How to speed up CM rounds

[Lostmixup]

Anyone got any ideas on how to speed up the CM rounds? There's already been a few idea's in the suggestions, but are there any other ideas?

[johners12345]

PMC'S!!!
PREDATOR ARMY!!

JOOOOOHHHNNN CEEEENNNNAAAA

[kurugi]

More ticks per second? I mean logically speaking. How long do you consider too long? I've seen people complain at 2 hour rounds. I'm mostly content with the speed. I wouldn't mind though if the round ended if there was only one xeno left or two or three marines left as a major victory for the opposing side. So that way the xenos don't have to hunt for the remaining humans and vice versa.

[Gentlefood]

Add less reasons to turtle/make it less appealing. Move the Landing zone so its a good distance away from the FOB/Main Dome. Potentially isolate the landing zone in a Mountainous region that has tunnels xenos can use along the route but make it so marines cannot get to the LZ other than the single direct path.

[kurugi]

Add less reasons to turtle/make it less appealing. Move the Landing zone so its a good distance away from the FOB/Main Dome. Potentially isolate the landing zone in a Mountainous region that has tunnels xenos can use along the route but make it so marines cannot get to the LZ other than the single direct path.

When people don't do that they end up dead.

[Jack McIntyre]

Yea, I can't tell you that the LZ is the marine lifeblood already, they will literally just camp lz then. It won't change anything

[Gentlefood]

Yea, I can't tell you that the LZ is the marine lifeblood already, they will literally just camp lz then. It won't change anything

Eh. Its hard to explain exactly what I have in mind. Maybe I'll dick around with the editor tomorrow and give a mockup of what I'm talking about.

The primary issue that causes CM rounds to stalemate is when both sides want to turtle or don't feel strong enough to break though. This comes down to two factors: Marines feel they aren't strong enough to fight the aliens (for whatever reason this can occur even if there is only single digit numbers of aliens left). Or Xenos who don't want to go into the meat grinder that is the Sulaco Hangar.

[Jack McIntyre]

Oh I don't disagree with you, I literally said this map is kinda of like trench warefare, neither sides knows if they throw their troops at the other's base it will result in a lot of casualties. I just mean that more experienced marines know we have to hold that LZ on the planet because that is where we get our supplies and reinforcements from. I will literally turtle the shit out of that before I have to go back on the sulaco just because let's be honest no one wants to get cut off from their supply line. So I am just saying it won't solve the long server time because a lot of guys are going to hold that LZ that the xenos won't get to use then and may lead to the same problem if you catch my drift. Still going to have the turtle factor by the marines and we already covered this in multiple posts. Xenos have to understand most marines are not going to hop on the shuttle when they know the xenos are waiting for them just like the xenos don't want to take the shuttle because they know the marines are waiting for them. If you catch my understanding, it is a lose lose scenario.

[chimp]

Including more definitive "win" conditions would help. Right now marines can only win by exterminating every single alien. Most rounds seem to end up with marines assaulting the main hive, taking huge losses but grinding xenos down. They fall back, only a few xenos are left. Marines return to sulaco to regear and prepare new attack.

By this point its 2 hours in. Commander is a comdom, all the squad leads are dead, and BO's are all SSD. Marines have the numbers to win, but the not the organisation. Aliens can hang on by constantly picking off random people on the surface, but usually cannot build up the critical mass they need to assault the sulaco.

Here are my suggestions:

Marine Minor Victory Conditions:-

- Marines get power restored at some point
- Marines rescue X number of survivors
- Marines recover certain objects (e.g. a weyland yutani dossier in the corporate building, or something).
- Marines kill over a certain threshold of aliens

Marines deploy the nuke on the ground, if they have enough minor victory conditions they win a minor victory.

Aliens could be given some love as well, in terms of what they need to achieve. Maybe instead of boarding the sulaco and killing every single human, they just need to do enough damage to cripple it.

[Dyne]

Currently rounds go from two to three hours, with marines deploying around the first 20-40 minutes.
Why do you think rounds need to be sped up in the first place?

