to the hive, dawg, and if marines want to engage Z2 from the start – where they CAN access ladders/stairs – then Z2 is a series of endless chokepoints that can’t be OB’d.
Legitimately the tightest hallsways ever, everywhere. Reinforcements? There’s no asymtetrical injection of new marines on Z2. We already established that throwing people up there is a bug. And if you want ot coorddinate between the two z-levels, dawg, marines barely have map knowledge as is. I genuinely think their ability to move between the z-levels needs to be improved if marines are EVER gonna learn. I think a deployable ladder would very much encourage this.
That being said, I understand why you don’t like the idea — but here’s my prediction: Unless we improve their ability to interface with it, then the second marines can OB/CAS Z2, they will just start completely denying Z2. Z2 will be removed as a factor; they will bomb it to hell every single round. And I don’t think that’s what you want. There’s a decent chance I’m wrong but I’m pretty confident with this guess.
Considering the endgame with OBs is to have them penetrate through upper layers… yeah?
Also every single xeno I’ve talked to thinks Solaris has actually become harder for xenos since multi-z….both sides think they have it worse….SHOCKER
Personally, I don’t think marines should be able to climb a 10 foot wall without assistance from the top or bottom because it makes no sense from a logical point of view. I’ll concede that’s probably terrible for balance, but I guess this is my version of the people who get really bothered by alternate space races in SS14 CM
