New update: Power, post-hijack evacuation and the Carrier caste

See the video above for a demonstration of the Carrier.

The Carrier is a T2 xenonid caste that the Drone can evolve into, and as the name implies, its main purpose is to carry eggs and parasites.

If you somehow loved doing logistics as a marine but want to do it as a xeno, this is the caste for you.

It can carry 8 eggs and 16 parasites and throw the latter onto marines. The days of the Queen having to order drones and lesser drones to ferry eggs and parasites around are over.

This is the second caste to receive a guaranteed tier slot alongside the Hivelord, meaning that the hive will always be able to support at least one of each.

It can also place resin hole traps, which can be filled with boiler gas, acid, or parasites. If you are a marine, be careful of where you walk!

This update also enables xenonis to see each others' live position while the Queen is in ovi.

Colony power and light replacement

Power mechanics have been added. Each planet has one or multiple clusters of fusion reactors that must be repaired by marines to restore power to the colony. Once they do, any areas with a working APC will have their lights turned on.

Xenos can break the APCs and the fusion reactors, and combat technicians are most prepared in terms of gear and skill to repair both.

Lights now properly break down into an empty tube instead of deleting the fixture entirely, allowing marines to replace them as they go instead of relying entirely on flares. The light replacer also carries its intended 50 lights now.

The engineering department, including the maintenance technician and chief engineer, will be opened with this update.

Post-hijack evacuation

Once the hijacked dropship lands, an evacuation process will begin, where marines and xenonids have to fight for control of certain areas.

These areas work towards fueling emergency lifeboats and evacuation pods for marines, but only when powered.

There are two on each end of the first floor of the Almayer and four on each corner of the second floor, with each turret having a pair of turrets that can be deployed to defend it.

Once refueling is complete, marines can take the two lifeboats on the far eastern end of the second floor to escape and surrender their ship to the xenos or the evacuation pods littered across it.

Both can also be launched early, with a 75% chance of crash-landing back on the planet, at the risk of encountering any remaining threats.

The exception is the Liaison's evacuation pod in their office, which has no penalty for being launched early.

Lifeboats must have permission from Command to be launched, while the escape pods require none.

During this process, late joins are disabled, preventing new and veteran players alike from joining into an instant capture or death. The full process can take anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes, depending on how well or poorly marines do.

This change also removes the rule that enforced a 30-minute minimum hold before evac.

Trijent Dam

By Tunguso4ka

Tunguso4ka has ported another map from 13, Trijent Dam, a desert that is split in half by two long rivers.

This update won't include its water purification mechanics, but that will be added soon after.

This also makes the map vote system exclude the last two selected maps instead of just the last one as we now have five planet maps to choose from, so you will have to include a third map in your lv > solaris > lv > solaris > lv > solaris rotation.

Evolution point gain changes

T2 and T3 castes now take the correct amount of points to evolve into (100 less for T2 and 40 less for T3), and the hive core also gives 50% more evolution points to xenos while alive.

However, this also changes the default evolution point gain to its intended value of 0.5 points per second instead of 1. With a hive core, this goes up to 0.75.

Xenonids will now also have their missing +5 evolution points per second (10 times the default amount) for 3 minutes on hijack start, adding more reason for marines to want to get out once it starts. You no longer need to wait for your xenos to evolve as Queen. The grow ovipositor action will also have its cooldown correctly cleared when the hijack starts. You can really just go and do it as soon as you are able.

Other changes, taken from the Discord #changelog channel

Vermidia updated:

🐛 - Fix some of the new outfits storage and suit storage whitelists

🐛 - MP armor can properly hold grenades in the suit slot now

FungiFellow updated:

🆕 - Flashlights can be turned into Attachments with a Screwdriver

Dutch-VanDerLinde updated:

🆕 - Added scout invisibility effects

🐛 - Fixed scout cloak sound playing more than once

Vermidia updated:

🐛 - Smartgun has falloff start at 7 tiles and loses 4 damage a tile

❌ - ML66A head mounted sight no longer gives farsight

DrSmugleaf updated:

🐛 - Fixed Praetorian acid ball pushing marines around like a pinball.

🐛 - Fixed Warden Praetorian acid spray having no delay and not stunning for 2 seconds.

🐛 - Fixed job slot scaling with pop not working.

🐛 - Fixed shotguns having no delay to fire when swapping between them.

🐛 - Fixed Lurker pounce and Praetorian dash going on cooldown if you try to use them without plasma.

🐛 - Fixed HE mortar shell damage being lower than intended, not even breaking one regular wall. A single HE shell will now destroy a 3x3 of regular walls (3000 hp), but only deal 6000 damage to a reinforced wall (9000 hp). This doesn't change the damage it does to xenonids or marines, only structures.

