I still like the idea of ending the round when xenos take fob optional.
As mentioned before, the Queen should have the ultimate say on doing it or not, but odds are they will ask the hive for feedback.
If xenos choose to do it greater than 40% of the time, then it will be obvious that it is a feature the community wanted. If not, then just remove it.
Also, everyone keeps on talking about Marine/Alien Major/Minor victories. I don’t even see that in the end of round text anymore. Is that just holdover mentality from the olden times?
I believe you can find what the victory condition of the round is in the end-stats screen nowadays. Frankly though I would bet 90% of people don’t even check it and just presume the victory type from their own knowledge of either what the code says, or what other’s have said. Or that the round is a Marine Major no matter what the outcome was.
In either case, the actual victory state of the round should have no real bearing on a player’s view of the game, the end-result should be how enjoyable the round was
I just feel you have a better chance of a more epic story about the valiant last efforts of the Marines desperately defending the FOB as the Xenomorphs throw everything they have to expel the Marines. Versus the less exciting story of the Marines calmly evacuating most of the force as the Xenomorphs engaged in a very timid FOB siege and only pushed in when it was clear the Marines had given up.
Personally, I see no reason why you can’t at least trial removing hijack and see how the community feels with the change.
I find it more epic during hijack if anything since the stakes are higher for the Marines. I’ve never seen materials and supplies being held back for hijack while inside FOB, or met people who got sanctioned for doing so.
I think hijack has been in for so long that it’s become part of the core game loop of CM. Almayer is designed around it. Removing it wouldn’t fix anything, it would be a design decision based on what the dev team want the game to be, totally arbitrary.
Also someone bring back CM, I’m stuck on the forum, help
Every single person on the server acts with the background knowledge that hijack is something that will happen, ergo their decision making will be influenced to account for this, consciously or otherwise. The mere presence of hijack will thus dictate actions that detract from the groundside role as it is expected to presume people will want to ensure their faction is best prepared to fight the mandatory hijack fight.
We have precedent for reworking or removing long-standing features. I believe there is genuinely enough grievance amongst enough members of the community with the current iteration of hijack that simply dismissing the idea of attempting any kind of change to it would be unfair.
Hijack sometimes fun. Hijack sometimes slop. So play hijack when fun. Skip hijack when slop. Let queen decide to skip or hijack. Wai? Sisters win groundside. Sisters should decide to skip or hijack, not doo-doo talks who succ and lose planet. Xeno already decide when hijack happen now anyways.
What happen when only one combat-caste tall shipside 10 minute after first drop? Slop hijack. Wai force me to play slop hijack? Me like Steelpoint idea. Make it real. Please.
I think it makes the most sense to just let the CO/XO decide if they want to do hijack or not and then if yes let the queen decide, If only one party agrees then the round ends like it should and if both agree then you have a hijack. The only other alternative should just be if the Marines lose the ground and don’t redeploy its over and they lost the Xenos get their win. Let the marines and medics get a chance to unwind for a few and allow them a short bit to RP, and let the Xenos have ghost role humans to hunt down so they can do something while the marines get a few to unwind. @Steelpoint is right about how way too many people act since Hijack is always going to happen and with how fast it does happen, Marines cant wait for long because if they do then the Xenos will just slaughter them and if Xenos wait too long then marines will have a ton of supplies and able marines to make things drag on at the very least. I think either removing it or making it a two group consensus is the best options.
Hijack shouldn’t be even thing on the current marine meta. Like you play 2 hours of FOB siege if you can’t win during siege period you have to play 40 minute long mandatory hijack as well. Also hijack effects shipside roleplay negatively and discourage people from rping. At best it should be an alternative gamemode just like WO.
Hijack is the worst part of the round, not only because everyone knows it’ll be the exact same thing it always is, but because it forces the xenos to play in a way that’s detrimental to them and make marines have to sit through the most monotonous, unfun slog. The xenos are FORCED to take the FOB and make the marines evac, marines are forced to hold the FOB and constantly rebuild cades. Xenos can’t melt sheets with ranged acid attacks, so cades are functionally infinite anyway, meanwhile the xenos are functionally finite because you can’t get reliable caps in a FOB siege, and they get so few larvae from holding the comms relays.
The marines are rewarded for forcing this unfun gameplay by getting free reinforcements from people joining an extended round that xenos do not get and there is nothing the xenos can do besides just stop sieging and wait for marines to get bored and push again only to repeat the process over and over.
It just keeps making people do the EXACT same thing; Fall back to FOB, siege for two hours, then either evac and have a shipside battle or attrition xenos (the ones who are supposed to be able to WIN a battle of attrition, but can’t because late joins are a thing) and pull a win out of a hat like a magician after two hours of being absolutely thrashed, assuming admins don’t also step in to hand the victory to the losing side after a two or three hour round that’s just a stalemate because of the current state it’s in.
At least if hijack is optional per round, it changes the dynamic, doesn’t interfere with roleplay, and can actually promote more roleplay, both with the xenos no longer having to focus about only fighting, and marines having to decide if it’s worth redeploying.
Not sure how long admins have been trying it but as of round 22359, admins did try out a vote for the option to skip hijack, and when it was voted majority yes, they did allow the round to end without forcing the xenos into the Almayer.
I wanted to put a comment of appreciation here for it. They actually saw our feedback and are responding to it, trying out new things to change up how the game plays. For now I’m sure it’s manual only, but I’m excited to see if they automate this process in the future.
So, thank you to them for taking our feedback seriously and testing it out to at least see if it has a place in CM long-term.
Its somewhat rare, but on rare occasions admins have been known to offer up a alternative to hijack, this is mainly reserved for very long rounds or ones that required admin intervention to end.
Moreso I just wish to codify a alternative into the game instead of it being a rare admin-only event.
With hijack being a mandatory part of the game for xenos, there is nothing they can do if marines decide to do an early evac, the only thing is ‘‘hurr, xenos failed to wipe marines in fob so they get this.’’
Because yes, i still remember this saturday in fiorina where marines failed to push, sat in fob until 1 hour 15 and evacuated with 40+ marines, 40+ extra shipside personnel/undeployed marines. (plus ERT) 90+ people shipside against a 14 xenos hive that turned 17 with the surge. Was there anything xenos could do? Nothing, most the hive ghosted because god knows its gonna be a shipside slog as marines + ERT will easily swarm you and it wont be fun in the slightest or a decent fight at all because of how one sided it will be.
But the LRC did show some good arguments. It is silly marines are forced to hold fob until they are extremely weak or somehow win so that hijack isnt terrible, and it is silly queen/hive is forced to always hijack no matter how terrible it will be. Some alternative round enders (capping the dropship/leaving orbit) should exist.
hijack optional if round is over 2h seem fine to me.
we could also have it so that if queen take control of ground and xeno have a low ratio compare to marine we then allow queen to then call it a day after a timer.
