Feedback on SCUs for Higby

[Hamma]

[Hamma]

Updated OP

[Wahooo]

Of all the base design criticizing I could do, the SCU's IMO aren't an issue.

I'm not 100% happy with the location at the Tech plants but that is an overall issue with the location of the spawn building.

On one hand I'm not sure the game mechanics NEED an SCU. Most defenders have left the base and are no longer attempting to re-take the points by the time the SCU goes down.
On the other if that develops to a point bases can be re-taken then the SCU works I think.

[Tatwi]

Good:
- It's nice to have the generator style game play.

Bad:
- They end the fighting before the base is captured.
- It's bad enough that defenders often can't get out of the spawn to defend, but to have attack the base that you are trying to defend (because some thing in one room is broken) is dumb.
- It's pretty lame that a single person can waltz into a base where they have no influence and take down all the gens and scu in 5 minutes, thus preventing the owners from spawning there. That's not "spec ops", it's broken game design, because there is absolutely no incentive for owners to man bases 24/7 and literally nothing at all for a garrison to DO if the owners put one there. As such, no one is there to stop (or even know about) that one guy who is taking down the gens/scu. Hence, broken game design.

I think the SCUs should be removed. The other strategic points, such as shields/generators, terminals, and turrets are sufficient.

The way I look at battles in PS2 is that there is an imaginary circle of influence from the spawn room outward at each base. When the base is empty, the circle is very large. As enemies begin to control more areas of the base, that circle of influence shrinks and shrinks eventually to the point where it is inside the spawn room. And that's where we get the "spawn camp until flip" from, which is totally fine and perfect, so long as it's not 10+ vehicles rolling in and instantly shrinking that circle into the spawn room without a fight ever occurring. That's where smart spawn layout and exit routes become important. Anyhow, the eventual goal of the attack SHOULD BE to CONTROL the defender's movement within the base, to the point where the defenders become in effective and lose. That makes sense.

[ringring]

Sorry but a simple question.

What problem are we trying to fix?

[NotTheMomma]

Originally Posted by ringring

Sorry but a simple question.

What problem are we trying to fix?

Fights getting shut down too early or before they've even started? Just a guess.

[Ghoest9]

This sounds like a solution to a non existent problem.

Putting it on a timer would be esentially removing it from the game and instead linking spawns to the control point - why is that good?

[Pella]

It can be improved.

Adding a Countdown timer, When its activated would be helpfull. Most people dont even know its going to blow up.

Adding the timer above the bars would be a huge help for attackers and defenders.

It a guessing game at the moment. And a big reason why people can be bothered to go resecure it.

[Mustakrakish]

GOOD

• Creates flow in the battle by giving both sides a clear objective to focus on.
• Protected by a shield generator. Defenders don't have to worry about it unless the shields go down first. This also gives flow to the battle.
• Not having to stand around babysitting an SCU or generator to keep the overload going enables small units to make a difference with hit-and-run tactics. Otherwise, a defending force can simply Zerg into the generator room and they will win every single time. Numerical superiority should be a significant advantage, but it shouldn't be the sole deciding factor in any engagement if it's supposed to be fun.
• Makes defenders actually have to work for it if they want to keep a facility.
• Promotes strategic thinking on the part of the attackers. Having a mechanic to stop defenders from spawning before the base has flipped--possibly even before the attackers have started adding capture tickets--means there is a hard-wired value to shock-and-awe tactics, rather than hoping it messes with your opponent's heads.

BAD

• Considering their importance to a facility, SCU rooms aren't very large. A lot of people from both sides rush there as soon as the shields go down, and it gets packed.
• It's insanely difficult to repair an SCU mid-battle, even if you get the shield generator back online. Currently, unless a squad leader is lucky enough to have a good number of their squadmates still alive and smart enough to push hard on the SCU room the moment the SCU goes offline, most of the time any effort to continue defending the facility completely futile.

