Squad preference is going away for a month

[FGRSentinel]

Maybe squads shouldn't be assigned to one specialisation only.

If your squad cant adapt to the changing liquid form of the combat zone, then theyre just a one trick pony which is effectively useless if their niche specialisation isn't available.

If all squads get a taste of each of the whole marine experience, they'll be more efficient and flexible as a whole.

The whole argument that you're being "forced" in to a role is tosh, because first of all, youre saying that because you are "X squad" you are entitled to play as a QRT. That attitude itself isnt a great one and can cause imbalances in squad ratios, not to mention that attitude has lead to certain squads deciding that they don't like the orders they got and decide to flaunt them...and guess what happens then? MPs are deployed and so on.

The claims everything is going to fall apart at the seams because this novelty change is removed is laughable, I remember kicking arse when it didn't exist in the sulaco days just fine when it wasn't around.

The only thing I will miss is knowing ill see the same people in a squad everytime, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to meeting new players and forging a vaster range of relationships alike.

This doesn't really seem to do much more than glaze over what I said in my first two responses: squad preference's results and specializations can be justified by the fact that we can assume the squads were set up with their strengths in mind out of bootcamp, while you have to come up with a reason why half the people in a squad don't know each other without it. It also claims I'm saying that the system forces people into expected roles while not factoring in my own claim that removing squad preference will force most people into roles they don't like without Command staff knowing to expect it. If Bravo gets filled with a large number of former Deltas, Command's going to be left confused as hell if they order them to build an FOB and the squad disintegrates to hunt down every single thing they find while the engineers stay behind, which is what happens every time Delta gets FOB duty. It's not a matter of being unable to adapt, it's that some people simply do not like some jobs. The Xenos have something similar in that they get to pick what caste they become, which very easily defines what role and specialization they want to be. Wouldn't the Xeno equivalent of this idea be to give the Queen an ability to set a quota on different castes and hard lock Xeno players out of their preferred evolutionary path?

That's what you need to understand: Squad Preference lets Marine players say what specific tasks they're good at or want to do. Command doesn't need to factor that into anything, but it often works out better when they do.

[FGRSentinel]

Note this doesn't address my, what I feel to be, valid concerns with what SHOULD be blatant metagaming and power gaming that the Admin staff handwaves away.

Big Red: Xenos set traps within 20 feet of the LZ along the paths 90% of all Marine teams will follow in a narrow 1 tile doorway? "That's fine, they're not right on the LZs, it was a carrier up by LZ1 and the one near LZ2 was near the hive and perfectly fine." Explain how the hell a Carrier can just so happen to be in a spot to crab a marine within 20 seconds of the op's start (including time required to organize the squad before moving out) without it being "metagaming." Explain how planting a hugger trap in the only doorway leading to Engineering from LZ2, a path only the MARINES would be taking, isn't metagaming.

Prison Station: Xenos block off the exits from LZ1 with resin walls? "That's fine, there's no traps." Fill every tile in engineering with a resin wall, something that shows a massive, concerted effort that does literally nothing except hurt the marines and slow them down before they even arrive? "That's fine, all it does is waste time." No, no it's not. The former is basically setting up fortifications right outside the damn LZ and the latter is meant to annoy the Marines. A Xeno hive has no damn reason to fill an entire room with resin walls, but they do because they know they can get away with it. Hell, the last one still probably took multiple drones 5-10 minutes to do.

Note that the Big Red and Prison Station examples are ones I ahelped and actually happened. Those are essentially the official responses the admin team gave regarding them.

Pretty much every Almayer battle: Xenos somehow magically know where everything on the ship is and what it does (CIC, SD, Engineering, Telecomms, Medbay, etc) so they can freely rush the areas most likely to be defended or to have defenseless Marines. I've even heard Queens explicitly say "if we land in the front, rush CIC. If we land in the rear, rush SD."

If a Marine player or team did anything remotely similar to the above, they'd be chewed out by who knows how many people. So yeah, don't crack down on the Marine's justifiable "metabuddying" when you can't even be bothered to give a more than general guidelines for Xenos regarding metagaming. Give a solid, defined list of things that is considered metagaming for them that isn't vague as hell or filled with loopholes, just like how the Marines can't know where the hive is, what each caste does, or how they reproduce until they see it in action.


