This server has become a massive hugbox

[CABAL]

There's one thing that can be said about AvP movies at least: They're not the godawful Prometheus and Covenant!

Agreed, while AvP are dumb action movies, atleast they bring this dumb action to the table and it can be fun. Unlike Prometheus and a bit better Covenant.

Well you see, that leads us into Alien Resurrection type of territories because I sure as hell refuse to accept Aliens: Colonial Marines with ANY credible sense of lore.

For what I have seen, there isn't much retconns, contradictions and generally ridiculous stuff in this game. Pretty neutral, while a bland, boring and borderline bad game in itself. And it sounds reasonable, if beno embryo basically doesn't do anything to a host, then why chestburster even kills it? Why can't it just exit via mouth and then let the host be re-infected? It makes sense that chestburster drains host to the point of uselessness for futher infecton. Otherwise its just a fancy tape-worm that kills you if its not removed, but if it is, nothing happens.

Oh. Okay, then I understand that term.
But no, my father was a hunter so I've handled shotguns and rifles. And from what I was always told, one-arming a shotgun will result in a broken arm.

I have never even hold a gun in my hand in my life and I know that things like that don't happen.

No I won't. I'll merely ask: IS it even about RP anymore?
Because if Yes, then yes, Marines should Obey the chain of command.
If No, then that whole part is entirely pointless and we can drop it.

It is about RP, but more like MRP, which means "Medium Role-Playing". Role-Playing as marine, as private first class marine onboard Almayer, a space ship that flies years after years in the outer rim, with high rate of conscription. A human being, not a hive-mind xenomorph. Not every soldier obeys all orders, especially if he can't be hold accountable for it. Also its not fun to be forced too.
That would be something more akin to mil-sim Heavy Role-Play, but CM ain't it.
I am a man of extremes, either full throttle, or stop, but even I don't go this far.

There's also Alien on Commodore 64 where you can engage the Alien in fisticuffs.
Doesn't make it an viable alternative to do so but. But the point is that you are being extremely selective about lore to - one - movie pretty much.
I am not saying, you're wrong. I am saying, there's more than just Aliens.
And Aliens is an amazing movie.

The movie that I am extremely selective about lore is like the most important piece of Alien media about marines. CM was originally created on premise of Alien Extintion gameplay with Aliens atmosphere.
Also, its about something I call "chain of lore". With two first movies being at the very top, other media going down and down. In an argument of which piece of media is more "correct", games like AvP, or even Alien Isolation lose to Aliens, or Alien, no two things about it.
Aditions, not retcons.

We are in agreement on that point for sure!
Unfortunately I doubt anyone else will agree.
After all, Marines can't even listen to command...

PFCs don't, SL's and above are forced and they do. Benos are like that, they are already forced to obey queen, so exactly what you want, we got, but PFCs have leeway.

As for why Amanda isn't seen, different developer that decided that if the Alien can see you that easily, you'd die all the time unless better hidden.
It's still a better explanation as to why the Aliens don't attack synthetic beings - because they see them as not living things.

But that is no explanation, its just vaguely pointing that the main mechanic of the game is just a gameplay element and shouldn't be considered at all. Better explanation would be that benos use some kind of a sonar, probably alongside actuall IRL thermovision that doesn't let you see trough walls, but lets you see in darkness and easly spot heat sources in the open.
Maybe even pseudo-science psychic bullshit that also doesn't work trough walls. That would perfectly expain why synths aren't considered a viable host and only get disturbed when they become an obstacle for xenos, just like a door is also an obstacle to a beno.

HAH, A SMALL BONK?! FROM DENNIS PARKER ( played by Yaphet Kotto )?! Guy brings down the freaking FREIGHT TRAIN on Ash!

Yup, a regular ass human would feel the pain of the first hit, but you would have to have super-human strenght and better weapon to rip someone's head off with a single blow.

