Originally Posted by
CallunaBorealis
I did enjoy playing as Intelligence Officer for a period of time when I first started on CM, even before the DEFCON revamp where lowering DEFCON was much harder (e.g. no computer to share objective clues).
My favourite way of playing as an IO was usually as a lone ranger when you are not hanging out with a particular squad. Sometimes a willing marine or two would follow me. Every search for intel was a gamble with your life because most of the time IOs had to balance the pressure from CIC to get that DEFCON lowered as well as taking on the risk personally without combat support. It really felt like you were playing Alien Isolation by sneaking around but way better because you are playing against other players as runners and lurkers that will try to body block and cut you off from your escape path when you approach a chokepoint in your escape route.
There is no greater feeling than being stuck in the backlines alone, heart pounding in your ears, the only sound is the the data detector beeping, then suddenly - the MD pings! Your heart races as you race back to the nearest group of people using Move Orders ability, running as fast as you can before the runners or lurkers corner you and cut you off from your escape path. Sometimes you'll team up with other IOs, sometimes an engineer to repair an APC. Sometimes you'll have to make difficult choices like abandoning a quest to hunt for intel to drag your wounded escort via roller bed back to the LZ fending off runners with a shotgun you have in hand.
Playing intelligence officer taught me some great lessons. Like how to be self-reliant. Using your surroundings to maximise your chances of survival. Learning the importance of moving fast and not staying at the same spot for too long. The importance of always having an escape route back to the marines (aka safety). Which rooms to walk into and which rooms to avoid. Or even keeping calm trying to stay alive as long as possible alone knowing that death is near as the Spitter melts the door you welded as you hide a janitorial storeroom radioing for help. In a way, the way I played it was like a survivor except with a purpose and an MD and a light ranged weapon for better odds of survival.
To be fair, lately I have been playing less IO especially after I heard its plans for removal. I count myself as fortunate to be able to play as IO for most of early to mid 2020. So I did already have good memories playing as IO. I feel sad for the new players who will never get that chance to experience all that, or don't want to have that chance to feel all that.
I have no qualms about the introduction of RTO, in fact I look forward to it. But I have been always against the decision to eventually remove IO even when it was first proposed.
If you are reading this and have yet to play as IO, I highly recommend you play it as much as possible while you still can. In my opinion, once this role gets removed entirely, this game would have lost a highly underrated and unique aspect of CM-SS13 that doesn't exist anywhere else on SS13 or other games I've played so far.