Squad Preference

[NoahKirchner]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):Add preferences to which squad you can join in the occupation menu. Like have it be so you click on the, for example, standard name. Once you click on it you get options for alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, and whichever you click on is your preference.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): It will allow more squad cohesion so that you can trust the other people in your squad. It'll allow you to better know the people in your squad, and a respect grows between them. For example, would you be more inclined to follow an SL that you've worked with a ton before and who you trust to lead you, or one you've never had before? Putting this in will help make the marines more competent and help smooth out the process for marines planetside. The xenos are simple, they require a few competent members to win, but all of the marine departments need to be competent for them to be effective at all. I feel like this would help with that and make wins be more skill and listening-to-orders based as opposed to a numbers game.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): I said it earlier. woo.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):Obviously a load of spriting hue.

[TheKillerAnt]

we used to have that, but then most people only go for bravo and alpha, charlie and delta is always underpopulated.

[Eenkogneeto]

Sounds good in theory but in practice im betting Bravo and Charlie end up barren wastelands as everyone gravitates to Alpha and Delta or as above said, Bravo and Alpha

[NoahKirchner]

Sounds good in theory but in practice im betting Bravo and Charlie end up barren wastelands as everyone gravitates to Alpha and Delta or as above said, Bravo and Alpha

We have more players now, and even if charlie and delta are barren wastelands at least Alpha and Bravo are very competent.

[Sargeantmuffinman]

Eeeeeeeh. Maybe.

Like we had this suggested before I think.

Not sure what happened to it though.

[Eenkogneeto]

Would Squad preference or Job preference take priority?
I/e, I sign up for Alpha and Engineer on high, But alpha already has two engis, Do i move on to my second (Medic or something) or does it shove me over into delta with all the rejects?

[NoahKirchner]

Would Squad preference or Job preference take priority?
I/e, I sign up for Alpha and Engineer on high, But alpha already has two engis, Do i move on to my second (Medic or something) or does it shove me over into delta with all the rejects?

Job preference takes priority over squad preference.

[NoahKirchner]

More benefits: It would help new marines learn the game and would encourage RP if they're in a squad with a bunch of people that already know each other and RP together as opposed to a bunch of people that just think everyone else is incompetent and get mad at each other.

[Biolock]

I give this my wholehearted +1, it'd be nice to have some air of control over who's gonna shoot you in the back

[Casany]

I played when the LO was a thing, and I fear this will just be like that: Marines going Delta and Alpha, with only FFing baldies in Bravo and Charlie

[Biolock]

I played when the LO was a thing, and I fear this will just be like that: Marines going Delta and Alpha, with only FFing baldies in Bravo and Charlie

Good, let the FF baldies stay away from me...

[NoahKirchner]

I played when the LO was a thing, and I fear this will just be like that: Marines going Delta and Alpha, with only FFing baldies in Bravo and Charlie

The new guys will see that all the cool "robust" people are in Alpha and Delta, and will want to be in Alpha and Delta. Once they're in either of those squads, they'll see how the marines properly interact and begin to learn how to be robust themselves. At the very worst, you'll have two competent squads and two meat-shields, at the very best all four squads will get mainstay members and new players will learn no matter their squad.

[Kavlo]

I'm gonna give this a -1

I played a lot when you went to the LOs and asked for your job and squad so I can see where you're coming from but my problem with this is the most obvious one being the whole "Everyone pick Bravo (other squads are available) so we can be together!" meta as many other people have already pointed out. Now I understand that this is a preference you're suggesting but in my opinion this still could lead to people meta-grouping for the same squad even with more people on the server then there was back when LOs were around. If a well known player like for example Xur were to say in OOC before the round "I'm gonna try to be Bravo this round" you known people would try to go Bravo to be with a competent player who knows the game, as well as if someone new said "I'm gonna try to get charlie to be SL for my first time" and to be honest no one really wants to work under someone is trying something out SL for their first time so people would go for a different squad. Also, loads of players that play CM are not new but are unknown so to say in the community but you'd rather work with someone known then someone you don't recognize. If you really want to get to know people in the community and learn who to trust when fighting xenos then you don't want to end up in a squad full of CM veterans, since you already probably know where you stand with a good lot of them. At the moment squad placement is just RNG, you could be in a squad of only CM veterans but it's RNG not meta-planned, but most rounds you'll get a mix of people you don't know and a couple you recognize and this is how it should be in my opinion. One last point being new players learn a lot from veteran players so we shouldn't give them an option to try to segregate themselves away from the new players.

