Personally collecting feedback on roleplay

[Solarmare]

As I'm currently without a connection, I have been unable to observe the server itself and see any recent issues that may have come to light. What I would like as well as that though would be other perspectives, in terms of what has and hasn't changed, what has occurred over the long term and is different, the effects events have had on a round and so forth, and what differences appear after an update.

I'll be taking it by PM's to this forum account, keep in mind I am not looking for complaints. I'm looking for a thoughtful retrospection of the server, of how roleplay is different and how it has shifted over various changes in rules, updates, staffing, and time in general. You could phrase it in terms of what's said nowadays, what people regularly do and didn't do, what is actually productive in terms of encouraging roleplay, what stifles it and how exactly it does, what you want to see people do more and less of, and any other thoughts you may have on the matter.

Currently I don't really have the power to start a reasoned conservation between the community that will say anything new, if that is desirable, but I can hear directly from you and collect enough thoughts on the matter to get a general picture. I can't really promise you anything other than I'll consider any pms sent with as much thought as was put into them. I am looking forward to anyone willing to message me on the matter, staff or player included. Hopefully I'll be able to push to make the server as a whole better with help here if I actually get a connection again in this decade.

This should be a locked thread.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

I'm not gonna lock it, but keep this thread clean.
No shitposting, no toxicity.

[Solarmare]

I would be looking for positive and negative feedback, the main issue would be keeping it respectful and with points of what the issues specifically are instead of just calling things bad in whatever way.

[Swagile]

A big reason why roleplay was so big back then was round times.

3-4 hour rounds were the NORM, not the exception like it is now, and sometimes we got a rare 5-6 hour round.

Marine barricades were much more powerful + engineers had more materials (since cades back then didn't cost as much, such as table forts). Marines were also a more powerful force (pulse rifles weren't nerfed during Sulaco times till much later).

This made marines a threat, and alongside xenomorphs being a more siege based force (crushers with their AOE stomp and large health pools, queen screech and no ovi, prae acid snipes, etc), marines who were more inclined towards roleplay had more time to do things together. A LOT more time.

There was always ungas, they just tended to die off early and win, or die off early and watch the more roleplay focused squads sit behind FOB and wait for xenos to attack their super mega FOB with its multiple turrets (they weren't nerfed back then; they could actually hold a single angle against multiple xenos due to how much they hit and had AP), several lines of cades, and less access paths (for example, ICE never used to have a NE LZ-1 gap; that was inaccessible. So there was only 2 paths you had to cade and you could reliable 5 line cade them all).

All of this meant the average marine had time to actually talk to others. We no longer have that; which, personally, im thankful of because 3-4 hour rounds were the cancer of CM back then because neither side wanted to make a move. Even if rounds are a little too fast now (due to high prep times and low fighting time), its MUCH better than those old times.

But thats mostly why roleplay was more prevalent; MP's had time to go down and arrest people for rule breaks, marines had time to do stupid shit and hijinks, talk shit, etc. and still able to do what they came here to do; shoot xeno.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, xenomorphs grew up a LOT slower as well. It was said that if you saw a Elder Xenomorph, it was time to end the round, whereas Ancient was so rare it only even happened a couple of times; usually because either side was stalling as they didn't want to attack, or if they attacked and failed they wouldn't be able to attack again and would have to evac / be on defensive for the rest of the round.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Way longer rounds (back then 3-4 hour rounds were the norm), harsher rule enforcement, and a slower game pace were the things that allowed for a lot more RP.

I share the same opinion with Swagile in that I do hate long rounds. My optimal desirable game length is between an hour and a half and 2 hours. Shorter and it's just a boring stomp, longer and it burns you out on the game for probably the entire day.