Originally Posted by
TrollerNoob
We've been through several balance eras of CM, such as the Mutator Era, the QFA AP Era, the Queen Charge era - and so on.
But by god is this era arguably the worse. Why? Because we're in the
Era of Stalemates
The most annoying and boring part of the game is the waiting. Waiting for briefing, waiting for REQ, waiting to evolve, waiting for armor, waiting for marines to land, waiting to age, waiting for the Alamo, waiting for surgery, waiting to get defibbed, waiting to get a larva, so on and so forth. A game isn't fun when you literally aren't playing the game but just looking at a still monitor.
It literally only takes 1 Boiler and 1 Hedgehog Ravager to camp East Caves and effectively stall 75% of the marine force. Hivelords can wall off central caves and effectively stall a flank because spending 40 minutes of your time, ammo, and sanity to play minecraft isn't fun - and involves even MORE WAITING Supposedly the XSS rework will fix that aids but this is purely on the current state of the game.
XENO STALEMATES
FOB fights aren't fun if it's an autism fort. It basically consists of Boilers, Crushers, and Queens doing all the work while all the other xenos wait around half the time, or suicide into cades because they've gone brain dead from playing Tower Defense Simulator. The Engineering rework might spice it up but I fear it'll essentially just make FoB defense more boring.
Rounds are literally frequently becoming 3-5 hour snoozefests with Sseths on both sides banging their head into the wall. We literally had a day a couple weeks ago that had, and I'm dead serious and can go find it in new-round-alert if needed, 5 back to back 3-5 hour rounds.
MARINE STALEMATES
This is due to the amount of latejoining PVTs and the amount of free burrowed xenos get from said latejoining PVTs. It doesn't help that with the addition of perma-nests, random retarded PVT at LZ2 while the FoB is at LZ1 gets nabbed and gives free larva. That, and the fact that if the Queen reaches Ancient, she can literally run around the caves and delay for 2 hours with frenzy speed, rapid fire neuro, and zoomie health and armor. If there's literally any stunning caste with her, she isn't dying.
Players come to play the game, not sit behind a cade for 2 hours and shoot at xenos. Defending as a marine literally isn't fun at all. Oh boy am I having such fun taking pot shots at xenos who stray near the cades. It's the offense for the marines that's fun, and the defense for the xenos when the marines push past the chokes.
FRONTLINE VS DEFENSE
I also feel that the interpretation of 'frontlines' may also just lead to even more FoB snoozefest battles. When we say frontlines, we don't mean staring down the 2 tile cave entrance south of Chapel on Big Red as Young Boiler XX clicks once every so often and prevents your entire squad from pushing.
When we say frontlines we mean actively engaging and fighting the xenos with no cades to hide behind, EG: When the fog goes down and marines start pushing T-Fort. That's a frontlines. Mobile combat is fun. Stationary waiting and defending is not fun at all. There's already too much waiting in the game, we don't need to add more waiting. This also means we don't need to make it even more brain dead for xenos to defend their turf. The weed slow down is already enough of an advantage for even the slowest xenos. The fact that they can passively regen plasma, heal, get a speed boost, make traps, build walls, etc etc on weeds is enough of a boost to easily defend the hive.
In my opinion, adding an additional stat boost to xenos in the hive will literally just drag rounds on LONGER as it encourages xenos to camp chokes and turtle even MORE. Marines don't get a permanent hold order just because they're at their FoB, for example. CAS/OB/Mortar is needed to dislodge Mature Boiler SN-360-P3 from Filtration Caves.
METARUSHING
The only map that metarushing is Prison, because it's literal walk-west station. If xenos get metarushed on Big Red, it's because they're bad. Don't hand hold bad players. Marines didn't waltz through the 2 tile hallway and enter south-east caves in 5 minutes because they rushed. They did it because xenos were retarded and didn't make any defenses, didn't weed the place, didn't have Boilers to meet the marines, and so on.
Marines don't reach north-east LV caves in 5 minutes because they rushed. They reached it because xenos somehow were incapable of holding a 3 tile gap, somehow didn't create any defenses spanning from T-Fort to Containers, and somehow couldn't hold the 50 chokes each cave corner has, and died. Why are you rewarding bad players? I don't see Admins fixing T-Comms for marines when an Engineer still hasn't fixed it by 12:40. I don't see Admins spawning sentries and M56Ds when xenos are knocking at the LZ before an hour has passed. I don't see admins doing any of this - but by god should a known name Deltard be past the fog gap by 12:30, you might as well gib him on the spot.
By god if Charlie walks 3 tiles outside of Engineering on Big Red, the CO will get crucified. Because apparently having 30 minutes to build a hive and sit at a choke and wait for marines is somehow not enough time???