Originally Posted by
Swagile
I don't think you get it.
The gap is not fun at all to fight in because the game wasn't meant to be fought in a stalemate. Its why DEFCON / burrowed are a thing; because once you are stuck in a stalemate where neither side can do anything, the game is NOT fun.
But ok, let me respond to your points then.
1. Rushes aren't prevented; they still happen when either side is bald. We still have hivelords that rush Hydro Road before marines even drop, mass spam resin walls, then weed and fortify hydro + Bridge to make it impenetrable from a marine + tank rush for a good 10 minutes. The same can be said on marine side; there have been round that end at 12:50 because xenos were incompetent or just gave up bridge without a fight, we push in with Tank + no casualties and roll xenomorphs as they have to retreat to caves before they can even hit one of the marines.
2. The rounds ive been have been LONGER than old 12:50 fog drop. The reason? 12:50 fog drop gave marines enough time to setup a FOB at Hydro and LZ-1, and maybe a Hydro Road FOB if they were smart (20 mins of prep time if they drop at 12:30). And because ALL OF FOG dropped, this meant they could attack from ANY direction instead of just a narrow bridge. On the flip side, the 45 minute prep time (accounting for evolves) that xenos got let them properly secure Tfort area and Containers and make it a nightmare for marines to push if they did it correctly. This mechanic allowed for push and pull gameplay, instead of the stalemate we now have at Bridge because the fog is impenetrable, un-c4able, unrammable, uneverything and ONLY goes down due to a time limit. Which means some rounds we don't even get PAST bridge; its 13:20 and we retreat to LZ-1 cause fuck fighting xenos on the Bridge when they have 3 + boilers, 2 crushers, and Ravagers / Praes; all of who are made to fight in such chokepoints.
3. There is no "skirmishing"; do you even play? If by "skirmishing" you mean "shoot into green gas because your screen is always filled with gas" then sure. Thats not fun or innovative gameplay, thats just suppressing fire because the moment we push, boilers fire a blob behind us to block escape, rush in with ravagers and crushers, then drag away anyone who isn't dead. Rinse and repeat. Again, not fun; id rather be AFK waiting for 12:50 while letting my engineers do their thing than to be one hit killed by a boiler or crusher rammed then stomped because I can't escape the shitty bridge gap in a push. Hence all the marines don't have the guts to push because of the cancer that is Bridge Boiler Crusher combo, so the situation is now WORSE than the 12:50 fog lift. We are now actively wasting ammo, OB, CAS, tank ammo and integrity just to keep xenos from pushing in, while doing no active damage in a shitty stalemate.
4. Thats the only point I can say I can agree with. Still doesn't make the nightmare fog mechanic good at all.
5. Read the above. Action where your doing basically nothing and amounting to nothing while investing a lot is not fun action at all. This is why FOB fighting is so boring for xenos against autism forts; you slice a cade and you invest lots of health and possible death (due to barbed wire and getting shot at) only for it to be repaired or replaced. Repeat this for an hour or so and xenos get tired of attacking FOB's that are actually decently placed because its fucking boring not to do anything worthwhile with all that investment. This is exactly the same situation with the Bridge / East / West fog gaps. We invest a lot and get little return if not negative return, and then refuse to invest anymore, which causes stalemates.
TL;DR you are defending a shit mechanic because "marine can pew pew / xeno can claw claw earlier" without looking at why its a shit mechanic.