I’m going to be real. But CLF don’t seem like they are ever “supposed” to survive. They have always been the epitome of “Frag until death” even before the hostile survivor rework.
Because lets be real. You survive the xeno onslough, what next? Are you going to attack the marines? Then its just frag until the marines find and decap you. Surrender to the marines? Have fun in a perma cell. Those are the only roleplay alternatives except the rare “died on planet, revived on ship and starts fragging”, which is just another “Frag until death”.
So here comes the actual question with the CLF insert. What the fuck do you want out of them? Do you want them to be hostile to everyone, but somehow also not be able to be steamrolled by the other two factions? Go sign up for pred.
Personally, I enjoy having other inserts in the game as a whole (not just limited to the CLF) because it introduces scenarios and roleplay which would not happen without admin intervention.
Many of the best events throughout CM history have been player led roleplay and interactions, some gently nudged along with staff interaction, many without.
On to the point about being in a cell if you’re caught and captured, that can be fun, sure sometimes, nothing happens, but you still get to roleplay, other times, the most insane stuff can happen. This goes for all inserts, not just limited to survivors. This isn’t just a pure TDM, it’s a MRP server.
I’ve roleplayed my way out the brig, from being broken out by a sympathetic MT/MP I befriended, to being rescued by my team who somehow survived, kidnapped 2-3 marine on the colony and did a prisoner exchange for me. Do we really want to remove fun, niche interactions like that? If you just want to frag, go ahead, but do we want to remove options for people?
Finally, I don’t think anyone here is suggesting that they should be able to wipe the factions, but changes like the one open above, merely make survivor more toxic (as new survivors, who can only learn by playing it, are not doing the most optimal things because they have 0 chance of surviving otherwise), removal of QoL things like driving will just make that worse, and the fact they’re nerfing the turrets (which are already pretty sucky as a queen will just heal xenos and build right infront of them and theres very little you can do).
Of course, I’ve been in groups that have survived multiple times. It’s just so rare to get the CLF spawns. Honestly some maps are so much easier to survive on then others. NV, Kutjevo are some of the easier ones, Solaris, LV being harder, Fio is kinda hard too, Hybrisa is easier if you actually just ditch the Van and hold up somewhere, and the rest I’ve not ever seen a spawn yet myself.
Hybrisa should be changing to a different insert too soon, which may or may not make it easier.
I am sympathetic to CLF shenanigans. But I do not belive most of the people who went CLF BEFORE the rework had much intention aside from fragging. There were constant locker/coffin hiders that waited until marines landed to frag them, and even had some that shot survs at 00:05 before there was a rule against it.
So I’d say until we get the general community to think “CLF are an RP potential” instead of “CLF is for fragging/griefing”, I won’t belive in the role.
As for the nerfs, the turrets won’t shoot its entire magazine before like 10 minutes have gone. I recently tested it with Fiorina and trying to deplete a turret, and it took about 10 minutes with 6 xenoes on one turret to use 400 out of 500 bullets. Which was just one turret that the survivors barely helped defend with. As for the driving. All you need to do is keep the driver alive. Same as needing to keep the doctor alive if you want to heal bones, IB, and whatever. It gives allocation, albeit could probably be shared with engies as well.
There was this one round on Sorokyne where the entire CLF insert survived at their base and kept capturing and killing marines they came across.
2 IOs
Scout Spec
2 Comtechs (they released one of them, with just a knife and he took out the nearby pylon like a G)
SL
They then used the IOs ID to call the Normandy, kill the GP then invaded the Almayer killing the only CIC member, the ASO before eventually being gunned down.
It’s been a long time but I was CLF on Solaris Ridge, I don’t know if we took down regular marines but we captured the Scout (alive) and attempted to negotiate with the marines, using the Scout’s life. After a bunch of time a group of marines show up and they’re RPing and whatnot with us, until one of the marines with the lunge mine rushes towards us and attacks one of us, gibbing a couple of us and also gibbing the Scout. It was funny but I don’t think the Scout would agree…