So gonna start by saying I doubt any of what I say is actually going to help in the long run, but I want to get my thoughts out here.
I've been away from the game for a long time, got burnt out grinding for cards. I've only come back recently and seeing all these changes and all I can ask is "why?"
Starting with the ammo and aleph mechanics, I kinda like the way ammo is dropped. Allies can collect it if they need to and you don't and it can even help balance antags to some degree as someone might run into a situation where they have no more ammo to spend on the raiders but they can pick up what they kill nearby. The despawn time is a little short, but you certainly don't want it sitting there forever. My biggest complaint is that you have to go pick it up after melee. You beat an enemy down and then have to do a little dance before you get your ammo and can move on. Getting shot at durring this certainly doesn't help any, it'd work more smoothly with the old system where it got pocketed as you connected the final blow and then could run off. I figure you can make it so enemies killed by gunfire drop ammo to pick up but melee puts it directly in your pocket. Just my thoughts, but I think things will be much smoother and the devs get the desired change they were looking for.
Aleph has the same issue with the k.o. then dance about to find the aleph before you're swiss. An issue that arises with this is that all too often I'll see greedy players act like vultures and descend on an ally as they execute to pick up the aleph before they can. This seems pretty scummy and desperate, besides how infuriating it could be to the player who made that hard-earned win. Not only can your team steal it from you but so can the enemy. Watched an elite grab the aleph before a kuzman and immune himself immediately. Bubble head stood no chance. This can happen with ammo too, being denied what you need because you're playing with vultures. I like that you can drop it now, as that can help in quite a few situation. Hand it all to one player to recharge grandpa more efficiently, or pass it to your backline if you plan on doing something risky. Plus antags now have a use for the aleph they earned by passing it out to the elites, as not every mission has something they can put it into. The detonation mechanic seems kinda... lacking now I guess? It screwed me sometimes but I kinda miss the big nuke from when a player with aleph got gunned down. It made for an I interesting hazard that could even be used as a tool for both raiders and antag.
I see they're changing the aleph system again so I seriously doubt any change bringing back a few steps will happen but maybe make aleph work the way it used to, pocketed after melee but keep the option to drop it for allies. As for the detonation, I'd prefer it going back to the way it was, but I don't know if everyone agrees with that mentality.
Lastly is this sudden death thing. It makes sense against an antag, I truly believe this. A speedy raider like ginebra or Hans can just play keep away forever and the lives will keep coming back. Obviously that strat doesn't work so well in some areas but generally speaking you'll almost never win if you have to deal with a decent player controlling one of these speedy types. The immortal team right there. So yeah, it might not be a popular opinion but keep that there for antags I think. A good team working together really won't have much to worry about, even with a bambie on the team, I feel.
However this changes in missions without an antag. There's no point to it anyanymore in these cases yet it's still present. Missions with high mmr difficulties can stone wall a team at times and no matter how hard you try someone's going to die. Even the best of player get caught by the adds and when you get into a situation like this it's pretty much game over because those adds get insane at the higher difficulties. Granted I've only had this happen twice and the second time really got me thinking about it. Three guys leave after leaving me with one life and I'm playing ginebra in the tiniest space you can in this game. I can avoid the adds literally forever but can't make any progress now because if I try to do the objective I'll get caught. I can clear adds but as soon. As I finish a new hoard is on me and I'm slowly burning ammo unable to find a moment to actually collect it. Enough time to win a fifth timer twice over all the while this big "1 Life Left" is flashing across the lower half of my screen. This is rediculous. Even if my team had come back i would have even less chance of completing the mission. Needless to say, I lost. It really takes away from those moments where you're there on the revive screen, watching the seconds tick down and cheering your last guy on as they dodge mobs left and right. The tightness in your chest as they almost get caught, hoping you can get back in and release some of that pressure for them and the celebratory rush that follows after everyone comes back from a 200 second timer. Now people just give up at that point. Two sets of lives down? Jump off a cliff, we're done here. Maybe the devs were trying to cut down match times or something, idk.
So I would say just take that sudden death thing off of raider matches when there's no antag. It's pointless and just takes away from a hard earned victory. The score might suck at the end but a 5 is better than a 2 at the end of the day if you can earn it.
The absolute last thing I can talk about is this new loot system. I feel pretty mixed about it. I kinda feel like I'm getting more gold that usual but I can't help feeling it might be an illusion. Five matches a day to make 20-30k feels pretty good. I like how the faction points are all consolidated into one currency now, as that makes it less exhausting grinding for one card over the course of five months being able to play whoever I want/need. The monthly rewards make it worth trying to hit a high score in every mission. But the major downsides are leveling seems to be almost a crawl and after those five matches there's no incentive to play. At least back in the old loot system I could keep playing to keep earning 2-3k a match. It took a bit longer but I definitely played more. I think I get some of what the goal was though, as sometimes a mission would have a bp but the character you wanted it for was no good for it. At least you can control what mission you do for a bp now, making it easier to get it for someone like Ayana for example, who wouldn't be any good against aneska or the beholders. So I'm kinda on the fence about this. If anyone has an idea on how to make this work better feel free to share I guess.
That all went on a lot longer than I thought but I hope I got my points across. Nobody has to agree with me, I just wanted to get this out there. There's probably a lot of ways to improve the systems and my ways likely have flaws of their own, no doubt. Share your opinion if you'd like.
