Add an option for people to either spawn as a ghost or be returned to the lobby if a predator spawns at roundstart, or if it's a predator round.
Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):
Choosing to observe any round effectively locks people out of playing marine. Given that predator rounds are uncommon, people not wishing to play as xeno get effectively locked out of the round.
This could prevent that.
Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):
Observing a role is the best way to learn about it if one does not have access to first-hand experience. I, for one, am finding it a bit difficult however to justify observing at the start of a round, especially when the crew manifest lists zero doctors, requisition personnel, or bridge officers, and nobody joins these roles in the following 5 minutes or so. Gambling playing as an important supporting role for the chance of a glimpse at the preds in action doesn't sit well with me.
META CONCERN LEVELS: ZERO (at the time of this writing)
This might have the appearance of a tool for metagaming, but do not be deceived!
- Any single hypothetical metagamer trying to use this system for meta knowledge, will gain nothing.
If they are a xeno player they are currently ghosting in order to scout around, forced to wait 5 minutes to join the fray. In any implementation of this suggestion, they would still be forced out of the starting larvae, having to wait as much as they did before.
If they are a marine player their knowledge will be pointless: they will either be a ghost (spawn as ghost if predator round OR predator drawn, no meta potential), realize that there may be a predator around (if redirected to lobby because predator round, meta potential minimal), or learn that there is at least 1 predator (redirect to lobby on predator draw, meta potential minimal*) - Any hypothetical group of metagamers using meta-comunication will gain little to nothing from this, for they are either already having a member ghost, or become aware early whether a pred may show up*, which is usually learned in the first 10 minutes or so of deployment.
Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): booleans