TGMC:Guide to resin construction

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This page is a part of the TGMC wiki. TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase.

For drones, shrike, queen, hivemind, and hivelords.

Introduction

The only construction that xenomorphs can do is through resin. After you've weeded the surface to your heart's content, you now must fortify to ensure that xenomorphs don't eat too much lead.

Factors to consider for resin construction

An important thing to consider in constructing defenses for the hive is the structure's purpose that it is supposed to serve for xenomorphs and against marines. Given that both xenomorphs and marines have variance in toolkit, one must plan to ensure that xenomorphs get the most out of the resin structures.

1. CQC opportunities: Is it a choke point meant to hinder marine progress and funnel them in one by one so they can be picked off by CQC xenomorphs?
2. Is it a simple siege camp fortification, meant to protect sisters from marine fire and provide them a place of safety for resting and healing?
3. Reducing Marines' Firing Lanes: Do these pillars, which provide cover for the CQC focused sisters, hinder the ranged and charging based sisters
4. Xenomorphs' Lanes and Firing Lanes: Do these long unhindered lanes create perfect places for the ranged sisters, or do they cause horrible walls of automatic fire that hinder the CQC sisters?

These are important things to think about when creating the best structure for the needs of the hive, and remember, different structures can be used in different places, same as for certain caste of Xeno.

Firing lanes

Firing lanes are an important factor to remember when facing the marines in open combat. Marines maintain firing lanes in order to avoid friendly fire which can cause lots of casualties on the marine side. It is your job as a Hive-builder to make friendly fire happen as often as you can, make claustrophobic areas that make shooting randomly at shadows a bad option, have runners bait two groups of marines into firing at each other en masse and watch the tears flow. It's important to note that marine friendly fire is usually explosive in nature, considering here on TGMC we have aiming which reduces instances of friendly fire significantly (although still very prevalent despite efforts), so its best to build structures that hinder the use of grenades, grenade launchers, and rockets launchers.

Crusher/charge lanes

An important fact to keep in mind is a Crusher needs 7 tiles to begin charging while Bulls need 5.
Charge lanes or crusher lanes, are clear of obstruction paths of tiles that crushers, and bulls, use to gain momentum and speed for their charges in order to combat marines in the case of the bull, or smash barricades in the case of the Crusher. It's important to keep these lanes clear as Crushers and Bulls need as much space as possible to build speed for damage during their charges.And important thing to keep in mind, Crushers can, and usually will, knock down your structures in order to give themselves a clear lane for charging.

CQC chokepoints

A important thing to understand as a xeno, 9 times out of 10, a single xeno, will defeat a single marine in CQC. A good hive builder keeps this in mind when designing specialized chokepoints in order to funnel marines into close quarters. The most common of these type of structures are the bigger brothers of the Killer Pillars, known as the columns of doom, these are 2x2 thick pillars designed to absorb gunfire, and hide a xeno sprite behind, until an unga over extends and gets pounced upon and nuzzled SAVAGED BRUTALLY by a Rouny. Usually, you want to have a entry way at least 2 tiles wide, this keeps the chance of sisters body blocking each other to death to a minimum and helps funnel marine pushes to only a few men at a time, giving xeno retreats a breather and helping sisters vanguard certain points.

Preparation time

From the time you wake up as a little xeno noodle, to the time the shutters come down at the marines FOB, you have around 25 minutes to, A. Evolve into your preferred builder caste,(this will usually be Drone but Hivelord has its strengths). B. Begin building defenses and hive structures from the words, "You emerge from your old shell into a new form, for the hive!". Having the initiative and getting to work as soon as your able is a great boon to future hive success. Just make sure to coordinate with sisters on what structures they recommend and how you can shape the battlefield to suit the needs of the hive. Remember, unlike marines, xenos are a collective of individuals whose express goal is to help each other, communication and knowing what your other sisters need is key, especially in the crucial prep phase.

Plasma Cost

Before the shutters open, the construction costs of walls and weeding are reduced by half. Use this opportunity to set up defenses, and remember that things will be more expensive once the fighting begins.

Picture Examples

Just talking about hive defenses is not enough to learn, so let us go over some hive defense structures, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses so that you can make a good decision when building.

Exhibit A:

The classic Killer Pillars are a highly adaptable and easily replaceable defensive structure, designed to slow marine advances and absorb gunfire.

Pros:

High Adaptability: The Pillars main strength is that they can be quickly re-adapted to suit the current need of the hive, being able to form a wall, or a meandering funnel is a major strength of a good builder.

Non-Restrictive of Mobility:

The pillars provide a extreme advantage for the faster moving xenos such as Runners, Drones, and even the Hivelord, because they can make great use of their speed to weave through the pillars and strike the enemy from a another angle of attack.

Explosive Dampening: The pillars provide excellent protection from explosives because of their nature, a rocket is far more likely to hit one of the pillars and have its explosion mitigated by the surrounding pillars, lowering its effectiveness and saving sisters lives.

Cons:

Easily Destroyed:

Being singular pillars, with not much to back them up, the killer pillars are as easily destroyed as they're replaced, and a particularly fast rolling unga ball can quickly decimate the defense.

Clear firing lanes:

Depending on the pattern in which you are building the pillars, you are either giving marines clear fire lanes through it, from the north to the south, and to the east and the west, or you are blocking one direction, but giving them clear shooting through a another. We emphesize thinking about this when building fortifications and making sure areas where marines have a large area of fire are blocked off, while not hindering sisters.

Build time:

Depending on both map and situation, the construction of multiple pillars can be daunting, especially if you are the only builder class of the hive.(Which you really really shouldn't by the way, make that Queen work!) So you must pay attention to the time needed to build fortifications and what other sisters are doing.

Exhibit B:

The bigger cousin of the killar pillars, the Thriller Columns provide more cover for sisters to hide behind while also blocking significant line of sight for marines.

Exhibit C:

A structure I dub the "Defense Station", these are equipped with tightquarters for sisters to dip into, as well as fire suppression and protection in the form of multiple acid wells and a Resin Jelly Pod.