General Rules Only Day - Survey

[Rahlzel]

I put together a survey to try and get a general feel for how players liked (or didn't like) General Rules Only Day.

Additional discussion is welcome in this topic.

General Rules Only Day Survey

[NoahKirchner]

Frankly, I think to deny that general rules day was anything but a brilliant success is a severe miss-step, especially if you disregard the first and second round where people pushed the envelope. Strange and no longer relevant restrictions were removed and none of these effected gameplay to any noticeable degree, again, disregarding the first two rounds. By the end of the day it felt like a normal round of CM with very very few breaches of what would be considered normal WITH the marine and xeno laws, and those people making those breaches continued to break the rules after general rule day ended, still soft griefing regardless of whether or not the rules were in place.

Granted, the first two rounds were rather low RP, but they were certainly fun to play as, and after players began to settle into the new ruleset, things proceeded largely as normal, but with more options for the marine command to take in how they react to different situations. It spiced up rounds in an RP-driven way, like sending down all of your SOs to assist with squad management, and after that initial period it had basically no impact on the quality of roleplay as far as I can tell. I'm glad that this was done, and I hope it leads to the trimming down of the ruleset, specifically the marine rules, as a lot of the rules there are redundant or no longer applicable. Xeno rules are probably a tad bit more necessary, but there is still a lot of redundancy there.

As far as the concern that the removal of these rules will dampen the RP experience, I would honestly say the opposite. CM has the most rules of any server that I have ever played on, and while that can certainly be attributed in part to its TDM nature, it is still quite odd and rather suffocating that an MRP server has more ooc rules than the HRP servers that I've been on. A lot of things in the ruleset can, and should, be moved to marine law, and rules restricting a character's IC actions (To a certain degree) Like the MP always enforcing marine law rule should be loosened, if not outright removed (I can certainly understand the argument for keeping it at least partially in place.) Players are absolutely capable of self moderation and I don't think that's something that should necessarily be discouraged. OOC intervention into IC issues always breaks immersion and it's just not as fun, frankly, and that's the point of the server - to have fun.

I've got a lot more I could go on about but this is about as condensed as I can get my contribution to this discussion.

[EstangaJr0830]

I'd have to agree with what Noah has said, apart from a few outliers during the first two rounds the General Rules day was about the same as any other day during Colonial Marines, fun, enjoyable and with the lack of restrictive rules the experience was what I would consider 'different' but definitely not a bad experience.

[adrenalinetooth]

I had some amazing experiences and some bad experiences throughout the day.

The Good

As a lieutenant, I asked a bored survivor on the Almayer if she wanted to become a marine. She said yes, so I spent a while teaching her how to shoot a gun in the range, how to talk to officers, and how to properly wear a uniform. After I saw that she was fit and ready, I took her ID card and made her into a basic squad marine. As I was changing her ID, a runner popped out of a vent and almost killed me, but the survivor killed it and saved my life.

Another round, I was also playing lieutenant. The commander, XO and the whole MT team were failing to repair the engines on the ship, so an angry admiral came in to rectify the situation. He was killed by a marine or something, so an even more pissed off fleet admiral came. Before the fleet admiral had reached his way to the CiC, a lieutenant had greeted the fleet admiral but failed to address him as 'sir', or even salute him, so the fleet admiral nearly choked him to death as a warning. When the fleet admiral arrived into the CiC where the command staff and I were, we all made sure to salute. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. He made us all go to the engine room to fix the reactors. As we were fixing the reactors under the fleet admiral's scrutinizing eye, the chief engineer had awoken from cyro and stepped into the reactor room. The fleet admiral instantly tore into him, and all the chief engineer had to say was, "Sorry about that, buddy". The fleet admiral looked like he was damn near about to rip the chief engineer's head off. All of the lieutenants, the CO, and the XO kind of just stood in shock at what this stupid chief engineer said. It was an awesome and tense moment.

