COCOMM was exactly as most of us have put it: Good in theory, bad in practice.

I think instead of arguing about whether we want it or not, or it's ups and downs, we need to develop a newer system that we may enjoy more. Maybe the implementation of a old system, maybe the creation of a new system, or maybe just vanilla combat.

I think there were two main problems with COCOMM:

1. - The marines gained the ability to all get prototech upgrades at the same time.

This means that the entire marine team, be it 3 or 6 or 100, got jetpacks at the same time. It's not uncommon practice for every person on the marines to follow the same tech tree, and this is why you normally saw at least 3/4 of the marine team get JP's at the same time. This may not seem like a problem when the aliens get the same levels, but jetpacks become overwhelming very quickly with the short combat spawn time. Lerks chase JP's around all day long, but once a fade misses a few times, he gets tired of trying and bored with it and wants to move on.

2. - There is no individuality. Be it unfair or not, combat let's a player's skills shine.

If you normally run 16-2 as a fade in an ns_ game, you're going to run 60-1 on a combat game. This isn't always fact, but it's something that most people look forward to.

Our combat is a way of attracting players to the server so that we can move quickly to NS games. While that's good in theory, it destroys the point of combat in general. As far as I can tell, the dev's had the same idea for combat, except with one major difference. Combat is designed to hone your skills. Practice makes perfect, and 15 solid minutes of nothing but fading, or lerking (or whatever), makes things a lot easier for the upcoming NS games.

We need to think about that when we are considering combat. It's an environment designed for people to practice. Maybe, if it's possible to do without editing the source of the game itself, we could limit how many upgrades people can get. Say for Aliens, you can only choose 1 upgrade per chamber, and you have no access to 2nd and 3rd hive abilities till a certain point in the game. For Marines, you can't switch weapons on a whim, and upgrades can only be purchased at certain times during the game.

(Marines could see multiple changes if this is possible. IE: No weapons without an armory. I see many maps that have weldable armories as back up ones. Why are the armories there if you still get SG's and HMG's every time you spawn? Maybe change the default winner at the time limit to Marines, and put them on defense for a while?)

Hive two upgrades normally come around 5 minutes. Make combat game time 30 minutes, hive two upgrades only available after 5 minutes, and hive 3 only after 15. Do the same for Marines. Make it so that the players have to choose wisely, rather than just get everything and go with it.


Is that possible? It's late, and I'm extremely tired... so if I rambled and jumbled my words... slap me and try and understand.

-Mom