Overall my point being, meta plays too big a part in this for me so i'm against it even if it's just a preference.

[DeadLantern]

-1

Everyone will pick the same squad with the meta buddies in them...

We need FRESH RP.

[NoahKirchner]

I see where you're coming from, Kavlo, but working with those bigger names I think might help players learn the game and the community a little better. If you're in a squad with a bunch of people you like (OOCly), you're gonna have more RP between those people because they know how to RP with them. For example, I'm much more likely to RP if I have Jay Burns in my squad than if everybody in my squad is a baldie. Furthermore, this might encourage RP from new players because instead of joining into a squad full of people who they see barely talking and not at all RP'ing, they'll come into a squad where everyone knows each other and is (hopefully) RP'ing together instead of just getting mad at the incompetency in their squad over comms and ramboing. For example, when I first joined the game I saw next to no RP. So little RP, infact, that for my first week or two I thought that it was a low RP server, and by extension had this really stupid character with a funny name and just did dumb shit and memed over comms. I came to that conclusion because every squad I was in was low rp shitdickery and people getting salty and starting fights as opposed to people who could work together, listened to their SL etc. Hopefully if new players are introduced to squads that know how to interact they'll listen to their SL more and we'll have more RP and what-not as an extention thereby making fresh RP with new people. But that's just my train of though and I do see where you're coming from with the meta-buddy thing, but maybe it can help as well as hurt and so it can balance out the negatives and the positives.

[Casany]

I see where your coming from Noah but that's probably not what's going to happen. First off, this encourages those groups like sanctum and the others to go all one squad, and it won't increase RP whatsoever. The SL is still going to be a Baldie, there will still only be 5 members who ever speak, but this time you got no Charlie or bravo squad

[NoahKirchner]

I see where your coming from Noah but that's probably not what's going to happen. First off, this encourages those groups like sanctum and the others to go all one squad, and it won't increase RP whatsoever. The SL is still going to be a Baldie, there will still only be 5 members who ever speak, but this time you got no Charlie or bravo squad

Well we need a way to make marine RP a thing, because currently this server is low RP. Period. There's very little if any roleplay, HOWEVER, mechanics can benefit and encourage roleplay, so how do we encourage it? With what mechanics? This is currently the only thing I can think of that would even help a small bit..

[Joe4444]

why not make it o if a squad has a certain amount of members in it (EG.the squad has a SL,spec,engi,medic and say...3 standards) it'll pick a squad at random and when ever squad gets"filled" the number of grunts goes up.This would probably have to scale with the amount of people but it might just solve the "everyone going one squad leaving everything else null" thing.

[Casany]

why not make it o if a squad has a certain amount of members in it (EG.the squad has a SL,spec,engi,medic and say...3 standards) it'll pick a squad at random and when ever squad gets"filled" the number of grunts goes up.This would probably have to scale with the amount of people but it might just solve the "everyone going one squad leaving everything else null" thing.

Then it ruins the point, as then it will be just like it is now

[Joe4444]

Then it ruins the point, as then it will be just like it is now

It won't.People would still get a little freedom of which squad they go.As the title Said,its a preference.If you prefer to go into one squad,the Game will try to put you there.Somtimes your not gonna get the preference you want though,Why not make it so you can give the squads a 1,2,3 and 4 rating(1 being the highest,4 being the lowest)
so if number 1 squad is full it'll try put you in 2,then 3,then 4.If it can't do that.it'll pick a squad a random.

[Snypehunter007]

Implemented on the character creation screen.

Locking.