Another time as Lieutenant, I had caught a marine running around the station with sandals on. I instantly stopped him and told him to go get his boots and put them on. He told me he had lost them, so I chewed him out, issued him a new pair, and then made him retract money from an ATM so he could repay what USCM property he had lost to the RO.
Later in the round, the marines had pulled off the planet because the aliens and humans had signed a 'peace treaty' or some shit, so I hosted a good old fashioned basketball for Bravo in the basketball court. Just as the game was getting good, none other than the man that I chewed out for wearing sandals whipped out his M41A and mowed me down. In retaliation, the bravo spec and smartgunner put so many bullets into that bastard that all of his limbs popped off. It felt good knowing that I could be a stringent, strict, and dickish officer without cowering behind a set of OOC rules to let me do as I please. Back in the Vietnam war, asshole officers had grenades rolled into their tents at night. I thought it was pretty cool that someone could punish me for that strict behaviour.

The Bad

I saw a few people running around with blank spaces for names. Literally no names. Some people had ridiculously long names like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", or meme names that kind of ruined my immersion.

I feel like the playerbase took the general rules day as more of a 'meme event' than a trial run. In one round, we had an admiral, fleet admiral, skymaster, and the fucking president on the Almayer all at once. Like, really? Are all of these important figures going to come out alone into deep space to this shitty little patrol ship?
During this same round, there was a talking goat running around the station. Pretty sure that doesn't fall in line with the general rule of roleplaying reasonably.

Another round, I decided to try out MP. A marine broke into req to steal equipment, so we tracked him down and arrested him. Just as we put him in the cell, an admin teleported him out of the brig. Like, what the fuck? I thought it was pretty immature and against roleplay.

At the start, a lot of aliens were being friendly and dancing with the marines. However, I don't think it is a very large issue. People will get bored of that behaviour eventually once they realize the way to win is to kill each other.

[TicTac]

I had some amazing experiences and some bad experiences throughout the day.

The Good

As a lieutenant, I asked a bored survivor on the Almayer if she wanted to become a marine. She said yes, so I spent a while teaching her how to shoot a gun in the range, how to talk to officers, and how to properly wear a uniform. After I saw that she was fit and ready, I took her ID card and made her into a basic squad marine. As I was changing her ID, a runner popped out of a vent and almost killed me, but the survivor killed it and saved my life.

Another round, I was also playing lieutenant. The commander, XO and the whole MT team were failing to repair the engines on the ship, so an angry admiral came in to rectify the situation. He was killed by a marine or something, so an even more pissed off fleet admiral came. Before the fleet admiral had reached his way to the CiC, a lieutenant had greeted the fleet admiral but failed to address him as 'sir', or even salute him, so the fleet admiral nearly choked him to death as a warning. When the fleet admiral arrived into the CiC where the command staff and I were, we all made sure to salute. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. He made us all go to the engine room to fix the reactors. As we were fixing the reactors under the fleet admiral's scrutinizing eye, the chief engineer had awoken from cyro and stepped into the reactor room. The fleet admiral instantly tore into him, and all the chief engineer had to say was, "Sorry about that, buddy". The fleet admiral looked like he was damn near about to rip the chief engineer's head off. All of the lieutenants, the CO, and the XO kind of just stood in shock at what this stupid chief engineer said. It was an awesome and tense moment.

Another time as Lieutenant, I had caught a marine running around the station with sandals on. I instantly stopped him and told him to go get his boots and put them on. He told me he had lost them, so I chewed him out, issued him a new pair, and then made him retract money from an ATM so he could repay what USCM property he had lost to the RO.
Later in the round, the marines had pulled off the planet because the aliens and humans had signed a 'peace treaty' or some shit, so I hosted a good old fashioned basketball for Bravo in the basketball court. Just as the game was getting good, none other than the man that I chewed out for wearing sandals whipped out his M41A and mowed me down. In retaliation, the bravo spec and smartgunner put so many bullets into that bastard that all of his limbs popped off. It felt good knowing that I could be a stringent, strict, and dickish officer without cowering behind a set of OOC rules to let me do as I please. Back in the Vietnam war, asshole officers had grenades rolled into their tents at night. I thought it was pretty cool that someone could punish me for that strict behaviour.

