I agree that full self serve is just not gonna happen.
Fixing chem line is mostly down to the hamfisted power system, which to my understanding is also not going away.
automating req would be down to the roadmap plan being implemented which is a little more technical than I’d be good for.
every time I’ve heard it floated putting advanced chem mixes into squad prep has been pretty opposed by the devs, but I really don’t know what a better solution is given everyone who actually plays medic can agree that sitting in a line and missing first drop because the doctor running the line is either laughably incompetent or being punished for being fast by having no power sucks.
100% I have my medic loadouts well memorized, I know where to get every item and how to do so as quickly as is really reasonable, and it still often ends with me sitting in the medline as the dropship leaves. there isn’t really anything made more interested by zooming around silently hoovering up the items I need it’s just a roundstart chore I have to do every time I want to play it, but as I said, the points system as it exists encourages gaming the system in this way. Why would you buy brute kits when medbay has them for free?(this goes for basically every kind of medical supply), stuff like machete pouches, binocs, radio keys, fix-o-veins, smart refill cans, etc that are a pain to get elsewhere when you can just hit the medbay for free stuff and then exclusively assign your points to that. I usually have 38 points left after getting the actual medical supplies(the only thing you ‘need’ to buy is fixovein which is optional and build-dependant) simply because everything in the vendor you can just go scoop out of a vendor in medbay without being a detriment to your choices of gear. In this way the squad vendor for medics is, in my opinion, mostly a noob trap.
I see no correlations between equipment scarcity and roleplay. If people don’t RP - that means they don’t want to. You might spawn me on the dropship with all my gear roundstart, and I’ll still AFK there - I’d go pet my cat, drink some coffee and etc
Shortening prep time is peak, don’t get me wrong, but doing it solely to “give people time to RP” is a worthless task. We have enough time, people just don’t use it
I use all my points in that vendor to buy AP mags, lol
it was an event so results are skewed, but I am a firm believer that if you structure the game in a way that promotes RP, people naturally will, and the players you attract will be RPers. Same goes in reverse. I’m definitely not advocating going back to having MPs arresting people for afking on the dropship, some people are gonna chill on the DS no matter what and that’s fine.
That’s the philosophy I bring to the table when I pose the question, how can we encourage that? what changes to the game systems can be made to supplement the opportunities to RP.
This is why I don’t wanna cut req entirely out of the loop, a lot of interaction does happen in req, talking shit or wrestling in the line, etc, however I also believe if you eliminate some of the need to go to req for more common stuff (magharns being the primary example thus far) you will open up time for people to do other things with the limited time until drop, which, for a variety of gameplay reasons can’t really be extended.
Yeah Squad Reqs were rough. Its one of the few times I’ve been arrested. In my experience SLs just ordered me, the engie, to hack the vendors so the marines can just grab what they want. Turns out that is/was an arrestable offense.
I’m probably the only person here who didn’t hate squad reqs.
I don’t mind them gone, but they actually provided some opportunity for you as SL to size up your squad by the stuff they want. So you would know who knows what they’re doing, who runs a snowflake loadout and who’s new and you can instantly advice them on their kit.
LOCK DOWN PREPS AND MOST OF THE SHIP FOR COMBAT MARINES FOR FIRST 5-10 MINUTES.
Let doctors cook chems, let researchers research, req can sort things out etc.
Force marines to go in their cryosleep pajamas only to that new event “cafeteria” in place of brieffing room, the only other rooms accessible for them would be bathrooms, their squad room and cryo where they have woken up.
Make it so it is a general rule break akin to EORG to leave designated areas during that time, but let MPs handle it too if they are available.
Do not allow anyone to grab any attachement, or whatever from anywhere.
Let anyone who don’t want to participate to take a “nap” in cryo (a pop-up menu asking for that) and ping them when all locks are lifted.
Add aforementioned preset options where you can save and get basic stuff that you already get from common vendors without any point investment.
Here you go, RP added, no need to touch the balance, or to extend/shorten deployment time.
Just change bottom deck Almayer a bit.
Too late for that, our core gameplay loop is too fast-paced to allow any RP. Every time you press T - you know there’s a hugger/lurker/acid ball coming. And that event was a one-time thing, imagine what’s gonna happen after you have 10 such breakfasts and the novelty wears off
Yes, you can lock marines in cucktanks for 10 minutes, but how will it help with RP? It’s gonna feel like a 15-min round delay instead of a 5-min current one, not to mention that IOs will gobble up all the req gear by the time you get there
Yeaaaaaah… I probably got a few of my engies with that one grabbed lol. But its that or make the spec do it, who also is not brimming with free time pre-drop lmao. Can’t believe MPs went for that though, CM validhunting alive and well.
thinking about it more I generally agree. I think the game pace speeding up and just a general shift in attitude as the attention spanless zoomers begin to filter in has caused the degredation more than anything else.
They either RP in cantina, or prep rooms, or they sit this time in cryo if they simply don’t want to. If they have nothing to do but, to RP, they RP, or they don’t. There are no more clashes between time to prep and time to RP. Basic equipment custom presets in exchange for those few minutes make it so that you are just as ready as you would currently after ten minutes minus req.
Its Req job to not give out everything, currently I can be the first marine to Req and order 10 mag harnesses, who is going to stop me?
