DesuEx

Further justification for just spawning them automatically rather than making them a purchasable option.

Okay... and? With potential syndicates hidden amongst the crew, command is going to be more hesitant to hand them out to the crew.

If this is done automatically though, then command is less likely to hand out all access and weapons.

Oooh, that's a great idea! Way to think outside the box whoever suggested this. This would definitely raise the tension and reduce the problem of repetitiveness.

You seem to have misunderstood me.This isn't so much about competitive Balance so much as it is making the rounds less repetitive. To me at least, it's not fun when every round basically ends up going exactly the same way. There's no challenge and drama when I don't feel that the nuke ops can win. It isn't that I find playing a nuke op during war not fun, it's that I find playing a crew member during it boring. That's something I both agree and disagree with. Yes, inexperienced nuke ops do frequently buy what they think will be the most fun for their own experience thus shooting themselves in the foot and yes, experienced players do coordinate and know how to work their TC to their advantage. However I wish to voice the following rebuttals; I feel you've vastly oversimplified it and underestimated just how effective a good crew can be. They have access to a bunch of effective equipment, and with a much larger pool than the nuke ops it's more likely that the robust ones end up supporting the station. Which brings me to... How often do we see a properly robust nuke ops team? With how big the rounds usually are, it's highly unlikely that we'll get just one guy on the team, and they probably won't end up as the leader (the guy that ultimately makes the call). Even then, it's a bit of a false dichotomy to assume that either you have a horribly incompetent team or a really robust one. Even those that have good experience and skill often fail at this round type due to all the advantages the crew has. Of course one must also consider... Experienced players might actually be less likely to declare war rounds. From what I've seen, the ones that know what they're doing are the ones pushing at the beginning of the round to not declare war. Although I do think you are onto something with the VR solution. If it can help raise the tension without actually changing the mechanics much, so much the better.

I'd seriously have to ask what rounds you experience, since as I've said I've only seen it happen once. Again, only one sample to speak of but 60/40 is way too generous from my experience, and I play very frequently. I'm not opposed to it being harder than going stealth ops, I'm just asking that we give the nukies a good chance at succeeding rather than just having the Crew overwhelm them pretty much every time.

War rounds, taking the idea that the players of a Nuke Ops team will likely want to go full pink Mohawk loud with guns blazing, and building the game around it. The idea is great, and should provide us with some of the most colorful and intense rounds possible. So... why is it that whenever I hear those sirens, I find myself sighing with dismissal? The answer I feel is two-fold: Very rarely have I seen the Syndicate ever score a victory, in fact in the past 6 months alone (As far back as I can really remember vividly in terms of trends) I've only seen one Syndicate victory, and I distinctly remember the command staff being incredibly incompetent, so that seems to be a fluke. Now of course I don't play all the time, and I'd bet I miss more rounds than I play, so perhaps the ratio isn't quite as bad as my personal experience is. But it's still a pretty statistic from the sample size. The second reason is tied directly to the first, namely that the rounds end up being too repetitive. Some players have defended War rounds claiming that they're fun. Far be it for me to tell you that you shouldn't find it fun when I don't, experiences are quite subjective. But I don't find it fun when the rounds end up being so samey that I can easily sum each one up as bluntly as: "Syndicates declare war. The Crew hands out all access like candy and order guns. The Syndies get killed. The crew escapes. Rinse, lather, repeat." So why do these problems exist? Well, as stated earlier, with the advance warning and delay, the crew end up way too well armed for the extra telecrystals to compensate. Advanced Hardsuits and .50 Caliber rifles don't really help much against an entire crew armed with assault rifles and bulletproof armor. And that's not even getting into the other possibilities a good crew can bring to the table (Mobile Suit Squadrons anyone?). It's not that it's impossible for the syndicates to achieve victory, since I've seen it happen once it can clearly be done, but the deck is too heavily stacked against them. Now, with all this in mind, here are some suggestions I have to fix the round, and maybe make the rounds exciting and fun again. Note that these are just suggestions, and not all of them may be necessary when put together. The last thing we'd want is for the ratio to be too far in the other direction. But these may help rebalance it to something more fun and less repetitive. Feel free to chime in with suggestions of your own. Shorten the deployment delay. (This one's obvious, if the Syndies arrive sooner, then the crew has less time to get everything ready. Shouldn't be too short obviously, but I think just knocking off a few minutes will really give the syndies a better chance). Delay the cargo shuttle in the beginning of the round. (A major reason the crew usually wins is because they can just order loads of autorifles and basically arm everyone. This would reduce the amount handed out and possibly force the crew to get more creative with their defenses. ) Raise the cost of ordering weapons and armor. (Same justification as the previous one, but different enough to warrant a separate entry. This can of course be rectified a lot by just mass mining plasma or sending research disks. Maybe do both if one proves insufficient) Reinforcements for the syndicates. (Basically when they're all dead, a second wave of them randomly drawn from dead players can be sent in, thus reducing the advantage in numbers. Of course it might be a bit too extreme, so I'd suggest giving them fewer TC to work with) More TC (Also obvious, but I feel this one could either end up not being enough since it doesn't nullify the advantages of numbers. Of course with too much they all end up with mech suits and enough personal ordnance to blow up the station manually. ) Making handing out all access illegal/against SOP. (More subtle than the others, but it might go a long way. The crew still outnumber the syndies by a huge amount and can do other things besides gear up. People might just ignore this though.) Anyways, that's all I can think of right now. Maybe I'll add to it later if others come to mind. Of course if some other more subtle solution can be found that fixes things, so much the better.