The Bad

I saw a few people running around with blank spaces for names. Literally no names. Some people had ridiculously long names like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", or meme names that kind of ruined my immersion.

I feel like the playerbase took the general rules day as more of a 'meme event' than a trial run. In one round, we had an admiral, fleet admiral, skymaster, and the fucking president on the Almayer all at once. Like, really? Are all of these important figures going to come out alone into deep space to this shitty little patrol ship?
During this same round, there was a talking goat running around the station. Pretty sure that doesn't fall in line with the general rule of roleplaying reasonably.

Another round, I decided to try out MP. A marine broke into req to steal equipment, so we tracked him down and arrested him. Just as we put him in the cell, an admin teleported him out of the brig. Like, what the fuck? I thought it was pretty immature and against roleplay.

At the start, a lot of aliens were being friendly and dancing with the marines. However, I don't think it is a very large issue. People will get bored of that behaviour eventually once they realize the way to win is to kill each other.

I like what you have to say.

[EstangaJr0830]

An admin teleported a marine out of the brig? That... sounds a bit like you should've run that up the chain.

[MedicInDisquise]

Nothing really changed on that day, besides apparently the first few rounds. The rounds I played on, things were mostly the same. It's just that the Marines had more freedom. A lot of the specific rules seem to enforce what is already enforced in Roleplay Guidelines and General Rules. Mutinies? The only reason I can think of for that list of steps is to just prevent the marines from ever doing a mutiny. Which is understandable because a mutiny might break a round in half. But, even without the rules, the only way to really do a mutiny is to have a seriously tyrannical CO due to the "Griefing", "Act like a Marine" and "Act like a Sane Person" rules preventing you from revolting because the RO didn't give you a BC for the shotgun.

Or what about the job specific rules? Are the marines really going to win and overpower the xenos because the Squad Medics can do surgery? What's preventing that rule from being solved with code if it's really going to ruin the balance of the server? The powerloader rule is another example. Powerloaders really suck for combat; pretty much the only reason I can think to bring it planetside is to assist the Tank Crew or Pilots in maintenance. So why restrict it? If the marines want to waste a Powerloader, it's on them.

The ID rules, much like many of the other rules, should be solved with code instead of being a bandaid restricting any freedom on part of the marines. If not code, then put it into Marine Law; why restrict MT's and MD's from going to the planet with a ban when the MP's could arrest them?

[driecg36]

I had some amazing experiences and some bad experiences throughout the day.

The Good

As a lieutenant, I asked a bored survivor on the Almayer if she wanted to become a marine. She said yes, so I spent a while teaching her how to shoot a gun in the range, how to talk to officers, and how to properly wear a uniform. After I saw that she was fit and ready, I took her ID card and made her into a basic squad marine. As I was changing her ID, a runner popped out of a vent and almost killed me, but the survivor killed it and saved my life.

Another round, I was also playing lieutenant. The commander, XO and the whole MT team were failing to repair the engines on the ship, so an angry admiral came in to rectify the situation. He was killed by a marine or something, so an even more pissed off fleet admiral came. Before the fleet admiral had reached his way to the CiC, a lieutenant had greeted the fleet admiral but failed to address him as 'sir', or even salute him, so the fleet admiral nearly choked him to death as a warning. When the fleet admiral arrived into the CiC where the command staff and I were, we all made sure to salute. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. He made us all go to the engine room to fix the reactors. As we were fixing the reactors under the fleet admiral's scrutinizing eye, the chief engineer had awoken from cyro and stepped into the reactor room. The fleet admiral instantly tore into him, and all the chief engineer had to say was, "Sorry about that, buddy". The fleet admiral looked like he was damn near about to rip the chief engineer's head off. All of the lieutenants, the CO, and the XO kind of just stood in shock at what this stupid chief engineer said. It was an awesome and tense moment.

