Make Telecomms Not Breakable

[NoahKirchner]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Remove the ability for aliens to break Telecomms after it's been set up.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Stops aliens from being able to send up one runner to an out of the way part of the map (for marines), slash an apc, and have it completely throw off a marine round to the point where it could cause their defeat due to lack of communications. (Seriously, there's a lot of stuff that people complain about the aliens doing but this is shit, because a young runner can do it and it requires a trek to an obscure part of the map to fix some wires so the marines can /operate/, just to have another young memer come up and do it again. Even if you make it look like it's still cut)

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): Have it so that telecomms doesn't have a visible APC (hidden, but hidden inside the ice or something so neither aliens or marines can see it). That way marines will still not have comms until they set up power, but aliens can't meta/powergame the fuck out of them and make the round less fun for everyone. (Happens every round.)

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Some mapping.

[Jroinc1]

-1
Put a false-wall in front of the APC.
Assign a squad to watch it.
Wall off the entire tcomms room.
Drag a relay down from tcomms and set it up outside the rasp.

There are many counter-play tactics, 'rines just gotta adapt.

[Jalleo]

I can confirm I see this all the time they meta the shit out of comms and slash it when we never go near it. It gets frustrating to the degree that nothing gets done.
I have put up walls infront of the APC they melt it then break the APC. Assigning a squad just means all the aliens assault it then.
Relay means you have to have competent staff that are willing to actually do that (Which is never).
Thirdly that suggestion means more meta occurs and it just gets put down all the time

[NoahKirchner]

-1
Put a false-wall in front of the APC.
Assign a squad to watch it.
Wall off the entire tcomms room.
Drag a relay down from tcomms and set it up outside the rasp.

There are many counter-play tactics, 'rines just gotta adapt.

Assigning a squad to watch it means putting a squad far away from any useful building with a ladder or anything, wasting valuable people and putting them into a literal boiler deathtrap. As soon as they have to leave, a runner will come up and slash the APC (I've watched it happen so many times)

You can wall off the tcomms room, but then a runner will just ask his sentinel friend to come acid it, slash it, and move on with their lives (seen this happen less than so many times)

The tcomms thing requires a competent MT, a rather large knowledge of tcomms (in comparison to everybody else), and is something that nobody on a marine ship would likely ever do (they're removing an incredibly expensive piece of equipment and putting it in the middle of a warzone)

Another tactic that I've seen is the marines literally keeping the APC open, wiring it, turning off all the lights and it is /still/ slashed. It's not fun, either, when some young runner (69) slashes the APC it means that command doesn't have a job, the SLs can't effectively order their troops or put down beacons, nobody can call the rasputin if there's an emergency, and if the marines are currently being assaulted by the entire hive then it won't get fixed until they're all dead.

For such an incredibly important gameplay mechanic, it is super easy to break, and any defenses that the marines could have are either stupidly resource intensive (1 squad on lowpop = like 3, so they'd need 2 or 3), or bug abuse (won't say how)

[Rob606]

So last night as CO I experimented by assigning a squad to hold tcomms. During the assaults, the marines needed reinforcements and tcomms wasn't getting prodded much so I sent half of the squad to aid in the underground assault.

Later, the squad watching tcomms was bored & hungry, so I swapped the squad out with a heavily injured assault squad to give them some R&R. They also saw little to no conflict.

I sent them into the underground to join another assault.

Five minutes or so later, comms were down.

I think the problem is the meta knowledge that the alien players have - they know that taking the comms down on the ground/ship fucks marine players so they do it regardless of the meta. A balance needs to be found between not crippling the marines and not relying on meta honour in players.

A similar problem lies with LV, and marine knowledge about rushing across the river early in the game - except that marines losing comms is acceptable. Marines destroying the aliens early on in LV fucks the game up.

[NoahKirchner]

So last night as CO I experimented by assigning a squad to hold tcomms. During the assaults, the marines needed reinforcements and tcomms wasn't getting prodded much so I sent half of the squad to aid in the underground assault.

Later, the squad watching tcomms was bored & hungry, so I swapped the squad out with a heavily injured assault squad to give them some R&R. They also saw little to no conflict.

