State of the Game

Generic, on-topic discussion about Colonial Marines.
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Durper
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Durper » 07 Jun 2016, 03:20

Surrealistik wrote:In otherwords, what you're essentially saying is that as long as it's veteran marines vs alien noobs, and/or the marines have overwhelming numbers, the game is balanced.

That's a problem.
What problem?

if one side has more skilled players they win, what's wrong about that?

And the marines even if they outnumber the Xeno, the Xeno's can still beat them if they coordinate and work together.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Surrealistik » 07 Jun 2016, 03:24

Durper wrote: What problem?

if one side has more skilled players they win, what's wrong about that?

And the marines even if they outnumber the Xeno, the Xeno's can still beat them if they coordinate and work together.
What's wrong with one side needing to have an overwhelming advantage in either skill, numbers or both in order for the game to be merely balanced? Are we being serious here?
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Durper » 07 Jun 2016, 03:34

Surrealistik wrote: What's wrong with one side needing to have an overwhelming advantage in either skill, numbers or both in order for the game to be merely balanced? Are we being serious here?
That's what I'm asking you.

If one side has the numbers the other side will have a hard time fighting them. but that's one advantage, it can be dealt with by many tactics(I.E well placed defences, Sentries, mines, huggers, weeds, sticky resin......etc) to even out the advantage.

If one side is more skilled than the other, the other side tends to have a trouble dealing with them.

and if one side has both the number and skill, then of course they're mostly likely to win.

Again players make the game balanced.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by MrJJJ » 07 Jun 2016, 03:52

Durper wrote: That's what I'm asking you.

If one side has the numbers the other side will have a hard time fighting them. but that's one advantage, it can be dealt with by many tactics(I.E well placed defences, Sentries, mines, huggers, weeds, sticky resin......etc) to even out the advantage.

If one side is more skilled than the other, the other side tends have a trouble dealing with them.

and if one side has both the number and skill, then of course they're mostly likely to win.

Again players make the game balanced.
Yeah cause its fun fighting the veteran runner who hugged 10 marines /s

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Re: State of the Game

Post by jalen earl » 07 Jun 2016, 05:03

Had a round where xenos only had 4 of us and a handful of larva. Backed into the rear corner we got whittled down to 2 including the queen. Rather than rushing out to attack 6-8 marines head on we tried flanking and out manouvering and eventually forced a retreat as the marines scattered buying us time.

Other story the last marine at tcomms held a FOB and ended up wiping out 8 xenos with auto turrets and sniper fire (almost the whole hive) before dying like a hero.

Of course more skilled players are going to live longer and have an advantage and whichever side has the most usually wins. Marines should always feel afraid of the dark if there was more a balance the fights would be crap and the xeno swarming tactics would fail even more than they do now
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Egorkor » 07 Jun 2016, 07:18

marines have always been defending and aliens attacking, it's not fun to do it the other way round. when marines attack, they either fuck it up and give more hosts to xenos so then an epic defence'd ensue, or they attack to end the round. stating the obvious here, but you know, people be going all "oooh, turtling, turtling". turtling is when you sit in the FOB after a xeno attack that wiped most of the hive out with no chance to rebuild, and the marines know that, and yet they do not attack. when you sit in the FOB with orders to guard the FOB and do nothing because xenos do nothing, or because half of the starting hive went runners and got rekt by the defences and the scouting squad, it's not the marines' fault, it's just tough luck for xenos.
now about them marine retreats, most of the times I've played and had to retreat the order was issued when the FOB was swarming with the aliens. sure, you can say marines should've done an epic defence, but lemme tell you, I've done that before and I liked it. however, every time marines pull that off they have a reason to do that. example - I held the FOB with 4 other marines knee-deep in weeds and with the last dying sentry against a horde of aliens, because everyone else were wounded and evac'd, and new people had to be dropped in. the reason here was to hold it because we KNEW the reinforcements'd come. nowadays, I rarely see a reason to defend the FOB or the LZ till the last breath, because by the time a general retreat happens, there're so many aliens there's literally no point to make a last stand - it'll achieve nothing but getting rekt in less than 3 minutes which isn't fun. it may help end the game sooner, but then there're ERTs and latejoiners that can turn the tide, and make people regret their sacrifice as they watch the last runner hide somewhere planetside for another hour just because the aliens in the hangar got rekt.
about the "reee marines retreat with 20 people", I always have my medihud on as a ghost, and most of the times as a standard. there're barely any people with green health after a retreat, they're in mostly brighter/dark orange or worse, so you know. maybe a good chunk of these 20 people can't hold a fucking gun, wew what a twist. it's the same as mother reports or round end stats that makes people go "reeeeeee 35 marines v 10 xenos ffffffffffucking normies rreeeeeee", but then they forget that mother reports and endround stats show the total amount of human players. that includes doctors, MTs, CTs, RO, CMO, the entirety of the command staff, CL, and all the others I've forgotten that aren't squad mars, engs, meds or specs and leaders.
something else worth noting is that sometimes marines actually retreat to resupply and regroup, but the xenos touch the console right when they're ready to load into the dropship, or are on their way down in the pod. there's no way for xenos to find out if the marines are actually going to attack again however, so I'll leave it here as a note.
though, then there're COs that order a general retreat when everything is fine and dandy, or when the FOB can still be saved. I'd say the crowd mentality kicks in, because the marines are usually threatened to be left alone with no supplies and dropships, and so a couple of them retreat, then some more, and then it's everyone but the people that want to fight and hold because they know what's going on, and either end up dead or retreating the last. I don't really know how to solve this one.


