Thu 26 May 2022, 07:05
Apologies for engaging in thread necromancy, but I think this is a Xenomorph stat issue, not a gun mechanics issue.
The standard Colonial Marine arsenal feels appropriately lethal against human targets. It only feels anemic against Xenomorphs, owing to their armor rating and their health. And that's, I think, the error: while the films certainly establish that the Xenomorphs are resistant to sidearms (the only time handgun fire is shown to do more than ricochet off an alien's carapace is when Vasquez performs a point-blank mag dump directly into the side of one's skull), they do not show them as otherwise being particularly heavily armored or enormously resistant to injury. There are multiple examples throughout the film of aliens quite literally being blown apart by bursts from smartguns or pulse rifles, and there's even some evidence that Hicks' shotgun is effective (while Gorman is having his panic attack in the APC as the team is slaughtered inside the atmosphere processor, the sounds of shotgun blasts followed by aliens screeching come in over his audio feed). The only weapon we don't see actually kill an adult alien is the incinerator, but we can infer (from the queen flailing about in the inferno after Ripley torches the egg chamber) that fire at the very least hurts them.
So I think the Xenomorphs are statted wrong. They're not supposed to be bulletproof killing machines; rather, they're portrayed as fast, stealthy, vicious, and cagey hunters who are at their most lethal when they're able to surprise and/or corner their prey. When forced to assault a well-defended position (e.g., the operations center scene) they use guile and try to overwhelm with weight of numbers precisely because they're not indestructible tanks. I think their armor ratings are way too high -- I think reducing them by as much as half wouldn't be going overboard -- and the health ratings could stand some modest downwards adjustment as well. Thus modified, even individual Xenomorphs would still be terrifyingly-dangerous opponents for groups of civilians armed with crappy improvised weapons (like the Nostromo crew, or the Fury 161 prisoners), but they'd be much more appropriately "killable" by decently-equipped soldiers.