The P-WAULS 1 Piloted Battle Harness

Development Ideaguys
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I’ve envisioned that our game is set very early into the overall conflict between humanity and the on-going xenomorph threat. The Colonial Marines, and even Weyland-Yutani, have little overall knowledge on how to actually fight the xenomorph threat properly, let alone they have not developed weapons systems intended for contact with xenomorphs. This is most highlighted that the Marines have not been issued any gear designed to resist acid or facehuggers, let alone weapons systems that are more effective against xenomorphs.

Even the PMCs have limited gear, and the ‘ape suits’ we see in the Movie feel woefully under-equipped for what the task envisioned, as they feel to me far more ‘theoretical’ than practical on how to actually resist a xenomorph threat.

Over time I would envision our Marines would start to be issued more appropriate field equipment. Specialized sub-variants of the M3 armour with special coating to neutralize acid, full-face helmets to prevent a facehugger from attaching to the user, specialized ammunition that has been extensively studied to deal maximum damage to a xenomorph target, new tactics, etc, etc.

The concept proposed in the OP almost feels like something developed in response to the xenomorph threat.

Perhaps too clunky to be used in a conventional combat scenario between Humans and Humans, its lack of movability would render it a sitting duck for anti-tank weapons or high-powered rifles. But against Xenomorphs, who mostly engage in melee combat, this would make an effective lynchpin.

It’s a nice read, I don’t know if it’d fit in with the game, but I applaud the effort.

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Don’t forget power armour also exists in lore:

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Personally i dislike the idea because the sprite for it looks like something that fits TGMC/Halo more then CM, but if it were to be remodelled to resemble the bigger Ape suits in AVP:E then i wouldn’t mind it but let’s be honest it will just get denied for the same reason combat mechs are.

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That’s a modified ape suit used by USCM flamethrower forces. Admittedly AvP Extinction predates most of the more modern lore of the universe, but it does showcase some improved USCM equipment (m4x armour my beloved) and is an inspiration for some Alien castes (Ravager being a prime example).

I’m surprised no one has done a ‘K-Series’ alien strain as a cameo in CMSS13

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I think this is kinda the powerarm used in alien commics do not remember its name

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This would be a great way to change up the meta of CM and shake things up, right now marines have gotten no new toys whatsoever for the past year aside from the scattergun this is straight up soul, it has sprites and has obviously be thoroughly thought out CODE THIS SHIT NOW

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All power armour with the exception of the later Ape Suit seem to just be Powerloaders someone stuck a gun on.

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Ape suits were also in avp 2, for whatever reason anyone cares

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Yeah but the ones in that game aren’t as bulk and don’t look as much like a power armor in AVP:E.

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TL;DR question:

Is this a michelan man level suit

or a light class mech warrior level suit?

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who marked this as the solution and why?

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I ask the same thing. As is I appreciate the effort but it looks too much like Halo Armor to me.

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Very badass of you to just drop a full on design doc in here.

But as others have already stated, it doesnt fit CM. Neither astehtic or gameplay wise.
Marines are about range combat, and xenos about melle. Giving marines anything that makes them compete with xenos in melle aint a good thing.
Besides that, its goods are so good they simply are unfun to figth against, even with the ddownsides.

The artstyle is also completly unfitting for the alien universe. There are full body suits, but they look more brutalist. Z-110 Acid Neutralizing Combat Wardrobe | Xenopedia | Fandom
Dont forget, the style is sci-fi for people from the 1980s. Not Modern CoD.
Best way to prevent that are more exosuit type mechs. Hard to make them too funky sci-fi.

Also a side note, 60m batterie time is basicly endless. Most rounds last between 1:20-1:40 h. Meaning you would have to recharge it once in most rounds.

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I think it depends on how it is implemented. There is certainly ways to make it fun to fight, so long as it isn’t meme walking barricade armor like the Tank or APC.

I think it does have the potential to fit both the aesthetic and gameplay appeal of Cm13. But it does definitely need a major redesign from the one suggested in the OP’s thread post, I agree.

If used to fill a respectable niche, it will be similar in nature to other marine weaponry, and thus fit the gameplay.

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Have you even read what its supposed to be able to do?

It can tank melle dmg, potentially even fully negate melle dmg, as part of the ranged faction; Can grab and trow t1; Warriors are useless against it, it cant be grabbed by it, or tossed; senti is completly unable to do ANYTHING; has a weapon that can challange T3s in melle, when xenos are supposed to be the melle faction; even better slugs; double dmg buckshot. The list goes on.