tldr - marines should be playing defensively, check your turtling privileges, retreats do not happen "just cuz muh xeno hangar defence reeee" - mostly.

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Re: State of the Game

Post by Surrealistik » 07 Jun 2016, 16:00

Durper wrote:That's what I'm asking you.

If one side has the numbers the other side will have a hard time fighting them. but that's one advantage, it can be dealt with by many tactics(I.E well placed defences, Sentries, mines, huggers, weeds, sticky resin......etc) to even out the advantage.

If one side is more skilled than the other, the other side tends to have a trouble dealing with them.

and if one side has both the number and skill, then of course they're mostly likely to win.

Again players make the game balanced.
I don't think you understand. Obviously if one side has an overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers and/or skill it's more likely to win; this is not being disputed. The problem is that for the marines, such an overwhelming advantage is required to succeed, whereas the ideal is relative balance between the two sides such that neither requires overwhelming advantages to overcome a bias in the mechanics; that the two sides are on largely even footing.

True balance derives from mechanics, where the tools and capabilities the aliens and humans have access to put them on relatively even footing assuming a parity of skill. The game is not balanced in that in order for Marines to overcome or even out the inherent mechanical advantages the Xenos have, they need to either field overwhelming numbers and/or have overwhelming skill relative to the Xenos; this is a glaring asymmetry; this is a bad thing.

As a case in point, would Chess be as good a game if you started out with half the pieces and your opponent had all of his? Would Overwatch, DotA, or Battlefield be nearly as popular if one team had significant buffs to their health and damage? Would any of these games be as fun? Almost surely not. Sure, the disadvantaged side could still conceivably win if the difference in skill between the two sides was great enough, but that doesn't suddenly make this state of imbalance desirable. Maybe you're fine with one side being at a handicap, but I find it frustrating; the game would be more enjoyable if both sides started out relatively even.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by jalen earl » 07 Jun 2016, 16:58

When it come to balance and parity of skill to stack it evenly, The main problem is marines and xenos are two completely different teams with completely differently gameplay styles.

Take for example the old avp games or giants: citizen kabuto. The multiplayer mechanics where you had 3 seperate teams always had a balance issue depending on the scenario and map as that would benefit or hinder a playstyle

Either way a buff to marines i dont see necessary a change in playstyle and some minor tinkering definitely
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Snypehunter007 » 07 Jun 2016, 22:08

How about we look at this from a different angle, the second biggest problem behind FF. It is fucking DARK. I think we should see if everything that has been argued applies when it is bright outside. Like if we attack during the day than at night. I would like to see if everything the aliens has going for them applies if they have no shadows to hide in.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by jalen earl » 07 Jun 2016, 22:50

Snypehunter007 wrote:How about we look at this from a different angle, the second biggest problem behind FF. It is fucking DARK. I think we should see if everything that has been argued applies when it is bright outside. Like if we attack during the day than at night. I would like to see if everything the aliens has going for them applies if they have no shadows to hide in.
Would be keen to see a light/dark map. A good example of changing dynamics is the ice map where many xenos get gunned down in the snow due to movement penalties and blue lightsticks illuminating everything limiting ambush opportunities
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Snypehunter007 » 07 Jun 2016, 23:56

jalen earl wrote: Would be keen to see a light/dark map. A good example of changing dynamics is the ice map where many xenos get gunned down in the snow due to movement penalties and blue lightsticks illuminating everything limiting ambush opportunities
No I mean a map that is specifically during the day to see how much of a difference the darkness gives the xenos, which is a lot, and see what the difference in marine gameplay is.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Durper » 08 Jun 2016, 03:18

Surrealistik wrote: I don't think you understand. Obviously if one side has an overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers and/or skill it's more likely to win; this is not being disputed. The problem is that for the marines, such an overwhelming advantage is required to succeed, whereas the ideal is relative balance between the two sides such that neither requires overwhelming advantages to overcome a bias in the mechanics; that the two sides are on largely even footing.

