I came back from a 9 month break to CM about a week and a half ago, and I was very disappointed by the current survivor player base. Before I had took my break from CM, survivors were the most dynamic group of people. Daboza’s funny doors, brad’s centipede, holding the most idiotic spots just to see what would happen. Survivors were pretty often developing new and silly tactics to one up the xeno players in a virtually never-ending arms race of who-gets-to-brag-about-frags-in-d-chat/lrc. This isn’t what survivor is like anymore.
Sure, they still like to brag about frags, and even do get some good frags! The other day a mature queen got killed by survs pre-drop, super epic frag! But the soul of survivor feels gone. Almost always, they play extremely safe. Hold secure, hold wardens office, and sure we did this too, but there’s none of the silly holds. THE SOUL! There’s no rushing to break barrels and crates to find a smoke grenade within the first minute before BOO and his metacord find you so that you can use it to slip inside scav ship and try to hold that awful location.
One would then expect that with the establishment of holding being relatively easy (of the last 5 rounds I’ve played survivor, 50-60% of the survs survived with at least 2 surviving every round) you would expect there to be more RP. Wrong! They’re just as LRP as ever, but now instead of it being fun, they’re boring! There is no dynamism there anymore, and its sucking the fun out of survivor synth. Thanks for coming to my SurvTalk:tm:, what do you guys think survivor is like?
I think a lot of the surv dynamics have been influenced by the changes to survivor skills and xeno evo times within that time. Drone rushes with two taps just make hunkering down in the meta spots more appealing too. Most survs seem to just be desperate to survive (moreso than before) and the holds are what simple minds go to.
I think part of the problem is the skill changes to survivor and people just not doing things to help the group survive anymore. I’ve been playing a lot of Survivor synth and noticed a sheer difference in how people react to it.
Gone are the days of the group rolling up together to get the meds/insuls/materials/weapons they need instead of running around on their own before going to a meta spot.
A large part of this is because of new players. But a large chunk of it, too, is a refusal for some of the older players to escape the trap they put themselves in. Like unironically, the changes to survivors that were made to force them to work together did the utter opposite.
The recent updates to surv (losing skills, choosing your own job, choosing to be clf surv) have all been pretty bad imo. Each has a lot of problems, and ruins a lot of fun. I still see the survs in groups, but it just feels different. Back in the day, we’d never leave a surv alone to die unless they were legit a danger to us. Now these survs will just abandon you and not care. It’s not just a change issue, its the player base itself.
I just played a round on Solaris with Ricky, where I booby trapped doors with him and the classic Daboza airlock relay, and even if I died we got some good kills but even better it was probably the most fun and ‘hilarious’ survivor gameplay to use doors like that. I just hope more rounds had the oppurtunity for such things, but because people like to take the classic shortcut to survival or easy ticket out, most of them are just ‘scared’ of losing a 2 hour round.
Many of them dont realize that doing funny shenanigans and doing a little bit of trolling on both sides wether it be cave/hive holding or cargo tugs that you dont actually die that often doing so. We still have a lot of great players who play, of course notable synthetics and some fellow surivors but I think the main issue for us is that we were used to having the same attitude of “we ball, a little trolling is in order” but thats no longer is the case so we get drifted and pushed towards the idea of the “easy meta” in an attempt to involve all the survivors, (as someone pointed out here, the survivor gameplay we were used to was one where we all did it together and that losing one person meant losing everyone) but now, its “better” to play with some easy meta than to have half the team lockerhide because they dont want to not do secure dome.
I’m guilty of this, I’ll admit - I don’t do enough to RP or to try fun tactics or holds when I play survivor. I’ve had a few cool ideas - especially on 522 - a last, desperate attempt to crush the hive by pushing it with what little men and supplies that there are left, probably dying a heroic and cinematic death in the process. The only problem is, nobody wants to die, even if it’s fun to do, so they won’t follow you into the fight. I opted to just cave in and do it myself too. Which I’m realizing isn’t the best mindset to have… surviving just isn’t that fun anymore either, there’s not too many folks willing to talk, and then it’s basically PFC+.
I think that part of the problem stems from the meta and mindset surrounding it. Everyone’s so used to rushing the southern LZ caves on LV522, or going to the cargo bay and spamming the shit out of molotovs on New Varadero. People want to survive, sure - but I think for the most part that can be negated if you just take charge. COs like Juro do off-the-meta plans all the time, and people follow them. (Sure, you may think that this might just be because ‘haha funy blue star, follow it!!’ but I think it’s a lot more than that.)