🐛 - Fixed some Praetorian and Warden Praetorian abilities being usable while resting. Spit, spray acid, acid ball, retrieve and aid xenonid now are correctly no longer usable while the Praetorian is resting.

🐛 - Fixed the popup for the Warden Praetorian's aid xenonid being incorrect for players other than the Praetorian and the target.

🐛 - Fixed the Warden Praetorian being able to gain internal hitpoints from spitting at a wall.

🐛 - Ported 13's 20-second cooldown for emote sounds. Anyone angered by this change should take it up with the hordes of people yawn and emote spamming during briefing in the middle of a Brigadier-General aboard the Almayer, or those spamming emotes in the dropship. Admins have better things to do than handle this dogshit rp every round. The scream hotbar action will always bypass this cooldown, also on a 20 second cooldown.

Whisper updated:

🐛 - Fixed missing sprites for the worn sniper spec weapon.

Dutch-VanDerLinde updated:

❌ - Removed akimbo shotguns.

Rainbeon updated:

🆕 - Xenos can now see their exact Health, Plasma, and Armor by hovering over each respective alert on the right side of the screen.

Dutch-VanDerLinde updated:

🆕 - Added pull animations

TsjipTsjip updated:

🆕 - High Command headset and encryption key exist now.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🐛 - Fixed mortars being hit by bullets not targeted directly at them, and being damaged by marine melee.

🐛 - Removed shotgun fire delay on wield now that fire groups are in. Akimbo shotguns still won't work, but wielding your shotgun will no longer put it on a very long cooldown anymore.

🐛 - Fixed the M5-ATL (Demolitionist weapons spec rocket launcher) leaving behind fake projectiles.

🐛 - Fixed placing eggs and returning parasites to them having no delay. Both now have a 4 second delay.

🐛 - Fixed some shutters and podlocks not being acidable by xenos.

⚒️ - Removed a lot of turrets from the landing zones of all four planet maps. The poison gas remains, with some turrets still within it.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🆕 - Added the missing boost to evolution points when hijack starts. For 3 minutes, xenos will get 5 evolution points per second, 10 times the default.

🆕 - Added the missing evolution point bonus to the hive core, when present it will boost default evolution point gain by 50%. This change also resets default evolution point gain to its intended value, 0.5 per second instead of 1 per second. A hive core will bring it up to 0.75 per second.

🐛 - Fixed some xenos requiring more evolution points than intended to evolve. T1 > T2 now requires 200, down from 300. T2 > T3 now requires 500, down from 540.

⚒️ - Pressing Tab will now switch to focusing the next input on the mortar window.

🐛 - Fixed the start of a hijack not resetting the Queen's grow ovipositor cooldown.

🐛 - Fixed Req not being able to buy 20 plastic for 2000 dollars, primarily used in the medilathe.

🐛 - Fixed the pump shotgun not being able to fit an extended barrel.

🐛 - Fixed putting a helmet in your pocket as a squad role giving you a colored mohawk.

🐛 - Fixed equipping armor by pressing F having no delay.

🐛 - Fixed epinephrine healing 5 Brute/Burn/Toxin instead of 20.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🆕 - Added Seeks-to-Fight and Stares-at-Stars figurine.

Vermidia updated:

🐛 - AI Parasites now have periods of Idleness (indicated by resting) and Activeness (indicated by not resting). Parasites will only leap/infect while active.

🐛 - AI Parasites die after 30 seconds if not picked up by a carrier. Doing this also resets the timer, and it doesn't progress while carried by them.

⚒️ - Egg placing now has sounds, and speed is 3.5 seconds, with normal drones doing it in 2.5 and carriers in 1. It costs 30 plasma to place an egg.

🆕 - Parasites can go into resin traps to fill them manually. AI paras will do this if they can't get into an egg.

🆕 - Resin traps can be filled with corrosive acid

🆕 - Almost all xeno announcements for deaths/trap triggers give location.