I sent them into the underground to join another assault.

Five minutes or so later, comms were down.

I think the problem is the meta knowledge that the alien players have - they know that taking the comms down on the ground/ship fucks marine players so they do it regardless of the meta. A balance needs to be found between not crippling the marines and not relying on meta honour in players.

A similar problem lies with LV, and marine knowledge about rushing across the river early in the game - except that marines losing comms is acceptable. Marines destroying the aliens early on in LV fucks the game up.

But it's not acceptable, it effectively uses metaknowledge that the marines have to take Command further from the front, give the RO less to do and the only way to circumvent it requires moving a very expensive piece of government equipment to a hostile planet with aliens that can easily destroy it, and plopping it on the cold and /wet/ ground, out in the open JUST so that half of the marine team can participate in the round.

[Rob606]

Design wise, yes, it is flawed, I agree Noah.

A change needs to be made to make ice colony a fun map to play for command staff. The radio backpacks, or redesign of the comms tower being similar to geothermal generators (requiring attention constantly but xenos can't really fuck with it) might help solve this.

[NoahKirchner]

Design wise, yes, it is flawed, I agree Noah.

A change needs to be made to make ice colony a fun map to play for command staff. The radio backpacks, or redesign of the comms tower being similar to geothermal generators (requiring attention constantly but xenos can't really fuck with it) might help solve this.

Moving telecomms closer to civilization might work too.

[Sneakyr]

+1 from me. A lack of comms will destroy a marine victory (and my will to live as an SL) 99 times out of 100, and it is too easy for ayys to do it.

[NescauComToddy]

Just build girders. Aliens will be lazy and won't even try to enter the relay area. The only thing that needs to be watched, "fixed" and investigated are the meta-xenos.

[NoahKirchner]

Just build girders. Aliens will be lazy and won't even try to enter the relay area. The only thing that needs to be watched, "fixed" and investigated are the meta-xenos.

I've had my squads build girders before, and then ended up losing comms later in the round while engineering is getting roflstomped so we can't go fix it (we lived, but only barely without comms)

If it's anything more than a runner then it can slash the girders. and even so, that's a lot of resources to protect a core marine gameplay mechanic

[Surrealistik]

+1.

You can either leave a bunch of marines or a priceless sentry to watch the damn thing, or you can enjoy not having communications.

Unless it's materially defended, the Xenus would be stupid not to take down comms at every half-chance they got.

[NescauComToddy]

Well, I think this Is a mechanic In Ice colony so, removing It wouldn't make sense for me. I always like I said, build some girders and don't notice any problems there, still, maybe I am just lucky. I also like the way such a small thing could defeat the marines, making then have to become more competent to win. I will remain neutral.

[immaspaceninja]

+1

Devs should just make comms repairable at the start, like geothermal generators (But without breaking on its own every 5 minutes)

A few times i tried to fix the APC, leaving its cover open with all the lights around it turned off, so it would look like the APC is still broken, but it didnt helped. Aliens, despite what i did, were checking the APC every 15 minutes or so.

I tried walling important APC off, but in the engineering. Same thing like with tcomms. I fixed the generators and floodlights, then, when we were leaving the bulding, did the same what i did to tcomms AND walled the APC off. 20 minutes later the power was lost. We came back to the engineering just to see this single APC slashed. Every other APC, that had no effect on the power, was left untouched.

[MrJJJ]

The APC right now is a tad too bit vulnerable for its own good, no matter what you actually put on, the only thing that can save you at that point is something that only boilers can melt through

[Snypehunter007]

T-Comms is supposed to be an important part of marine gameplay and the need to guard it even more so.

Asking this to be locked.

[Swagile]

T-Comms is supposed to be an important part of marine gameplay and the need to guard it even more so.

Asking this to be locked.

Is there going to be a solution to this or is it just going to be ignored and called a "feature" even though it shouldn't be without any other efficient counter play that marines can do?

[Snypehunter007]

It is a feature as far as I know, it is up to DEV review now on the direction to go.

[forwardslashN]

APCs are very easy to repair, and telecomms is supposed to be able to go down. Denied.