Embrace the Suck

[Desolane900]

Are you concerned with winning the round? Do you think exploiting bugs is the best way to victory? Do you get salty when you die or lose?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this post is for you.

Embrace the Suck

What is the suck? The suck is the way the game is altered to make it so that if you're a marine player, you get shit on around every turn.

You may be asking "But why is the game made to be this way? Shouldn't everyone have fun?"

The answer is simple. Everyone could be having fun, if they would embrace the suck.

The game is tailored to write a story, as roleplaying games often are. The story of Colonial Marines is to tell the tale of the ultimate badasses, warriors of technological superiority and weapons that can kill an elephant getting absolutely destroyed by the galaxy's best killing machines. The canonical story of Colonial Marines is, what I imagine to be, the marines die and the Sulaco is infested with xenomorphs. Correct me if I'm wrong but this is the way the game seems to be tailored. The game is a story, a novel, a book, and the players are the characters. Does it always end in an Alien Major/Minor? No. But that is just the story unfolding. The marines fighting tooth and nail to gain what semblance of victory they can grasp from the cold claws of defeat.

The point I want to get across to the community is that you're a character in a story. You're not the main character, though you may play an important role in the story. Maybe you're one of the important characters that makes a splash and lives to the end. Maybe you're a background character that lives for a few paragraphs and ends as a faceless backdrop. Maybe you're the character that plays an important role with zero gratification. It's a story. Don't try and corner spit. Don't try and build mechs. Don't try and duplicate marksman magazines. Just sit back and play the game. Or observe and watch the story unfold. Each round is a book. Every minute a paragraph.

A roleplaying game is, surprise, a game where the players play a role. Believe it or not, Colonial Marines is a roleplaying game. Instead of worrying about powergaming and trying to get a victory (which you get no reward for) just play a role, enjoy the round, write the book. Take some time to develop your character and their relations with those around them. Ignore the immersion breaking trolls. And by god, don't powergame to ruin someone's round or try and make your side win. All you do is piss people off and hurt your own reputation.

This has been a Public Service Announcement from your friendly neighborhood reformed shitter.

[McRipfist]

This guy gets it. And he's Robust.

[Crab_Spider]

This was a beautiful post... 10/10

[Desolane900]

This guy gets it. And he's Robust.

For some reason people get surprised when I can kick ass and take names just by playing the game. I don't need a maxcap bomb and spec weapons to stomp a few xenos into the dirt.

[McRipfist]

For some reason people get surprised when I can kick ass and take names just by playing the game. I don't need a maxcap bomb and spec weapons to stomp a few xenos into the dirt.

I still remember you and I raking up kills as a duo. I'd say you're the most ROBUST person I know.

[Crab_Spider]

I still remember you and I raking up kills as a duo. I'd say you're the most ROBUST person I know.

... oh

[TheMaskedMan2]

This is everything I have always been trying to say worded much better than I ever could.

Now some may ask "So the devs don't expect people to want to win?!" Which is completely the wrong way to take this, you can want to win, but it shouldn't be your PRIORITY. The priority should be having fun, and making an interesting book.

Now you may also say "The same story every round is boring!!". Well to that I say, use your imagination. Whether marines won or lost, it would always be similiar, and what matters are the small events, that can all culminate into something great.

[Feweh]

The sooner people get this in the head, the more fun they'll have.

People who cry about round balance or admins sending in a IB ERT shifting the balance or that a event unbalanced things.
These people who get upset over Marine Majors, Xeno Minors and Xeno Majors they are the real problem.

None of that matters, winning has no advantage on CM as nothing carries over to the next round.

As an example for myself, when I play xeno.. I often aim to simply wound rather than to kill. As it's far more fun to have that player live without a leg and have him create an event on Sulaco.

There is no reward for winning on CM, but there is a much more self reward for having fun and creating a RP for yourself.

[Desolane900]

This is everything I have always been trying to say worded much better than I ever could.

I write short stories in my free time, which of course never go anywhere. I'm thinking of observing a round and actually writing a book out of a round here on the forums to make my point.