[Zeithri]

Agreed, while AvP are dumb action movies, atleast they bring this dumb action to the table and it can be fun. Unlike Prometheus and a bit better Covenant.

Agreed.

For what I have seen, there isn't much retconns, contradictions and generally ridiculous stuff in this game. Pretty neutral, while a bland, boring and borderline bad game in itself. And it sounds reasonable, if beno embryo basically doesn't do anything to a host, then why chestburster even kills it? Why can't it just exit via mouth and then let the host be re-infected? It makes sense that chestburster drains host to the point of uselessness for futher infecton. Otherwise its just a fancy tape-worm that kills you if its not removed, but if it is, nothing happens.

A:CM pissed me off so much with it's story. So much so that I mockingly say "WE DON'T LEAVE MARINES BEHIND" while fleeing from dangers letting everyone else die.

The reason why you die is because it trashes your insides up. It doesn't kill you because of 'space cancer' like they imply.
As for 'exit via the mouth', that'd still kill you as it'd crash it's way through your insides and gut your throat before it gets out.
That's pretty much exactly what happens in AvP3 for "Nr. 6". Well, it bursts out of the chests, finds itself trapped, re-enters body, then takes the mouth exit.



Tape worm? No.
It's a pregnancy of nightmarish proportions.

It is about RP, but more like MRP, which means "Medium Role-Playing". Role-Playing as marine, as private first class marine onboard Almayer, a space ship that flies years after years in the outer rim, with high rate of conscription. A human being, not a hive-mind xenomorph. Not every soldier obeys all orders, especially if he can't be hold accountable for it. Also its not fun to be forced too.
That would be something more akin to mil-sim Heavy Role-Play, but CM ain't it.

And therein lies the problem.
RP has taken a massive backseat to unga.

The movie that I am extremely selective about lore is like the most important piece of Alien media about marines. CM was originally created on premise of Alien Extintion gameplay with Aliens atmosphere.
Also, its about something I call "chain of lore". With two first movies being at the very top, other media going down and down. In an argument of which piece of media is more "correct", games like AvP, or even Alien Isolation lose to Aliens, or Alien, no two things about it.
Aditions, not retcons.

But that is no explanation, its just vaguely pointing that the main mechanic of the game is just a gameplay element and shouldn't be considered at all. Better explanation would be that benos use some kind of a sonar, probably alongside actuall IRL thermovision that doesn't let you see trough walls, but lets you see in darkness and easly spot heat sources in the open.
Maybe even pseudo-science psychic bullshit that also doesn't work trough walls. That would perfectly expain why synths aren't considered a viable host and only get disturbed when they become an obstacle for xenos, just like a door is also an obstacle to a beno.

I generally try to incorporate everything. For example, I was contemplating if the Pools for Aliens are inspired by Zerg's Spawning Pools from StarCraft, or that one comic called _Labyrinth_ .

In the Novelization of Alien, and rumors if this scene was filmed or not - I can't remember if it was, but it was recreated in Alien Isolation's Nostromo scenario - the Alien is encountered by Parker who finds it mesmerized by a spinning light near the airlock. As they attempt to blast it out through the airlock, an alarm klaxon starts blaring ( set off by Ash ), the Alien is startled by the sudden sound, makes a beeline out of that room, knocks Parker over on his ass and gets it's arm stuck in the airlock door which promptly rips it's arm off as it makes it's desperate escape. The arm regrows in a matter of hours. It's always been a part of the novel I loved.

I don't think putting Alien 3 off that pedestal of your chain of lore to be a good decision. It doesn't break anything in the lore but rather brings the story to a beautiful nihilistic ending.
The only lore contemplations about that is if it infected a dog or a cow since it'd be fair to assume in the latter case, 'Bull Alien' would be a thing.

There is actually numerous of explanations for Alien vision because the most notable thing is, they don't have eyes. It's all from sensing their environment to sensing living creatures, to sensing fear and a lot more.
Sonar however would require the alien to make constant noises in order to have it bounce back to it and we know the Alien know that the darkness is it's friend, so it has some sort of sense at the very least.

