What is the most pressing issue with Colonial Marines in your opinion?

[Brichess]

After playing for the first time on paradise station... why doesnt clicking on a tile with a backpack load stuff into the pack like a pill bottle. Also, why does putting things into backpacks have a click delay anyway - where are any kind of quality of life changes for noncombat roles?

Why are all the shipside roles just masochism simulators where you do nothing except get yelled at for doing your one dimensional mind numbing job slightly slower than someone would like?

Why are people allowed to flame about IC things/spam stupid shit in LOOC with no moderator attention?

[Moosetasm]

Lurkers need a bullshit pounce because marines only use the bullshit shotgun which means Xenos need a bullshit health pool because the shotgun does bullshit damage. See this clear-as-day in any HvH match.
The UPP/CLF/DS have weapons fit to kill a human. The USCM have weapons balanced to kill dinosaurs in plate armor.

So, here’s my observations and my two cents (your currency exchange may vary). It’s always odd that the answer to a lot of the exploited mechanics is to buff something unrelated to the root of the problem, or to nerf an entire weapon class because of one exploitable aspect of that weapon. The root of the problem is buckshotgun-PB abuse. The origin of the buckshottie PB being so powerful is both in real life, and also probably from that iconic scene In Aliens where Hicks shoves the shotgun in the xeno’s second mouth, tells it to “eat this!” and one-shots it. But there’s a consequence for that, which is kind of implemented in game, but probably not done as intensely as it could/should be. Hudson’s arm gets nearly burned off, and the shotgun? We never see it again. Because it probably melted. So rather than make power creep stun mechanics, do something like “PB shot destroys the weapon that executes it, and there is serious acid splash, maybe on the person firing, but maybe random, but enough to probably put that marine into, or almost into, paincrit.” Because really, PB shooting an alien? That’s when THEY charge YOU, and it’s your best chance to not immediately die. BUT if that kind of alteration happens, it cannot happen alone. Some other weapon will need a buff so that it’s viable to pick up the slack, like the m41s, or the m39, or the L42. So I would say keep the massive damage with PB (any shotgun round, really) at the cost of the shotgun itself, and some serious burn damage to the limb holding it. There will still be suiciders who rush in for a PB before they die, and if they’re part of a group, we salute their sacrifice for the greater good (Tau). But that same guy rushing in surely won’t succeed if they’re alone—which seems to be the real issue here, the solo guy taking out multiple aliens, sometimes all at once. Just a thought. Also, I agree that cocking shotguns one handed should have a windup. Just watch the old Michael Gross movie, The FBI Murders, and during the final shootout, you can see just how impractical one-handed pumping is.

