Don't remove powerpacks
thefonz
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
<div class="IPBDescription">fix them.</div>Removing power packs is actually a bad idea. The first, and possibly most important reason, is that removing power packs also removes a very important and common marine strategy/ability: The phase gate rush.
Without a local power source it is almost impossible to use phase gates effectively for sneak attacks. This makes the time tested, effective, strategy of sending a lone marine (or MAC) to the cold side of the map to stealthily set up a phase gate for a rush attack. Even if every room has a power socket, it is still hard to pull off this strategy without power packs. Power sockets are going to be in highly visible places, not good for sneak attacks. This means that either you must located the PG near the socket (to save time getting set up) or you must hide the PG and simply set up the socket anyway. The former is very likely to get spotted while the latter is harder to set up and defend.
My proposal is that power packs get re-worked in the following ways:
Power packs have a limited charge.
Power packs have a smaller area of effect.
The more structures a pack is powering, the faster it drains the charge.
Some structures drain more charge than others. Possibly sentries drain faster when shooting, ect.
Power packs in powered rooms do not use their charge.
Let power packs in powered rooms recharge slowly. (hear me out, I'm not trying to create stalemates again)
So, this re-work brings back the viability of stealth PG rushes and other tactics that would require power in places you don't have full control of.
It also allows a small window for marines to recover if the power to a room gets knocked out and a power pack is in place and charged.
It should not cause huge stalemates because using it in a base would only provided a very short window of extra power. The large number of structures would drain the power pack very fast.
Without a local power source it is almost impossible to use phase gates effectively for sneak attacks. This makes the time tested, effective, strategy of sending a lone marine (or MAC) to the cold side of the map to stealthily set up a phase gate for a rush attack. Even if every room has a power socket, it is still hard to pull off this strategy without power packs. Power sockets are going to be in highly visible places, not good for sneak attacks. This means that either you must located the PG near the socket (to save time getting set up) or you must hide the PG and simply set up the socket anyway. The former is very likely to get spotted while the latter is harder to set up and defend.
My proposal is that power packs get re-worked in the following ways:
Power packs have a limited charge.
Power packs have a smaller area of effect.
The more structures a pack is powering, the faster it drains the charge.
Some structures drain more charge than others. Possibly sentries drain faster when shooting, ect.
Power packs in powered rooms do not use their charge.
Let power packs in powered rooms recharge slowly. (hear me out, I'm not trying to create stalemates again)
So, this re-work brings back the viability of stealth PG rushes and other tactics that would require power in places you don't have full control of.
It also allows a small window for marines to recover if the power to a room gets knocked out and a power pack is in place and charged.
It should not cause huge stalemates because using it in a base would only provided a very short window of extra power. The large number of structures would drain the power pack very fast.
Comments
Like, if i understand the powerpoint system correctly, you can only attempt a ninja pg once in alien start, after which the aliens will be able to chomp the power off. Then anytime you try to ninja again, it'll become instantly noticeable when the lighting changes due to building the powerpoint again.