Yup, a regular ass human would feel the pain of the first hit, but you would have to have super-human strenght and better weapon to rip someone's head off with a single blow.

People die perhaps surprisingly easily to what others would perceive as small things.
Parker going all Hulk Smash on Ash is not outside the realms of possibilities. A human would get their skull caved in.
That first hit would probably crack some bone even. This isn't some little plastic bottle he slaps Ash with.

[CABAL]

The reason why you die is because it trashes your insides up. It doesn't kill you because of 'space cancer' like they imply.
As for 'exit via the mouth', that'd still kill you as it'd crash it's way through your insides and gut your throat before it gets out.
That's pretty much exactly what happens in AvP3 for "Nr. 6". Well, it bursts out of the chests, finds itself trapped, re-enters body, then takes the mouth exit.

Tape worm? No.
It's a pregnancy of nightmarish proportions.

There is a wiki article from Xenopedia on Chestbursters. If we dig deep into the lore, facehuggers pour some kind of a liquid into chest cavity of a host via mouth and then it morphs into xenomorphs using host's biomatter as a building material and half of its genetic code.
While this steps dangerously close Prometheus/Covenant gray goo (that is already kinda maybe semi-canon in CM as zombiefication grey goo containers exist as event props), this also explains why you can't just remove alien from a host, because before its fully matured, its just a semi-liquid formation in chest cavity, touching both lungs and heart most likely. And when it's fully matured, it already did a lot of irreversible damage (critical organ failure). And this explains why xenomorphs didn't evolve into using the same host multiple times, or for multiple embryos.

https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Chestburster

I'm fine with this explanation. Its logical and belivelable. Not a tape worm, not a kidney stone, not a pregnacy with extra steps, genuine space horror parasite.

And therein lies the problem.
RP has taken a massive backseat to unga.

It is free to play, free to join combat server after all. Did you really expect admemes to menage 100 ungas not adhering to each and every order by the book? Its impossible in how gameplay is structured in CM.
The only combat servers I saw being able to pull it off was that Trench Warfare one and a copy of it with WH40k aesthetics. There both sides are equal and it sucks for them all the same, so they all have time to RP and stuff. There was time to RP between another mortar strikes, defending against suicide charges and then suicide charging yourself. Mainly because of mechanics, everyone is so god damn slow and fragile, weapons are mostly bolt-action etc. If people don't listen to orders there, its not only part of RP, they die by walking over a mine, or get sniped. Bonus points for Commisars shooting your ass for not suicide-charging.

I don't think putting Alien 3 off that pedestal of your chain of lore to be a good decision. It doesn't break anything in the lore but rather brings the story to a beautiful nihilistic ending.
The only lore contemplations about that is if it infected a dog or a cow since it'd be fair to assume in the latter case, 'Bull Alien' would be a thing.

People don't like Alien 3, so its generally excluded from such discussons. I have mixed feelings about the movie myself. If anything, even Ressurection should be viable, but people hate this even more.

There is actually numerous of explanations for Alien vision because the most notable thing is, they don't have eyes. It's all from sensing their environment to sensing living creatures, to sensing fear and a lot more.
Sonar however would require the alien to make constant noises in order to have it bounce back to it and we know the Alien know that the darkness is it's friend, so it has some sort of sense at the very least.

Again, going with xenopedia which bases its information on all matter of media.
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Xenomorp...ical_abilities
It seems it combines the stuff mentioned before, with added keen sense of smell that also works with Synths not smelling like prey.

People die perhaps surprisingly easily to what others would perceive as small things.
Parker going all Hulk Smash on Ash is not outside the realms of possibilities. A human would get their skull caved in.
That first hit would probably crack some bone even. This isn't some little plastic bottle he slaps Ash with.

