The issue is your view of diversity and fun is different from others. I don’t enjoy change in cm very much, since i started working, cm has become my comfort game, i roll between 5 roles, and 90 of time i use same loadout or choose same xeno caste, because I want to relax and not think too much. I can still give my 100% even if i am tired, because i know how game will go. When you do these small changes of delta fob, it fucks up the comfort, especially so because it takes 10-15 min to get ready for deployment. And most XOs that tell me i am on fob do it during brief after which i have 30-60 sec to gear up for fob. Personally, I don’t care, because i already min maxed my kit so I could do any assigment, but not everyone wants or knows how to min max, so you get people on fob that can’t build or just stand and stare.
Go back to the retirement home, Gramps.
- They deleted Revencort opinion about Bravo FOB duty. At this point, if we are going to continue censoring those who are in favor of changing this culture, then we are probably doomed.
He wasn’t favoring it iirc, just said you had some good points. And that was the only reply out of 40 that somewhat agreed with you
Considering how fullwise we agree that your crimethinkful ideas full of doubleplusungood ownlife agenda are harming our goodthinkful Bravo-fobbit ways, you might consider visiting Miniluv. We are plushopeful that thinkpol officers there can make you bellyfeel the goodthinkful ways of managing the work of the Minipax. Main entrance, first floor, first door on your right
I am not opposed to other squads running FOB. However, you need to spice it up and not just command it as if a god on high. Take these examples:
- Boxing for FOB duty.
- Squad with least briefing attendance is on FOB duty.
This encourages player interaction and is in good fun.
Do not run this at low pop.
I don’t mind people changing the culture if it’s for the better enjoyment of me, but again I don’t find the bravo fobbit culture bad.
If I have a lag spike, or don’t feeling much of unga, I’ll go fobbit. It’s a good thing to have a backup plan for bad days and not getting pressured into 360 no scope pb a prime woy. And no, don’t bring the “roll shipside” into the argument as being fobbit is different from being shipside.
And finally, I somehow feel like “doing random FOB squad” is just a way to get validation from the community, like Bob Cross or Kenneth Lance. Feel free to correct me.
At this point it should be official that Bravo has to be FoB.
No, “changing the culture” of Bravo being FoB changes nothing for good. Objectively.
There doesn’t exist even one good thing for changing which squad does FoB. Because there really only this one role. Alpha, Charlie and Delta generally do the same thing and have the same orders. So it is either Bravo FoB, or the rest go and fight. Maybe Delta is the furthest on the spectrum so they will almost never get restore power, or defend tcomms.
Bravo Comtech vs Delta Comtech is different in terms of gear they will take.
Bravo Rifleman vs Delta Rifleman can be vastly different in terms of gear they will take. You sure as hell won’t take bipod+scope pulserifle as Delta, becaue this is useless on the front, but as a Bravo maintaining some forgotten flank with maybe a sentry as your only companion, then this makes a lot more sense.
What I get as a PFC player with current culture?
I want a slower round with more stationary gameplay? I go Bravo. I don’t want it? I don’t.
What I get as a PFC player with some super cool XO/CO, having his mind of “breaking metagaming” by assingning different squad for FoB duty?
I will be either forced into stationary gameplay, or the other way around, unless I will disobey orders, in which I won’t have comms and SL marker for the squad I wanted. If it wasn’t set almost immediately after the roundstart, I might just asked Req for attachements meant for chasing xenos, but what awaits me is sitting behind cade, or in reverse.
If squads were choosen later, after CO/XO gave orders so you go and pick squad of which you like orders better, then sure.
But squads are choosen before the round starts, so the only change is that it is no longer marines with yellow stripe on their helmet and gloves doing FoB duty, but it is the blue boys, or red guys.
It achieves nothing but just makes marines weaker for no reason. Atleast split-drop, or para-drop you can excuse that you tried to shake-up the meta.
Why stop with just mixing squad roles? Why not pick loadouts for individual marines?