🐛 - Fixed prae's acid having the boiler spray sprite

🐛 - AI parasites will eat eachother if too many are close by

🐛 - AI parasite's leaps will infect from farther away

⚒️ - Moved carrier's egg and parasite count to examine

⚒️ - Made some carrier ability descriptions more informative

🐛 - Different acid sprays now dissapate at different rates, with strong acid taking 2 seconds and weak taking the original 0.6

🐛 - Praetorian's plasma cost for spray acid is higher. Warden strain's cost even more, and has a slightly longer cooldown

🆕 - Hives get 1 free carrier slot

🆕 - Ghosts can join as parasites from carriers

🐛 - Parasites won't become AI controlled until 7 minutes have past since the player disconnected

⚒️ - Throwing a parasite always makes them able to attempt leaps after the 5 second stun

🐛 - Player parasites can't be picked up, and can escape if they are. AI parasites can't be pulled

⚒️ - AI Parasites now prioritize downed targets, and don't need line of sight for leaps/infects

⚒️ - Carriers dropping eggs/parasites on death is more satisfying

🐛 - Item eggs won't show the become parasite verb

Dutch-VanDerLinde updated:

🐛 - Fixed xeno hud icons being visible while a scout is invisible.

🐛 - Fixed scout specialists not becoming visible on death.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🐛 - Fixed spray acid aciding too many cades, it will now correctly only acid the one its blocked by, and any on the same tile, instead of also aciding any adjacent ones.

🐛 - Fixed spray acid sometimes going through walls.

TeaTotalTemplar updated:

🆕 - The M276 Utility Toolbelt and M276 Combat Utility Toolbelt now contain cable coil (30 pieces)

CyberTropic updated:

🐛 - Barbed sandbags now return the barbed wire when dismantled.

TeaTotalTemplar updated:

🐛 - Vending machines will now break down into RMC Steel instead of upstream

CyberTropic updated:

🆕 - Added showers

deltanedas updated:

🆕 - Xenos are now told when the hive supports certain castes.

Tunguso4ka updated:

🆕 - Ported new Distress Signal map: Trijent Dam.

Vermidia updated:

🐛 - Xenos no longer hear about non-Queen xeno deaths if there is no Queen

CyberTropic updated:

🆕 - Added washing machines.

FungiFellow updated:

🆕 - Knives/Machetes can now pry unpowered doors

crystalHex updated:

⚒️ - Added the first-aid kit to the G8-A general utility belt blacklist until skill-based storage handling is added.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🆕 - Added power mechanics. Every planet will have reactors that need repairs, when complete they will give power to all APCs, powering any lights in the area. Lights will now only lose their tube when broken and are able to have it replaced, instead of disappearing entirely.

🆕 - Added post-hijack evacuation. During this process, marines must hold a few key areas to complete emergency fueling, letting them evacuate the Almayer through the lifeboats, or the escape pods. The escape pods may hold a maximum of 3 living beings, with any more than that causing them to crash. Escape pods may also crash if launched early, except for the one in the Liaison's office. The four fuel pump areas have sentries that may be deployed during a hijack. This change also temporarily removes the Savannah from selection until it can be updated to have all the evacuation and power mechanics.

🆕 - Enabled the Maintenance Technician and Chief Engineer jobs.

🆕 - Added Rhett 'Rainman' McIndrick figurine.

🐛 - Fixed the light replacer holding too few lights. It can now hold 50 tubes and 50 bulbs.

🐛 - Fixed spray acid playing a sound and not giving you a popup for not enough plasma when a xeno attempts to use it without enough plasma.

🐛 - Fixed gun damage modifiers applying twice. This specially affected the M4SPR and underbarrel shotgun attachment.

🐛 - Fixed being able to watch a ladder from any range.

⚒️ - Added examine text to guns that ignore friendlies and can shoot past them.

⚒️ - Increased the amount of tackles a Praetorian needs to tackle someone from 3 to 4.

⚒️ - Excluded last two maps from the vote now that Trijent Dam is in.

Vermidia updated:

🆕 - Parasites now show up on carriers

🐛 - Eggs and parasites from a dead carrier are no longer guaranteed to all drop

🐛 - Damage overlays respect being stunned now

MACMAN2003 updated:

⚒️ - The tactical map can now be opened from the alerts sidebar instead of only the actions bar.

DrSmugleaf updated:

🆕 - Added xenos seeing each others position live while the Queen is in ovi.

FungiFellow updated:

🆕 - Added the M276 Shotgun Shell Loading Rig

🐛 - Fixed parasites sometimes being hiveless

DrSmugleaf updated:

🐛 - Fixed Trijent Dam tactical map, mortar, CAS, power, bioscan and other area-related things.

🐛 - Fixed some areas on the Almayer being unpowered.

🐛 - Fixed being able to destroy or repair multiple fusion reactors at once.

🐛 - Fixed xenos being able to move while destroying a fusion reactor.

⚒️ - Made water slightly less wide so it's harder to get slowed by it.

🐛 - Fixed error spam when near a hive core.

🐛 - Hopefully fix players sometimes stuttering until they reconnect.

🐛 - Fixed bunker window frame sprites erroring in some cases.