switch those old generators in to AMS blocking shields and you get your secondary objectives back and add an extra stage to the fight
How does this change funnel people? In Amp stations and Tech plants shield generator was in the same room with the capture point, so this change doesn't affect the flow of battle (makes camping stage longer, through). And in the Biolabs this change actually spreads the battle from one objective ("everyone to the gen" was the best offensive tactic) into three.
So what's the point in shield disrupter sunderers if you can't use them to get to the center of tech plants to take down the SCU quickly and take the point? You just removed the only tactic viable for a shield disrupter sunderer while adding more spawn camping. There goes one of the few options for organised small outfit play. Do you know how much fun it was to fight enemies away from their spawn point in the SCU room and near the capture points? Are we all suppose to funnel to spawn rooms and fight there? That's how it seems with these changes.
Adding that change, without making the shields go down after the SCU is down or accelerating the capture time after bringing down the SCU is a terrible idea, taking down the SCU quickly is the only way to make people leave the base and prepare a counter attack. Because allowing them to keep spawning while completely outnumbered will only lead to a prolonged spawncamping and rocket spam from inside the spawn room, if they can keep spawning people will still try to do the impossible, instead of regrouping and preparing a counter offensive. Also, why removing a key feature like SCU and SCU generator defense? Taking down the SCU quickly was the best way to deal with incompetent defenders, if you reach the 5 minutes without problem it's very likely that the spawncamp started 4 minutes and 30 seconds ago. Why prolonging an stupid, unpleasant and boring situation like that? why making the defense idiot friendly? If they want to defend, they need to learn to prioritize targets, defending the SCU generator and the SCU itself is a very important part of defense, and good defenders can and will defend both the generator and the SCU. Now you plan to remove strategy for the first 5 minutes of the fight, really bad idea.
I'm liking the idea, but I feel like it will be pretty difficult for defenders to keep their SCU protected if a base is heavily contested. How about this: Keep the SCU Shield generators, but make them so that they cannot be armed until the attacker's bar begins filling up. Something that was great about the SCU shield gen is that it gave defenders another layer of protection towards their ability to spawn at their facility. In those battles where you're fighting a larger force than your own, every element in a base capture that buys you time is crucial to a successful defense. This solution prevents attackers from disabling spawns to early, but also gives defenders more time and more chances to stop an attack on the SCU than what the current/upcoming configurations provide.
I foresee some "interesting" Biolab fights in the future... May I add that your mistake was not the generator chain, but the way you treat SCUs as a On/Off switch for facilities rather than some actual secondary objective. It's common knowledge that SCUs are the PRIMARY objective of bases. The faster SCUs stop functionning in a binary state, the better it will be.
If the attackers have successfully dropped the vertical and horizontal generators, the SCU generator, and the SCU itself, they have beaten the defenders. Drawing out the capture time so the defenders get infinite respawns for a specified time even if completely camped, it damn pointless and only leads to farming. In the prior system, if the SCU is blown its time for the defenders to counterattack and the battle moves to the facility walls, outliers, etc. with this system, its a farm until the SCU "times out". I really don't see the advantage here. On top of this, it can easily be the attackers that get farmed because of 1-way spawn shields.
I like this idea. It'll make large facilities less likely to get ghosted. Bio-labs are going to be more of a pain though.
ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS. Another great step in the right direction. If it were up to me, SCU wouldn't exist at all (or at least have a much longer compromise->destroy timer), as I'd much rather see battles rage on for longer rather than SCU being destroyed with 8+ minutes left on the cap, but nonetheless this is solid news that is very welcome!
This idea is an interesting concept and it could eliminate some of the hurry up and wait aspects of capping some of the major bases. I have some concerns regarding how this will change the nature of biolab fights though for the attackers. Introduced pre-lattice I see the likelyhood of capping a biolab to require an even greater lopsided force than present due to the need to split up in order to hold enough objectives to start counting down the timer. A smart group will throw all of their defensive bodies at one objective at a time and keep the enemy disorganized. An additional capture point, whether copying the ground floor D point ala Saurva or replacing the SCU shield with one in bases without a capture point in the room upstairs would be pretty important to giving attackers some options. I don't have any major concerns offhand about tech plants and amp stations at the moment due to the main spawn's distance from the capture point. Bottom floor of both of these bases is going to be chaotic for at least an additional 5 minutes.
This would be something I'd be okay with, but I don't think it necessarily changes too much versus what's currently been implemented in the test server. Ultimately the name of the game will still be to cap out the defenders except with 2 gen objectives after the half-cap instead of just the one, will the attackers go for the cap-out or risk throwing their bodies into the SCU? It would add just a little more help for the defenders. When applied to the other bases: Amp Stations - If the capture point is being held, it changes absolutely nothing other than +1 minute to bring down the SCU shield due to its location. Tech Plants - Nearly the same, could introduce some interesting 1st floor vs 2nd floor battles, but a minor inconvenience for attackers overall.
To be objective, there's always a possibility, MAX crash solves this problem. Not universally, but most of the time.
for a moment there i thought you were going to take down the Spawnroom shields once SCU is down... Please do it. PLEASE. so defenders actually relocate and then try to make a comeback rather than being sitting ducks in the spawnroom
There was once the idea that it could work like that: SCU is down, defenders have now a higher respawn time