Somebody maybe always takes buckshot shotgun? Fuck you, pal, you get M4RA with 4x scope this round, your experience will be more diverse.
This PFC took flamer? Fuck you, dude, you get shotgun with slugs.
That medic took M39? Fuck you, boy, you get HPR.
Every single argument for changing squad roles can be applied to enforcing players to pick, or ban certain loadout. Just as stupid.
It is tradition. It also allows people who want a chill time to just go bravo. Then AFK in fob and play some anime idle game or something.
Alright after giving the thread and the LRC a good read:
Dude I legit don’t know what game you are playing.
It’s a necessary change, they’re making a big fuss because I’m changing the Meta
No, you are not changing the meta. Meta, or “Metagame” is the most efficient strategy or tactic that people tend to use because it performs better than other strats (and they WANT to do it because winning is fun). Deliberately ignoring a system of squad culture that is already sorting players into their most enjoyed playstyle, automatically giving you well-performing teammates that are specialized in a specific task is not changing the meta. It’s shooting yourself in the foot.
And as you said, if they ‘‘want’’ FOB duty, what should you do when another squad wants FOB duty? Should I just ignore it?
Yes, you should. Unless the player in question is a 6yo kid they should be able to figure out that there is an option of “preferred squad” in the character creation window.
I was completely clueless when I joined CM, and it only took me like 4 rounds to figure our that yellow = “FOB”, red/blue = frontline and purple = comms.
After my second round I was still overwhelmed but I understood that “bravo = base = safety = posibility to learn in peace” so I picked bravo as a prefered squad, and when I got bored by the 6th round I swapped into alpha, no big deal, and after some 800 hours of marine gameplay I went back into Bravo because fuck frontline FF.
All squads can do the same job, what makes Bravo so special?
Every squad is special in a way. Everyone that mains a squad will eventually end up becoming one of the idealized squad members: Alpha is the perfect mix of frontliner attributes, they are numerous enough, they are courageous enough, they are obedient enough and they are skilled enough; In Bravo retreats the squad will lose on average like 80% of the marines while other squads lose like 40%-60%, that’s because fobbits might not be the most skilled or the brightest but they aren’t cowards, and when someone tells them “hold this” they take it to heart, the planet could be shattering and they will choose to die in it if needed; Charlie is incredibly cohesive and 80% of the grapes are highly skilled veterans of the game that are just chilling, they don’t mind flexibility because experience taught them a little bit of everything, and they will singlehandedly do the work of alpha and delta if they have a charismatic and loved leader; And Delta is full of maniacs, the more suicidal the plan the more they smile. They die in droves but they are the only squad that consistently has the marines that dive into hell just to finish off xenos. Yes, alpha and charlie put in the work, but delta almost consistently drives in the last nail in the coffin.
Those are the strengths that aCOs have been aware of for years now.
“Bravo Always staying at the FOB limits the tactical diversity of the game, …”
Explain precisely how it limits it. Is it exploiting the strengths of the squad? Not really, but is it limiting it? No, if anything SOP is actually limiting you.
However, I believe that evolving it a little can bring more variety and depth to the game without necessarily destroying what is essential for Roleplay.
Bravo’s “Culture” Always being responsible for the FOB seems to be a tradition but, in reality, it is a repetition that can end up making the game monotonous.
And here lies the core of the issue, this is why everyone reacted the way they did with you. The first quote displays a correct, forward-thinking take on how to use the leadership role of XO to actually make a fun experience for everyone.
And yet the second quote, that was typed by the same hands that wrote the objectively based take on the first quote also typed this take which missed the point really hard.
The lack of flexibility that comes from Bravo on FOB™ does not come from the fact that bravo is on it, that lack of flexibility comes from the fact that FOB itself is made obligatory because SOP demands it, and it demands it because having xenos take over an empty FOB at minute 30 is not fun or justifiable.