RP IN THE ALLEGED MRP SERVER? BANNED FOR HAVING FUN KEATON! On a more serious note though, oftentimes all one has to do is be assertive - some won’t fall in line and die alone, everyone else gets to die in a group
Whenever I’m playing survivour I’m much happier sticking to the meta stuff since on the one hand I’m just not that great at the game and on the other I just enjoy the survivour RP a lot more than much else at the minute.
That said so long as there’s a plan I stick with the other survs for whatever hold there is. Its just if no one has a plan then its easy to just call out sec dome or some other meta spot that most people will atleast know of.
[The survivors are not the most DOOM people who, armed with anything, go to storm the DAMN HIVE.THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING.DESTROY, KILL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, WE HAVE TO DO SURAM MAJOR BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE MARINES IN 40 MINUTES.
And to be honest-this is as usual the problem of xenomorphs whining.It used to be quite difficult and funny.And extremely dynamic.Nowhere is there such a wild dynamic as on survivor.There are no idiots on the command, incompetent doctors, downs on specialists and deaf CAS,
No.It’s just you here, and a couple more people that are doing the work of 90 Marines with 4 people.
And they were damn good at it.Earlier.And now most of all the rare and special items have been removed, for the sake of that very balance.Yeah.
That is, xenomorphs attacked and died, because the survivors had things to kill them.What does it mean?It is necessary to remove these things so that the xenomorphs do not cry.
I still want to strangle the man who gave T1 the ultimate ability to capture survivors-sentinel.His spit drops you 100%, and he can keep you in permastane for up to 10 FUCKING MINUTES IN SOLO.Is it funny?No.
Previously, you could run and fight, but now you have removed the quicklock, and increased the damage to the organs (after all, you are without armor and removed it practically from all cards)
This means that 3 blows to the pile will cause you internal bleeding and break your heart or lungs.And how to treat it?That’s right, no way, because no one except a medic has access to pills.
Previously, it was at least somehow balanced 5 fortress.But it was also removed, for the sake of whining xenomorphs.
Yes, I am Russian and I am writing this through a translator.MEN’s questions?
And in General.Remember them.Those who were feared in the hive and on Almere.Those who fought to the last drop of blood, to the last cartridge.They were the very SURV GANG who were feared in the hive and on alrmaer.
but uh on the RP note. when i played surv i always felt like there was no time to really RP (unless the hive was being extraordinarily slow) you are so busy getting stuff ready and prepping and not even halfway throught the prep you will be under siege so you kinda just focus on not dying. STUFF MAY HAVE CHANGED SINCE I PLAYED THO WHO KNOWS MAYBE BEING SURV IS PRETTY CHILL AT THE START OF THE ROUND NOW!
Yeah xenos can’t get T2s for 8-10 minutes and can’t evo runners for 5 minutes. Its only drones for 5 minutes or so. You have quite a bit of set up time now.
This is true 100%, You are now on your own because skills mean I get IB from a single drone slash can be delimbed in two hits, if I have one window to get a kill before possible death I’m prioritizing the kill over everything else, if you are badly wounded then your likely dead, I’ll try and die for you to help kill things but without skills the majority of them that aren’t hiding are choosing a loadout based on the gear/skills and it’s just alot of cheese strats and boring ways to live which is truely far easier than it ever was. LV you can just rush the open dome then corp dome grab the shovel start cutting off tunnels and hunting the t1 that come colonyside in groups its FAR too easy. Losing skills has jaded me from rolling engineer (which is limited because you are at an rng chance to become the van driver also which i dislike) and can’t make folding for any sort of creative hold that allows you to chase and confirm kills, my main issue and I know alot of the surv synths have voiced this in dchat to me also is the expectation of players who don’t have the skills on the players who do, if I don’t want to hold the garage on solaris because I like the mining loot and I’m the only engineer I feel bad but I’m going for the mar50 and it just sucks. Many survs just expect synths to do all the things they can’t do themselves anymore. I never thought I’d say it but I miss Prime-Runner BOO running up and down hydro road for the med vendor.
Also P.S a survivor ahelped me and I got noted for grief because fucking DP pounced them and they got shot along with the runner when I was trying to help. The survivor playerbase has only themselves to blame that nobody wants to help them.
