Discussion on the OB changes

[ThePiachu]

So, recently the Orbital Beacons and Supply Beacons got removed and instead we got aimed supplies and aimed Orbital Cannon shots. With clever enough Command, these can be devastating:

https://youtu.be/XGfLJSRhowY?t=8192

So how do you feel about the changes?

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Personally, I like the idea - you don't have to worry about having enough beacons and so on. I heard the coordinates are changed every round, so you won't have blind OB fire straight into common hive locations. It can also add more versatility to the Scout now - they can actually go and scout a location along with its coordinates to help the team. Cool stuff.

The only thing I don't like about it is bombing the Alamo. You can save coordinates at the start of the round and drop a shell right as xenos are supposed to leave. Heck, maybe you could even time it so they'd get hit right before the doors close and they'd be trapped in a fire inferno. The only counter to this would be taking Alamo soon after another OB went off, or going in, slashing the cameras, Queen locking the ship, then everyone leaving for a smoke until an OB is dropped on an empty ship before boarding it. After all, xenos can't meta /s.

I also wonder whether the coordinates would just be a matter of finding offset at the start of the round and then you could triangulate everything based off of them. Will have to check that out soon...

[Sneakyr]

I don't understand how it works, still, but admittedly I've only played one round of SL with it. Somehow they OB'd a position I was using a CAS laser on. I don't know if offsets still work and my rangefinders wouldn't work aiming inside a medbay building. Maybe I'm just retarded.

[carlarc]

I don't understand how it works, still, but admittedly I've only played one round of SL with it. Somehow they OB'd a position I was using a CAS laser on. I don't know if offsets still work and my rangefinders wouldn't work aiming inside a medbay building. Maybe I'm just retarded.

cant lase on metal ceilings

[Grubstank]

if you're going to link an entire video, please at least link relevant timestamps

[conthegodoffire]

Give people a chance to get used to it. But I will say I got hit by a OB today when we thought we were getting a supply drop.

[kamenkuro]

If it lets command drop a bomb on the alamo when it gets hijacked that'd be awesome. Not having any sort of anti-boarding or anti-hijacking measures outside of "cut auto-pilot and turn our drop ship into a big ass missile" is kind of bad.

[Renomaki]

Goodness, I got on break, and they bring out all these fascinating things... I'm gonna have to do a lot of relearning when I come back it seems.

While I haven't got to use it, I think it is a great step up in a sense, at least when it comes to roundstart packing. No longer will you have to manage 4 or more beacons taking up inventory space, meaning you can get a bit more flexible with your loadouts. On the other hand, though...

If this means OBs are as complicated as using a mortar, then I can imagine the usage of OBs is going to be a tad more stressful now, since if someone so much as gets a single digit wrong, it can get a lot of good people killed. On the other hand, being able to aim an OB from a safe distance is also a nice tradeoff I suppose.

I remember back in the ol hugger combat days, the most you could do with an OB was prime it, toss it where you want, then run away and keep an eye on it with binocs, waiting for the right moment to pop it. Up until now, with all the OB changes here and there, for the longest time the safest way to use an OB was to plant one where you need it and then sit on your ass with binoculars in hand until you got the xenos where you want them. This often proved to be frustrating, but also rewarding if it goes well.

... Bet being a xeno sucks more, though.

[Frans_Feiffer]

This is just an idea of mine, but if the problem of someone grabbing the coords of the Alamo beginning of the round then using them when the aliens are boarding becomes and issue, then my suggestion would be pretty straightforward;

Similar to how the Mortar can’t fire within a 10-meter distance of itself, I think then OBs shouldn’t be able to fire within a certain distance of the Lz. This could happen when you have the Alamo down on the Lz, and when you go to fire or something it stops you from doing so for whatever reason. “Dropship on the lz? You wouldn’t want to blow up a multi million dollar vehicle, right?” Just something to justify not blowing up the Alamo, then when the Alamo is not there you can go to town on blowing uo the Lz. That, or just stop OBs from destroying the inside of the Ds cause to me the OB having any effect on the inside would mean the ship doesn’t have a ceiling which if that were the case the compamy would have some Engineers to fire. That’s just an idea though. Personally I don’t mind OBing the ds before it launches so long as it doesn’t become an issue where the hive continually gets wiped with no way to counter it. I could see how it may be a problem, but at current I believe it’s fine.