Xenos evolve so fast now (fucking-over survs) because marines will blow the door to their hive down as soon as possible to catch them at their weakest, and this was exploited.

~~~

Even the most aggravating of additions that aren't related to numbers or policy such as neuro clouds and ravhogs are a result of curbing the marine's rushed.

Ok... so, shoot me for suggesting something wild. Like... maybe crazy. There are IFF locks on grenades on the Alamayer, right? You can’t use grenades if the security level isn’t elevated to a certain point. Put that on ALL primary weapons. It gets unlocked at DEFCON 4. ”Apone... we can’t have any firing in there.~~~I want rifles slung, flame units only—and no grenades.” Grenades, and the other high power Spec weapons can be unlocked at DEFCON 3. This makes metarushing... suicide. “What are we supposed to use man, harsh language?” It makes sidearms a thing again. You want to actually contribute in the early round? You need a pistol. Also, you can bring back marines being able to struggle when swallowed or encased in resin. That mag harness rifle and those grenades a marine has are less useful than the snakeknife in their boot, since they can’t blow up or gun down the entire nest even if they do have a weapon and explosives... until later, when everyone “knows” about the chest bursting and whatnot. And by then, after the marines start shooting and blowing crap up, the aliens can become wary about swallowing them and can switch over to slashing.

Then Slooooooooooow that evolution and upgrade progress down. Getting the timing right will be difficult, but the goal would be that there shouldn’t be any tier 2s until around the same time DEFCON 4 hits. Tier 3s would be coming around the same time as DEFCON 3. This will make captures far more likely in the early part of the round, since a runner can just pounce a lone guy and drag him off at high speed without being mowed down or blown up immediately by a single guy, and a Sentinel can blind or paralyze a lone marine if they wander too far off. But there won’t be any insane boots-hit-the-ground-and-then-therewasafirefight or massive explosions or high end automatic fire allowing the marines to breach the main nest. And there won’t be any Hydro-doors-open-and-heeeeere’s-Jonny-Ravager-squad.

Ok.

So that is my general take on those issues. Take with a grain of salt, or ALL OF IT.

[Completelynewguy]

That post above looks like hot garbage, it's in human nature to do your best in competition, so why gimp the marines with a built-in Rules of Engagement timelock? Brushing aside balancing (because I'm not high-functioning-autistic, just autistic) the lore and the ruleset expedite the fact that the marines in the AO are here to fuck shit up on whatever hellhole that they deploy to (Citation: All of the Wiki lore on the CLF skinning colonial marshals, the Tienstin campaign, etc.). It was already mindnumbing enough having to deal with "oh no a xeno, oh no a gasser, checkpoint gasser (boiler) torture, also known as CGT, is a form of se..." every round, why go regress back into that part of CM's lore/rules?

[Stonewall]

People complaining about shotguns fail to realize that shotguns would be pretty much garbage if they got their damage nerfed. The problem isn't the damage, the problem is that a marine who get's pounced/leapt can smash the e-key or a macro while waiting for their stun to end. Then immediately PB the xeno before they realize the marine has stood up. The problem isn't the damage itself, the problem is that they can accurately wield and fire a shotgun 1 handed within a tenth of a second of drawing it.

Is getting stun locked by roaming lurkers and skilled runners fun? No. But unless you're suggesting that we have the entire game reworked to where marines are meant to be 1 for 1 dangerous as a xenos, then you should risk getting jumped when off on your own. And the shotgun defense league seems to think that because a no other gun has the burst damage comparable, they're all "bad guns" while ignoring the fact that the asymmetrical game design requires a pulse rifles to used in groups to be effective.

And on a somewhat unrelated note, it's this kind of poor reasoning is why we no longer have the perfectly good carbine, but instead the battlerifle which is much less useful. Where the carbine could be a good chasing gun(QFA+extended magazines) or PFC sniper(4x scope), the battlerifle is completely inflexible,only being good at the sniping part because of it's shit firerate and movement speed reduction, but neither the sniper carbine or the sniper battlerifle are/were good at getting kills on their own, which was marines primary bitch about the carbine. PFC snipers are important FOB/cade defense though because they can harass a boiler when there's no scout/sniper around. Only thing the carbine needed was maybe a buff to regular magazine size, then make it so the rail slot,rather than the barrel slot, has the increased swap speed to help it with it's niche of a being a fast role swap weapon.

[Pigeon]

Really lag is still number one issue, if it lags to hell all other issues just dont matter as it changes the game drastically.

For balance and all that junk...

A big issue is constant changes by devs had been adding up more and more to change the whole game without realizing they have changed the whole game. Aliens still need to capture even though capturing and abilities that allow capturing from neuro, pain crit, lunge, combat carriers, etc being nerfed with no real +1 to even out the -1. This leaves the aliens with in need of stronger aliens to survive as they must make do with that 35-50 aliens they will max have all match.

Beside changes to making capturing harder, they also have made the 37, the shottie, overwhelmingly powerful after endless buffs of buckshot. The problem is buckshot is not exactly changed but rather acid changes, PB balance changes, and adding of AP even if minor to buckshot. Making PB workable one handed perfect accuracy means it is easier to PB aliens in general and makes viable double shottie. If more marines were good at double shottie it likely been nerfed but alas most people are bad. The acid changes though in relation to PB is the most serious issue. Used to be acid splashback was the counter to PBing. With it practical removal/nerfing to almost zlitch marines been encouraged to use the 37 buckshot to solve any and all problems.

