Power Battery - Commander Ability

PsiWarp

Seeing as Sewlek is exploring the possible return of ninja Phase Gates (Balance Test mod), I would like to chime in on an idea to change the Sentry Battery for offensive/defensive purposes.

Power Battery
All functions and limitations of the Sentry Battery remain.

Changes:
- Moved to Assist Tab as an ability, can now be dropped on infestation (like a Medpack)
- Short power-up time, basically auto-builds itself
- New passive ability: Nano Grid - allows any structure to be placed and built on infestation inside battery range
- Powers all structures in radius, exactly like the old Power Pack.
- When new structures are placed in battery range, the Power Node template will not pop out (for extra ninja)

Pros:
- Setup your forward base on Kharaa turf! Build a Command Station on an infested Tech Point!
- Not super loud like Power Nodes when powered up.
- Power Node in base down? Drop a battery next to the Infantry Portals, Phase Gate, or the Observatory in mid-beacon!
- Makes Robotics Factory more attractive as early game option.

Cons:
- Small range
- Vulnerable when powering up (health/armor starts low)
- Clustered structures are begging for Bile Bombing
- Only 1 per room, so positioning is key

There's probably more to add, but that's the gist of the idea. What are your thoughts and suggestions?

sHawke_Native

the infestation is there so marines will have to kill all the cysts and let the infestation to die off THEN they can build, infestation stopping marines from building on it is a major role it plays, the power battery should not be able to circumvent an ability of the infestation is OP as hell a marine commander can get a power battery next to/in a hive location then ninja phase gate a couple mins later Marines win. the battery powering a couple structures when the power gets turned off is a good idea the other "pros" are stupid and OP

Calego

I don't quite think so @sHawke_Native.

Building on infestation is itself a dangerous operation simply because a khamm can spawn some whips right on top of your stuff. Not to mention that since the structures are clustered, they're easier to bile down (as the OP said). I think the idea is interesting. I like that it's a different thing entirely from the sentry battery (leave that can of worms alone for now).

I'm not so sure about it building itself. Though I suppose that is one of the key things, and since it is comm controlled, it'd be tough to get it effective otherwise. What if it simply required activation?

It could act a little bit like Arcs do now, when its dropped, it's literally a box with a decent health and a lot of armor, but a marine has to activate it (just press e next to it once) and it starts to deploy. Once deployed, the armor is gone and it's just health. So it'd be much easier to disable but pretty sturdy until required.

Or, how about rather than letting things be built on infestation, the battery actively repels infestation without actually notifying the Khammander that the infestation is clearing (like how attacking a cyst does) to a certain radius?

fat cat

how about 1 battery per room per structure.. so you cant run an entire base off 1 battery.

proteinstain

yeah i was disappointed this was taken out, it added an additional variable for dynamic game play. But building on infestation would be counter productive. This way alien commander would have to make sure important areas are covered with cysts/infestation and if an area is left without it a ninja phase can be built and they'll be consequences. As this as happened to me as a marine back in the day. as a jetpacker i ninjaed a sentry battery and phase, commander told everyone to phase in and shoot hive. chaos ensued and we got down the hive.