Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Add more, different gamemodes other than always the same strict Infestation one.
Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Remove the repetitiveness factor that the server has
Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): (I don't know if this was already talked about or planned so apologies in advance if so) So I'll be honest, this server is amazing and provides an excellent gameplay experience given that it's different and provides much more action and excitement for marines due to its edgy Aliens based rounds. But I think the main problem that CM has is that it can get a little repetitive at times. Comparing to other servers, they all have a lot of possibilities to occur in just one round. It can be a syndicate round, a traitor round, a blob round, a malf AI round, a rev round... you get the point. This ensures that the player doesn't know what will happen in a round, or at least fully, which keeps things interesting. However in here everybody always knows what will happen. From a marine PoV for example, you simply wake up, get geared, get briefed, and then head to Nostromo. There you eventually find aliens and spend the rest of the round fighting them. And repeat. This is great don't get me wrong, but it's possible that it eventually gets tiring, which leads to players constantly looking forward to events, because besides being special admin run occasions, they are also different and unpredictable.
Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): While the above is a strong suggestion of mine, the following is more of an open discussion, as I'm not fit to know which gamemodes are best suited/able to be implemented, but I'll mention them anyway.
Aliens vs. Predator round: Yes I'm sorry for being this obvious already, but I heard some rumors here and there that the Predator would be added in Alpha. Again just a rumor, I don't know if it's true or not. But if it is, why not make this a default game mode? Or at least make it default with a lower probability to happen. Just have an option in the Setup Character tab that says "Be Predator" and you set it to yes or no, much like Alien or Survivor. Then a few players spawn as Predators. Again though I have no idea if this is easy to accomplish and to make the Predator class balanced, etc. Just food for thought though. EDIT: In order to prevent the Predators and Aliens from killing each other before marines even get to the planet, either add a rule for those two not to engage until marines arrive, or have Predators spawn rather far away from the Aliens with strict orders not to head to their Hive or explore, maybe even give them their own little spaceship?
Alien Isolation round: Now this one, despite not respecting the Colonial Marines title, I think would be an awesome type of round. You all already guessed it and probably know it better than me, it just consists of, instead of players spawning as Marines, they spawn as Scientists/Researchers/etc on the base map, and instead of multiple aliens, there is only one. To make it balanced the human players would have weaker weapons compared to marines but ofc could still overpower the alien in numbers, forcing him to be cunning and stealthy. Add a few objectives like sending a distress beacon/finding a spaceship/any way off the planet for the survivors, in a manner that eventually forces them to scatter so the Alien doesn't have a hard time picking them off, and we got a spectacular type of round. Also since the planet map is already bloody and desolate and looking like a disaster already happened then this round could also, RPly speaking, begin after the creature already broke loose and killed the majority of the facility, so mappers don't have to work around this issue. EDIT: Also to make sure the Alien isn't controlled by somebody who has no idea of what they're doing, ruining the round, maybe player statistics as xenomorphs could be tracked, and whoever has more kills/surviving time/overall best play ability would be suited and chosen for this. Or maybe being the Alien in these types of round are not a player choice but an admin choice? AKA one can choose to be the Alien themselves or choose a player specifically for the task. Finally if the player was to have to leave midround and go braindead, then the Alien spot should be possible to be transferred to another player already on the round on the fly.
Predator (Isolation?) round: Same as above pretty much, except instead of an Alien there's a Predator. Much more terrifying imo, knowing a hunter could be stalking you and hiding in plain sight at all times.
Predator round: Basically a normal round like we have right now, where Colonial Marines head down to the planet after a distress signal was sent, only instead of Xenomorphs they face a group of Predators. Again I can't go fully into detail as how this could be balanced as I don't have any type of knowledge on that whatsoever, but I still think it would be a great round while still being faithful to the Colonial Marines title.
Syndicate/Rebels/Pirates/Mutiny/etc round: I'm not particularly fond of these types of rounds, but a lot of other players are so I'll mention it. Basically when marines head down to the planet, instead of the usual, horrifying monster creatures they usually find, they simply find out that the facility was just invaded by "normal" terrorists, such as Syndicate, or that a mutiny happened, etc. Basically it makes the armed players fight other armed players. I guess it's good for a change, but it's not really my thing mainly because it's unusual for the CM server. But again a lot of you love these types of rounds, they used to be requested as events often so this should still be up to debate. EDIT: Combat Synthetics?
Necromorph round: I never played this type of round, not on this server, but I heard it was hosted as an event. Personally even if this goes against the Aliens lore I still think it's an spectacular idea. At least make it a very low chance to be a round type, or still leave it as an option for events. VERY RELEVANT EDIT:
► Show Spoiler
