The State of the Game: Discussion

[WinterClould]

I have a strong feeling that a lot of problems with the game right now have to do with the time table the marines are on. Everything is such a rush to get things done that any delay can spell an easy win for the xeno. Time also cant be taken out to RP at all when thats just more delays. If the CO picks a late briefing time people get pissed because they know waiting to long will fuck us. And if the CO dares to try and do something fun and have some sort of gimmick go on? The marines will throw a shit fit and hate that CO forever. The only people who can afford to RP are classes with actual down time like Docs, MTs, CTs, maybe MPs.

This isnt even about giving the marines a chance to win, its about giving them a chance to fight. I don't care if the marines lose every round or have to blow up the ship every other round. That's perfectly fine so long as the marines get to have a fun fight against the xeno and not a rofl stomp 1 hour round with the marines only being on the ground for 30min tops.

The map also plays a big part in this. LV is consistently better to flight on compared any of the others I think because of the strong lay out of the map and the delay the Fog gives. Big Red can be pretty shit pretty often but places like LZ-1 have strong potential sometimes. None of them even compare to how bad Ice is though. I hate ice so damn much. We need a whole post about how much Ice Colony eats ass. LZ-2 being a death trap for even the most expert marines. LZ-1 being so remote and far away from everything important. I don't even know where Tcomms are because no one ever turns them on. The ladders are also a special little death pit for the xeno to camp. If I ever get around to submitting an app for the CO whitelist and get accepted I will never ever role CO on ice, I dont even XO on ice I hate it so much.

[Feweh]

Weve got 2 decently sized updates coming out thatll fix balance.

xeno buffs mainly

[YungCuz]

I feel like anyone who posts in this isnt really in the mood for a joke

[Casany]

I feel like anyone who posts in this isnt really in the mood for a joke

Fewehs just trying to get a ride outa us.

I've stopped myself from responding because I see no point as of now. Yeah, the games not super balanced and I personally hate what's happening right now. But I also know the devs are planning on adding some new marine toys in soon.

They'll read this and take it into account but there's nothing we can do until those updates to change balance, not because the devs are bad but because things take time. They've made it clear they aren't gonna roll back any updates so it's basically just a waiting game. Steamroll after steamroll is gonna happen, we just gotta wait it out and hope the devs add some new buffs, preferably to the marine side, soon enough.

[Crab_Spider]

Marines were already a bit weak and they got a massive speed nerf, which looked like a side effect of smoother animation. You don't mention it in your list of balance changes either. I can't beleive in carefully planned balance changes if game-changing unintentional speed nerfs happen.

That speed nerf was unintentional

[Casany]

That speed nerf was unintentional

Look at the last sentence of the quote

[Nick123q23]

Things will come eventually. CM's got a really great dev team.

We just have to deal with the changes, experimentation, and suffering until they get it right.

[KingKire]

Yah, ill throw my two cents in saying that, overall gameplay wise, i think it needs some tweaks.

Graphically, mmm this game is beautiful, everythings just having a nice feel to it. i would still love some tricked out GUI's but everything so far has been nice with the soft cream tone of the 70's slippin in.

sound wise: dang, those bullets sound SOOO nice, gunfights sound super intense, which i love. I could feel being cramped in the underground hallways. it was good. I would love more ambient sounds like wind or weird electrical buzzings or the humm of machinery, but thats all icing haha.

Bugs and small tweaks to the clumbersome HUDs and controls, soo nice.

Gameplay wise: Currently the games pretty steamrolly.
I dont think many people have problems losing, but when you clock in to invest into for the aliens experience, your hoping to get some meat off the bone before you clock out to the great dead chat in the sky. I want to feel hope of a possible win before someone rips the carpet out from under me, which i think the games currently missing.


Cant wait for those new updates when they arrive, but right now, ill stand in the sidelines with hopeful anticipation, or at least until i have my palette cleansed and ready for another launch into the breach.

