We're about 4 Sundays away from the start of S18. We did have a few item/class changes we wanted to test before that, as well as a few rules we will be modifying:

<b>Item / Class Changes (nothing set in stone, all dependent on testing and feedback)</b>
- Ripper: Gauss Rifle replaces Shotgun (uses 20mm ammo)
- LMG: 50 rounds per clip
- AT: Shots only uses 1 bullet now
- Grenadier: Load between switching to regular Arc GL should be back to what it was before the Bouncy GL was added
- Grenadier: Given RPG to use for open field battle (uses 40mm ammo)
- Peacemaker (from Cazzo): squads can use either 2 Medics <b>OR</b> 1 Medic / 1 Peacemaker

<b>Rule Changes</b>
- Eligibility: if a player is eligible to play Week 1, they will be able to play Week 2, no questions asked
- Eligibility: it is up to the opposing squad whether or not a player serving their wait timer can play, assuming the squad in question has 8 other players all 100% eligible
- Camping Timer: once the Referee has determined a squad looks to be camping, they will start a 1 minute timer (down from 2 minutes)
- Enemy Rape Lines: Referees will be enforcing this very strictly, squads are only supposed to cross Enemy Rape Lines to get angles or maybe pick up ammo - if a squad looks to be trying to hide or stopping for even a second, the Referee will alert them to move immediately, this will give their position away to the enemy squad
- Own Rape Lines: We're going to try something where a squad can, if they want, alert the ref in captain chat and send <b>ONE</b> player back to their dropship to change their class (i.e. they need someone to switch to Medic) - if the captain does not alert the ref before hand, the ref will treat it like any other player crossing their own rape line and the squad will lose their player slot

<b>Roster Sizes</b>
- Roster max is currently set to 13 - we'll see how that goes to start the season

<b>Maps</b>
- EC, KS10, KR (Either regular or Champion's depending on feedback, not both)
- Apollo will be voted on
- HellSpawn's jungle map will be voted on - please go test and play it, give HellSpawn feedback

Item changes (incl Peacemaker) are currently live in KS10

Voting on Apollo's because of the poll results from a while ago? Anyway we can get some changes to EC? Past two champ games have been on it and were a snoozefest.

"- Own Rape Lines: We're going to try something where a squad can, if they want, alert the ref in captain chat and send ONE player back to their dropship to change their class (i.e. they need someone to switch to Medic) - if the captain does not alert the ref before hand, the ref will treat it like any other player crossing their own rape line and the squad will lose their player slot"

Definitely give a thorough reminder to refs to review this rule before matches, USL is full of scumbags and that rule is easily exploitable.

Head Staff was torn on Apollo - most think it could use some work, but everyone would like to see more maps in the rotation to keep the season fresh and moving along. We were also debating modifying Caverns, but I think it's best to hold off on that. Activity has obviously dipped, I'm hoping with us about a month out squads will start getting a bit more active and hopefully SB'ing again. But that would basically be testing 3 new maps plus a handful of item changes. Probably easiest to just see how everyone else feels about having Apollo or not for S18.

As far as EC, I'm not sure what to do with it myself. I will say it won't be used for the playoffs. Most likely we'll use Champ's KR (assuming feedback on Champ's KR isn't negative) and KS10 for the playoffs. If someone wants to modify it, I'm always up for trying to implement the changes.

Wait, gauss rifle? Was that part of that head staff meeting and I just completely missed it?

Seems like a weird change. Ripper would have 0 up close defense.

Gauss should be in addition to sg and ripper imo

Ya, the idea is the Ripper is a more Heavy / Long Distance fighter.

If the lack of up close options becomes an issue we can try adding the SG back (or maybe something else like Incin?)

The ripper is a long range class yes, the isssue is most maps are based on chokes/tunnels so it's hard as is to get good positioning to shoot without hitting your teammates. Maybe consider having ripper gunner go through teammates like snipes used to?

Ripper is a lot harder to aim up close than sg.

Seems kind of weird to have 2 rifle type weapons that shoot multiple projectiles. What about adding a weapon that only shoots one hard hitting projectile instead? Some kind of blast/explosive.

Another idea I had recently, what about calling in nuclear strikes in an area? Add it to like sapper or something to make them used more. This could break up stalemate battles and prevent camping. Calling in the nuke to a coordinate would make those players have to move. Obviously 1 per death or on a long cool down.

iirc the thinking for the Gauss Rifle went something like "Ripper needs a weapon to use while moving at a distance" - that was the main idea behind the addition of the Gauss Rifle. After a little more back and forth it was decided the GR would replace the SG.

Like I said, SG can easily be re-added. I think it might be a good idea to test without SG for at least a few SBs, make sure everyone uses the GR so we can fine tune it's damage and what not.

Having Ripper go through allies could be an interesting update.

Or instead of just adding in nuclear strikes to 1 class we could consider the possibility of adding in kill streaks similar to Cazzo? I don't know how well a change like that would be received by the community but it would be cool to be able to call in choppers, uavs and nuclear strikes lol. People are always talking about how they want to change up USL because it's stale. That's a pretty big change that could really shake things up.

It would definitely need to be regulated though because teams that are rolling over another team would have tons of kill streaks out at the same time so some kind of limit would need to be set where only 1 kill streak can be active per team. So teams would need to coordinate with each other when to use them so they don't overlap and cancel each other out.

whoa

Adding in nuclear strikes would be crazy and really change the dynamics lol

I'm still game to try to have a mini Cazzo season inbetween USL seasons where crazy stuff like that can happen (obviously we'd have to wait for between S18/S19 now). But I don't think changes that drastic would sit well being added to actual USL matches.

Yeah I don't expect changes like that to make it into USL without backlash. Just something to consider. I always see people saying USL needs changes so I figured I'd throw in a few ideas.

Ripper with Gauss rifle LOL rip

Is ripper a long range class though? All the good rippers I know thrive on flanking and hitting their enemies at close to mid range with heavy hitting ripper bullets. Not really sure how Gauss rifle would help in that situation. Is ripper expected to use Gauss rifle at long range battles now???

Peacemaker damn, Sov/CC/Iron level medics are going to tear up noob marines.

Sov/CC/Iron/slob

fixed it for you

whose that medic on weed... HEAL ME

If it ends up OP we can try some tweaks or just scrap the idea all together of course.

It just seems like an interesting element to add.

We'll see! Like I said, KS10 should currently have the item changes if any squads want to try to SB on it.

the disrespect is unreal

I did mess up and forget to change Medikit to include Peacemaker as an allowed class. And RPG to include Nader as an allowed class.

GG me.

I've since fixed it, we just need to upload the new files. Should be good by Monday I imagine!

Wow kaga