Human could survive that, Synth didn't. All the proof that is needed. People can and usually do survive a baseball bat hit to the head and I bet never in the modern history of man, someone got his head ripped off by someone hitting him once with a blunt handheld object. Superhuman strenght required. Dennis Parker look about above average, not like some bodybuilding batter.
Synths passing as humans shouldn't be tougher than humans, I would say they even should be a bit weaker in that regard judging solely by that scene. Seegson and Combat Synths are different matter, of course.

[Zeithri]

There is a wiki article from Xenopedia on Chestbursters. If we dig deep into the lore, facehuggers pour some kind of a liquid into chest cavity of a host via mouth and then it morphs into xenomorphs using host's biomatter as a building material and half of its genetic code.
While this steps dangerously close Prometheus/Covenant gray goo (that is already kinda maybe semi-canon in CM as zombiefication grey goo containers exist as event props), this also explains why you can't just remove alien from a host, because before its fully matured, its just a semi-liquid formation in chest cavity, touching both lungs and heart most likely. And when it's fully matured, it already did a lot of irreversible damage (critical organ failure). And this explains why xenomorphs didn't evolve into using the same host multiple times, or for multiple embryos.

I'm fine with this explanation. Its logical and belivelable. Not a tape worm, not a kidney stone, not a pregnacy with extra steps, genuine space horror parasite.

Unfortunately the Wiki is forced to adhere to what is stated as canon.
And since Prometheus and Covenant is set in stone to be canon, as is A:CM, we're stuck with a bunch of shit.
Ergo, we get space cancer that makes it so that you can never remove an embryo!... Except that is in direct contradiction to other examples we've seen... So let's just assume Weyland-Yutani scientists are dirty liars and space cancer just isn't a thing.

Multiple Embryos, except that AvP: Requiem made that canon as well.

" Not a pregnancy with extra steps. "
But that's exactly what it is... It's what it's always been.

This part for example,
" However, research has shown this to be inherently futile – the cancerous development process that creates the Chestburster means that, even if the embryo were safely removed from the host, they would soon develop a number of terminal tumors that would cause them to perish in a fairly short period of time. "

I refuse to accept this as canon, because that'd mean Randy "Greesybastard" Pitchford gets to make the calls of the Alien universe. And fuck that man.
I will never, ever accept A:CM as canon, no matter what Fox or anyone says.

It is free to play, free to join combat server after all. Did you really expect admemes to menage 100 ungas not adhering to each and every order by the book?

Actually yes. I would expect that because that's what I've heard about this and SS13 in general.

People don't like Alien 3, so its generally excluded from such discussons. I have mixed feelings about the movie myself. If anything, even Ressurection should be viable, but people hate this even more.

Yes. It's disliked so much by people a company set out to make it non-canon.
So they made a game that's so awful and laughable in terms of story that it almost single handedly derailed the whole franchise.
That game, was Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Alien Resurrection is noteworthy for containing the prototype-Firefly crew.
Aside from that, it's an alright movie. Popcorn flick I'd call it. Not terribly impressive but fully acceptable.
Best part? It spawned a really creepy PS1 tie in game. That game's atmosphere is incredible.

Again, going with xenopedia which bases its information on all matter of media.
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Xenomorp...ical_abilities
It seems it combines the stuff mentioned before, with added keen sense of smell that also works with Synths not smelling like prey.

Indeed.
Also;
" Their sensitivity to pheromone signals would also help to explain why the Yautja Cloak is ineffective against them. "
Which basically comes back to what I said at the start. All living things show an aura around it, making cloaking ineffective.

Also brings up the Alien Labyrinth comic stuff with Dr. Church there.

Human could survive that, Synth didn't. All the proof that is needed. People can and usually do survive a baseball bat hit to the head and I bet never in the modern history of man, someone got his head ripped off by someone hitting him once with a blunt handheld object. Superhuman strenght required. Dennis Parker look about above average, not like some bodybuilding batter.
Synths passing as humans shouldn't be tougher than humans, I would say they even should be a bit weaker in that regard judging solely by that scene. Seegson and Combat Synths are different matter, of course.

