Make the Command Station work as Power Node itself

CrushaK

<div class="IPBDescription">A way to counter base rushes and put emphasis back on other targets</div>I'd like to see Command Stations work as extra Power Node in addition to the one that is already in the room.
If you kill the normal Power Node in a room, the Command Station in that room will just take over until it's destroyed as well.
If you kill the Command Station first, you still have to take care of the Power Node.

This backup power would put more emphasis on destroying the actual crucial structures first, rather than going straight for the power.
What building should I take out first? Go for the Phase Gate, to prevent quick reinforcements? Take out the Observatory to prevent all marines from being here in a second? Go for the Arms Lab in order to weaken them before they return? Or better take out that Infantry Portal to get us closer to victory?
Or do I really want to risk going for the Command Station first, in order to deny them a Prototype Lab, prevent a beacon and to make it viable for us to attack the Power Node at a later point in time?

It would give marines even more of a reason to build a Command Station in as many tech points as possible and make those rooms more valuable and fortified than just random forward bases. And it would take care of those annoying lost matches just because some aliens managed to rush your power even though you had a superiority.

For balancing reasons could the cost of Command Stations be slightly raised, if needed.


This change would also allow to re-balance Power Nodes by having them built/get destroyed slightly faster, since they are no longer the most vulnerable point of a fortified base. But this is something that could be tried out later.

DC_Darkling

Hmm if balanced with hitpoints, I can see some use in this.

CrushaK

Alternatively one might think about introducing this only for the Command Station that is occupied by the commander. That way it actually matters where he is locating himself, besides the ability to take on a lone alien that tries to sneak into the base.

Josef K

I like this idea.
I fear that limiting it to command stations occupied by commanders would only serve to make the marine turtle harder to break (that annoying endgame where khara has entire map but still can't take the main). It would also leave some of the other big vulnerabilities alone, like running in to snipe power to prevent beacon and phase

Laggy

I'd like to see a more limited form of this: the CC acts as a power node but only for the infantry portals (which, coincidentally, are the structures that <i>require</i> a CC to be within proximity to work anyway.)

This still allows the node to play its current role in that you knock out power to other critical marine structures (arms lab/armory/obs) but the marines get a fighting chance if the CC is still up.

CrushaK

Sure, you could limit it to IPs as well. But my goal was to discourage attacking the power node as most vulnerable structure of the base to shut the entire base down.
When the CC powers just the IPs, you can still stop reinforcements through Phase Gates, Observatories, deny survivability from the Armory and shut upgrades from the Arms Lab down just by attacking a single exposed structure. I'd like to get to a point where aliens would actually consider to attack a single structure like the Arms Lab first in order to take that specific upgrade out, rather than having to chew through two entire structures (and risk being killed before doing so) to shut everything down.
With all other combat utilities getting shut down with the power, the remaining IPs would be more of a death trap for marines than a real option since aliens will just insta-kill them as soon as they spawn because of the possibly disabled Arms Lab.

Milanium

Or add more power nodes in the tech point rooms to avoid aliens rushing the base too easily.