Team Cap on Marines

[Neray]

And Weaselburg it doesn't matter if the special roles are taken-any baldie can join and grab a pulse rifle or better yet a shotgun and start ramboing ayy's all day. It's like the marines are the swarm and the aliens are playing all tactical trying to outwit the marines because there are only 14 of them. It's kind of absurd lol.

It's not absurd at all. Early and middle game for aliens is all about skirmishes and hit-and-run tactics (which from lore perspective suits em just right), except for 200+ rounds where they get around 20-30 starting larvas. Marines excel at exausting frontal trench warfare especially on open ground now (CAS :3) and aliens excel at close-quarters fighting and luring marines into prepared traps (fun fact, but you could say exactly the opposite for both teams - aliens are damn good at grinding marines down without taking any losses and marines are pretty effective at punching in alien rear lines, but I digress). Hell, mate, I've seen 1 marine taking down 20 aliens solo and 1 alien taking down 30 marines, again, solo. Statistics don't always work exactly how you'd expect. Go grab Asimov's Foundation!

[Jonesome]

Taking that away and telling people to play in the side that only has one focus, kill the other team, will not cause people to switch to xeno, it will cause then to go elsewhere. Many people, myself included, have no interest in playing CM as purely a action game, which is pretty much the sole extent of what xeno gameplay is.

I think it would lose some people, but the server would survive without the small number that would leave. There could even be a system where the teams switch sides for the next round, so if you played as xeno the previous round you could be Marine again on the next.

[TheRedMenace]

@Jonesome - Your idea would work only on highpop rounds. Losing anyone on lowpop would simply make problem even bigger. Also, most of "xeno mains" either rarely play as PFCs, or no marine role at all. Those who play both xeno and PFC would not mind. But, suddenly, 50% of rounds you got ungaest of ungas, and dumbest of xeno, and 50% of rounds would be classic. Also, imagine rolling for Synth, Commander or Spec only to be forced into playing Young Drone 156.

If this could work at all, it should be not based around stick, but around carrot. [meaning - less beating the players, more incentives for them to follow]

But how to incentivize a human that is dead set on what he wants to do, for whom certain roles, or whole species, is boring and unimaginative?

Simplest thing would be something akin to the bragging rights points. Latejoiners for example, when clicking [Join USCM] would see prompt - The Xeno Side needs YOU! Will you respond to the call? And if they confirm, they would automatically get a point that could be inspected, or, something along this lines. This would work in reverse too - You try to [Join The Hive] and you see the prompt asking you to enlist in USMC.

These prompts would be used if there is balancing problem. AKA there is 160 marines, but 15 aliens and 60 burrowed larvas. -> USCM joiner would see Xeno prompt.

There could be third button - Join to balance the scales, or something like that. Yes, that would automatically give you some OOC knowledge, effectively saying to you what side is considered to be losing one. But while playing other games, i found out that joining losing side, and pulling it through, even going so far as SOMETIMES WIN... these wins were the best ones. Like, you are the underdog who made a difference.

[Lukey111]

It should probably just be to keep one squad from having 30 people, and another have 10, not restricting each squad to 20. Like, there is not a set requirement for the squad until it gets too unbalanced. If this happens, that is probably be what happens.

[Hedrite]

It is fine this way, I get what you say about PFCs with barely anything but by what I have been able to absorb these few days the game is centered around marines.

If those marines that join late as PFCs can't get nice unga attachments too bad, that's how the real corps are, get the basic shit that you'll need and move on. You are a pawn not a snowflake.

Regarding the alien unbalance, aliens are, as someone say (at least from my perspective) an asset to provide fun for the users of them and marines. They are not what the server is centered around, they are the antagonists. Everything is about marines like it or not. This doesn't mean you won't have fun as a beno tho, killing a few and sometimes winning is more than enough fun for me. The team imperfect balance is pretty well-done.

[apophis775]

I think this is being misrepresented.
There's no Cap on Marines, but the number of Xenos scales based on the number of marines.

Also, if there were 108 players with 96 marines and 12 humans, that means there must have been no staff on, because staff are frequently listed as observers not on one of the two sides.

[BobatNight]

Aliens are suffering from a lack of mains or dedicated players, that or the joy of it has been sucked out Iunno. I don't blame the ratio though

[Wubs4Scrubs]

The reason why xenos are so powerful is because it's just a fact that the large majority of the playerbase plays almost exclusively marines (myself included). I just don't find playing xenos nearly as fun as playing as a marine.

As a marine you can bullshit with your squad for fun at any time whereas xeno is pretty much everybody does their own thing and the queen gives them very loose objectives/orders to accomplish.

Additionally, if I want to play a certain marine job I can set my preferences and either get that one or another job that I prefer. When you get xeno it's just a stupid rush to see who can evolve the fastest and everybody always takes the fun roles, so in the few rounds I played I was railroaded into playing something like a drone or runner for almost the entire round. I think that a large issue with why the xeno side is just not fun to play to me is that I'm forced to play roles or classes I don't enjoy, so why would I play xeno and probably get forced to grow weeds for two hours when I can just go marines and have fun throwing burritos around briefing.

[Printer16]

There should not be a team cap for marines. The current scaling is fine the way it is.

[BillyBoBBizWorth]

"I think that a large issue with why the xeno side is just not fun to play to me is that I'm forced to play roles or classes I don't enjoy, so why would I play xeno and probably get forced to grow weeds for two hours when I can just go marines and have fun throwing burritos around briefing."

Bingo!