TGMC:Transport Officer

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Revision as of 15:16, 3 May 2024 by imported>Notamaniac (Initial Defences: https://github.com/tgstation/TerraGov-Marine-Corps/pull/15693 was merged, removing the ability to create barricades on the Tadpole.)
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TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase.


MARINE

Transport Officer
Access: Tadpole Dropship Piloting, Pilot Gear and CIC
Difficulty: Hard
Rank: Warrant Officer (Starting), Chief Warrant Officer (25hrs), Ensign (50hrs), Lieutenant Junior Grade (100hrs)
Class: Navy
Supervisors: Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer
Duties: Fly the Tadpole, ferrying marines, supplies and mission critical objective items across the AO. Get hit with direct Boiler globs, Warlock gravity crushes, or get your Tadpole computer disabled by a stealthy Hunter because NO ONE CLOSED THE BLOODY CADES.
Guides: None
Quote:"We're in the pipe, five-by-five."

Introduction

As a Transport Officer, your chief role is to fly the Tadpole Dropship. The Tadpole is an important dropship that marines use as a rally point, offload supplies onto, and potentially acts as evacuation when things go FUBAR. Technically, you’re also meant to take command if no other ranking officer is present -- but it isn’t expected of you. It should be noted, evaccing early with half the marines -- and moreover, without announcing it -- will ruin the operation, and you will be blamed.
Chin up, it only gets worse from here.

More information about skills
Transport Officer Skills
Medical
0/5
Surgery
0/5
Engineering
3/5
Construction
3/5
Police
0/2
Powerloader
3/4
Leadership
2/4
CQC
0
Smartgun
-4
Melee
0
Firearms
1
Stamina
0

Communication

As part of command, you have access to all of the marine frequencies. Make sure you inform marines over general radio when the Tadpole is departing, and where the Tadpole is landing. You’ll often be talking to Requisitions for supplies (e.g. metal and plasteel), or an ASRS pad/fultons to sell xenos.

You also have access to Send Orders, which'll make a very noticeable announcement to all active marines, even if they're deep in caves. If you find yourself in trouble, or need to inform marines where you're landing, try to use this over using the normal radio frequencies.

Picking a Dropship

At the start of a round, you can choose one of several options using the dropship picker terminal, which will be located next to the Tadpole landing spot in the Hangar. You can only make a single selection, and this selection cannot be changed once the Tadpole is deployed. All variants of the Tadpole are equipped with a Flight Surgeon Medical Equipment Dispenser (stocked with basic medical supplies, autoinjectors and reagent bottles) and at minimum one fire extinguisher.

Tadpole Variants

Preparing the dropship

Once you’ve picked a model, you’ll be expected to fly it. Keep in mind that

  • You cannot launch until at least 12:18
  • Launching early will prevent the FOB drone from being deployed.

Make sure to consult with everyone before departing- deploying before the FOB is constructed will cause marines to be angry at you! This doesn’t mean you should be sitting around though…

Default radio commands:

  • .v for Command
  • .u for Requisitions
  • .m for Medical
  • .s for Fire Support
  • .e for Engineering
  • .q for ALPHA SQUAD
  • .b for BRAVO SQUAD
  • .c for CHARLIE SQUAD
  • .d for DELTA SQUAD
  • , for General radio

Initial Preparations

First of all the plasteel cades on most models are often unwired. This means xenoes can slash at them without taking any damage! You start off with barbed wire in your construction pouch, so use it on the plasteel barricades to wire them and help deter any nasties that might consider slashing at them. You might also want to link any plasteel barricades using a crowbar, which allows all the barricades to open and close simultaneously. This comes at the risk of leaving you more open to xenoes charging straight in and overwhelming you, should anyone leave the barricades open however.

You cannot build barricades, razorwire or anchor plasteel barricades on the Tadpole. Deployable barricades can still be used, and you can technically drag a plasteel cade onto the Tadpole (which a xeno can simply push or pull away, but sshhh!).

Installing Equipment

Circled in red are the Weapon Attachpoints. Blue is the Interior attachpoint. Green is the Navigation Computer. Purple is the blast door button.

Installing equipment on the weapon attach-points (on the front of the tadpole), and the interior attach-point (located inside, obviously) is vital to boosting the effectiveness of the Tadpole. Both these slots take dedicated equipment, and can be installed using a Powerloader, two are usually found inside the hangar. To install equipment :

  • Pick up the module using an empty claw on help intent (harm intent will attack the module itself). If you picked up the wrong module, you can drop it by clicking on an empty tile.
  • Click on the attachpoint while directly adjacent to it (weapon attach points can be somewhat finicky as they're small. If you're having trouble clicking on it, try alt clicking the tile and directly clicking on the attachpoint in the status bar).
  • To uninstall the module, simply use an empty claw on the module itself (not the equipment i.e. the sentry/HSG/surgery table. Again if you're having trouble clicking on it, try alt clicking the tile and directly clicking on the module in the status bar)

The hangar will often have some equipment lying around for you to choose, but in case they get lost/destroyed, you can print more using the dropship fabricator or order some from requsitions. Keep in mind that the Pilot Officer also needs to use the dropship fabricator, and often demands a monopoly on it. Don’t waste points mindlessly on equipment you don’t need. You can deploy equipment on weapon attachpoints using the Navigation Computer.

