16.06.17 Combat engineer update discussion.

[immaspaceninja]

Here it is! The baricade update just came out and, after playing a few rounds with it, here's what i think:

The good
New plasteel baricades.
Beside the fact that they're fancy AF, their new functions are really good. You can not only use them as doors, but they also can be MOVED AROUND! And, unlike fake walls, crushers cant breach them in 1 charge. That, in my opinion, might be very helpful against crushers during assaults. The only drawback is that you have to pull each baricade just like a sentry gun. I'd like to see them being more easy to transport, similiar to roller beds.

Barbed wire.
Prevents runners from running past your baricades, makes aliens take damage. Doesnt need to be explained, i think. N e a t.

Metal baricades.
Finally we got a durable enough baricade that can be built from regular metal! That means you can make something as tough as sandbags, even during a fight on almayer.

The bad
Since the fake walls are now gone and replaced by plasteel baricades, engineers will probably have some problems with the ammount of doors they can build. Each still gets 6 plasteel baricades by default, which is not enough in my opinion and will make engineers lifes harder, especially during lowpop and midpop, because they're now more cargo-dependant. Giving squad engies more plasteel and making plasteel cheaper to order is something i'd like to see.

Another problem is the lack of some cheap defence structure that will help to keep xenos away from your baricades. Yes, a replacement for racks would be a nice thing.

The ugly



Like c'mon. Fake walls are gone, we dont need such a change. Makes engies rely on cargo even more. Walls are still needed to block areas that you cant watch all the time and crushers can still destroy them very fast.


Well, post your thoughts.

[Karmac]

Plasteel needs to be more plentiful, and if girders are gonna cost that much the cost needs to be reverted and the ridiculous steps to remove them need to be dropped. Crushers still hurt plasteel far too much and boiler globs aren't blocked nearly enough for it to be relevant, sentry guns and other marine weaponry still need to be buffed to match the new changes because they aren't hurting xenos in the slightest at the moment. There's a lot of balance changes to be made still.

[Tidomann]

Metal was already in high demand. Requisitions is gonna be melting down USMC property without remorse now.

Edit: Also do staff post patch note changes?

[Crab_Spider]

I never liked false walls, they gave a false sense of security and were to easy to byp- oh right Praetorians. Anyway, the wall update works in a way. Marines need to start dismantling the robotics autolathes and bringing it to their FoB, because at this point, there's enough metal in to salvage from those to build 2 walls. I like the wall change, and I enjoy the new barbed wire.

[Karmac]

barbed wire damage needs to be buffed, it's a tad insignificant at the moment, the dissapearance of false walls hurts marines making barricades in locations that aren't symetrical or have oddly placed walls/foliage, because your new directional false walls are only allowed one per tile.

[Draegonlore]

The changes sound neat but now I'm going to be melting down the entire fuckin' FoB to make Nexus decent. Every table, chair, reinforced window, and locker in sight is gonna be gone after this.

[Casany]

It makes the game look a LOT more like AVP, which I really like

But otherwise, it'll probably not do much other then change the look

[Boredone]

The fact that Racks of all things cost more metal then reinforced tables to make seems a tad strange personally.
Those things used to be cheaper then tables, costin' one metal to make, now they cost Six and a bit, compared to the Tables 2.5, and the R-Tables 5.

[Karmac]

Devs probably won't change racks because they keep trying to convince me it's a bad idea to just spam them everywhere.

[immaspaceninja]

Boop. Some buffs are here.
Still, plasteel should become easier to get, because the lack of doors is real without super good req. And without them aliens can just walk inside your FOB, ignoring any gunfire, and murder everyone by using queen screech.

The girder cost change should also be reverted for the reasons i stated in the main post.

[Karmac]

Sentries and Mines should be the next thing looked at, defences are now in a pretty solid place. Plasteel should definitely be more plentiful.

[WinterClould]

I'm really feeling this update. Can't wait to see how FOB's look on all the maps now. The ones I've seen on LV so far have been pretty good so long as it has people actually trying to plan out what they are building.

[Swagile]

I haven't even played yet and I can see a lack of a good tile blocker + barbed wire doing no slow down making FOB's still terrible.

Damage, as ive said constantly, means nothing to xenos due to weed healing. And without tile blockers to slow xenos down from the real meat of the FOB, your FOB will just get smashed to bits by semi-competent xenos.

[doodeeda]

I haven't even played yet and I can see a lack of a good tile blocker + barbed wire doing no slow down making FOB's still terrible.

Damage, as ive said constantly, means nothing to xenos due to weed healing. And without tile blockers to slow xenos down from the real meat of the FOB, your FOB will just get smashed to bits by semi-competent xenos.

At least play before you talk...

[Swagile]

At least play before you talk...

Busy with work.

Either way, you don't need to play to know that no tile blockers = easy rampaging for all tiers except Crusher that make short work of tile blockers. They are there to funnel xenos into certain kill zones and to give time for Engineers to repair damage done to the heavy hitter barricades (plastisteel); without those, there isn't enough time to heal up your barricades and it gives xenos free range of movement to attack barricades, which makes FOB's go down easily unless Req gave you 200 + plastisteel.

[Jonesome]

I'm absolutely in love with this new update, it's completely changed around the combat engineer class for me. Beforehand it was such a chore setting up endless reinforced tables and spamming girders and false walls, which also looked odd aesthetically.

Now I can be more creative and even build pillboxes for the sentry gun.

[Jeser]

I'm really feeling this update. Can't wait to see how FOB's look on all the maps now. The ones I've seen on LV so far have been pretty good so long as it has people actually trying to plan out what they are building.

You want it - you get it:


P.S. Don't blame Bravo, we came there later, it was Alpha engie who made this.

Hint: look at the sandbags...

[MrJJJ]

You want it - you get it:


P.S. Don't blame Bravo, we came there later, it was Alpha engie who made this.

Hint: look at the sandbags...

I want to vomit right now

[Tidomann]

As someone who has yet to tackle FoB building.... What is wrong with the sand bags?

[Jeser]

As someone who has yet to tackle FoB building.... What is wrong with the sand bags?

East and west sandbags are facing towards CENTER. Which means... marines weren't be able to shoot in those directions. Not sure about Northern and southern ones.

Also, only north side entrance has plasteel barricade, 3 others are free to pass by some ravager, crusher, boiler glob etc.

[MrJJJ]

East and west sandbags are facing towards CENTER. Which means... marines weren't be able to shoot in those directions. Not sure about Northern and southern ones.

Also, only north side entrance has plasteel barricade, 3 others are free to pass by some ravager, crusher, boiler glob etc.

Preety sure the north side and south are also facing the center, since you can't place a sandbag ontop of a metal barricade, neither can you move sandbags to do thta.

[Mr.Smooooth]

You want it - you get it:


P.S. Don't blame Bravo, we came there later, it was Alpha engie who made this.

Hint: look at the sandbags...

Bravo SL here, I tried to tell them, they didn't listen. FOB did not hold against attack.