Nerf Queen Screech for Lowpop

Development Ideaguys
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Queen screech. It’s been the most contentious issue for all of CM13, and the community is split on what to do with it.

But, there’s one objective issue with queen screech that I think everyone can agree on.

Queen screech is too oppressive on lowpop.

I consider lowpop to be below like 100 players, though some may have differing definitions.

Anyways, what is the issue with queen screech in lowpop? Well, it’s simple.

Queen screech is a very strong crowd control tool. You just stun the crowd into oblivion as your tier 1s and 2s pick them up while the tier 3s go ham. In higherpops, good marines will have many marines to rush into support the stunned marines via shaking or just shooting.

But in lowpop, marines are nerfed quite a bit, because there’s just less of them. Ravager, crusher, boiler, queen remain unchanged, and they can be great for crowd control. But for now, it’s best to focus on queen. Queen’s screech is unchanged, and because the radius is still the same big size, and there are less marines in general in lowpop to rush to support or to build cades, queen screech is even MORE oppressive in lowpop.

In lowpop, you can just get queen screech and one or two ravs to stun and kill the entire front as soon as they deploy. It’s brutal.

If the game isn’t balanced for lowpop, then why care? Well…

I’m not Australian myself, but I do feel pity for Australians who are essentially forced to play in lowpop, a version of CM13 that is way more unbalanced towards the xenos’ side.

So my proposed idea is to nerf the screech of queen’s radius significantly in lowpop. The queen screech radius nerf would be at a roundstart of lower then 100 or 110. Queen’s screech would still work the same in lowpop, but its radius would be notably smaller, given how the corps are notably smaller themselves.

If a lowpop round has late-joiners that make the pop greater then 100 or 110, then queen could have some kind of energy gain from the amount of talls. Her voice becomes louder or something, you figure it out. Basically, her screech would return to normal radius if the pop went greater then 100 or 110. It would be identical to how the tank is automatically installed when the pop reaches over 200.

Given how queen screech is a hotly contested and near universally disliked feature, I feel this addition would help soften the downsides of queen screech at least a little bit, well mainly in lowpop.

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Personally I’d consider lowpop to be less than 90. 70 and less is dead pop :tired_face:

Whilst many people share the same exasperation when playing against any competent queen on lowpop (looking at you, CHI… :face_with_peeking_eye:), the fact that the game isn’t balanced for lowpop is kind of just the L we’re given and have to live with. Most people play on highpop where marines are an unending horde of meat, and end up stomping xenos most of the time.

Xenos have a significant advantage in lowpop, and the win rates heavily reflect that.
I don’t expect it to ever change, it’s just one of the ‘objectively shit mechanics’ that have been in the game for a decade, like specialists. As such it’s become too entrenched to adjust without a LOT of willpower and appropriate buffs, because it really is just the only thing that stops deathblobs (unless you have OWL zerker).

I’ve played with it for a decade so I honestly don’t really care too much about it anymore. It’s just part of the lowpop experience TM. I enjoy having the odds stacked against me, it’s more fun for marines when they’re losing (in style), albeit bullshit like runner lightspeed capping during screeches is still just unbelievable slop. It’s not like marines lose every round anyways, the WR sticks around 60-40 to 70-30 I’d say.

4 Likes
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This would be really awkward for the queen and marines alike. So like, if there’s 100 marines, screech is normal, but then one cryos, screech radius is suddenly significantly (your words) nerfed, but then one latejoins, and it’s significantly buffed, all potentially happening midcombat… and now marines will have a reason to shit on private #100 who joins because they’re giving the queen a significant buff. Actually the way you’re describing it is that it only takes into account roundstart numbers but also will take into account latejoins, but not late cryos? I just don’t see this ever being implemented the way you’re describing it. I think there’s better ways to look at marine buffs in lowpop, and/or xeno buffs in highpop if the consensus is that marines need help in lowpop and xenos need help in highpop. Something simpler like some automatic foxtrot freed mobs based on how low the pop is, counteracted by some automatic burrowed larva based on how high the pop is.

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adding freed mobs isnt really gonna work, even when foxtrot is called on lowpop it takes a solid 10 minutes for people to take the freed mobs :skull:, same with how sometimes xenos have like 7 burrowed

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sometimes people take freed mobs instantly, but in general yeah it needs more visibility, like a notice in deadchat once every X minutes when they’re available or something, same with burrowed

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