I'd love it if the defenders were able to initiate some kind of temporary emergency lockdown mode on the SCU room. Ideally it could only be activated under certain conditions, would have a cooldown timer long enough to prevent the defenders from spamming it, and would only last for a brief window of time. The main idea is to buy a little bit of time for any defenders locked inside to repair it if they acted quickly, or keep the attackers locked out/trapped inside long enough for a response team from one of the satellite bases to get in a position to actually do something useful.

[redshirt]

I actually miss the gen system and the old school gen holds from PS1

Aslo miss the NTU silos - adding something similar to NTU silos back into the game would be nice and help the attackers break out of some of the insane seige stalemates.

[wasdie]

SCUs aren't the problem. They already require 2 generators to be hacked. However the issue does lie within how those generators are hacked.

I think that overloading generators should actually require a player to stand within a radius of the generator. Once they initiated the hack, they have to keep a strong wireless signal to keep feeding the overloading algorithms to the local generator.

This means one player can no longer knock out gens by hacking them and then running away. They need to stay there for the duration of the hack. I don't like the idea of them having to sit there and holding E or using a tool like in Planetside 1 for the 60-90 seconds, but within a radius is fine.

This will slow down ghost hacks AND it will force attackers to actually hold what they've hacked all without radically changing any gameplay.

SCUs and whatnot are fine the way they are. If they would add in such a mechanic like this to all gens it would be a massive improvement for defenders. It wouldn't be much different than what we currently have, but it would be easier to un-overload a generator and much easier to clear out the 1-2 moles constantly popping generators.

One of the WORST parts of this game is 1-2 guys just hacking a generator and running away. It can compromise entire base defenses and is just a total pain to deal with.

I also believe this same mechanic should be implemented for capturing territories. If you have a 0/2 or 0/6 on ANY of the points, you cannot cap the territory. Ghost capping = DEAD.

[Sirisian]

If the enemy has gotten to your SCU and is holding it for long enough to bring it down you've basically lost the fight with the current base layout. I don't think anything that's done with the SCU will fix that. That and since the SCU is close to the spawn this usually means if they've gotten to your SCU then they're spawn camping you already.

My only suggestion is to remove the tunnels on the tech plant and amp station and replace them with jump pads. That would help with defending such a large base. A jump pad to near the generators and one to the SCU should be fine and really liven up the defense.

[Mastachief]

I like the idea of the half way ticket thing for zerged bases not sure i like it for specops.

Personally i hate SCU's the enemy should have to fight their way into the spawns to drop the tubes, painfields and everything.

Once the tubes are down people are more likely to retake a outer foothold spawn and try to retake the base rather than camp inside the spawnroom sniping out. Also its too quick to take a base with large influence.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Mastachief

I like the idea of the half way ticket thing for zerged bases not sure i like it for specops.

Personally i hate SCU's the enemy should have to fight their way into the spawns to drop the tubes, painfields and everything.

Once the tubes are down people are more likely to retake a outer foothold spawn and try to retake the base rather than camp inside the spawnroom sniping out. Also its too quick to take a base with large influence.

Me too, I'd always assumed the SCU's were there because Forgelight couldn't do what you said.

Forgelight is a work in progress .... e.g. water couldn't be done and now it can, underground couldn't be done and now it can etc.

[Mordelicius]

It's better if they wait for new modified hex system (Rush Lanes) in place before making any SCU changes. They still don't know how the new system can affect the battle flow.

But if they really want to change the SCU, then:

1) make them captureable like a node instead of destructible/repairable.
2) add a second shield generator for the SCU.

The problem is not the SCU itself. It's the shield generator. Once it is down, it's hard to repair. If there's a second SCU shield generator, then the attacker would have to defend that too if they want the SCU to be permanently down.

One can see how effective gameplay is the double shield generator for the bay doors/gates. Why isn't the same principle applied to the SCU generator?