ok well theres only really 2 maps that have snow at the moment, but…
as someone who is a newer player (never played the older snow maps), i really like snow and i adore the gameplay mechanics of it-- as well as the atmosphere and ambience it contributes from an immersion and roleplay perspective
i think truly (and perhaps im thinking too much into it) that it does a (n almost) perfect job of translating the feeling of going to war in the snow. it’s pure suffering, right? shoveling snow or wading through it slowly, blizzards coming on and blinding you (i do wish the effect was more transparent to be honest), it’s great for the feeling of hopelessness, for tiredness, and roleplay wise i really love it!!
recently i had a round on sorokyne as a bravoid that made me want to write about this, multiple moments in particular really
first, holding the south with my squad mates, we were getting sieged a moment but our fellow marines managed to push them back as i and other corpsmen pulled back the corpses of our fellow marines.. afterwards we all regrouped back there at the south, relieved to see one another-- we shoot the shit, talking about the food in MRE’s or how the flavoring packets for water work super weird and other random shit, i start wondering where some wood would be for a fire and everyone (including me) runs to get some, i set up a fire, some chairs for us… it was cozy until we were summoned to go to comms, on the SL..
pushing to secondary comms with our squad leader, trudging in the snow, desperately i began looking for a shovel within the engineering storage as the techie began to cade up-- i finally found one in the freezing cold, excitedly jumping out the window frame from which i broke in to find it… only to be FUCKING MOGGED by a warrior!! blood over the snow, but my bravoids came through to get me in the end and i’m revived within cades, xenos surrounding us and even the QUEEN being there!!! we summon the rest of the marines, and…
well, i guess that’s a lot of blabbering about that, but you know, it just really felt like a war!! the harsh conditions we were in made me feel so immersed and i loved it, i think obviously this is not only in part due to the map but also thanks to the other players around me, we worked together and trekked through the snow…
i want to have more experiences like this but the problem is that SNOW MAPS NEVER GET VOTED
theres a reason for this, obviously-- the gameplay for it is annoying for both marines and xenos alike (Except me because im weird)
you got the snow that slows you down or the biting cold waters, and the blinding blizzards… BUT FUCK!!! I REALLY LOVE EVEN THOSE PARTS!!!
itd be nice if there were more maps that could give me the same feeling… i guess there are maps with rain but it doesnt really hit me the same you know? i think having to shovel around and the map being cold is part of what adds to the charm (plus general aesthetic)
am i alone in this insanity…? does anyone else love snow maps this same way…?
You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7 You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! x7
We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8 We clear the deep snow. x8
Snow map are a fun idea until you realize you can have no drip on them. You can’t roll your sleeves. You can’t take off your shirt. Not running a helmet will mean that you get debuffs. Also compared to other sprites snow armor and uniform just look bad.
When it comes to map design snowball is just ehh… It doesn’t really have anything interesting going for it and the cons outweigh the pros.
When it comes to soro that map is fucking trash dog shit tier. First of all its a ledge based map and if you are a engineer you will know how fucking annoying ledges are when you try to build a FOB. Also that snow effect makes me want to hive dive just to not hear / see it.
Oh and did I mention: You get stuck in the deep snow for a moment! We clear the deep snow.
If we could get better drip, less eye/ear killing effects and some more fun engi things to do them ice would be in fact nice
only HATERS appeared in my snow map fanclub… perhaps truly i am alone
i do agree soro is pretty bad tho its stupid enormous for like no reason..
and i also wish there were ways for marines to deal with ledges </3
I had fun for a few rounds with snow maps. One time I had fun as CL, seeing as the snow never melts even back on almayer, I took as much as I could from nearby fob to medical, placed a souto can on top, surrounded it with never melting snow cades, and faxed WY over experiments to see what happens when you superfreeze souto, considering souto is used in some research chems. Other rounds I just had fun with snow cades. Also navigating around snow so your retreat/kiting xenos isnt so slow adds a bit of a fun challenge to the normal gameplay loop.
xeno side though: it takes literal hours to clear snow just so you can weed properly. You only feel the real positive effects on a marine full retreat.
Honestly, I’m also a fan of snow maps. Sure, it’s a pain to clear snow, but there’s a very tangible benefit for both sides in clearing snow in different ways, and taking the time WITH YOUR TEAM (many hands make light work) can lead to granting your side of the fight incredible advantages and make you feel the effects of your hard work.
Snowball is actually the best example of this over Soro because of the wide western snowfield— I’ve seen a lot of (especially lowpop) rounds where Xenos slowwwwwly push the snow and weeds out, grinding the Marines down as they inch closer, and it’s a very unique experience over Kutjevo where they’d be in a FOB siege immediately. On the other end, I’ve also seen some dedicated marines (Disco Dan and Minty Attano my GOATS!!!) annoy me to no end when I’m a bug because they dig out a path from northwest FOB to front and put up snow cades that only need one man every thirty tiles or so to keep the backliners from tearing up squaddies moving from FOB to front, because snow cades are not SUPER durable but by the time you break one you’re seen and forced to retreat.
I believe that along with many features in this funky little game of ours, snow is simply one that’s fundamentally misunderstood in the value of because it is inherently tricky and a little annoying to deal with. Sure, it may have room for improvement— but to me, it provides incredible value to the experience and I think a lot of people just aren’t willing to pick up the shovel and DIG, MARINE!
My favorite part of snowball is the giant spiders. Seeing the fields of webs and dead spiders really adds to the game. Wish they where on other maps that where more popular. Could imagine some fun RP like a MT makeing a spider petting zoo.
I imagine you could add a random event with a small group spawning in the almayors maints. Kind of like how randomly the WY will change the price of food on the ship.
@winterwitch. Good post. I will share a story of a time before even I began to play. There was a 7 or 8 hour Old Ice Round. This is not a joke. That is crazy in a good way. We still have some very old vets that participated or remember that round.
Old Ice is a classic for a reason and ingrained in the culture of CM. That is the reason.
I do wish it was brought back into the rotation for a week each month along with the other old maps. We should as new and old players experience the history of CM.
If you are interested in the history of CM and would like to take a look at how it was years ago, search The Black Pants Legion on Youtube. Tex, their leader has hours of rounds of CM as it was years ago. It is what drew me into CM.
I miss that map and that round. 2 shift round where eu went to sleep and america woke up to take over the xeno bodies.
8 hours in you played to long to loose the game, eyes are sore from white mode only and tiredness. And you will forever remember those long round because of the commitment and effort you and others you got to know did in them. You made a bond with everyone, literally everyone and everybody had time to rp because of those damn ladders hah. I miss it. Cheers for bringing that up bud
really makes me want to play it for sure!!! argh…
sadly i feel like it would never get brought back and if it did people would complain immeasurably because they’re wusses
also @Licon honestly would be cool with that… man make me dig TRENCHES and shit make my character MISERABLE i want to ROLEPLAY N SHIT!!!
If I recall their is or at least was a CM like server set in WW1. Can’t recall the name but tex from the black pants legion made a video on it once. From the little I saw it seemed to have all the fixings of a WW1 simulator includeing it being very dirty looking.
People may not understand but this… is peak…
im not too into world war stuff or anything but i do really like fucked up battle conditions because that’s how it should be in large scale combat like this you know???