[Lostmixup]

Currently rounds go from two to three hours, with marines deploying around the first 20-40 minutes.
Why do you think rounds need to be sped up in the first place?

Any of the rounds I've played have either gone on for way longer than they should, sometimes reaching 5 hours. The game also feel like it has way to much waiting around for things to happen, and not much you can really do to speed it up without killing you and your whole squad of marines.

[FentanylPhil]

It seems that the portion of the round that seems to get dragged on the most is that period between the marines getting pushed out of the LZ, and the xenos boarding the Sulaco. It becomes a huge stalemate, because the marines can only go down on the shuttle on the drop pod (both of which are undoubtedly being camped) while the aliens need to recoup their losses after the battle for the LZ, which normally entails waiting for an hour for larvae to get to tier 2/3. That process could be sped up by either:

-Introducing a mechanism where royal jelly works much faster on the planet after a certain set of conditions are met (no/few marines on the planet, LZ retaken, some weed coverage threshold, etc)

-Allow marines to deploy somewhere on the planet where they wont be torn to shreds within ~5 seconds of landing. Perhaps "true" drop pods where you can drop on some arbitrary location on the planet?

[Kreydis]

Any of the rounds I've played have either gone on for way longer than they should, sometimes reaching 5 hours.

1. Make CC (You guys) order the commander / xo to retrieve deeper and deeper objective alongside of doing stuff.
2. Make a charge commander role / ground commander, who's objectives are at best, to make the marines charge into the enemy
3. Separate launch pads that can be activated (and only used by the marines to prevent queen bullshitery/renders the old one inactive) to further push forward the marines LZ/FoB

[Dyne]

Never seen a five hour round so far.
Anyway- just let mahreens evac more easily again, as often their morale and cohesion is too badly broken for an attack.
Gives aliens the "morale victory" again.

[Kinrany]

Some lore-breaking solutions to Sulaco turtling here: http://cm-ss13.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=3793

[Gamerofthegame]

Forum isn't so big you need to spread your thread around.

That said, why not a "morale" vote for marines-only at the two or three hour mark? By that point the round is usually decided one way or another. If the marines vote to end the round they evacuate off planet (maybe a "we are leaving!" stint instead of just a flat out round end immediately) and then the aliens get a minor victory.

"But then they can camp!" If they're honestly camping the shuttle and the marines aren't able to move forward then, hey, aliens won.

[GingerCultLeader]

A lot of times, Marines retreat, aliens are preparing to board and the marines can't call shuttle because of some reason or another. Then aliens board and marines are quickly overrun, being slaughtered like sheep. On other times, there is that hunt for the super evasive last alien which can drag on as well sometimes.

[Kinrany]

Forum isn't so big you need to spread your thread around.

It's relevant, isn't it?

That said, why not a "morale" vote for marines-only at the two or three hour mark? By that point the round is usually decided one way or another. If the marines vote to end the round they evacuate off planet (maybe a "we are leaving!" stint instead of just a flat out round end immediately) and then the aliens get a minor victory.

Currently camping hangars is a viable strategy that generally gives marines a good chance to win. Which means marines will keep dragging on. That said, marines should be allowed to evacuate.

"But then they can camp!" If they're honestly camping the shuttle and the marines aren't able to move forward then, hey, aliens won.

What's the win condition, then?

[Gamerofthegame]

The win condition is "Hey, can we make headway here...?" "No." "Alright plenty of time has passed, let's 'surrender' and fly away."

You know. A marine-vote. Currently, the climax of games seem to focus on boarding the Sulaco; aliens come on board and either win or take far to many losses. Which is gross. It also takes quite some time.

I suppose there could be an alien one if there was no queen after such and such a time too or something but in that case I imagine it'd be a matter of a few players purposefully delaying the game. Which is something administrative.

[Kinrany]

The win condition should be automatic. Marines won't vote to surrender if they are camping hangars and their chances are good.

[Gamerofthegame]

They will, as shown on conventional servers, if they feel it's hopeless or just delaying the inevitable.

[Kinrany]

Problem is, it's far from hopeless. Neither side can attack, because marines have their fortifications, and aliens have more manpower.