As for the "we want to make things easier to resolve icly" thing, you need to understand something. MPs aren't meant to be liked in real life. These are people who are strict as hell and unyielding by necessity. The way they're set up has it so not even the Commander can trust them outside of a mutiny since, funnily enough, MPs don't actually arrest people Command staff ask them to half the time anyways. MPs are always either too lax or just blindly arrest whoever they're ordered to or whoever they see do the slightest thing wrong. I know as SO and PO I've reported people for insubordination or worse crimes (like earlier today when two Deltas got into a fight on the Alamo and pulled knives/machettes on each other) and the MPs just ignored it, even when the people I was reporting endangered over a dozen lives. I've listened in on Delta comms when their people get arrested and, interestingly enough for the squad most likely to mutiny or riot, they typically handle it pretty damn well when they know the Delta that got arrested screwed up. The last time I remember them getting out of control was when someone admitted to shooting an MP for some reason or other, but the one that sticks with me the most was when the MPs tried to arrest all of Delta squad when our SO spent the entire OP degrading and antagonizing us rather than letting people know we needed help, then reported the entire squad, including late joiners, for treason. Even then, the mutiny it sparked lasted only long enough for the MPs to outright say they realized what was going on and for the SO in question to get his head blown off, then Delta went rampaging around the ship to wipe out the aliens that'd landed.

[lmwevil]

As a CMP/MP main I think that I need to step in here and give my opinion. I don't believe this change will do anything to assist in the dynamic between boots and batons, simply put the MPs exist to enact discipline to the crew, to keep order. This is -not- a fun thing to be on the other end of unless the MP wants to RP with you and gives an interesting NJP.

No matter what happens, no matter how things change, marines will have a distaste for MPs, and marines will try to help their friends who get arrested, causing MPs to need to escalate the situation. There is no fix, no policy for this behaviour.

I will add though I do believe this will reduce mutinies and general shittery, as Delta are the most insubordinate squad, now those key elements that spark insub and anti-command rhetoric won't echo chamber. This may be great, this may actually -improve- squad obedience to command with fringe elements being suppressed by loyalists in squads.

On the part people brought up about MP/CMP accountability - the CMP exists to punish and deal with their MPs, assuring they do proper procedure and don't break the law or fail their duties. I feel majorly that unpunished MPs should fall upon the CMP - but admin intervention in arrests is quite frustrating if I'm frank, asking what the person was brigged for and other details, I think doing player reports is easier for all parties involved. MP is a high stress role when you have work to do, insubordination everywhere and then adding admins asking if you're doing your job accurately is pretty difficult to stomach.
TL;DR: CMPs are held to a high accountability already, if they don't handle their MPs constantly breaking the law or procedure they'll be jobbanned, the amount of MP bans that exist and get appealed on a regular basis proves it's policed.

All in all, I say give it a chance, a month I do think is too harsh for a test, it should be tested and polled like the new marine law changes as they were being implemented.

[FGRSentinel]

I will add though I do believe this will reduce mutinies and general shittery, as Delta are the most insubordinate squad, now those key elements that spark insub and anti-command rhetoric won't echo chamber. This may be great, this may actually -improve- squad obedience to command with fringe elements being suppressed by loyalists in squads.

I've seen a number of Deltas get arrested. From what I've seen, if Deltas know one of their own screwed up they'll typically be frustrated but let it go. If a Delta is seemingly arrested for no reason, they get more verbal and physical. In fact, I've even seen Delta squad briefly torment one of their own because they got the entire squad in trouble and assigned to fortifying the road on LV. It'd be more accurate to say Delta squad's the most prone to consider mutiny, but even their mob mentality isn't enough to spark one every time they mention it. It's set off the Almayer's riot-control system early in the round before when they get into a fight with Charlie, but even that's only happened once or twice in the last 2 weeks or so. The only time I recall seeing Delta mutiny, 75% of the Company was already in open mutiny and the Deltas were the only ones with any real defined goals for their own mutiny: the death of the SO that abused them and their power to try to have the entire squad arrested for treason during a temper tantrum they had on realizing Deltas don't stand for people talking shit about them and blaming them for the OP going south. Once the SO was dead, Delta was exceedingly easy to rally to defend the Almayer because they were still in that mob mentality.

