Was requested to make an ideas guys post due to a post I made in the thread regarding marines and the current state of early retreating. Link here to the original post
For a TLDR. The entire thread is about marines don’t really have any need to push out and hold land against xenos. Either push them to wipe them out or get stuck in a hour+ FOB hold because that is the better option half the time.
My thought on this is that, in the past we had resource capture objectives, but that was aimed at techweb. Techweb was horribly balanced but the idea of having resorce points to fight over, in my opinion, was not. For an asymmetrical strategy game (And don’t tell me it isn’t. CM in some cases is on par with games like natural selection, it might not be first person, but it’s a strategy hybrid where the units you’re dealing with are like herding cats) A key thing to force factions to clash is having a resource objective. This helps move the gameplay forward, gives incentive to push and hold positions. Marines have no reason to do any of that. Comm towers just give comms, and there is little incentive outside of that to hold both.
On this idea, instead of techweb and giving overpowered items and things to marines. It’s how you fund the operation in general. This idea also shouldn’t mess with the current req rework since that has to do with how marines get the supplies, not the budget for the supplies. This aims at the budget in of itself, as well as provide how other factors can effect req’s budget:
Give req back a static starting budget. 20k at base, up to 30k if it’s a high pop round.
Disable all static income to req. We aren’t removing the crate refunding or form stamping, they are things req can do to try and scrape up a few dimes when times are dire.
Budget is driven by points marines hold on the map. Comms giving the initial bonus. having both comms a bit more. With other control points on the map stacking up the budget for req the more you hold. (or other bonuses, we don’t want the techweb problem here but there is consideration for expansion)
ASRS could be nerfed send up less overall free crates, or less chance for more valuable crates (Lower chances for AP rounds/mags etc)
Gathering xeno bodies and putting them in research could also give req small amounts of budget based on the xeno turned in (thinking like 15/20 bucks for a runner or drone, to like 100/200 for rav or queen, however people want to balance this)
Decoding disks in the IO lab could randomly provide small budget injections or other boons (Depending how far people want to go with a system like this)
Alternate ideas to the system in general. More points held on the map might return ASRS free crates to pre-nerf values, so we would get the same crates for free after a threshold is reached. Maybe with better chances to send up items or giving ASRS a focus (Loose ammo, mortar shells, AP mags, but never things like spec ammo)
Another alternate idea is checking xenos into research and unlocking disks could give req a ‘secondary’ budget of sorts where you can use it to redeem a free item over time from a set item pool. (Box of HEDP for your GL spec. AP mags, emergency mats (Some metal, a stack of plasteel, sandbags))
The idea for this system is to drive marines to push and hold key locations on the map to get better gear, while at the same time punishing them for fully retreating back to fob and losing the map. No map control, you get no better supplies unless ASRS wants to grant you something out of the goodness of it’s heart.