Currently this is being used as the "meta" by several outfits as a way to put a spawn point pretty much anywhere in an enemy base.This is allowing these outfits to easily dominate any battle where their foes are not using the same cheap tricks to overtake a base. This is completely undermining every other player who uses spawn beacons and sunderers. Compounded with the no-deploy zones, where these routers have no problem being deployed in - we end up with a very unbalanced matchup between experienced players who have knowledge and access to routers against anyone who plays the game as it was mean't to be played (Sunderers, Spawn beacons). Not only are routers not limited by no-deploy zones like sunderers are, but they are also not limited by having to be under an open sky like spawn beacons are. I've countless incidents where routers are placed in locations unreachable by anyone but a light assault with upgraded jetpack, and even glitched inside a wall so that it's impossible for the other faction to damage and destroy it.
While this does present an issue, until it is resolved, I would recommend making the router pad pointless by making advances against the next base as quickly as possible, or disable it by attacking the other end of the system - the spire.
Dont forget the other advantage to routers, they have unlimited range. You can deploy a small router base right next to your warpgate where it is relatively safe, then use the router pad at a base where youre warpgating the enemy and its still powered. So while Fate's advice of taking out the router spire is good solid advice, finding the spire thats powering the pad you want to take out is almost impossible to do efficiently. I still think the router should have been a 2 way teleporting device like PS1, keep it as a base structure but make it so that players have to spawn at the base that is providing the router and then enter the teleporter to appear at the pad. This would make strategical placement of the router itself much more important, aswel as communicating the existence of it to your friendlies. It would also give the base more reason to exist outside of simply having a silo and router spire, youd need to defend it. It would also give the benefit of being able to charge through an enemy telepad and reveal which base the spire is located. I like the router and use it quite often, but i feel its a bit too unlimited in its use.
Hmm i'm in two minds about routers. They offer an alternative method for defending or (more likely) attacking a base - especially useful with the larger / indoor enclosures where the spawn points are a long way from where you need to be (Tech plant is a typical example). But - even though they are easy to destroy - you do have to get to it first, and as the OP stated they can be placed in some very hard to reach or easily defended areas. They are certainly used on Cobalt but not in great numbers - seems that few can be bothered to do a bit of mining to create a Spire and you'll need to keep the Silo topped up and of course you have to get it from said Silo to the destination without getting killed. Spawn Beacons and Sunderers just don't have the associated hassle factor. BUT - routers can be a tactical game changer in the right circumstances.
Placing routers inside walls or stairs is exploiting and people should be banned for doing that. Banned with extreme prejudice. That said, there is otherwise nothing wrong with the routers. They are fragile and slow. They supplement and offense (or defense!) quite well at times and add variety to the game. I think they make a nice addition to the game, particularly when defenders can no longer deploy sundies. And hey, easy with the "the way the game is meant to be played crap". Zergfits live and die by the Sundy. The rest of us live and die by Valks and beacons. If routers don't fit into your chosen playstyle that's fine. They fit into mine.
I would simply add the original idea: the forwards Station. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/pts-update-3-31.245324/ Preferably the version I suggested: Medics get access to a utility costing 200 resources that functions like the router. This changes how its used. Building a Router base and bringing a Router is a time consuming and boring business but useful for groups, especially since the Router is free to replace if destroyed. But if its an easily accessible resource costing item you immediately allow more people to use it without jumping through hoops and the resource cost is a good counter to simply dumping it anywhere as you are dumping a Sunderer's worth of nanites that can be killed in half a small-arms magazine.
Pull some Valks... Pull some Harrassers... go Silo HUNTING. As an avid Base builder, I run into people every day who do nothing but Base-Hunting. I've seen some of them who immediately go after a Router dispensor before they even target our Modules. (that's why I don't put the Router dispensor in my Base unless I'm really SURE that it's super well hidden). Nothing really gets your Playerbase prioritized for destruction like either a Hoplon Air turret & sky shield big enough to land Libs in, or a Router and Orbital tower... Either one is a big glowing neon sign saying "I'm here to SCREW WITH INFANTRY META!" I feel like I'm putting myself at a major tactical disadvantage here by even sharing this, but.... any Stalker Infil can get to them pretty easily by just dropping into the base from a Valk, and then leaving 2 Prox mines on the Router PS: GOOD LUCK trying to take the Norweast Amerish Underground "BioLab" back (from a Ghost Cap you weren't online soon enough to stop) without getting your Faction a Router down on the A-Point!! PPS: Right, this is the only thing that needs to be addressed about them immediately. IF they had been limited to 3-5 hexes adjacency then you would at least have a good idea about where to start looking for the Base that they kept coming from. As it stands right now, you can search the entire continent some times and still miss the super well hidden Router Dispensers
Routers take effort simply to acquire, a good 5-10 minutes of boring cortium farming, Then you need to get the router from your spire to the spot where you want it, and it's gg if you die because then you need to head all the way back to the spire. And don't forget you need to keep going back to top up the silo if you want to keep using routers. Ok so after all of that trouble you have one single location that allies can spawn at if they choose to wait 15 seconds. And then we have spawn beacons, zero trouble acquiring it, just add it to your inventory from the load out screen, Its tiny and easy to squeeze on a rooftop and it allows your whole squad to INSTANTLY spawn at any rooftop of their choosing. Imho the ease of aqusition, instant spawning and versatility of spawn location makes beacons waaaay better than routers, No idea why they decided to give beacons instant respawn... why use sunderers?!
Maybe but a router is for all intents unlimited in where it can be placed. Indoors, under an overhang, literally inside a wall or under the ground - hell we've been seeing them inside the bloody tunnels of a FRIENDLY tech plant. That is a massive advantage over every other spawn, especially when you consider that they don't have any downsides; no worry about no-deploy zones, overhanging terrain, "here I am" laser beams, or limited to squad-only. They should have been a static version of the PS1 router. A teleporter with a 1.5km tether on them that drains cortium with each outgoing use. Still extremely useful, plus it would actually give bunkers a purpose but no where near the level of exploit that the current "put a silo, tube, air term, and spire as close to the warpgate as possible or under a hell-hole and then drop unlimited routers in every fight" version we have.
You clearly never set up a router. It isn't some cheap gimmick. You have to actually work to set it up and maintain it Routers are sometimes responsible for keeping a fight alive because of these C4 fairies always killing the only sunde. It's not like you can't set up a counter to it. But eh I get it, anything you have to work towards is considered unfair. Typical lazy mindset. This is hard nerf it.