Thing is, if an SO knows what they're doing, it's actually not too difficult to get Delta to do what you want them to. I've been Delta's SO on about 8-10 rounds and built up enough respect with them that I can honestly say I've both started to figure out how to get them to listen and earned their trust. The last part's important: Delta Squad is far more willing to listen to SOs, XOs, and COs that can listen and stay on top of things without smothering them and trying to micromanage the hell out of them. This is why Delta does so much better as scouts or a QRT than they do on FOB duty: I can tell them where to go and, if the Deltas know I've got their backs and aren't preoccupied, they will snap to it nine times out of ten. The only order I can't get Deltas to follow most of the time is "regroup on your SL" and even then they wander back eventually anyways and tend to only take a lot of casualties when shit's already hitting the fan, so I tend to just monitor stragglers instead of obsessively scream at every Delta I see.

Then again, I've built up enough of a rapport with Delta that the few times I had to tell them someone beat me to the punch on being their OW officer or my plan to OW them was overruled by an XO or CO, they actually became fairly upset. I remember the first time this happened I reported that the XO forced me out of the Delta OW and three different Deltas responded with "don't go," "don't leave us," and "we'll miss you." The one thing is, however, that many SOs that can get Delta to respond to them also have the same expectations of their superiors: when I'm SO, the only ways an XO or CO can get on my nerves are by being dismissive/inattentive, hesitating, or obsessively micromanaging "my" squad and disrupting my OW. It happens enough that some rounds I've jokingly reported to Delta that if they suddenly get an announcement of me getting executed that they shouldn't worry about it because they all know why I'd be executed. On that note, the last one (micromanaging an SO's squad and disrupting their OW) is something that sets off most SOs, especially after people know facehuggers remove helmets since doing it kills the SO's camera feed while a helmet being removed doesn't so long as you watch it, meaning that doing it at the wrong time can deny intel.

[Ttly]

I'd rather have it be four days, starting from a Friday all the way to Monday for every weekend of the month.
Because weekend is where all the players come out of the woodwork from varying skill levels.
Weekdays or deadpop hours doesn't really seem it would be any different than usual.

[Reuben Owen]

I'm guessing why they're doing it so long is so people won't try to avoid playing during the period

gone for only a week? I'll just not play for a week
gone only 3 or so days a week? I'll just play the other 4 days

[FGRSentinel]

Also, after a recent round (read: the one that just ended) I feel like part of the reason MPs aren't liked is because of the CMP's "Warrant Officer" rank. The wiki states, regarding the rank, that anyone with the rank of WO is to be treated as if they were a LCDR for things in their area of expertise. For the CMP, this means that they outrank just about everyone in matters regarding Marine Law... But they're more or less (from what I gather) still treated as the same rank as the other MPs in matters not regarding Marine Law. Some CMPs don't factor in that last part: the round that just ended I was arrested for Neglect of Duty by MPs after the CMP overrode my orders to keep the Alamo's rear door closed so I can lock it down by having the full squad of MPs on board keep every door that wasn't already locked down open at all times. When the queen got on board and multiple people got wounded, I was the one who got arrested when the CMP overstepped their authority.

Things like this are a stigma that paints CMPs as eager to remind even Command staff that they hold no authority over the MPs regarding Marine Law while also willing to use their WO rank and always-loyal squad of MPs to override the orders of POs, SOs, and anyone else that doesn't hold the rank of Commander. Then on top of that, they have a reputation for only arresting people Command Staff order them to (and report the crimes of) maybe half the time, so they're distrusted by enlisted men, despised by everyone between the ranks of SSGT and LT, and considered unreliable by Command Staff.

Long story short, MPs and CMPs are disliked because they're a crapshoot role that, especially with CMPs, can cause a lot of damage if they power trip and overstep their authority, but also have the ability to cast the blame on someone else when shit hits the fan as a result. Worse still, MPs can only be relieved by the CMP and the CMP can only be relieved by a fax to someone off-ship, which means that MPs and the CMP are able to close ranks to defend their shit-tier comrades in ways marines can't.

The worst part? Improving the image of the MPs is the officially given reason for why Squad preference is going away for a month, but as this shows, it'd be much easier to just hold MPs to a higher standard and squad preference won't impact their image from those Ensign and above.

[ComradeCorbyn]

However, you are summing that any CMP or MP player is like the one that happened in the previous round; they aren't. As I understand, there might be a bad minority of MPs and CMPs that put a bad light on MPs, but most MPs are still good boys.

[FGRSentinel]

Here's a list of my experiences with MPs and CMPs from every round I've interacted with them.