A power armor COULD work, but it would need fully new sprites. Like, there are already more visually fiting power armor suits in alien that still have the brutalist esc astehtic. And gameplay whise, it would also need to be fully redone to be fun to figth against. Like, all that can be keept for CM really is the core idea of a powerarmor. So much is fundemetally overtuned about this.

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Lets break this down a bit.

That is okay? Marine with a certain build can become near-immune to melee damage, even if in ranged he becomes useless due to it\halves his potential damage in exchange for near-immunity to brute. Besides, all the modules that make it tankier also make it SLOW. Speed is very important in CM, IMO, so fighting in a thing, that is actively slower than a flaked crusher burning in green flames, probably requires some counter balance in the tanking department.

If you get caught in a grab as a drone, defender, sentinel or especially runner - you are simply bad. You deserve to get thrown into a wall for being caught by a powerloader.

GOOD! Actual first good counter to warriors that isnt just walking into them with a M41A\M39 while hoping there’s no more warriors to lunge you or having to bring slugs.

Sentinel? Someone didnt read the OP, it seems like, because sentinel can make you basically go blind as-if eyes of the pilot are completely broken or he suffered severe bloodloss and may actually make it viable playing sentinel. Reminder: Can be blinded up to 4 tiles of total obscurementby consecutive, successful hits from the Sentinel’s Slowing Spit. Must enter a 3 second Diagnostic State to clear the spit, or let it sluice off itself after 12 seconds. The Sentinel’s Crippling Strike will slow the suit down 50% for 2 seconds, then stun it afterwards for 1 second.

Wait, do you mean whenever I go around killing Young XX spitters with my fireaxe - I am playing marine wrong? Huh… Strange.

I will be real, have not looked at the shotgun, but this does seem funny.

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One, thats straigth up a lie. I be happy for you to prove me wrong. If you know a “certain” build can allow this, do it and post a clip. windows allows you to record clips easily. Stims dont count.

Two: Marines are Ranged faction. Xenos are Melle faction. Yes, one can do the other somewhat. But its not supposed to fully counter the other in any way. Cause then you kinda ignore the core design phylosophie and a LOT of balance.
Its cool in idea to be able to tank melle hits from a xeno. But thats only cool for you, and maybe once or twice for everybody else. Especially xeno player. Like, how would you feel if you could barley do you main form of damage because you had the luck to run into x class just existing.

Being able to just ignore a cast isnt a counter, its fundematly broken design. You dont counter a stretegy by saying “nuh uh, my marine has like anti grappel shield, so you cant grappel him”. Thats playground logic.

Besides, Warrior always had a counter. Its as simple of a counter as Hedghogs shield. Just, you know, dont stand so close to doors or blind corners. You can move, you can keep your distance. You have a gun. You dont need to get into range of the War to shoot it, never did and never will.
If you get grabbed by a War, thats usually because you fucked up. Or all the xenos teamed up, but then its a reward for them, you know, doing teamwork.

You mean that if you get in melle range of the thing you need to attack in melle your a bad player because you did whats required of you to defead the enemy that has a counter to doing what you need to do to counter it? You dont know that stuff needs to be fun to figth against do you?

Congrats, you can figth one of the weakest melle casts in melle. Yes you can, but its not saying jack shit. Cause you cant melle 1v1 most other Xenoss casts. Because, you know, they arent one of the worst melle casts like the spitter is.
Thats like saying your better at basketball then someone in a wheelchair. Yeah no shit, doesnt mean you good at basketball.

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No faction is getting countered here. Single xenos, maybe, but not a whole faction.

yeah and?

IF the niche it covers is stun resistance, it’s good against stun castes. And so is synth, and that’s only 1 person in the whole round. And genuinely 0 xenos have only stun abilities, except Senti.

You know what counters almost every ability except for ranged ones? Barricades. This is still better then barricades, since it moves, initiates combat, and is still a person to beat.

So long as it isn’t unbearably tanky and incredibly high dmg (which i agree, would be stupid design-wise), it’s perfectly fine to have 1 marine be immune to stuns. because it’s 1 marine, it’s not gonna solo you. For example, you could still use punch and fling for dmg (and potentially even repositioning), but it won’t stun the suit.

If you can still frac the suit user, it is still weak to melee and fun to beat. But it does have an easier time pushing fronts.

Having to take 3 times longer to turn is incredibly detrimental in cqc combat and movement in general. Alongside being slow as fuck. It would need marines around it, so it encourages teamwork.

The suit user itself would be unable to chase, unable to push alone. Ideally, balance-wise it’s situational, with skill expression in the form of aiding pushes against stun-heavy comps. This helps against things like caste-stacks, or fronts over-relying on one xeno. If its allies are pushed back, it’d ideally just instantly die to 1 or 2 xenos focusing it.