Honestly I would buff acid damage if you PB an alien. So if you try to even direct fire a 37 it the current acid damage but PBing itself would give heavy acid damage. High risk high reward. Maybe some accuracy buff to buckshot to reduce PBing. Take note it should be balanced around that it is suicidal to try buckshot PB down a tier 3 but a good idea on a sweaty runner. It should still be that the buckshot 37 counters lurkers-runners but not heavy armored targets or at least PB shouldnt counter them.

[Moosetasm]

That post above looks like hot garbage

Told you it was borderline crazy. That’s why I don’t insist my ideas are the best ever, really. Cause some of my ideas (Give all Xenos a windup Headbite ability!) would have insane, salt-causing consequences. But, the idea was to explore how to prevent metarushes by both sides.

I think we can all agree that escalation is fun. As a marine, having a short period of time where the appearance of a single Xeno doesn’t immediately spell death for them and the four other marines they’re with is fun. It’s not fun to get sent straight to dead chat at 12:40 because a T3 was both available and powerful enough to wreck your face and the face of the other guys with you before you even have a chance to set up the advance outpost. As a T1 or T2 Xeno, being able to harass marines without instantaneous death is fun. Being able to capture is fun. Being able to escape capture *was* fun. I mean, the purpose of the game isn’t to win by simply obliterating the other side, right? Like most team sports, it’s to have fun with your teammates during the round, win or lose. And that typically means a back & forth. An occasional round where by 13:00 it’s obvious that your side has won can be fun if you’ve played nothing but losing rounds for your past ten rounds, but if every round is like that?

It’s why the Captain doesn’t have a button to go straight to DEFCON 1 the instant Xeno presence is confirmed on planet, they need intel and research first. It’s why there’s FOG. Hell, it’s why the fighting marines wake up next to a Cryo tube and not in their armor/weapons closet. Meta anything makes rounds less fun. So, how do you slow down evolution without gimping the Xenos? How you you keep the marines from metarushing because they know exactly where the hive is most likely to be, and exactly where to send all the troops the second the drop ship touches down? With the amount of meta in the strategies I notice, I am actually surprised that COs, XOs, and SOs haven’t memorized certain locations for OB, mortar, and CAS (I don’t know if coords are randomized each round, if they are, nix this sentence).

But.

Everything is getting changed soon, with both the Xemoba update and the transition to SS14, so this is all likely semantics anyhow.

Really lag is still number one issue, if it lags to hell all other issues just dont matter as it changes the game drastically.

SS14 appears to have a better engine, here’s to hoping that the lag issues are less than they are now.

Honestly I would buff acid damage if you PB an alien. So if you try to even direct fire a 37 it the current acid damage but PBing itself would give heavy acid damage. High risk high reward. Maybe some accuracy buff to buckshot to reduce PBing. Take note it should be balanced around that it is suicidal to try buckshot PB down a tier 3 but a good idea on a sweaty runner. It should still be that the buckshot 37 counters lurkers-runners but not heavy armored targets or at least PB shouldnt counter them.

I’ve been in a enough games of CQC tag with aliens that I can attest to the fact that, as a marine, acid splash does not worry me in its current state. Now THAT worries me as a player. As a player, I feel that when playing a marine, I shouldn’t want to be in melee with an alien, I mean, who in their right mind would? Especially if you can shoot it from a distance. So I completely agree with an acid splash buff. And this is me as a Marine main.

[antrixx]

Soft griefing. A lot of player enjoyment issues come from soft griefing. Looking at the mps who choose to temp ban players for an hour over talking back and stack charges. Theres a really good guide on here about how to be a good mp. IC remember that the marine is at war or under high stress, maybe most of their friends have died and theyve been facing the horrors of space monsters. OC you also have the power to mini ban people for swearing in chat at somebody sitting behind a computer pretending to be a space man. To be fair ive encountered a lot of reasonable mps. The power tripping ones though, wooboy watchout. Same goes for other roles where its "I have the power to punish you and you didnt respect muh authority time to make your life miserable for challenging the god king"

Shit load of issues with marines getting on drop and skipping briefing. On one hand I get it, IC you are a private or whatever and got ordered to do something and disobeyed. So its like how hard is it to follow rules? On the other hand it means theyre not throwing knives at brief and sitting quietly on the drop waiting to play tdm. Which I imagine is the only reason they came to play here. Of course without admin intervention being an mp stops being a law enforcement role for the most part after first drop. Then its cryo or sleep in the hallway time.

I think the answer to this and some of the other problems is to make a map option or a couple dedicated maps. Have a rule that says you have 35 minutes or whatever to get everyone planet side and the almayer has to leave. Dump the marines down pronto then have all staff engaged in moving all mats asap for the rest of the time. Setup equipment needed to run a smooth medbay and command structure. Mps can assist bravo or whatever. They have tac shotties so they could come woopass on the front too. Having everyone planet side would probably shorten up the round time considerably. Reduce lag from removal of mapping out the ship.


Nothing permanent just maybe an option for a map vote choice. Removes soft griefing of mps. Removes asking req for something and never hearing back forever. Removes obs which only seem to kill marines and do far less then a fatty. Removes players apeing out sitting in brief when they just want to play the game. More map modes or rotated maps could have the opportunity to give all parts of the player base the things they desire, higher rp or lower rp.

maybe less ahelps. if thats a selling point.

[Gut_TC]

Leading the bullets that barely kill any xenos as I watch them yeet out at speed to heal. While leading the shot into FF is much much easier.