As the title says, what quality of life additions would you like to see in xenos?
This has been something that’s on my mind the more I’ve been spending time playing as a xeno. There really isnt as many QoL aspects of xeno gameplay that marines have, and I think it’d be nice if xeno mains can get some nice things added to their faction to make it more enjoyable. I’m not going to discuss any balance related topics because that’s an entirely different can of worms.
Some of the things I’d love to see personally is being able to hand out physical royal jellies to the xenos I’m rewarding, because I have met a lot of talented xeno players (SAM, ELI, ENA, for example) and they deserve as much appreciation and recognition as marines with medals do. And ir’d be nice if we can get sprited icons of each jelly on our medal list so that it doesnt feel like another block of text added to our achievements and actually have a visual representation of our work.
I think having some kind of a mentor xeno wuld be a huge improvement too, as xeno gameplay rarely allows new players to learn with a dedicated mentor, and they have to understand what “cave holds’“ are or how to cap survs fast enough before they try to kill themselves from the get go.
there should be 3 popups before you get to join as xeno going “Do you want to join as a xeno?” “Do you really want to join as a xeno?” “Are you absolutely certain you want to play xeno and nothing else on CM for potentially the next 4 hours?”
Tacmap when Queen is off Ovi, even if it only shows your location and comms towers.
Toggle for leader tackling other xenos.
An in-game explanation of tackle mechanics. (Hell, I don’t think this is even on the wiki. I learned after far too long on a xeno forum guide thats probably outdated post lurker/warrior cap nerfs)
A queen toggle so any xeno can break special structures. (Clusters, ect.)
Warding pheroes description mentioning that it lets you run while below 0HP for a short time. (Also not on wiki AFAIK)
Notification when pumps are fixed on hijack. Probably less important if FTL goes through, but still annoying when one CT stealth fixes pumps and the game doesn’t inform xenos until 25/50/75/100 percent.
Marines have SEA, someone who is able to take the time to teach a pvt in a safe environment (shipside) and guide them at their own pace. Imaginary friends are really clunky to use in comparison to teaching someone in person. You cant point, you cant even see someones health, plasma or indication of whether they have pheromones on or not, and we cant hear any radio or hivemind chatter, so its hard to guide xenos when a lot of their gameplay revolves around communicating and carrying out queens orders since they dont have a dedicated safe environment to learn and need to survive and prep for marine landing the moment they are spawned in.
QoL additions for xenos happen once in a blue moon whilst marines get one almost every week or two. It’ll be nice if xenos also have some of the tools they have expanded for ease of comfort or for better enjoyment
Tacmap is one I definitely agree with. Xenos only having tacmap with queen on ovi is supposed to be a reason for queen to stay on ovi but I am not convinced any queen player has ever refrained from de-oviing for the sake of letting xenos have tacmap.
All it does it fuck over xeno players who aren’t familiar with the map. Especially with the kind of maps we have nowadays like hybrisa. Like seriously I don’t know how you expect a new player to be able to deliver a cap to the hive on hybrisa without tacmap (this is also partly the fault of not allowing tunneling anymore). Following the hive core marker does not work when the map is designed to funnel you into dead ends that you get stuck at, like the labs in SW caves or the derelict ship.
MultiZ indicator is 100% a balance thing, if it’s added for marines then it’s also definitely not a QoL even if it’s said to be so. No that’s 100% balance anything said otherwise is just wrong.
Tacmap being added to the marines is, too, not a “QoL”, it literally makes the game easier and gives information to the marines. Once more if this was called “QoL” that’s someone taking the piss.
Autoweeding, if it’s a button and you just auto weed after 2-3 tiles instead of max range would be closer to QoL, but ironically this min-maxes the plasma usage for drones especially when they’re out of weed range and have no plasma regeneration. It’s minor but it’s not QoL.
People should understand the difference between “QoL” and balance.
QoL is making filling up sandbags just one click on the floor and one click on the sandbags instead of tediously standing still and changing between them.
QoL is allowing xenos to click one on snow to remove it instead of playing clicking simulator 27 times to clear 9 tiles of snow.
QoL is NOT giving all marines fireman carry.
QoL is NOT automatically placing a stretcher on a laying down marine and instantly buckling them, this too is balance.
In either case, y’all have a good one with this discussion. A QoL for xenos would be to go put in the status tab the timer left for a xeno to evolve into a queen instead of having to wait, or asking a drone “are we there yet? are we there yet?” every minute.
Qol is not something that is incompatible with balance. It’s not like it has to be one or the other, because otherwise literally anything is a balance patch.
This is not qol, as it helps xenoes by knowing when queen arrives even though the hive mind is down. This then gives xenoes free intel on this to capitalize on and is therefore a balance concern.
Do you not see how absolutely bonkers that is to say, even though it’s “technically” correct?
Giving players a map and where they are on it is a very minor balance concern when you can just alt tab to limit ok at the map om the wiki. It just makes this process easier hence it’s a QOL.
Auto weeding is still spending plasma instead of rapidly clicking the weeding button. Which is just pure QOL. Like how city builders and factorio has automatic spacing for light posts so you don’t have to do precision placement on every tile.
