I’ll keep this brief. I put some serious hours into this game around three years ago, and oh boy was it a wonderful ride. So many stories, memes and memorable moments. Truly a unique gaming experience that as far as I’m aware has no parallel.
Compared to three years ago, logging in the other day, the recent polish is evident - not quite able to put my finger on it, but the sprites seem…crisper, the sound effects are much improved, and all considered I’m pleased the game is still going strong - I plan to sink many more hours into the game.
However…
There seems to be something missing, the game feels more moderate than it was before, and more dull for it unfortunately. Here are a few pinpoints on that.
It used to be as a xeno you gained seniority by staying alive. It used to be such a high when you made it to ancient lurker (a dangerous road with a high mortality rate given their profession) Now it appears becoming elder, prime etc is linked to a players duration on the game. I find this to have a big negative impact on my enjoyment of xenos - there’s no incentive to play super sweaty, no pride in becoming one of the queen’s honour guard and absolutely wrecking marine’s to cover her escape down a dark tunnel. Doubtless the admins must have had good reason to change things - forgive me I’ve not researched the changelogs to become informed on this, but overall this player-tied seniority thing makes it feel like a clique, where regular players are put above newbies, or those who don’t invest as much time. Again, forgive my ignorance I’m not aware if having seniority actually effects the states of the xeno - if it does, that sucks hard, if it doesn’t, I still prefer the old system of becoming stronger with age.
The SL or Specialist used to have to go to the little squad req area and dish out attachments to their squad as they came out of prep. I can imagine this was cut out to streamline the start of games - I’ve noticed it’s a much shorter time from waking to drop - however this little detour added immersion, gave the marines a chance to interact with their SL and form a sense of comradery. It also made the senior members of the team, SL and Spec have to do a chore, have to earn the respect of their men through service. No doubt this is a personal thing, but I just loved the jankey, chaotic start where people are bitching they couldn’t get the attachment they wanted, or no one is at the req line so the marines start smashing the windows
Ravagers & Marines - there was a small window where the mods and admins made Ravagers absolutely terrifying. They could use slash and basically amputate limbs in one go and it was bloody glorious. If you saw a ravager lurking in a corridor, it was a proper deterrent! Marine’s would be piling up in he FOB awaiting transport up, and when they got to medbay, surgery was overcrowded and it was it’s own experience. Now Ravagers feel more like red Defenders, not as fun to play when before they were proper glass cannons.
Final point is the queen. Love the stompy sound effects. Love all the abilities she has - it’s only her scream I’m disappointed with. Used to be the scream would knock all those marines within a radius to the ground, and if you were caught, it would be a feeding fest! Now it’s more of a stun, but it feels a lot weaker. I think what is missing is the fear of when the queen is nearby. Marines would freak the hec out and it’d be every man for himself, scrambling to get away. Now…marines just feel less fragile, there’s less tension.
Think that’s it. Undoubtedly these changes over the past three years have been made for good reason, and probably the game is more balanced and welcoming to newcomers. I’ve noticed a lot of cool stuff - the helpful sergeant who appeared on my first game back and helped me remember what to do - what a cool idea! I just wanted to share my thoughts because I’ve such fond memories of this game, and while it is my personal taste (and I am probably not in the majority) I just loved some of the old features, the lethality and fragility of lurkers/Ravagers, the terror-inducing screech of the queen etc. Anyway, look forward to playing every now and then now that I’m back. Who knows what the mods/admins have in store.
The removal of the xeno age system into it being just a play-time based system was a bit of a surprise for me, but I personally found it to be a decent change overall. I felt it encouraged xenos to go for maximum aggression from the get-go, and I think it lets a developer better balance a caste as instead of having to check how it goes from the youngest to oldest age, it now only has to check how it performs as it spawns.
There’s also the issue where if xenos lose their T2s or T3s early on, it could cripple the hive as it will now take too long to get a new generation of high ranked xenos back to a higher time rank.