[Nyeshivuu]

I've been rolling SO the past 2 rounds, it is my new favorite role because i can see the action without being dragged off by Young Hunter (678) never to be seen again.
But my salt levels go off the chart when i see the squad i am overwatching be steamrolled by the MEME SCREAM TEAM or dancing ayys, and i can't do much but yell at the squad to pull the fuck out. Oh and the xeno meta where they aim for the SL or Spec is salt inducing too.
You know how xenos can see in the dark and see marines through walls because of thermal vision i guess? Maybe the marine's sprites could be orange, so it is hard to distinguish them, and they appear as "Tallhost" when you hover your cursor over them.

[apophis775]

We are working on it. It's going to be a primary topic at this weekends dev meeting. It was going to be last weeks, but SOMEONE was kidnapped for a Bachelor Party and spent a few days playing blackjack with hookers while doing blow.

We are hoping to get everything back on track this weekend.

[Crab_Spider]

We are working on it. It's going to be a primary topic at this weekends dev meeting. It was going to be last weeks, but SOMEONE was kidnapped for a Bachelor Party and spent a few days playing blackjack with hookers while doing blow.

We are hoping to get everything back on track this weekend.

Can you just open a thread where players ask the staff team how their day was, what they liked about it, and what they didn't like about it?

Also, thank the Lord you guys are making such a thing (not related to what I brought up) a top one priority.

[Symbiosis]

We are working on it. It's going to be a primary topic at this weekends dev meeting. It was going to be last weeks, but SOMEONE was kidnapped for a Bachelor Party and spent a few days playing blackjack with hookers while doing blow.

We are hoping to get everything back on track this weekend.

Appreciate what y'all do, seeing as ya ain't paid and it's work you're putting in. I have faith!

[rev_benji]

All aboard the hype train! CHOO CHOO

[IronTeapot]

">scout ahead, die>make a stand at a midpoint, die>go to the FOB, die>"

It's not even a stand anymore, it's just "die at or flee midpoint", recently I've just seen the Xenos steamroll through midpoint and the FOB in minutes, hell one time Hydro fell within seconds of the Xenos arriving. It's ridiculous, you can't react beyond a single word without risking death mid reaction.

The one variation of that established formula was with a Commander (Carson I think?) Who after losing the ground kept deploying waves of marines from DS1/DS2 to assault the xenos before they could hijack the dropship in human wave assaults. It was fun even though marine corpses occupied every other tile at LZ1 and the xenos won anyway. Just a slight variation from that now established grind made it so much better.

[spengbab]

It certainly feels like marines win less these days, and that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Balance also seems to significantly vary by map, with some maps having more or less monkeys AFAIK. If fog on LV went down 5 mins sooner the xenos would have a much harder time for those 5 mins without any mature T3s. As is, they get matures about the same time as fog drops. Minor suggestions to be sure, I imagine you guys have broader and better plans.

[Draegonlore]

I don't usually post on forums, I kind of hate them but well, it's the best place to get my post an actual response, and this thread really summarized how I feel about the current state of the game to a T. That said, I have some ideas on why xenos are so damn OP at this very moment. Mostly it has to do with the T3s. T3's are so fucking hilariously overpowered right now it's sad. Crushers no longer can be stunned at all by like, anything. They can ram into walls all day and night without recourse. No more stun for slamming against a barrier, giving marines no chance to really react aside when they mosey on out of there to heal back up and slam again, knowing they'll probably make it out. The is the worst for FOB's, especially when crushers smash their way through the entire goddamn thing.

Boilers. Boilers, one second in their gas puts a marine into paincrit/hardcrit. I get it's painful but jesus man, half the time I can't even walk out I just fall over and then a drone runs up to drag me off. Praetorians have gone from Ok-tier to annoying as fucking hell with their new resin spit. Young hunters which used to have problems getting into fights with anything but a lone marine have become near elite hunter tier now with their healthbar. Ravagers also cant be stunned and a mature one can decap in little more than three hits, giving the player no time to respond. They also can't be stunned. Drones also have gone from staying back to build and emit pheromones to the point where I actually see them running up to the frontlines to start swiping at marines. Runners now can literally outrun bullets.

