NB: There is still the exploit where every single human player can get a pistol. You just select security officer kit and then join a squad. On Ellen's Haven this isn't an issue as much.

I will be discussing a few points mainly centered on balance starting with the maps, then the players, then the aliens.

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MAPS
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*****ELLEN'S HAVEN****

O Develop a garage that stores the vehicle into which the aliens can't get. It is FAR too easy for the aliens to destroy it before the crew can get to it. Perhaps this garage is locked and the crew need to unlock it by some method that forces them to split up.

O Limit the number of aliens to 2. Three is too much for 7 players even with rifles. It is VERY easy to ambush and kill them all, even with two aliens sometimes but reduce the respawn time (and make the aliens spawn in a nest not in the main are because as the alien i almost always spawn in front of a group of people and usually the whole lot of us die (guns and acid yo).

O Make three separate security rooms that unlock separately. Perhaps the crew need to activate an alarm in order to open them letting the aliens know where they are. This also improves the ability of the humans to rearm if they all die as all the guns are now gone at the start and then everyone dies and the humans are defenceless.

O Add two or three locations outside where the crew can rearm but they should be dangerous to get to.

O Add additional objectives to the distress beacons and outposts. Perhaps the humans have to power them up from a power generating station (perhaps the outpost far in the east can do that) or local ones that are situated 50 meters or so outside the outpost but that the vehicle can't reach. The base inside could also be powered off and only have emergency lights and perhaps alarms at the start (to make it more difficult for the aliens to hunt the humans), similar to the space station (just without the beeping computers).

O Add an additional, optional, "secret" exit so that the humans can get through if the aliens are ambushing them repeatedly.

O Double the tickets of the humans. This simulates a larger colony and might go well with the next point. It's INSANELY boring to die as a human and have to wait 3 minutes only to die and not get revived but you're so worried about the tickets. It's just not fun to sit around. I've watched several streams now and a lot of people just stop playing because it's so insanely boring to stare at a death screen). The cost of reviving/not reviving SHOULD NOT BE THE PLAYER'S BOREDOM. The choice of losing your rifle or not is enough I think. And remove the ridiculous 20 or 10 tickets loss per death, it just doesn't make sense and it GREATLY confuses players who I see giving up constantly not knowing this. Just make it 1 ticket per loss and adjust total from there. Unless this is a technical challenge I don't see the point in doing it the way it is now.

O Limit the vehicle to only carry three or four people. This will force some crew to either stay behind (to harass the aliens or distract them) or move on foot. And add two pickups that prevent the players from taking damage outside. Powerful tool but very limited use.

*****CREW QUARTERS****

O Add an additional method to enable life support (perhaps physically replacing filters or something, its too easy to just camp it as the alien).

O Find more methods to force the players to split up and complete stuff, the objectives are too few for 9 players, because almost every game 7 of the players just stand around doing nothing and dying and serving no purpose. Distracting the alien is useless nearly as its easy to spot if you've played more than a few games as aliens and just camp the objectives. Perhaps there should be optional objectives that makes specific noises to notify the alien but give the humans specific advantages. This will force the alien to prioritise targets and the humans to split up and not just sit around.

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CREW
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O Add an additional mercenary/military/riot police class available limited to one for the whole team regardless of number of squads). This class can take more hits from the alien (proper body armour compared to security). This ensures that the humans always have one well armed class to protect them and force the alien(s) to be more sneaky => The class can't be everywhere at the same time and should have a distinct look so the alien can easily spot him.

O Give everyone flashlights. It's impossible to see at times (turning up gamma just makes the screen SUPER foggy so you can barely see at all), you already have to hide it from the alien so I do not see the benefit of restricting its use further.

O Apart from navigator and security, the other classes don't seem to make any difference to the game at all. People rarely use them and they serve no distinct purpose. They die just as easily and even though the wrench does more damage you still just die from the acid or alien anyway and the slightly higher damage serves no purpose then.

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ALIENS
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O Add an additional alien class, a Hunter. He can see well as the humans can), sprint fast, is very quiet, and small. He has a very high rate of fire on his claws (and perhaps should get the classic tail spike for longer range strikes at low rate of fire but instant kill). Additionally he can be killed by about 1.2 pistol magazines, just so that one crewman can't kill him but two or three have a chance. He has high DPS but is very incremental so he can't easily attack more than one target at a time). This will force this class to play very stealthily and hunt people, making quick run ins and strikes to reduce player's health or kill a straggler but they can;'t take on big groups. his upright movement allows him to use vents and jump higher.

O The second alien class is a "tank like" alien, it moves slow (walking upright is fastest and loudest, crouching is quieter but a fair bit slower, and prone is very quiet but slow at the pace of crouch crawling now). Sprinting makes it very noisy and isn't as fast. Sprinting in crouched and prone should not add much speed. This alien has high health, no ranged attack, lower DPS but can kill crew in one or two hits (except the heavily armed kit should take three or four). This alien acts as area denial and can absorb say 1.5 magazines from a rifle (to counter its slow speed) and quite a bit from pistols. Humans should perhaps be able to outrun him OR give him stamina that runs out quickly so he can only manage short bursts of speed (for three or four seconds) that allows crew to escape if they're lucky. This alien will be easier to play, especially for new players who I see complaining a LOT that the alien dies to easy: it doesn't, it just requires a more refined and skilled play style that most people won't get within their first number of matches (considering how rarely you play as the alien).

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NOTES
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Having two classes allows players to pick an alien suited to their play style, the hunter is more difficult and the skill gap much larger but is much better for stealthy/sneaky/scary/RP-friendly, whereas the "tank" has a smaller skill gap and is easier to play for new players. Perhaps on Ellen's Haven you can still have three or even 4 aliens but they are all the hunter type and easy to kill with rifles - forcing them to make coordinated massed attacks such as in Aliens rather than the first Alien movie. Fits well with the whole style of the EH map I think.

The main problem with the mod at the moment is boredom - sitting around doing nothing, getting bum-rushed by the alien and everyone dies forcing you basically to instantly lose the game or have to wait several minutes for a revive, and just a general lack of complexity to the tasks. Make people go to two or even more locations (some optional) in order to complete but make it more visible on the map where these objectives are as most players joining have absolutely no idea what to do (the text on the map is hard to read and doesn't actually tell you what to do or how to do it). Experienced players on the other hand can quickly rush through the objectives before the alien can say "Peekaboo" leaving new players to never learn the mechanics, feel confused and leave within a match or two because nothing happens and they just keep dying the whole time. But this is a long term goal along with something I think would enhance the game play massively: add more pathways and verticality (for the aliens) to the maps. They feel really small and repetitive after 10 matches already, this is also a long term goal obviously.

This mod has such INSANE potential and it saddens me to see it already losing players because the mechanics aren't explained, after two matches it's frankly boring for most people, and its just frustrating generally as the exploitation of the advantages of the aliens/humans almost always means the match ends with one team getting absolutely wrecked and achieving nothing.

A large part of the changes I considered, and some partially experimented with, as far as possible in-game. I've only played around 15 matches as the alien and I already have to force myself to role-play otherwise the crew barely stand a chance.

p.s. My apologies for the long post, hope the formatting helps a bit with the few who do read it all.