I think you need to rewatch that clip a few more times because it wasn't just one swing.

[CABAL]

Unfortunately the Wiki is forced to adhere to what is stated as canon.
And since Prometheus and Covenant is set in stone to be canon, as is A:CM, we're stuck with a bunch of shit.
Ergo, we get space cancer that makes it so that you can never remove an embryo!... Except that is in direct contradiction to other examples we've seen... So let's just assume Weyland-Yutani scientists are dirty liars and space cancer just isn't a thing.

But its a direct contradiction to something considered non-canon, so it is the other way around. Those non-canon sources are in direct contradiction to canon.

Multiple Embryos, except that AvP: Requiem made that canon as well.

AvP itself isn't canon, so it didn't made it canon as well.

" Not a pregnancy with extra steps. "
But that's exactly what it is... It's what it's always been.

This part for example,
" However, research has shown this to be inherently futile – the cancerous development process that creates the Chestburster means that, even if the embryo were safely removed from the host, they would soon develop a number of terminal tumors that would cause them to perish in a fairly short period of time. "

I refuse to accept this as canon, because that'd mean Randy "Greesybastard" Pitchford gets to make the calls of the Alien universe. And fuck that man.
I will never, ever accept A:CM as canon, no matter what Fox or anyone says.

It wasn't always this way. It was just never touched before, untill it did.
Just because Randy maybe possibly came up with this (lets be honest, he didn't, it was an idea from one of the writers) doesn't mean anything. It adds to the atmosphere and horror of xenomorphs. From: "Oh god, I have parasite inside me, I'm going to die in horrible pain! Better to kill myself before that happens." To: "Oh no! I got a little bit freaky down with those alien bastards and I forgot my protection! Thrid time in a row... Better to find nearest drug shop for their finest morning after pill, or atleast a coat hanger *wink *wink."

Actually yes. I would expect that because that's what I've heard about this and SS13 in general.

Whoever said it to you, it was about vanilla SS13 servers where you walk around doing your jobs, chatting with other people, while traitors, cult and other stuff take their sweet time to silently strike.
Not about a combat TDM server.

Yes. It's disliked so much by people a company set out to make it non-canon.
So they made a game that's so awful and laughable in terms of story that it almost single handedly derailed the whole franchise.
That game, was Aliens: Colonial Marines.

And we hate Prometheus/Covenant and consider it out of our head-canon, but that doesn't matter at all.

I think you need to rewatch that clip a few more times because it wasn't just one swing.

Just did. 2:18 mark. Ash stops spinning round round like a record, baby! and then gets his head bitch-slapped off by a small fire extinguisher, or an air cannister with just one swing.
Whole scene contains two hits, one directly at his back and one at his head that immediately rips it off, hanging by a piece of skin.

Rewatch whole scene few times and count how many times Synth gets hit in his head.

[Zeithri]

This'll be the last reply I do to this thread because I'm all spent with it.
It's been a good talk!

But its a direct contradiction to something considered non-canon, so it is the other way around. Those non-canon sources are in direct contradiction to canon.
AvP itself isn't canon, so it didn't made it canon as well.

What's canon and not canon is an everlasting shitstorm just as below;

It wasn't always this way. It was just never touched before, untill it did.
Just because Randy maybe possibly came up with this (lets be honest, he didn't, it was an idea from one of the writers) doesn't mean anything. It adds to the atmosphere and horror of xenomorphs. From: "Oh god, I have parasite inside me, I'm going to die in horrible pain! Better to kill myself before that happens." To: "Oh no! I got a little bit freaky down with those alien bastards and I forgot my protection! Thrid time in a row... Better to find nearest drug shop for their finest morning after pill, or atleast a coat hanger *wink *wink."

