Turrets are <b>NOT</b> a replacement for marines! If you want to defend your outpost, put a damn marine out there to do it, don't rely on your turrets.
Given the way the balancing is going, my guess would be that it's either classified as an exploit or will be soon.
I don't agree with it, though. There seems to be something inherently wrong with being forced to let marines pour through the phase with nothing to stop them. I know somebody's going to bring up the movement chamber example, but they aren't nearly as flexible as phase gates and are much easier to kill.
The "build next to an electrified structure" method is already in widespread play. It's kind of amusing to see a phase, obs and an armory all packed in next to a res node. Stops the chompeh, but makes for easy bilebombing.
There are four problems with servers having rules that are not enforced by game code:
- some of them have loads of those rules that scroll off the screen faster than you can read them (may be an effect of using low resolutions).
- enforcement is tricky. In some cases it's easy, as when someone is intentionally doing it with an admin standing next to him (stopcommandermode was blatantly obvious), but in other cases it's less obvious if it was intentional violation or a mistake. The admin can't be everywhere at once, or players might complain about exploits every time someone kills them. In such cases, some people will feel they're treated unfairly.
- if only an alien tactic is blocked, but not a marine tactic (or vice versa) you will again get people who feel they're treated unfairly. For example, what has already been mentioned about dropping a CC: if "exploiting" the way the OC works (attacks close stuff first, even if it's harmless and a dangerous target is also near) is OK, why isn't it OK to exploit the way the phasegate works?
- conflict games, in general, are won by exploiting weaknesses in the other team. This is derived from war: "If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it properly." -- Nick Lappos, Chief R&D Pilot, Sikorsky Aircraft. Exploiting weaknesses in the other side is very important, and should be done whenever the opportunity arises. Important tactics may depend on such exploits. If each server arbitrarily outlaws some of those exploits, the game is fragmented into lots of different games and a strategy that might work well in standard NS won't necessarily work in a more restricted version. If this is done on beta servers whose data is used to get an idea of the balance in NS, they will obviously not correctly reflect standard NS balance.
Comments
I don't agree with it, though. There seems to be something inherently wrong with being forced to let marines pour through the phase with nothing to stop them. I know somebody's going to bring up the movement chamber example, but they aren't nearly as flexible as phase gates and are much easier to kill.
The "build next to an electrified structure" method is already in widespread play. It's kind of amusing to see a phase, obs and an armory all packed in next to a res node. Stops the chompeh, but makes for easy bilebombing.
- some of them have loads of those rules that scroll off the screen faster than you can read them (may be an effect of using low resolutions).
- enforcement is tricky. In some cases it's easy, as when someone is intentionally doing it with an admin standing next to him (stopcommandermode was blatantly obvious), but in other cases it's less obvious if it was intentional violation or a mistake. The admin can't be everywhere at once, or players might complain about exploits every time someone kills them. In such cases, some people will feel they're treated unfairly.
- if only an alien tactic is blocked, but not a marine tactic (or vice versa) you will again get people who feel they're treated unfairly. For example, what has already been mentioned about dropping a CC: if "exploiting" the way the OC works (attacks close stuff first, even if it's harmless and a dangerous target is also near) is OK, why isn't it OK to exploit the way the phasegate works?
- conflict games, in general, are won by exploiting weaknesses in the other team. This is derived from war:
"If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it properly." -- Nick Lappos, Chief R&D Pilot, Sikorsky Aircraft.
Exploiting weaknesses in the other side is very important, and should be done whenever the opportunity arises. Important tactics may depend on such exploits. If each server arbitrarily outlaws some of those exploits, the game is fragmented into lots of different games and a strategy that might work well in standard NS won't necessarily work in a more restricted version. If this is done on beta servers whose data is used to get an idea of the balance in NS, they will obviously not correctly reflect standard NS balance.
Waaaaa- Wasn't so hard, was it, marines?