Old hijack (Almayer) I think you’re referencing in the question was very tough.
Between the win-rate and how that manifested, the state of the marines as you’d usually expect during a evac, and the options you had available it was quite difficult to even escape the ship.
Regarding Self Destruct. Wintermote got much of right but a little bit forgotten. A lot has changed and shifted with it and I don’t recall the fuel pump area much. I do remember that very old SD though:
Imagine Lifeboats central room but tighter in room size. There were no flanks of the scale you can get with Lifeboats. This was a room designed for self destruct and designed like it. In the center of the central room were 6 ‘pylons’ (I forget the name so I’ll call them that). What you had to do to Self Destruct was like Engineering SD but you had to wait for these pylons to raise. The time to auto raise one was I believe 5 minutes. Then someone had to touch it and activate it. It started from the north left and then moved to the right, before continuing on the bottom row a few tiles below that.
Behind this room was the SD room & a smaller room north and south of it. Once all the ‘pylons’ were raise and activated, you could SD. Often, you would see the corridors, then multiple cades lines (3+ on a good day) and then a often more half-assed cade line or two in the final rooms.
For a big fight over SD (the kind you remember), xenos would throw themselves at the SD room and the hallways leading up to it. The actual room itself heavily fortified. If the xenos timed it right, all they had to do was push the marines back into the last cade lines & final room where they would not be able to activate the ‘cells’. This often culminated in some pretty wild moment as marines would lose the core SD room but survive in the last room and area near it with cades…and people would practically leap out of the cades to their deaths to desperately try and get that one elusive touch of a relay to get marines 1 step closer to SD. Even with like 10-15 minutes up on the clock and a solid 6-8 tiles of xeno horde death to cross to get to one… marines would manage this sometimes.
It was a grind and chaotic but it generally felt like a really hard fought grind and win when you managed it
That was SD.
Evacuation I forget much but I do recall it could be quite hard to even survive a round when trying. Hiding in a locker was a valid survival method to make it the timer…but the flip side was xenos almost religiously would open those lol.
Holds: this was quite common and it varied on era and nerfs of course. CiC for example wasn’t a bad hold and I believe at one point even could be a little hellish to take for an invader. Then it got nerfed. Brig then became a decent hold but was difficult for marines…still nerfed. Briefing and Requisitions was a common option and a good one too imo…if you had a large marine force left. Tank Bay was a hold but is kind of an era after all this. Note: Tank balance is a whole other story in itself and I’m not getting into it.
DS retreat to the planet happened, but was less common compared to the current amount it’s being used. A lot of the gimmicks you’ll see remain the same there (i.e trapping, 3x sentries on the DS and so on)
Of minor note (very rarely impacting the round beyond stealing metal away from real defenses) were the suicidal maint holds
Atmos: Roughly existed and not entirely intentional in impact. More of a holdover & sometimes admins would intervene at least to fix a gaping open hole. Still, it was quite fun in a fashion. For example, marines would decide one op they did have a chance to defeat the hive so they would assault the crash site. But the crash site would be depressurized and without oxygen. To fight efficiently and over a long-span of time marines would desperately loot the oxygen lockers for masks and oxygen cannisters. Alas it never enough for everyone which which was more of the issue than it existing in the first place. Marines would make do but it could be a issue on a macro scale of an assault.
Something you definitely don’t see much, if any, of these days is the panic over evac v SD & the lengths people would go to get results. The methods of survival were guaranteed once you get them…but far more difficult to actually achieve I think and dependent on the whims of a CO/XO who …not always table. Many a BE…many a murder lol.
I think the cades removal was wrong and silly both IC and OOC; but I also think something needs to change so Xenos are not as easily cast aside in hijack. Maybe that’s readding cades ironically and playing into the fearRP, or limited atmos, or way more larva. I do think marines evaccing with more currently but that’s such a subjective belief it’s hard for me to say without any bias or proof compared to the past