Yes, it was like it ever since the start. It's always been that way.
It's just that some people try very hard to steer Alien away from it's original roots of straight up, sexual horror.
Oh sure it's all fun and games to make jokes like that but the fact of the matter is, we both know the process isn't all puppy dogs and rainbows just because you can remove the chestburster with an operation.

Whoever said it to you, it was about vanilla SS13 servers where you walk around doing your jobs, chatting with other people, while traitors, cult and other stuff take their sweet time to silently strike.
Not about a combat TDM server.

Even the wiki makes it very clear that RP is a rather big part of it all.
People's old stories from how this server used to be is telling too.

Therefore, the conclusion I make is that it's gone the way that all RP does - People get bored of it.
I've seen it time and time again where they try to enforce RP. Eventually people just get bored and stops.
That's what happened to this server, I assume.

And we hate Prometheus/Covenant and consider it out of our head-canon, but that doesn't matter at all.

Just did. 2:18 mark. Ash stops spinning round round like a record, baby! and then gets his head bitch-slapped off by a small fire extinguisher, or an air cannister with just one swing.
Whole scene contains two hits, one directly at his back and one at his head that immediately rips it off, hanging by a piece of skin.

Rewatch whole scene few times and count how many times Synth gets hit in his head.

We hates it.

A total of 8 hits.
If you'd hit a person that hard in it's spine, with a fire extinguisher like that, there's a good chance you would cause permanent damage or worse.
Then take a look at that second swing. That'd be enough to crack open the skull of a grown person.

[Mightbearetard]

Go away with your pretentious lorewank talk.

This is a game.

While you were prepping in squad room I was watching Alien.

While you were attending briefing I was playing original 1997 Alien game.

While you were deploying to LZ I was reading the Alien wiki.

BEHOLD PEASANT. BOW BEFORE ME AS I SHALL PREVAIL IN THESE DARK HOURS. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE. YOU HAVE 24 HOURS.

[Fewher]

It is free to play, free to join combat server after all. Did you really expect admemes to menage 100 ungas not adhering to each and every order by the book? Its impossible in how gameplay is structured in CM.
The only combat servers I saw being able to pull it off was that Trench Warfare one and a copy of it with WH40k aesthetics. There both sides are equal and it sucks for them all the same, so they all have time to RP and stuff. There was time to RP between another mortar strikes, defending against suicide charges and then suicide charging yourself. Mainly because of mechanics, everyone is so god damn slow and fragile, weapons are mostly bolt-action etc. If people don't listen to orders there, its not only part of RP, they die by walking over a mine, or get sniped. Bonus points for Commisars shooting your ass for not suicide-charging.

Actually yes. I would expect that because that's what I've heard about this and SS13 in general.

The game was Medium-RP from about 2014-2018 and then the Team-Deathmatch aspect of the game became far more streamlined and focused. It's not impossible to orient a game around action and roleplay, especially when we did it for years. It is however impossible to shift the current version of CM to a more RP aspect game as the basic foundations to support an RP community have been stripped in favor of faster deathmatch gameplay.

[CABAL]

snip

"Medium Role-Play" is mostly subjective, so it has as much meanings as there is CM players, atleast.
If CM will go 100% "Zero-Tolerance" for memes, will it be MRP? Is a marine who says nothing whole round, gears up, attends brieffing, drops, fights benos and then dies an MRP player?

Rounds became shorter and rules changed, but I don't see why this mythical era can't be brought back. Just initiate aforementioned "Zero-Tolerance" policy for memes and other general LRP behaviour and you will get yourself the same result. People probably will be afraid to LRP, as they were back then, but thats it.