One of the other things fucked in my opinion is how little damage some marine weapons do. I get maybe some weapons could have done less but now it feels like you're throwing pebbles at them as it takes something like seven hits from your assault rifle to kill an ayy. Or how the sniper rifle does jack shit damage. Boilers don't even seem to notice until after you shoot them three times or once with your incendiary rounds, which don't do anything but inconvenience them. Another problem I see that another person pointed out was the shared spec weapon pool. Just. Why.

Anyways, sorry if I come off too salty in this post. I dropped CM last Monday due to the balancing issues annoying me. I may have dumped a little into this thread but that's not supposed to be the point of this post. I get the game balance isn't supposed to be perfect, or as Apop is striving for. I loved the old back and forth and I loved building Fobs like it was nobody's business as a squad engie. But this state of the game is pretty atrocious to me and I can't wait to play again when you fix the problems that are currently plaguing the game.

[jusa297]

Tl;Dr everything is op, pls nerf

[TheMaskedMan2]

Sick and half asleep right now but all I have to say is, and this is not directed at anyone in particular, is people need to calm down, and be patient. Balance and game updates are tricky things to get right. Change is a process, and we can stay at one "comfortable" spot, or advance. There will be hurdles, there will be times an update fucks everything up, but as always, it will be worked out over time.

I like to try and look at the big picture. While an update that changes a lot may immediatly fuck up the balance, what is the overall feel and change? For example removing T3 stuns? I liked the idea, but now marines need a new counter to fall back on. Personally I think rockets should always stun, anyways. The tiny detail can be refined later. Anyways this is a period of a lot of changes, but the fix is not as simple as "Nerf health across the board! Revert this! Stop that!" Sure, you 'could' do that, but it's a knee jerk reaction that can mess things up in the long run.

Look, the devs are part of the community, they play the game as well, the #1 goal is a fun experience for all sides, but things take time, and I simply say, relax and have patience.

This was somewhat a response at a lot of the salt and drama building up in the community these past weeks, and I had to get it out. Have a good one everyone, time to go down more meds for my sick.

[Swagile]

Im salty as fuck because it seems as if the Devs don't actually play the game, as witnessed by Dylan commenting about the UGL stun nerf with "we've seen a problem with Queens dying to a barrage of grenades".

Well of fucking course she dies to a barrage if she's dumb and over extends or gets cornered. Xenos are SUPPOSED to be punished for their fuck ups; they have more leeway than marines do, but they can still die if they fuck up.

Idiot proofing xenos to the point of no stuns is why the game is going down hill and devs don't play the game enough to understand this. Damage means NOTHING to xenos; what makes a xeno tuck its tail and get the fuck out is when it can get stunned. Buckshot? That xeno is running the fuck away. Rockets? Its not even popping its fucking head out. Claymores? Its right clicking every single fucking tile that could even REMOTELY hide a claymore in fear of being stunned and gunned down.

The recent updates have completely removed or heavily nerfed these marine options, turning the game more and more into a stale COD match except with more bullets required to kill your target; you can't even headshot.

Id rate the game as a 6/10 if its trying to become like COD (cookie-cutter action with barely any RP or complexity to it).

Id give a more indepth reason, balance, and design flaws of this update, but its 3:52 in the morning after work. Best I could come up with the brain fumes im running on.

[Nyeshivuu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux7tbO_1azo
this thread

[Casany]

Sick and half asleep right now but all I have to say is, and this is not directed at anyone in particular, is people need to calm down, and be patient. Balance and game updates are tricky things to get right. Change is a process, and we can stay at one "comfortable" spot, or advance. There will be hurdles, there will be times an update fucks everything up, but as always, it will be worked out over time.

I like to try and look at the big picture. While an update that changes a lot may immediatly fuck up the balance, what is the overall feel and change? For example removing T3 stuns? I liked the idea, but now marines need a new counter to fall back on. Personally I think rockets should always stun, anyways. The tiny detail can be refined later. Anyways this is a period of a lot of changes, but the fix is not as simple as "Nerf health across the board! Revert this! Stop that!" Sure, you 'could' do that, but it's a knee jerk reaction that can mess things up in the long run.