Delta Marine: Delta assigned to get Telecomms back online. Delta Engineer is new to the job and doesn't know how to repair/replace the APC. Delta SO spends the entire process insulting, degrading, and humiliating Delta Squad as a whole rather than have another Squad send an engineer to get telecoms up or walking the Engineer through the process via messages. Delta gets pissed and ignores their orders while reporting them for both neglect of duty and sabotage, while the SO reports the entire squad, including those who continued to follow orders and those who joined after the incident, for treason. Result: MPs choose to ignore the reports from the entire Squad and follow the SO's orders without question, trying to hunt down all of Delta and only giving us a chance to defend ourselves because a few of us walked into the Brig and screamed at them that the SO was a filthy traitor. SO later killed by Deltas exploiting the chaos caused by a simultaneous mutiny involving Charlie and Alpha.

Delta SO: a Delta and a Charlie get in a fight on LV, pull knives and a machete on each other. Report it to MPs and inform them that both are coming up wounded. Result: neither arrested.

Alamo PO: hear a Delta report that they were assaulted. Result: Delta that reported the crime gets arrested five minutes later

Alamo PO: two Deltas get into a near-lethal fistfight on Alamo in first drop. Result: no MP response.

SO: CO shoots someone dead during briefing, calls it a BE even though it was clearly against protocol (no arrest was attempted, no chance for last words, CO did it personally) Result: CMP doesn't investigate beyond asking why he did it, essentially allowing the CO to get away with murder.

Multiple SO and PO rounds: overhear that someone's assaulted someone else. MPs ignore the claims.

Alamo PO (or maybe I was SO, can't remember): Delta SL is murdered by a Charlie and revived. Later reported for breaking into a secure area and stealing shit. Result: MPs ignore them for the murder charge, chase them down for the B&E and theft

Someone steals the CL's things from req line. CL requests they do something. Result: MPs don't even acknowedge their presence.

Delta SO: someone gets arrested. WIth no discussion heard between the CO and CMP, the CMP announces the prisoner's execution. Outrage in the CIC causes the CO to admit he authorized it. CMP later chooses to execute prisoner several minutes early without warning or giving them a chance to say their last words. We never found out if the CO approved the new timetable or not, but it was the CMP that made the decision.

Number of attempts made to demand MPs arrest people or point out CMP overstepping their authority. Usual Response: either MPs ignore or we get snide remarks from the CMP that they decide who their MPs go after.

Alamo PO: Commander fires an OB the moment the beacon's dropped, killing 10+ marines. Result: CMP doesn't even acknowledge the incident happened. CO goes to cryo.

Alamo PO: Evac underway, just about every MP decided to board with the CMP on the last drop. MPs keep opening doors and I scream at them to close them so I can lock all but one set. CMP abuses WO rank to override these orders, forcing the rear bay, where all the wounded are, to remain open and exposed to boarders. Result: multiple killed or wounded by the Queen while I'm attempting to get everyone onto the ship since people leave when the doors open. CMP doesn't take responsibility. Orders my arrest for "neglect of duty" I couldn't fulfill because of them power tripping and thinking an MP WO can override a PO in matters of evac proceedure when no crime is taking place. Arresting MP apologizes, emphasizing that they're just following orders, and allows me to walk to the brig on my own once I hand over my weapons.

Complaints given about MPs to the CMP over command channel. CMP gets enraged that we would use anything other than the MP channel (which SOs, SLs, and POs have no access to and therefore can't give complaints on) to convey criticism of their men.

That is my full list of encounters with MPs. Pay extra close attention to the underlined part: that's the only positive one and I've only been on the server for about 2-3 weeks now. None of this involves "mah Delta buddy got arrested for no reason and I got killed breaking him out of teh brig!!!!1" as you can see. This means none of the reasons I can come up with to distrust and dislike MPs are influenced by Squad Preference. That means removing Squad Preference won't change anything regarding their image for at least some people.

As it stands, when I'm PO or TC I only trust MPs to get in the way at the worst possible moment, while as an SO I've come to view the lynch mobs as more likely to punish criminals than the MPs. Right now, MPs and the CMP rank below the CO (who often ignores everything not said by command staff and ignores half of what SOs have to say) and the XO (who seems to always be of the "I'm going to use your OW console to find out what the situation is rather than asking for an update because it's more convenient for me and I don't give a damn if you lose precious intel as a result" type) in the list of people on the ship I dislike... and every bit of it is earned by their own actions and inactions, not the fact they arrested my buddies.

[lmwevil]

Any CMP who acts like such a tossup, make a player report. These kinds of MPs won't stand up in a proper and deep investigation, and it's your duty as a player to make said reports. I can assure you the majority of MPs are not jagoffs who don't know marine law to a pile of human garbage, but there are some shitlers who make us out to be a lot worse than we are.