If anything, I’d argue cutting squad req actually made it more chaotic, since if there’s no req staff, literally the entire platoon starts rioting (At least req isn’t a singular line anymore like before I guess?). Only reasons it feels more muted is because A) dumping shit from vendors doesn’t work anymore and B) devs made the soul-crushing decision to make requisitions windows shuttered and invincible.
I must say though, unloading an M2C into just the deltards doesn’t hit as hard as unloading into the entire marine force.
I’ve played pretty consistently the past 10 years, so here’s my takes on the three xeno responses(in order)
Maturity was a great mechanic but was mainly frowned upon by devs and some players because it favored some poor tactics from both sides. Xenos would be inclined to do nothing and hide in the hive instead of making a game impact until they became ancient t1, elite t2, etc. Marines knew that xenos were weak in the early game so they just rushed every game and tried to end it as fast as possible. Maturity was by far the most interactive and fun mechanic the xenos have ever had and should definitely be brought back with many changes, but players have just ruined the mechanics because they’re either bad and die early, or meta-rush the hive.
Ravager is still very strong and scary. Base rav can quickly burst down a single marine, and a beserk rav can quickly snowball and deal massive damage to groups and quickly dip out before their rage goes away. Hedgehog is still strong, but trades off a lot of damage for survability.
Queen is also still very strong and scary, but a mix of xenos typically not utilizing screech properly and marines learning how to play around it has given the illusion that queen screech is not as powerful as it once was.
In addition to the points in 3 and 4, marines have had a decent amount of hugbox mechanics added to protect them from lasting damage. Namely less delimbs, helmet-decap protection, and generally a little bit faster medical treatment compared to 3 years ago. These three changes play towards a less fear-oriented playstyle from marines.
Compared to three years ago(or even a decade), balance is definitely still in a better point than it once was(not perfect though devs, why is OT sadar still a thing). However, a lot of mechanics have changed that make CM no longer feel as soulful as it once did, such as maturity removal.
I think planetside surgery becoming the norm was 100% the turning point for marine recovery. I honestly can’t possibly imagine going back shipside for literally everything (appendicitis is the #1 killer of UA marines on 2 hour long ops), not to mention having to be dragged shipside just to get revived. The addition of synths, and them subsequently becoming automatic groundside super surgeons was huge too.
I’m so spoiled from planetside surgery that I’ll refuse to go up even with a leg delimb. It’s honestly hard to believe I used to spend half the game sitting in the Rasputin to cycle for what would be minor injuries today.
Yeah, planet side medical has been a blight on balance tbh. Because now you wanna rush the actual medical locations on the map and have a doctor there. Because then shipside medical becomes litteral useless beyond sitting around trying to RP away your boredness. And that alongside it being a BIG marine buff that has essentially gone unnoticed, making marine recovery so that if you don’t perma a marine, its essentially just a temporary debuff.
huh??? was there another maturirty mechanic that i missed? because the one i played with incentivized xenos afking in the hive until they become at least mature, thats like the opposite of interactivity
I do not miss the maturity system, it made things way too inconsistant and encouraged sending out waves of runners to die en mass because forbid we lose an ancient T3.
squad req was funny but players optimized the fun out of it, if we still had it I’d become a petty tyrant and make my squad kiss my ring to get their tachies
I am unrobust as ravager since it takes such a long time to become T3 and get into the meat of combat, but I do remember when they were the grim reaper.
Queen screech being nerfed was a good thing for balance, less so for atmosphere. There wasn’t really an effective counterplay to it compared to the cost of using it, but the biggest, the baddest bug coming out of the darkness and screaming loud enough to force you to halt was very soulful
Squad prep was soulful when SL/Specs would actually bother to run it, but ultimately it turned into a metagamey mess – floordumping vendors, having the ComTech hack in when your SL didn’t spawn and your Spec fucked off, etc.
Loved the thought behind it, but removing it was a healthy change.
My point was the concept was fantastic, and the idea of bringing in a dynamic change to the balance of the operation(for the xenos) throughout the round outside of numbers increasing/decreasing is a healthy change.
HOWEVER, players really enjoy ruining good concepts, so designing it around the fact that most players will just afk til they’re OP is/was quite difficult.