Put whatever squad in and that specific squad will grow lobotomized and optimized into being skilled to handle the FOB. Also the other issue with this last take is that it seemingly ignores the concept of “evolving” the playstyle of squads. Instead of building off the already established strengths of Bravo (evolving them) they frontlined, throwing at the bin their skills for the op; instead of building of the strengths of Delta (you know the drill) you sent them into FOB, also throwing their skills in the bin.
And I point that out because there have been attempts by previous XOs at actually building on top of the skillsets of squads, actually coherent attempts that evaluated the strenghts of the squads, for example:
- Alpha HAS been sent on recon duty in C_Claim on fast-paced operations and they WERE sent on long, massive flanks before.
- Bravo HAS been ordered to: Aid the frontline as a mass-QRF for flanks; they WERE allowed to go into the frontline when FOB was reinforced into the mesosphere; and they HAVE been ordered to take care of massive outposts between the frontline and the FOB (see: secondary FOB projects)
- Delta HAS been paradropped or split-dropped before.
- Charlie HAS received more convoluted and diverse support orders.
Those are actual evolutions because they push forward the already established playstyle that they have or because they try to add related tasks.
Holy zoomers calling Bravo squad the noob dopamine addict TikTok scrolling cadehuggers, it’s over man, can’t have any respect in this boomer squad
I’m surprised this topic has gone on as long as it has.
The answer is. Because we collectively as a community are lazy as shit and don’t want want to touch tasks that seem boring to us because we’re selfish assholes.
FOB is a requirement by the rules so we can’t outright ignore it so someone has to do it. Forest commented earlier that it used to be Alphas job but for a squad that rotates in genuinely new people as often as it does it makes sense why were eventually shifted it to another squad. (This doesn’t help that engineering in this game is gutted as hell so the fun shit you used to be able to do doesn’t really exist anymore.)
So yeah. Bravo kinda got screwed into it. People will die on the goddamn hill that being on FOB means they’re not playing the game even though in theoryland Bravo’s job is usually multi-purpose.
Uhhh pretty simple;
Bravo was picked by the PEOPLE the PLAYERS of the game to be the squad on FOB, maybe in the future it might be changed to a new one, if it does it will be by the hands of the players and not something enforced by one individual, meaning it will be something more cohesive than sending another squad for FOB randomly.
80% of the people who play Bravo are there to stay on the FOB and roleplay on it, they enjoy the peace while it lasts and take their time to fuck around on it. Others are the backline club but that is not reserved only to Bravo.
If you randomly gets assigned to Bravo you always have the option to cryo or ask command to be assigned to another squad, if that is not possible… you either head to sleep or go on with the Operation and accept that you are on a game that TRIES to simulate a military operation and understand that the game is more than yourself only and orders exist.
Things are good as they are on squad selection, no need to change it up for fuck’s reason.
Believe it or not 5 years ago, You could get a mutiny for not putting Bravo on FOB.
How do I know this?
They blew into my CIC and SHOT me for not including FOB into a plan.
They’ve been on FOB ever since.
That happened yesterday, the legacy lives on.
Time is a circle.
And it won’t stop the debate, leading to another mutiny over bravo not getting fob, I’ve had protests outside of CIC due to being forced to have the whole squad go to comms and just stay there (it was on NV, cargo comms), 3/4s of alpha got arrested because of the protest and one person got BE’d by a provost that came.
If you guys want the canon answer, the default SS13 color for engineering had the same yellow as bravo back in the day had, so people just figured that bravo is the engineering squad.
How I miss box station…
DaTimeSmog
Swapping Bravo is not an off-meta plan. You’re perpetuating the same gameplay loop but with Marines being angrier and more beligerent.
You want off-meta. Do an airborne assault or set up a machinegun squad. Attack on the wrong side of CC. Doing things with different colors does not change things meaningfully and does not express creativity.
Its ok user has essentially been shadow banned by the admin council.
For what reason? You be the judge (this thread and players attitude are probably a good indication).