Let me express furthermore that removing squad preference will still be helpful for MPs, as 90% of their arrests are a delta or charlie, leading to the squads feeling targeted. You can still beg a SO to reassign you to alpha or bravo if your BFF is there in briefing and you aren't a critical role, I say give it a chance.

[FGRSentinel]

Any CMP who acts like such a tossup, make a player report. These kinds of MPs won't stand up in a proper and deep investigation, and it's your duty as a player to make said reports. I can assure you the majority of MPs are not jagoffs who don't know marine law to a pile of human garbage, but there are some shitlers who make us out to be a lot worse than we are.

Let me express furthermore that removing squad preference will still be helpful for MPs, as 90% of their arrests are a delta or charlie, leading to the squads feeling targeted. You can still beg a SO to reassign you to alpha or bravo if your BFF is there in briefing and you aren't a critical role, I say give it a chance.

Yeah, the issue is sometimes it's hard to tell who's at fault, so you don't know who to make a report about. As you can see from my list, the other issue is most of the times I have bad encounters with CMPs are when I'm SO or PO, meaning I simply can't stop to make a report or find out where and how to do so until after the round, at which point I can't remember who the problem person was. Not only that, but when most MPs you encounter cause problems, you stop having any faith in their overall nature and capacity to do the job they're supposed to.

As for the thing about Delta and Charlie getting arrested more than others, that's mainly because of their rivalry, but as I said, if a Delta knows the guy getting arrested screwed up, they typically just say "see you in X minutes" before heading down. Not only that, but they're fond of shaming any idiots they catch doing something wrong. Basically, if someone FFs another person one too many times or does something to infuriate the squad, they remember until there's no combat. After that, 8 members of the squad surround them before one disarms and knocks them over, after which the others constantly push them down so they can't move. I've only ever seen it done by Deltas, but they typically have a good reason (someone being an asshole in briefing and a crapload of FF from one guy are the ones I've seen) to do it.

The problem about being reassigned between squads is, as I said in an earlier comment, it's too time consuming for most people to do properly and leads to squad imbalances anyways. As far as I know, if you transfer someone to another squad via the overwatch console it doesn't actually give them the access they need, perhaps not even giving them the comms frequency. This means that for it to be done properly, a Marine also has to get their access changed, replace all their armor, and get a new headset. Imagine having to do this for 5-10 people at the minimum and you start to see where that solution becomes problematic, especially if everyone who's traditionally a Delta tries to transfer over. 20+ people need to transfer right at the start? Yeaaaah, that's going to put everything back by about 10 minutes.

[lmwevil]

The problem about being reassigned between squads is, as I said in an earlier comment, it's too time consuming for most people to do properly and leads to squad imbalances anyways. As far as I know, if you transfer someone to another squad via the overwatch console it doesn't actually give them the access they need, perhaps not even giving them the comms frequency. This means that for it to be done properly, a Marine also has to get their access changed, replace all their armor, and get a new headset. Imagine having to do this for 5-10 people at the minimum and you start to see where that solution becomes problematic, especially if everyone who's traditionally a Delta tries to transfer over. 20+ people need to transfer right at the start? Yeaaaah, that's going to put everything back by about 10 minutes.

There's a console in briefing just above south checkpoint called squad changer, you put the ID in and presto their squad and access is changed, takes about five seconds and they can regear.

Excuse brevity it's a reply from my phone.

[Casany]

There's a console in briefing just above south checkpoint called squad changer, you put the ID in and presto their squad and access is changed, takes about five seconds and they can regear.

Excuse brevity it's a reply from my phone.

But uh, you actually have to have their ID. And there’s only one console.

Remember the days where we had an LO who had to assign people to squads? That took forever but at least then it was mandatory.

There is a button on OW consoles that allows you to switch squads and transfer, but you gotta tell the person first. Though with competent people it’s muy useful

[FGRSentinel]

Does the OW console update their access immediately? If so, that's less unbearable.

[Sleepy Retard]

Does the OW console update their access immediately? If so, that's less unbearable.

Ya

[Urytion]

To combat metacomms and metabuddying, we are removing the ability for metabuddys to talk in game using in character methods, unless they decide to ignore their random squad placement and metabuddy... Good job.