And because it’s slow, when a front is broken up, it’ll be the first one focused. Xenos just naturally attack the slower targets because it’s easier.

Yeah i agree the suit should have 0 melee capability. No modern military is gonna invest much in melee weaponry.

No, that spitter is a noob, spitter isn’t inherently terrible at melee combat.

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Bro, you know we play SS13 where you can see like 7 tiles away from your character and even the slowest marine, or xeno moves that distance in like a second?

Both factions are melee, marines only have it slightly extended.

This could work on a spec-type of marine, which this would be exactly. We have ravs and queen that are completly immune to fire (unless custom tanks). It is cool to be immune to fire, but that is only cool for ravs and queens. How would you feel if you could barerly do your main form of damage because you had the luck to run into x caste just existing?

That is not a counter, dummy. Counter to runners is buckshot shotgun, runner comes close, you PB and it dies. Counter to defenders and crushers is fire, you ignore their armor.
Counter to warrior is slug (if RNG god favours you), because as soon as it appears, you can push it away and stun it, especially when it already grabbed other marine.
It is like saying that every xeno has a counter to SADAR and it is not approaching any clear firing lanes when he is around.
It is also not a counter to Hedgehog shield. Hedgehog shield is a counter against bullets, SADAR would be a counter here.

Or we can play this stupid game. Every xeno has a counter to buckshot, simply don’t ever approach marines, use tailstab.
Every xeno has aforementioned counter to SADAR, simply never be in a clear line of sight of SADAR. Hope FF kills him for good.
Every xeno has a counter against tank, simply run around it, it can’t turn as fast. Another counter is to just always run away when you see it. Hope FF kills it for good.
Xenos have a counter against OB, simply run away when you see laser, or atleast when you hear the sound que. Same with CAS and mortar. Hope marines run out of OB, CAS and mortar.
Xenos have a counter against anything OT makes, simply avoid marines. Hope marines run out of OT mixes.
Xenos have a counter against stims, simply avoid marines. Hope marines run out of stims.
Xenos have a counter against this power armor that will never be added to CM, simply run around it, avoid being close, use tailstab.

He probably means that it is on you if something that turns like a powerloader catches you. The same can be said about flamer tank, you need to attack it in melee as mot castes, but only Rav and Queen can reliably do it.

Either way, there is no point discussing it, it will never be added. I remind you all that we can’t even have a tankier khaki powerloader with M56D attached to one of it’s arms.

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Uses fire as example wich is only avalibel in limited number and is restricted weaponry.

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Truley a chad, ignoring any logic to just say their arguments anyway. I can only learn from you. Like how the faction using guns primarily is a melle faction acording to you.

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Here’s what I cooked up in the meth lab, only ran around 2-3 field tests.
You will need: Solaris Ridge map, riot helmet, heavy\riot armor, 3 riot shields for MAXIMUM protection or 2 riot shields and a melee\ranged weapon. This combination if gear makes you receive minimal amounts of damage as marine even when fighting ravagers that arent beserkers. I am yet to meet a zerker so I dont know if he’ll just body me, but hedgehog and normal rav could only use their gimmick abilities to actually hurt me(rush and boneshards).

Oh, I had just the perfect round yesterday, where the hive picked 5 ravagers and queen de-ovi’d early on, guess who I was? A pyro. X class completely made obsolete due to X Caste being immune to it, aint that fun? And then the opposite happens when there’s 0 ravagers - pyro counters the entire hive, simply by flaming everything and not allowing xenos to push, while a good pyro player also removes fire and pushes it forward, allowing marines to take land. Aint it fun when X class counters X faction by simply existing?

So that’s why ravagers are completely immune to fire, crushers are completely immune to small explosives or potentially all explosives, not counting SADAR and OB, if done correctly? Or maybe that’s why defender can just go “Haha I am immune to nearly every bullet ever!”? Or even boiler just counters every single push by simply existing and gassing one choke, EVEN WITHOUT THE QUEEN?? Yeah…

Fun fact: Out of all those castes the only one that is actually supposed to fight the thing is a defender, and it can just fortify if grabbed. Runner can continiously walk behind it, even if acider, and the thing cant do anything about it unless marines are near. Sentinel can blind it from afar, as said before, so it should not be in prolonged melee. Drone should not be fighting at all, period.
You are making it seem like the P-WAULS can grab a queen and just throw her into a marine pile, while the thing can only grab T1s.

Spitter is probably the strongest 1v1 caste in the game right now, even base runner doesnt compare to it. Also the whole killing young spitters was a joke, but I remember one round where I went under stims in the mids of xenos and almost 1v1’d a vanguard praetorian.

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