Lack of a lot of QoL improvements, less weapons, necrosis, more complicated surgery, stuff like that, this didn't changed RP much in my opinion. It was always the same old boring gear up, go down and die, or maybe win.
Even in this golden era, the major issue was marine metarushing. A living proof that it wasn't all sunshine and sparkles, the problem already existed, only it was swept under the rug of ban-hammer. Even then existed atleast a sizeable minority, if not majority that wanted simply to win. Hard to deduce correctly, as anonymous xenomain force didn't gave any data, but its safe to assume that everyone who played beno surerly wanted to win as there was literally 0 RP, or anything to do besides killing, capping and winning (maybe outside one, or two goofballs who got to guard capped hosts, so they had to start to RP because of sheer boredom).
You could either achieve it easly as random beno with random number and never be remembered, or try to sweat it as a marine to be remembered.

In this golden era, I still remember LRP CO's with stupid accents, such was the CM RP standards back then. "Youo musto chargeou into the battlu, marine-san! BANZAI!". "Frau SO, its ze time for Herr SL to charge ze enemies, ya?"

Maybe it isn't impossible to orient a game around both action and RP, but surely CM did it poorly.

The irony is also that currently benos have RP standards, while they didn't have them back then.

[Fewher]

"Medium Role-Play" is mostly subjective, so it has as much meanings as there is CM players, atleast.
Rounds became shorter and rules changed, but I don't see why this mythical era can't be brought back. Just initiate aforementioned "Zero-Tolerance" policy for memes and other general LRP behaviour and you will get yourself the same result. People probably will be afraid to LRP, as they were back then, but thats it.
Lack of a lot of QoL improvements, less weapons, necrosis, more complicated surgery, stuff like that, this didn't changed RP much in my opinion. It was always the same old boring gear up, go down and die, or maybe win.

I'm going to explain this very briefly, since I don't want to get into this whole argument.

Roleplay is highly affected by time, gameplay-speed and mechanics that encourage interaction (teamwork/socialization).
Edit: Lore is also super important and delivering the lore to the players is a whole other issues but CM side-steps this by going with an established movie, comics and video-games series.

By streamlining processes and mechanics like you stated (surgery, less weapons etc) you reduce foundations that exist that encourage roleplay. Things like round-times being severely reduced are a bi-product of the team-deathmatch aspect being optimized and QoL updates that sped the game up significantly. This has a direct negative effect on roleplay as higher speed movement, interactions and gameplay severely reduces a players chance of "downtime". Downtime is important in any Roleplay game as it is the opportunity for players to socialize and focus on other aspects of the game other than the action portion.

The overall problem with CM over the years is that as a lot of mechanics where "improved" they were often at the expense of the roleplay aspect attached to them. As the game significantly shifted from being an Action-Roleplay game to a Team-Deathmatch game this had a strong impact on the player-base who in-large shifted their mindset to be more action oriented or disgruntled players just naturally left to play other games.

Lastly, every roleplay game in existence (even tabletops) have a strong moderation community attached to them. This is primarily due to people intentionally and unintentionally breaking rules that will negatively effect other peoples enjoyment of the roleplay. Because roleplay is subjective in nature, moderation is required to ensure everyone is on the same page and those that stray from the guidelines are brought back in-line with the games vision. In an ideal video-game, moderators should only be moderating the Roleplay aspect of the game and not the gameplay itself... but SS13 unfortunately doesn't allow for that.

However, every game should have (as i said earlier) mechanics and a foundation that actively encourages players to socialize naturally. CM no longer has strong mechanics that encourage socialization or teamwork in it's game, which is why coupled with poor moderation... roleplay standards have dropped over the years to where they are now.


I'm not going to debate this methodology, this is the basic formula that we used for 4 years during my time which made the game a success. This wasn't some untried theory or proposal, this was the basic premise we followed that brought CM from 45 players upon launch to being the top server on SS13. I've said this a few times, I think both ERA's of CM offered completely different gamestyles to players. What someone prefers is a matter of opinion, this ERA is a perfectly fine team-deathmatch game and it's enjoyable as is.. but I just cannot see the game ever reverting back to a stronger standards due to the foundations being gone to support that.