Also note that there tends to be a lot of electronic modules around the hangar e.g. spotlights. These cannot be installed on any current Tadpole variant, only on the Alamo's electronic attachpoints (and due to their very limited use as most LZ's are already lit up, rarely installed)

A list of equipment is as follows. (This can also be installed on the Alamo attachpoints, but as it's often parked on either the ship or the FOB, equipment is rarely installed on it).

Dropship Equipment


Stocking the Tadpole

Finally you'll need to consider what to actually stock on the Tadpole. As a minimum, you'll be expected to take a supply beacon from req so that the Tadpole can act as a resupply point and fufill req orders. Taking a fulton pack is optional, but also recommended as people with often drag corpses to the Tadpole, expecting them to be sold. If the RO is not present to give you any of these, you may need to hack the requistions vendor to get your gear.

While it's not mandatory, you should pack ammo boxes (which can be vended from the requsitions vendor), M-22 welding kits (from the surplus uniform vendors), cable coil from You-Tool vendors, and medical supplies such as splints, gauze ect. as the nanomed mini only comes stocked with the bare minimum. Food is also something essential to pack as well (you can vend protein belts from the surplus uniform vendors). Try to avoid throwing marines ammo boxes off the Tadpole, it's considered bad form, even if you have your own ammo boxes with you.

Marines may occasionaly use the Mortar or Howtizer on the Tadpole. While you aren't obligated to make space for them, just keep in mind that setting either up might be useful, should any marines want to spot for you.

Flying the Dropship

You can pilot the dropship using the navigation computer and other than you, only the Captain, Field Commander, Synthetic and Squad Leaders (including acting Squad Leaders) can launch the dropship.

Once you hit launch, after a little while you’ll be in low orbit (you’ll notice the scenery change around you). Click on the navigation computer again to enter the landing interface.

Landing the Tadpole

The Tadpole can land in any unobstructed, open-air position (i.e. not caves). When using the landing interface, accessible by using the central console in low-orbit, you will see a birds-eye view of the battlefield, and an outline of the Tadpole in the center of the screen. If the entire outline is green, you have a viable landing area; if any tiles are red, they are obstructed, and the Tadpole cannot land in that position. You can rotate the landing outline using the rotate button at the top of your HUD (smaller side is your nose). Once a landing field has been selected, the outline will turn blue, indicating that the Tadpole will arrive there shortly.

Fully green landing indicator. You're clear to land.

Partially red landing indicator. The landing zone is obstructed.

Blue landing indicator. The landing zone has been selected.

If you’re having trouble seeing where you are, toggle Night Vision mode (the option is in the window that appears when clicking the navigation computer). While in Night Vision mode all turfs are revealed, but you cannot see their contents or any marines/xenoes. Once you’ve decided where to land, turn off Night Vision and check to see whether the area you’re landing is under attack, has barricades or supplies. Anything underneath the Tadpole when it lands will be crushed, in the case of organics, gibbed.

Xenoes frequently wall off areas, so don't be afraid to ask marines to clear walls for you to land. You may have to repeatedly ask over radio, or use orders before Marines actually start to clear walls. Marines can also clear metal or reinforced walls for you, via using C4, detpacks, Plasma cutters, or a whole load of bullets (preferably fired out their guns).

Places not to land

  • On top of the FOB barricades
  • On top of ammo and supplies in the FOB
  • On top of machine gun emplacements/sentries
  • Directly in front of a whole load of xenoes
  • In the wide open where you can be attacked from all sides and gassed

As a reminder, disable nightvision mode to check if the area is hot, or if you’re landing on anything important.

The best position for the Tadpole is just behind the front lines or near the objective- where it can provide support with a HSG, but isn't the main focus of xenoes. Landing right on the front line themselves might block other marines- or more likely get yourself swarmed by multiple xenoes. The Tadpole can also be used to fortify a miner position, which will help bring req a steady stream of points. The choice is ultimately up to you, depending on what the Tadpole is loaded with.