Another time as Lieutenant, I had caught a marine running around the station with sandals on. I instantly stopped him and told him to go get his boots and put them on. He told me he had lost them, so I chewed him out, issued him a new pair, and then made him retract money from an ATM so he could repay what USCM property he had lost to the RO.
Later in the round, the marines had pulled off the planet because the aliens and humans had signed a 'peace treaty' or some shit, so I hosted a good old fashioned basketball for Bravo in the basketball court. Just as the game was getting good, none other than the man that I chewed out for wearing sandals whipped out his M41A and mowed me down. In retaliation, the bravo spec and smartgunner put so many bullets into that bastard that all of his limbs popped off. It felt good knowing that I could be a stringent, strict, and dickish officer without cowering behind a set of OOC rules to let me do as I please. Back in the Vietnam war, asshole officers had grenades rolled into their tents at night. I thought it was pretty cool that someone could punish me for that strict behaviour.

The Bad

I saw a few people running around with blank spaces for names. Literally no names. Some people had ridiculously long names like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", or meme names that kind of ruined my immersion.

I feel like the playerbase took the general rules day as more of a 'meme event' than a trial run. In one round, we had an admiral, fleet admiral, skymaster, and the fucking president on the Almayer all at once. Like, really? Are all of these important figures going to come out alone into deep space to this shitty little patrol ship?
During this same round, there was a talking goat running around the station. Pretty sure that doesn't fall in line with the general rule of roleplaying reasonably.

Another round, I decided to try out MP. A marine broke into req to steal equipment, so we tracked him down and arrested him. Just as we put him in the cell, an admin teleported him out of the brig. Like, what the fuck? I thought it was pretty immature and against roleplay.

At the start, a lot of aliens were being friendly and dancing with the marines. However, I don't think it is a very large issue. People will get bored of that behaviour eventually once they realize the way to win is to kill each other.

The no name stuff was a glitch completely unrelated to general rules day, and the naming rules were unchanged anyway. Things like BUENOS DIAS MANDY weren't allowed.

The events idk about, they felt like more of a one time joke. They were pretty funny so I don't mind.

[adrenalinetooth]

An admin teleported a marine out of the brig? That... sounds a bit like you should've run that up the chain.

Staff ignored my adminhelp regarding the teleport.

[Sleepy Retard]

Staff ignored my adminhelp regarding the teleport.

You'd need to make a staff report regarding that

Back on topic -

I can echo the fact that the staff were hot garbage. It was kinda surreal seeing shitty event after shitty event after shitty event. Completely missed the point there, lads.

[driecg36]

You'd need to make a staff report regarding that

Back on topic -

I can echo the fact that the staff were hot garbage. It was kinda surreal seeing shitty event after shitty event after shitty event. Completely missed the point there, lads.

blast hardcheese was a great event you take that back

No but I do agree with you, the events were counterproductive to actually finding out how general rule day was.

[Rio]

I came around later in the day, so I missed out on the madness.

Regardless, I enjoyed the few game I did get to play. There was some bedlam such as clown masks being tossed around and some marines acting like spergs because they had the freedom to. However the lack of super strict rules meant officers and MPs weren't so busy validhunting for minor infractions, meaning the marines weren't as hindered. I also noticed fewer command staff acting like obnoxious pricks because they knew any transgression meant they could get fragged without the offending marine getting banhammered. I noticed there was more RP in the few rounds I played than I had seen in the past dozen or so before my hiatus.

I think this speaks to the need to go back to the basics. Trim the rules down to what can be only be considered the unassailable commandments and start building again from there. Almost all of the real RP or opportunities for it were trimmed out because some autist thought it would make the game more realistic by being convoluted. I stopped playing CM for months because I was tired of the experience being so tightly controlled it might as well have been a theme park ride. General rules day was the first time in a while I wanted to play and had fun.

[New525]

(snip)

My thoughts exactly.