It's ridiculous that the shuttle gets called as soon as xenos get spotted at all. Usually despite the crew already being armed to the teeth with lasers and mechs by the time when xenos even start. Over my last three xeno rounds, the shuttle was called before the first infected host even burst, with only one alien and a queen - and departed before any larva matured. And honestly, with xenos being such a rare event, getting my round ended before it really kicked off, solely thanks to the crew's ability to press two buttons, didn't really feel fair.
I think the crew should either attempt and succeed at kiling the queen, or be punished by xenos reaching endgame. Similarly, the xenos either fuck up and get wiped out, or get rewarded for succeeding, by getting to reach endgame. I don't believe xenos should be punished for the crew being too incompetent to clear out a small hive.
Implementation concept:
- If there's a living alien queen on the station Z-level, the shuttle stays on the station due to the hostile environment.
- Once the hostile environment is announced, the pinpointer points towards the queen.
- Hostile environment is resolved either by the queen's death, the queen leaving the station Z-level or the queen interacting with the shuttle console.
- Regardless of whether or not the shuttle was able to leave, once the humanoid to xenomorth ratio on the station Z-level reaches 1:3, the round ends.
The main takeaways from this proposal is that the crew is forced to at least attempt confronting the xenos, the xenos get to take over the station if they do well, and the round isn't extended for too long once it's clear that the xenos won. And no, it's not possible for another queen to evolve after the first's death to prolong the round - the time required for xenos to recover from the queen's loss is longer than the 3 minutes it takes for the shuttle to take off.
It would appear that I'm a high RP weeb who hates roleplay and anime.