Are rounds going on too long lately?

General Discussion
21

as of last round, yes they are going on too long.

4 hour soro fob siege moment

22

So I love long rounds. The longer the round the better in every single way. Better to evolve more roleplay, better in terms of every single small thing matters and adds up in the end and overall the feel of the game changes when you start hitting the 2:30+ mark. Everything starts to matter more, medical, requisitions, the dropship pilots, research, engineering, intelligence, etcā€¦ for the average rifleman maybe 2+ hours of combat can be mentally draining but for a lot of ship side roles thatā€™s when a lot of fun can be had.

This is all happening because of the ā€œlate game xeno updateā€ which I can say without a doubt was a huge xeno nerf and the main cause of these stalemates. Holding onto a single comm tower is more or less pointless for xenos now, the royal resin rate is so slow itā€™s insane. When you finally get both comm towers you can only summon 5 larva ONCE. Then itā€™s just spamming increased attack and defence every so often while trying to obtain the King. The King is strong but isnā€™t even close to being 100% game win condition and it heavily relies on the player controlling it. Compared to holding 2 comm towers for 10 minutes and marines auto win the round more or less. Xenos straight up need more buffs imo.

So ya the late game xeno update honestly is neat and cool, but straight up has lowered the overall xeno winrate imo and caused many rounds to go into a stalemate/draw around the 2-3 hour mark. Personally Iā€™m fine with all this, I love longer rounds and honestly think theyā€™re the best for an overall balance of gameplay and roleplay, but I can see why some people donā€™t enjoy them. Bring back 8 hour ice.

5 Likes
23

Thats a good point about the pylon change hurting xenos. Used to be you would get infinite larva up to a percentage of marine population. The downside was that if marines lost map control they would mostly end up losing the siege due to the infinite spawning. I wonder if they could elaborate more on the royal plasma usage such as unlocking more t3 slots or permanent upgradesto help xenos out.

1 Like
24

I donā€™t think the nuke really does end the round. Depending on the map, it can be next to impossible to get it decrypted because marines have to be spread out over a large area. The nature of it requires marines make themselves MORE vulnerable. So youā€™ve got marines who will have lost a good chunk of their comtechs, medics, smartgunners, and specialists. And around this point, the average round will have REQ and medical low on staff/cyroed. Squad prep will be almost entirely out of MK2 magazines. The alamo pilot will be doing their job even more poorly than usual. And in all this bullshit, theyā€™re expected to hold 2 seperate locations outside of the FOB.

This is the sort of situation that really favors xenomorphs because where marines constantly have to manage supplies, xenos need to just not die and have a weeded area with walls to lay down behind. So in all this shit, if marines are still able to pull it off, all that really means is that the hive was already beaten and weā€™re skipping the annoying clean up.

25

This convo mostly spawned from 3 hour rounds back to back and a ā€˜slopā€™ consensus. Wondering if both king and nuke should be easier to get or more powerful.

2 Likes
26

Youā€™ve not seen long rounds until youā€™ve endured Ice Colony where the rounds literally lasted for 8 hours or longer. Plus there was no map voting so weā€™d all be stuck on the same map for days.

Really though, Iā€™d say that for the modern day, a round should be finishing before the 3 hour mark, Ideally a 2 hour round is ideal.

2 Likes
27

Imo itā€™s about skill. After the start of deployment where the 2 enemies meet thereā€™s a time where the xenos can clash against the marines as they push to gain the upper hand. Sometimes the front gets wiped and the round ends early. When it doesnā€™t the marines will either end it themselves or pull back to FOB. The stalemate is essentially the marines either holding FOB or fighting near it, where the battle turns into one of attrition where neither side has room or the power to prevail and progress is slow unless the queen arrives and try to break the siege. If you canā€™t break the other early it becomes a stalemate.

1 Like
28

One important aspect regarding round length is whether the round outcome is organic vs inorganic. The outcome is organic if itā€™s determined by the fundamental player skills on both sides and inorganic when one faction just receives some help from the game that tips the balance, like a free nuke, stims or spawning 2 Ravengers.

I think just about everyone would agree that organic round outcomes are preferable to inorganic outcomes. But, hereā€™s the catch: one key trend in CM development has been towards the lower lethality. On both sides. Because nobody wants to be that guy who gets removed from the round. Thus a properly balanced organic high pop CM round just takes more than 2 hours to play out.

In, summary, I think rounds being organic is a higher priority than them being sub 3 hours, but if we want to cut down the round length again, I think upping the lethality should be looked into together with inorganic solutions, if not preferred to them.

1 Like
29

Give me a long round anyday, the lowpop slop of instawipes and hijack within an hour is just awful. Honestly, I donā€™t think the 3+ hour rounds are that much of a concern, given at that point admin intervention is highly likely. You just donā€™t see the 8 hour ice colony shitholes anymore.

2 Likes
30

this tbh

Rounds arenā€™t long ENOUGH imo. I miss longer rounds, because as far as roundflow goes it usually takes ~2hours for fun things to happen - a greeno hive to mature and be deployed, or marines to get a proper push going into the caves for example.
NOW though the second the round is about to reach its climax one side or the other just plays for an endgame and ruins it.
Itā€™s about the journey not the destination, especially when the ā€œdestinationā€ in cm is waiting 40 minutes for server to reboot and 10 minutes of combat to begin in the next round. The fuck are yall in a rush for, enjoy the game

3 Likes
31

8 hours???

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32

Old Ice went hard.

33

Yeah youd go to sleep after dying and wake up, hop on CM and itd still be the same fucking round (it will be ice for the next 7 days because no staff can be bothered to change it)

1 Like
34

hejdjfmcmsmdhwhwhwbb

2 Likes
35

Iā€™ve heard tell of that actually happening to people on a 16 hour ice round once

1 Like
36

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