[ThePiachu]

if you're going to link an entire video, please at least link relevant timestamps

I did, although the embedded player doesn't jump straight into it - https://youtu.be/XGfLJSRhowY?t=8192 .

[Park]

I haven't played since they added this new update but do OB's still work in buildings? Metal ceilings were only a limitation for CAS and I personally would use the OB's to flush deeply entrenched enemies in buildings. So if OB's are reliant on glass ceilings or open air spaces it will really limit its usefulness on a map like prison and make pushing chokepoints like Lambda Labs entrance a lot harder.

[carlarc]

I haven't played since they added this new update but do OB's still work in buildings? Metal ceilings were only a limitation for CAS and I personally would use the OB's to flush deeply entrenched enemies in buildings. So if OB's are reliant on glass ceilings or open air spaces it will really limit its usefulness on a map like prison and make pushing chokepoints like Lambda Labs entrance a lot harder.

cant check for coords on metal ceilings, dont know if you can just calculate the coords and tell them to your SO though.

[Sneakyr]

I haven't played since they added this new update but do OB's still work in buildings? Metal ceilings were only a limitation for CAS and I personally would use the OB's to flush deeply entrenched enemies in buildings. So if OB's are reliant on glass ceilings or open air spaces it will really limit its usefulness on a map like prison and make pushing chokepoints like Lambda Labs entrance a lot harder.

If 1 tile = 1 coord point, probably. I still have had a hell of a time getting one inside a building, and I think the SL will have to mentallly calculate offsets rather than having an SO subtract from what you give them.

[Anoonki]

If 1 tile = 1 coord point, probably. I still have had a hell of a time getting one inside a building, and I think the SL will have to mentallly calculate offsets rather than having an SO subtract from what you give them.

1 tile is 1 coord.
The spotter generally always has to give offsets as the coordinates, so for example, so you lase the side of the building, you add or subtract from the long, then give the SO your new lat/long as the coordinates.

Don't ever give them the original coordinates and the offset, they'll always do it wrong.

[ThePiachu]

Okay, so if 1 tile is 1 coord and you can apply offset, then that means you can probably pick any landmark on a map as your starting point and map all important locations based off that. Then, each round you just need to re-calibrate your offsets and you can bomb anywhere on the map?

[Casany]

Okay, so if 1 tile is 1 coord and you can apply offset, then that means you can probably pick any landmark on a map as your starting point and map all important locations based off that. Then, each round you just need to re-calibrate your offsets and you can bomb anywhere on the map?

Sounds easy but it’s probably quite hard in practice considering you have to find 0,0 on the map and then each round find 0,0 again. So while it’s true it probably isn’t very feasible

[Anoonki]

Okay, so if 1 tile is 1 coord and you can apply offset, then that means you can probably pick any landmark on a map as your starting point and map all important locations based off that. Then, each round you just need to re-calibrate your offsets and you can bomb anywhere on the map?

Conceivably, if you rangefind for one position on the map each round, and count exactly how far in what direction whatever you want to bomb is from said position, yes, you can bomb anywhere in the map.

But probably don't do that. Just lase near what you want, and apply shorter offsets.

[Brotemis]

Conceivably, if you rangefind for one position on the map each round, and count exactly how far in what direction whatever you want to bomb is from said position, yes, you can bomb anywhere in the map.

But probably don't do that. Just lase near what you want, and apply shorter offsets.

Speaking as a former administrator of another ss13 server, offsets need to be randomly done each round as well.

Telescience was a mistake

[spookydonut]

Please confine these discussions to the monthly update threads.