[Clutch]

Totally agree with this alot of the times you might die a seemingless shitty death whilst you've done alot of RP and stuff in a round but that is how it goes, you aren't special at all in the story you might become one. People should get it in their head that he round isnt evolving around them they are part of the round.

[4thsurviver]

I normally burst when I get infected because I never know what information the doctors have relating to infection and I don't want to meta it. I've tried to RP first encounters with xenos, once even giving them some chicken and in return they dropped me a hugger. I stood there a second debating what to do next. In the end I walked over and tried to pick it up. I'll gladly do something dangerous to avoid metaing and hope to see others do the same. That's why I get a little annoyed when xenos run from grenades and OBs, they shouldn't know what they are until one sees them explode.

This is a competitive game if only by nature of it being team based multiplayer game, people will always try to win, but I think that it goes deeper then that. You have two asymmetrical teams. One of which everyone knows is favored and is supposed to win more often then lose. Marine players look at the xenos and see all these rules and nerfs designed to keep the status quo and can't help but spite the xenos for it. They start to resent and hate the xenos, they view them as honorless killing machines.They can think only of winning, killing the xenos, or surviving to spite them. Their motivations start to match their IC motivations and they claw at what ever methods they can to win to survive. The goal of skewed ratio was to keep xenos as these scary monsters and I think it worked. Maybe it worked too well.

[Telegnats]

I would be far more accepting of this idea if the RP on this server was more satisfying than winning; But honestly I don't think it is. The RP I have experienced within the past month has been nothing but the same conversations over, and over, and over. There are only so many times I can bother myself with someone calling me a bitch/baldie retard because i'm in a different squad, or them telling me that they're going to leave the marines after this deployment, or saying what a bunch of retard(s) the CO/BO/XO/SL/Engi/baldie/CL/MP/PO/RO is, before I start clawing for an exit so I can do something I haven't done five times this round already.

Stop trying to tell everyone that RP is more important than winning and fucking prove it.

[Casany]

Stop trying to tell everyone that RP is more important than winning and fucking prove it.

See, that's the problem bucko. You're relying on others to make the game enjoyable to you. How's about you do something out of the norm, or maybe strike up a unique conversation. Maybe you do a CL gimmick that gets the round going, maybe you put in more effort then the others so they can learn from the example. I always make every round here I play unique, not because of what others do but because of what I decide to do.

[TheMaskedMan2]

The sooner people get this in the head, the more fun they'll have.

People who cry about round balance or admins sending in a IB ERT shifting the balance or that a event unbalanced things.
These people who get upset over Marine Majors, Xeno Minors and Xeno Majors they are the real problem.

None of that matters, winning has no advantage on CM as nothing carries over to the next round.

As an example for myself, when I play xeno.. I often aim to simply wound rather than to kill. As it's far more fun to have that player live without a leg and have him create an event on Sulaco.

There is no reward for winning on CM, but there is a much more self reward for having fun and creating a RP for yourself.

Oh god yes I love delimbing, and furthermore, I love being delimbed! It's such an awesome RP event to get a prosthetic. Assuming they survive. It's why as a Rav or Xeno in general I typically only aim for the main arm or leg, just aiming for hands feels a little scummy, and also getting the full arm off is so much more satisfying.

[Desolane900]

I would be far more accepting of this idea if the RP on this server was more satisfying than winning; But honestly I don't think it is. The RP I have experienced within the past month has been nothing but the same conversations over, and over, and over. There are only so many times I can bother myself with someone calling me a bitch/baldie retard because i'm in a different squad, or them telling me that they're going to leave the marines after this deployment, or saying what a bunch of retard(s) the CO/BO/XO/SL/Engi/baldie/CL/MP/PO/RO is, before I start clawing for an exit so I can do something I haven't done five times this round already.

Stop trying to tell everyone that RP is more important than winning and fucking prove it.

Much like Casany's response, my point of making this thread is to invoke some RP to start taking precedence over winning. Have different conversations. Ask people where they're from. Have any siblings, what are they like. My favorite thing to do is to have people ask Saul about things in the jam packed dossier I made. Add some meat to the rounds instead of looking at the cardboard and thinking that's all it can be.

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

This is beautiful. Saul, you said this in such a great way, I can't think of anything to add.

