I post this here since I got a recent note regarding speaking about the idea that marines have access to a hive killer and are able to buy more OB’s. I am not making a report due to the loose nature of what “basic knowledge” even means in the context of what both marines and xenos know both before and after first contact.
I think that these things should become basic knowledge instead of being a warnable offense because both sides already play as if they know what Stims, OB, CAS, OT, Nuke, Specialists on xeno side is, and what King, pylons, hive core, T3’s, etc. is.
It is also not specifically expanded upon in the rules what “basic knowledge” even means. Does basic knowledge cover the fact that the marines have access to orbital cannons and can kill xenos with them? Does it cover marines knowing what a pylon is and why it is dangerous to leave it on Comms?
Marines and xenos both already play around knowing a lot of game knowledge OOCly, yet getting noted for knowing before it happens when “basic knowledge” is not expanded upon as a term is really shitty. You could claim I am rule lawyering, yet I make this thread because I and other xenos have stated when marines have fired all their OB’s and not gotten noted, I and other marines have also fought to the death for a comms unit when IC wise we wouldn’t know that not destroying a pylon = larvae surge or even a King, yet we still play like we know it.
There is precident for the expansion of what “basic knowledge” means because First Contact rulings were removed for the very same reason I made this thread; because everyone already played like they knew what a xeno was, they all just “pretended” not to know what a Ravager, Runner, etc. was but played against them as if they knew exactly their dangers.
I do think it’s a little rough around the edges on what you’re allowed to know— I feel like I see people mentioning in xeno chat that we can’t sit and hold comms for too long or else they’ll get stims and win, and it is sorta vital to play that way in a tdm setting, so I don’t see the use in not allowing via “psychic resonance” or like “psychic wave emanations” or some other fluff allowing xenos to know about these things. Ditto about Marines having scattered reports from lost colonies and being briefed about “King” lifeforms being spotted like, once ever, or something. There’s ways in-lore for CM13 in particular to justify these things because in proper Aliens lore the psychic powers of the Queen are nowhere near what they are here and I feel like we should exercise the freedom we’re already exercising to allow the game to go more smoothly.
Yeah it’s a bit finicky, I feel like this rule is basically up for interpretation depending on the staff member. If they’re nice they won’t care unless it’s genuinely bad, if they’re strict they’ll whoop your ass faster than you can say “King”.
That being said outlining the exact boundaries would be wild as hell and realistically perhaps just impractical. I remember #rules-clarification got absolutely fucking nuked, so I’m gonna assume rules being a bit vague is kind of intentional.
Yeah then we’d have to go the full nuke route that happened to First Contact rules aka remove both sides having to “pretend” that they do not know certain things like OB restrictions, King’s existence, OT and Stims, etc.
Because otherwise its up to staff member interpretation which sucks ass since one day you might be fine saying marines are going to have stims soon, another day you get noted or even possibly banned since there should be “no conceivable IC way for you to know that”.
This makes a lot more sense in the long run because marines and xenos alike already play like they know these things OOCly but “pretend” that the have “no clue” IC, while others outright just state it ingame such as calling it that we need to push comms or else King will pop, or xenos as stated rushing comms to stop a Hivekiller or early rushing comms for boons so they can rush FOB before marines get beefed up.
I would argue that gameplay concepts that are of vital importance to be aware of, such as the prevalence of stims, the ability to spawn a King and how marines can deploy a Nuke, are vital to understand and should not be actioned against from an IC perspective.
immersion shouldn’t come at the expense of gameplay
we shouldn’t force leadership roles (SLs, Command, Queen, T3s) that are responsible for making sure everyone has a Fun Time to, pretend they don’t know shit and get people killed
I wholeheartedly agree. I do not like that the difference between a note and a pass is the individual decision of a mod. This needs a firm ruling.
P.S. I do not wish any ill will against mods that currently enforce this. The rules are what they are. In this specific case, I think a more robust clarification can be made.
I do recognize edge or very odd cases can and will occur. This is after all a spin off of Space Station 13. Chaos is inherent.