bring back the power pack.

AurOn2

Ok we've had this problem forever and a day, but i really miss them! not only because it gave marines a chance to do sneaky pg's in unpowered locations, it also gave mappers a reason to have bits of the map intentionally not powered, so, when are we going to have a return of the power pack?

what are powerpacks? Think sentry batteries currently, that didn't only power sentries. they were life-savers to base rushes that werent expected, only needed 3, one on the obs, one on the arms lab, and one on an ip. obs for beacon, armory for upgrades and ip for spawning. though it also gave you a sense of over-confidence.

And i must say, maps with bits of it 'not' powered, were extremely wonderful and refreshing, gameplay wise, it gave you new strategies as marines, also gave aliens more things to omnoms.


Thoughts?

CrushaK

While I would appreciate it if there was less fatality to power nodes, I am afraid too many packs would quickly become too much of a burden to deal with.
Maybe yes, if they were rather expensive to build (so you can't spam them before having a lot of map control and really have to consider if it's worth to protect a specific building with a backup power) and had a global limit on the maximum number of packs available. Or restrict it to one pack per room. Or only to rooms with Command Stations in them.

nezz

You can still have sneaky phase gate rushes based off if the khammander is unaware how to cyst properly or just forgets. While i think a power pack could be cool in some circumstances i think it would need alot of restrictions on them. eg: time limit for how long they last, maximum of how many you can have at once. A upgrade from the robotics factory and something that would cost about 10-15 res to drop it somewhat fair and not to op

buhehe

I would introduce Power Pack only for rooms with a command station, as an extra layer of defense against those: double gorge / gorge+onos / occasional lerk being able to destroy the power node without much effort.

It should be quite expensive, though.

Champlo0

How to balance power packs (IMO):
<ol type='1'><li>Require Advanced Armory</li><li>2 Power Packs Per Command Center</li><li>Power Packs are 15 resources</li></ol>

statikg

Don't see why people think this needs balancing, the balancing is that it costs money for something that essentially does nothing in most situations. Would definitely like to see something like this to deal with powernode wackamole that many pub late games turn into. I also think it would be really cool if it would allow for building on cyst....bring back the sneaky phase gate!

Champlo0

<!--quoteo(post=2044397:date=Dec 12 2012, 07:42 AM:name=statikg)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (statikg @ Dec 12 2012, 07:42 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2044397"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Don't see why people think this needs balancing, the balancing is that it costs money for something that essentially does nothing in most situations. Would definitely like to see something like this to deal with powernode wackamole that many pub late games turn into. I also think it would be really cool if it would allow for building on cyst....bring back the sneaky phase gate!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You really don't understand how powerful a power pack can be. Put a power pack on an observatory and you can still beacon, put a power pack on a phase gate and you can still phase. There's also some areas that simply have no power (hallway between ore processing and warehouse never has power even if both nodes are up).

_Necro_

That does not mean, that power packs can't be balanced by their costs. What you describe is exactly the creative use of power packs, that made this games fun in beta.

<!--quoteo(post=2044390:date=Dec 12 2012, 04:29 PM:name=buhehe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (buhehe @ Dec 12 2012, 04:29 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2044390"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I would introduce Power Pack only for rooms with a command station<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is exactly the wrong way to go. You would encourage their use for turtle-marines but forbid sneaky phase-gate-tactics. They should not be restricted. An upgrade needed for them would be nice, but others than that, no restrictions. This just restricts creative use.

rebirth

<!--quoteo(post=2044398:date=Dec 12 2012, 03:45 PM:name=Champlo0)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Champlo0 @ Dec 12 2012, 03:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2044398"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You really don't understand how powerful a power pack can be. Put a power pack on an observatory and you can still beacon, put a power pack on a phase gate and you can still phase. There's also some areas that simply have no power (hallway between ore processing and warehouse never has power even if both nodes are up).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I think most beta players are well aware of how "powerful" a power pack can be, after all we played with them for quite a while until Charlie decided to just pull them out of the game because they "didn't work with the power node system" or some other lame excuse along that line.

Even back then when they had been removed nobody had a problem with them, people had been confused and puzzled by UWE just removing them, it doesn't help that we got told they will be replaced in some way or another to make up for the lost mobility/expanding options for Marines (which hasn't happened and probably won't happen in a long time).

Now we are talking about bringing them back and the first thing people come up with are dozens of reasons how to nerf them into being utterly useless.
Power packs had been awesome and need to be back...

As of now without power packs, Marines have a really difficult time getting anything ninja up anywhere on the map. It ain't helping that many maps still have bugged parts without any power at all (in these cases power packs used to help out) and power packs helped lessen the constant threat of power node rushes. But cutting features and content out of the game for the sake of some mysterious "balance" seems to be the way to go?

MuckyMcFly

Now in the specific builds we had power packs, I used to like them and as a backup they were great but playing in pubs that often take far too long to end a game Id side with leave them to the history of beta. Sorry. x

_Necro_

With current bile bomb and little health, they wouldn't be a turtle-problem.