Read Emerald's response, I can't say I agree, but I understand. All this will result in is more metacomming, and more split squads. I play Delta, but if Delta is bad, I'll just latch onto Charlie and steal a headset from somewhere. Now that, but I don't even get a chance to be in a squad I like. Me and my metabuddys will get together and do our own bullshit.

[RobBrown4PM]

As a player and not a staff member I don't like this idea, I see it as far to heavy handed for an issue that can be dealt with in other ways. If the issue originates, or at least has a majority of it's roots in MP's metabuddying, then crack down on MP's and punish them for not following Marine law. I haven't ever experienced a problem with metabuddying in any of the squads. Yeah there's cliques but I don't believe that they cause that big of a problem outside of drama, which I'm ok with as long as it's within the lines.

[FGRSentinel]

Yeah, half the time I think the issue is more that people don't trust MPs to do their jobs properly and if they aren't aware one of their pals did something wrong, instantly assume the MPs are being shit and abusing power. Delta's always given as the most insubordinate squad, but the only really dangerous response I've seen was when their SL was arrested for telling the SO (in story above) where he could shove it and the entire squad was marked for arrest.

[FGRSentinel]

We just had a round that proves the Marine squads' metabuddying isn't the largest metabuddying issue the Marines have:it's Command/MP metabuddying. Here's why I say this. Carson was SO and spent the entire round adding "if you don't do this NOW I'm reporting you for insubordination" to the end of all his orders. He threatened the only medic doing their job with arrest because they couldn't link up with the squad, gave zero good orders, and pinned the inevitable failure of the OP on a random SL. The CMP was a psycho who executed someone for a small crime and brigged an MT for seemingly no reason before gleefully jumping at the chance to enforce Carson's will... And the CO enabled them both to the point that they tased and arrested the last living SL, demoralizing the surviving marines during the last desperate defense of LZ1. Squad Pref is actually looking more and more like the Marines' only defense against shit-tier Command staff and abusive CMPs teaming up to make the game hell for them since it allows them to more effectively fight back.

[ComradeCorbyn]

We just had a round that proves the Marine squads' metabuddying isn't the largest metabuddying issue the Marines have:it's Command/MP metabuddying. Here's why I say this. Carson was SO and spent the entire round adding "if you don't do this NOW I'm reporting you for insubordination" to the end of all his orders. He threatened the only medic doing their job with arrest because they couldn't link up with the squad, gave zero good orders, and pinned the inevitable failure of the OP on a random SL. The CMP was a psycho who executed someone for a small crime and brigged an MT for seemingly no reason before gleefully jumping at the chance to enforce Carson's will... And the CO enabled them both to the point that they tased and arrested the last living SL, demoralizing the surviving marines during the last desperate defense of LZ1. Squad Pref is actually looking more and more like the Marines' only defense against shit-tier Command staff and abusive CMPs teaming up to make the game hell for them since it allows them to more effectively fight back.

I don't think you understand Carson rounds, although the CMP in question should've held a higher conduct then he did. In any case, if you feel he broke any rules-including Marine Law, write a player report.

[Simo94]

what are they waiting for? get it over with already...

[Blade2000Br]

what are they waiting for? get it over with already...

It's antecipation, they will do when you least expect it.

[FGRSentinel]

So like a successful Mutiny?

[kooarbiter]

Funny to see how, what is seemingly a bunch of delta mains, say this is a bad thing. This change will just rustle some jimmies for a month until you realize that people will still just group up with the people they know, regardless of what squad they're in.

Overall this is pretty "meh" for anyone who doesn't metabuddy up ingame. Aka. many bravos and alphas i imagine, since those squads are mostly randoms anyways.

Let people do what they want if that's how they're having fun, to me it doesn't even seem like a problem at all since i don't see the metabuddy "groups" actually breaking the rules.

nah fam bravo isn't only randos, we have regulars, and I too dislike this change, because how else am I supposed to group up with my fellow bananas without breaking orders and just chilling with them instead of whatever squad I get assigned to

[Kasius]

I for one applaud the effort to bring change to the unofficial "meta-buddy" system we have going on here on CM, but we gotta be realistic here.

In a world with things like Discord, Teamspeak or what-have-you in terms of voice communications. It's just a losing battle.

You can't police the fact that people -WANT- to play together for enjoyment. You can try and maybe you will get a few of them, but it won't ever stop.

That's just the real world melding into a video game.

If anything, we should embrace that CM players are able to build friendships, comraderie and relationships that drives every CM round.

Am I saying like allow things and/or promote meta-communications on voice comms? No. Hell no, but it's gonna happen anyways.