[Martzin]

Very well said, alot of people need to read this.

[Renomaki]

I myself have learned to accept failure in not just CM, but SS13 in general. Beating the bad guys and keeping everyone safe and happy is hard, and trying to be a hero is often suicidal at best (unless you are insanely robust without having to powergame). After awhile, you just learn to roll with the punches and hope that your round goes at least decently. It is better to have good RP and lose, than to win in a bland, empty fashion.

In fact, it is what makes playing as a MARINE so much fun, because while xeno wins are commonplace and not all that exciting, marine majors are impressive because of the events that take place during them. Be it the story of a commander's struggle against all odds to support his platoon, to the legend of that one guy that kicked so much ass that his name would go down in history, to even the story of how a man failed his fellow marines, only to redeem himself near the end and become the hero they needed most...

When marines get majors, they earn those majors, and the sub-stories within all contribute in some way or another.

[Telegnats]

See, that's the problem bucko. You're relying on others to make the game enjoyable to you. How's about you do something out of the norm, or maybe strike up a unique conversation. Maybe you do a CL gimmick that gets the round going, maybe you put in more effort then the others so they can learn from the example. I always make every round here I play unique, not because of what others do but because of what I decide to do.

No, it's not - and I kind of have to rely on other people, otherwise i'm just talking to people who won't respond and don't care about what i'm talking about.

And also, don't presume that i'm the one striking up these fucking conversations all the time, I try to talk about different shit than the usual but more often than not no one seems to want to have any other conversation besides complaining about something. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I see the cardboard box, and i'm trying to put some meat on the cardboard box but all i'm getting is meat on a cardboard box. Maybe because meat on a cardboard box isn't interesting.

[Helgraf]

Oh god yes I love delimbing, and furthermore, I love being delimbed! It's such an awesome RP event to get a prosthetic. Assuming they survive. It's why as a Rav or Xeno in general I typically only aim for the main arm or leg, just aiming for hands feels a little scummy, and also getting the full arm off is so much more satisfying.

I remember this one round on ice colony where a hunter pounced on me and cut off my left arm. I had my marine cry, whimper, and scream about his arm for a while, I also RPed him being traumatized, not exactly sure if I did good with the trauma, but it was fun. Also, good job writing this Saul.

[Casany]

No, it's not - and I kind of have to rely on other people, otherwise i'm just talking to people who won't respond and don't care about what i'm talking about.

And also, don't presume that i'm the one striking up these fucking conversations all the time, I try to talk about different shit than the usual but more often than not no one seems to want to have any other conversation besides complaining about something. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I see the cardboard box, and i'm trying to put some meat on the cardboard box but all i'm getting is meat on a cardboard box. Maybe because meat on a cardboard box isn't interesting.

All of this does not matter. I sometimes do emotes with NO ONE AROUND. It isn't for anyone else's entertainment but mine! And you cannot say that everyone you talk to is just gonna ignore you. If you talk to a baldie, OF COURSE he will ignore you! But if you talk to any character with a nickname or that's known in the community in one way or another you're bound to have an experience that's unique. If you put meat in a cardboard box, it's just meat in a box. But if you get a grill and some friends it's a party friend

[Desolane900]

Very well said, alot of people need to read this.

So spread it. And act on it.

[Gumpson]

Amazing post Saul

I'll definitely attempt to Improve upon my RP'ing and focus less on pushing down the aliens

This post legit makes me want to turn a new leaf in CM

I shall embrace THE SUCC

[Monoo]

I remember this one round on ice colony where a hunter pounced on me and cut off my left arm. I had my marine cry, whimper, and scream about his arm for a while, I also RPed him being traumatized, not exactly sure if I did good with the trauma, but it was fun. Also, good job writing this Saul.

I have a thing.

Whenever my marine drops into a near-dead enough state (passed out in paincrit at least once, or low on blood) I like to get delirious until cured. I start mumbling old war flashbacks and talking to my character's dead mama. Good for setting the mood.

It's also fun to go into shock for a few seconds after a sudden injury like a severed limb or explosion.

[NoahKirchner]

Yeah.

You did it.

Pls pin post?