Defending the Tadpole

There’s a wide range of threats to your Tadpole and if it falls, so do the chances of the ops success. Defending your Tadpole’s navigation computer is of upmost importance. Any xenomorph can destroy the tadpoles navigation computer after a delay, and once the computer is destroyed, the Tadpole will permanently disabled and will not be able to fly. There is no way to repair the Tadpole once it’s disabled in this manner. Do not let the navigation computer be destroyed at any cost.

If the situation is desperate, every Tadpole variant has a inner and outer door button. Pressing this will shut the blast doors, protecting you from threats… or keeping any threats inside and unable to escape. These blast doors are not invulnerable, and can be melted with acid or destroyed with a crusher charge, but they are immune to conventional slashing. Remember though, deploying these blast doors only delay the inevitable. You will probably need to leave, ASAP if marines do not bail you out.

When req has spare points, you can also consider buying a standard ST-571 sentry. This will better help defend against threats compared to the forward facing turrets mounted on the weapon attach-points, especially if you plan on leaving the Tadpole unattended. Either set them to radial and plonk them in the center of the Tadpole, or if you have the luxury of buying several- one in each direction.

Don’t try to be clever and launch with multiple xenos onboard. They can break the computer mid flight and land back on the planet safely. Don’t try to be very clever and launch xenomorphs back to the marine mother ship. Onboard xenoes are an absolute menace to deal with and will distract ship personnel and force marines to stay onboard instead of deploying. If you have no option but to abandon the Tadpole, do it.

More importantly close the barricades behind you when you leave the Tadpole to prevent threats from boarding and, INFORM THOSE FUCKWIT, CRAYON EATING MARINES THAT THEIR MOTHER WILL DIE IN THEIR SLEEP IF THEY DON'T CLOSE CADES BEHIND THEM, AND IF THEIR MOTHER IS ALREADY DEAD, THAT YOU'RE PERSONALLY GOING TO FLY OVER AND PISS ON THEIR MOTHER'S GRAVE, polietly but firmly remind marines to close the barricades behind them as well.

As for more specific threats :

Xenomorph Threats

Marine Threats

Orders

All Command staff and assigned Squad Leaders have access to Orders which can be used to buff nearby troops. Using one causes you to shout out a unique phrase over the radio. After giving an Order, there is a one-minute cooldown period until you can give another one, but cooldowns for Orders and Markers are separate.

Order effects are influenced by your Leadership skill, which increases both the effect and range.

Order Description

Move order

Increases movement speed by 0.1 per Leadership level

Great for retreats and getting to objectives quickly

Hold order

Reduces damage received by 5% per Leadership level

Increases pain resistance, reduces the effects of dizziness and jitteriness

Focus order

Increases accuracy by 10% plus 5% per Leadership level

Makes Aiming instant

Rally marker

Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Rally at a given point.

Attack marker

Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Attack a given point.

Defend marker

Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Defend a given point.

Retreat marker

Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Retreat from a given point.


Tips and Tricks

  • The importance of Mimir cannot be understated if you have no windows. You WILL be gassed. You WILL take damage. You will NOT be excused for launching early and leaving marines behind just because you nearly died to gas.
  • The NK Haul Tadpole is limited choice of dropship, as its large size makes it hard to land without marine assistance, and it's very hard to defend.
  • Sentries deployed on the weapon points have easily exploited blindspots. If you notice a xeno exploiting this, you can retract the sentries using the navigation computer.
  • Marines frequently do not read radio. They also miss announcements and orders. If you've repeated yourself at least twice over radio, and given at least one order- don't feel guilty about abandoning those marines if you're evaccing. You tried after all.
  • Most of the time, the Tadpole is going to end up cluttered. If you have trouble trying to find a specific thing, type Point-To in the command bar (default key TAB), then use the dropdown menu to locate the item you want. Once you press ok, a green arrow should appear over the tile the item you were looking for. SHIFT + click or ALT + click to sift through the contents and pick up whatever you needed to find.


TGMC
Roles

TerraGov Marines

Ranks

Command Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Transport Officer, Mech Pilot
Vehicle Crew Assault Crewman, Transport Crewman
Engineering and Supply Chief Ship Engineer, Requisitions Officer, Ship Technician
Medical Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Researcher
Marines Squad Leader, Squad Smartgunner, Squad Engineer, Squad Corpsman, Squad Marine
Civilians Corporate Liaison
Silicon Combat robots, Synthetic, AI
Xenomorphs

Playtime

Tier 0 Larva, Minions
Tier 1 Drone, Runner, Defender, Sentinel
Tier 2 Hivelord, Carrier, Hunter, Wraith, Bull, Warrior, Puppeteer, Spitter, Pyrogen
Tier 3 Gorger, Defiler, Widow, Ravager, Warlock, Behemoth, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler
Tier 4 Shrike, Queen, King, Hivemind
Others Zombie, Emergency Response Teams, Sons of Mars, Survivor