Look, the devs are part of the community, they play the game as well, the #1 goal is a fun experience for all sides, but things take time, and I simply say, relax and have patience.

This was somewhat a response at a lot of the salt and drama building up in the community these past weeks, and I had to get it out. Have a good one everyone, time to go down more meds for my sick.

Looking at it this way and nothing gets fixed. We can wait all we want, sure. What should we do in the meantime though? Get steamrolled every round? I realize that patience is a virtue but you gotta realize this thread isn't just salt, these are legitiment complaints about the lack of balance for the past few weeks! We realize it isn't easy but all we want is for the devs to take notice. I highly doubt they play the game else they'd realize why we are complaining. They use test servers to test changes, but most of the time they rarely jump on the main server unless updating or testing in the thinderdome.

Masked, I really just want you to play marine a few rounds and see what we're talking about. I know you're a bit of a xeno main, which is why I ask.

I really want this game to succeed, and improve. I don't post here to give the devs a hard time or to tell them they aren't doing good, I post here because I want the game to improve.

[Nyeshivuu]

(Salt incoming) The past few rounds i've played have solidified my belief that xenos are metagamey powergaming cunts with no regard for the pace of the round, xenos were waiting at lz when we were gonna send it down one round, an admin ooc announced to the xenos to get away from the lz and that is when my sodium levels went past critical mass. The xenos wanted to swarm the ds and get an easy xeno victory. They don't care if they make the round interesting or not, they just want to win. AND WHEN YOU GET POUNCED AND GET STUN SLASHED BY Young Runner (890) AND THE XENO CHANGES TILES WHILE SLASHING I ACTUALLY BECOME THE GOD OF ANGER IN THAT MOMENT. Maybe marines could shoot while on the ground? Xenos used to be able to slash while on the ground so maybe marines could get a chance to survive when tackled.

[Tidomann]

(Salt incoming) The past few rounds i've played have solidified my belief that xenos are metagamey powergaming cunts with no regard for the pace of the round, xenos were waiting at lz when we were gonna send it down one round, an admin ooc announced to the xenos to get away from the lz and that is when my sodium levels went past critical mass. The xenos wanted to swarm the ds and get an easy xeno victory. They don't care if they make the round interesting or not, they just want to win. AND WHEN YOU GET POUNCED AND GET STUN SLASHED BY Young Runner (890) AND THE XENO CHANGES TILES WHILE SLASHING I ACTUALLY BECOME THE GOD OF ANGER IN THAT MOMENT. Maybe marines could shoot while on the ground? Xenos used to be able to slash while on the ground so maybe marines could get a chance to survive when tackled.

The Meta ayys that attack the canopy on first landing are great.

I think the most fun round I've had since I started playing as an alien is when the queen kept slashing off the entire round, forcing metarunners/metaravagers to salt in hivemind the entire game about not being able to stunlock people to death. We had so many captured bodies, and the marines seemed to actually have more fun. Since drones and sentinels all go to the front line now, because realistically who needs to watch a hive when everyone is just dying anyway- we actually had marines get free who weren't pain critted and useless in a nest. We had marines get out and have to be relocated- others who when they saw their friends get recaptured ended up shooting themselves rather then be dragged back. The round was still one sided but at least it was interesting.

Also- I find a ton of time to roleplay during combat as a marine. Usually it's after a marine friendly fires me and my lung gets punctured and I need to fall back. I at least take a few breaths to yell at them before crawling to a medic and passing out.

Friendly fire is a roleplay feature guys..

[dylanstrategie]

Look, we're working on it, but we can't magically snap our fingers to make the balance right again, this is going to take time

We already have some elements out and we'll continue in the short term

[caleeb101]

New round just broke the record. LV-624 1:17 round end. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the hive are only allowed out after the 1 hour mark. Marines got steamrolled apparently. I came to play thinking they'd be engaged in combat only to see aliens running about on the almayer. 17 minutes guys. That's all it takes.