True balance derives from mechanics, where the tools and capabilities the aliens and humans have access to put them on relatively even footing assuming a parity of skill. The game is not balanced in that in order for Marines to overcome or even out the inherent mechanical advantages the Xenos have, they need to either field overwhelming numbers and/or have overwhelming skill relative to the Xenos; this is a glaring asymmetry; this is a bad thing.

As a case in point, would Chess be as good a game if you started out with half the pieces and your opponent had all of his? Would Overwatch, DotA, or Battlefield be nearly as popular if one team had significant buffs to their health and damage? Would any of these games be as fun? Almost surely not. Sure, the disadvantaged side could still conceivably win if the difference in skill between the two sides was great enough, but that doesn't suddenly make this state of imbalance desirable. Maybe you're fine with one side being at a handicap, but I find it frustrating; the game would be more enjoyable if both sides started out relatively even.


Marine Gameplay and Xeno Gameplay are suppose to be different from each other that's what makes it unique, in terms of mechanics and some tactics.

Players would use they're skill and the abilities and equipment they're provided to fight each other,
there are situation where one side has an advantage over the other and it's up to the players to deal with that situation and try to overcome it. like if Xeno's outnumber the marines they'd run and defend vise versa for the marines too.

And you're comparing CM to MOBAS, 1st person Mobas, and first person shooters. Are you implying CM should be like these games? I don't.

Again Lazarus map gamemode is a first contact situation with Xeno's, marines will be at a disadvantage at times, remember medium RP,
you can still have fun loosing as a marine fighting off the Xeno's, and marines can still win with coordination and teamwork, this applies with Xeno's too.

Also Nobody is hugely handicapped in CM people can still win as a Marine or Xeno. all that matters is how good you play.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Surrealistik » 12 Jun 2016, 00:06

I'm not comparing CM and MOBAs; I am using theoretical imbalances in MOBAs (and other games) to highlight and illustrate a point that inherent imbalances are bad and make for a lesser game.

Further, it's pretty hard to deny that there is an inherent imbalance that favours Aliens, particularly since the admins have admitted to it.

I can have fun losing as a Marine, but I think I would have more fun playing on relatively even ground with them.

Finally, Marines are at a considerable disadvantage; again, they can't really win outside of rushes or waiting until the Aliens suicide on a fortified position, and the latter has been constantly made more difficult (especially since corrosive acid got buffed), while admins discourage the former.
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Re: State of the Game

Post by Durper » 12 Jun 2016, 03:22

Surrealistik wrote:I'm not comparing CM and MOBAs; I am using theoretical imbalances in MOBAs (and other games) to highlight and illustrate a point that inherent imbalances are bad and make for a lesser game.

Further, it's pretty hard to deny that there is an inherent imbalance that favours Aliens, particularly since the admins have admitted to it.

I can have fun losing as a Marine, but I think I would have more fun playing on relatively even ground with them.

Finally, Marines are at a considerable disadvantage; again, they can't really win outside of rushes or waiting until the Aliens suicide on a fortified position, and the latter has been constantly made more difficult (especially since corrosive acid got buffed), while admins discourage the former.
You were comparing them to CM, maybe indirectly but you wanted to point out that if a MOBA or and FPS had one team on the high-Ground and the other team did not have the high-ground it would be unfair right? And you wanted to get your point across that you think it's happening on CM right?

Again marines are suppose to be at a disadvantage for the "Grim Dark" and gritty feel. Admins have a Xeno bias I already knew that since I've started playing CM.

Marines are at a disadvantage in situation favoring Xeno that's normal you can still fight them evenly though. Marines are just garbage at combat skill wise most of the time especially when it's grey-tide, but marines can still win a fair fight against the Xeno's, I've seen it happen lots of times before because of good coordination and communication with each other.

Fighting Xenos should be hard as it can be it gives a rewarding feel to the marines if they survive or win after combat with the Xenos. Marines aren't getting steam rolled immediately when they attack if they do most likely they ignored the resin and weeds and got slowed down and surrounded happens a lot.
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