Sentries Idea
Tigerr13
Join Date: 2012-09-13 Member: 159157Members
Join Date: 2012-09-13 Member: 159157Members
I was thinking, why not put a cap on the amount of sentries available and then add an ammo count to them and raise their damage and targeting so they are actually dangerous? Once they run out of ammo they must be recycled and rebuilt (or they can be refilled or irreplaceable). Whichever is the most balanced. This way the only time you should be using sentries is when you need an area defended temporarily while you go on the offensive with most of your team in another direction.
Similar to the sentries in Aliens, they run out of ammo and they are not useful anymore but they can hold down an area temporarily very well.
Similar to the sentries in Aliens, they run out of ammo and they are not useful anymore but they can hold down an area temporarily very well.
Comments
However,
There is an entire thread relating to sentry ideas here: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=121017" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=121017</a>
So far, the most significant thing UWE has said is that sentries are not coming back to what they used to be (anti-alien).
Many interesting suggestions have been made by the community but unfortunately, response/feedback from the UWE team has been minimal.
From what I have seen so far, I can't really see UWE changing the sentries back just based on the feedback of the community.
I think it's safe to say that the new anti-building sentries are here to stay and I would be surprised if any other big changes are made to them, probably just tweaking.
For the time being, I noticed people now usually just park an exo player in a forward base while the rest of the team pushes. That'll have to do until we get sentries back.
Opps, there is also a suggestions and ideas area. Derp. Feel free to move this there if need be.
They should change the name then. Its not a 'sentry' if its not defensive.
Also making sentries anti-structure makes me weep. Either the structure is too weak for it to be worth it (anything below hive), or its a hive and skulks are spawning at your feet (so don't sit there building). I agree sentry spam was bad when it occurred, but they could have tried to different way to balance them instead of resorting to going nuts on them.
But sentries definitely need some work because as they are they are near useless.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=121229" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=121229</a>
But about the structure cap, I don't like it. Part of this game is an RTS and if you look at games such as Starcraft, the only limit to your buildings are economy and supply. You never see bunkers limited because you can't build more than #. The idea of adding a limit to factor against spam is just not a good idea in my opinion. If you want someone to not spam, you should influence it so they consider the other strategies a better idea. This way I believe you can allow unique strategies to flourish, and if someone were to invest all the team's res into sentries, it would be their own team to decide if it is a good idea or if they would rather have shotguns instead.
One thing to mention about this ammo system is that I believe it could be very compatible with the "Personal Sentries" idea if we were to go down that path. Personal sentries that Marines would bring to the battlefield would be good in a reinforcement state of mind. It would provide a lot of volume and personality to a rather static entity, as well as to flesh out a "Mechanic" kind of role for the Marine to play. Remember that people already buy welders in order to keep Exosuits alive. This gives them an early game role.
Say for example a Marine finds a secondary hive getting built and wants to engage, but can't on his own. Also imagine there was a second marine coming down to meet up with the first (maybe they were friends in a pub game). That second marine could have a welder and a Sentry slung around his back that he brings and deploys when he arrives. Obviously those two marines should not just be able to kill the hive outright, but they will be a very dangerous priority to the aliens that could have possibly been overlooked by sending one or two skulks.
Another example is on a front that getting pushed back from alien aggression. The Marine could deploy his personally bought sentry and deal a lot more damage than if he were on his own. Permitting this Marine would survive these frequent engagements, here is a tree of possibilities of what I believe could be very possible in a match.
1) The Sentry runs out of ammo.
<ul><li> The Marine could be able to slowly resupply the Sentry's ammo reserves with the builder tool.</li><li> Sentry would be in a disabled state while this is happening.</li><li> The Marine would need to be protected in the meantime by other teammates as he cannot defend himself.</li></ul>
2) The Sentry is nearly destroyed.
<ul><li> The Marine would have to repair it. Situation would be the same as if he were resupplying.</li><li> Chances are the marine would have purchased a welder to use in conjunction with the Sentry to keep his investment working.</li></ul>
3) The Sentry is critical: Out of ammo and nearly destroyed.
<ul><li> The outcome of this is very dire.</li><li> The Marine has only a handful of options: Pack up and retreat to safer ground, or try to keep defending a losing battle.</li></ul>
3a)Retreat
<ul><li>Marine packs up the sentry and makes an attempt to get to safer ground.</li><li>Carrying a sentry would most likely slow the Marine down. He would probably move faster with an empty sentry than a fully loaded and repaired one.</li><li> The Marine is the most vulnerable at this point in time.</li><li> Without friendly support, the Marine would most certainly perish.</li></ul>
3b)Defend the losing battle.
<ul><li> Maybe there is no chance of retreat. The Marine is forced to keep himself alive through whatever means until reinforcements can arrive.</li><li> The commander can drop health and ammo as he does usually, possibly enough for the marine to keep those Aliens back.</li><li> Chances are the marine will die.</li></ul>
4)The Commander drops a Dispenser (SBAD) next to the Sentry.
<ul><li>The Marine constructs the Dispenser.</li><li> The Sentry now can shoot much for a much longer period.</li><li> The position will now be much easier to hold.</li><li> The Marine may have to keep manually resupplying the Sentry if the Dispenser can't keep up.</li></ul>
'Noun: A soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place.'
'Synonyms: sentinel - guard - watch - watchman - guardsman'
Enough said
You fix many issues with this idea.
#1 its not aliens vs structures if there is a marine in it
#2 unmanned it's useless
#3 no auto aimbot sentries since a person would be in control it would only be as good as the user.
#4 Strictly being used for defense it would fill the gap between aliens and marines defensively. Aliens have whips, hydras, walls, and spikes, marines have very useless sentry guns that can't even shoot behind them, hydras and whips don't care what direction there facing. Idealy the gun emplacement would also be turn able in a 360 fashion.
#5 it would still take massive dmg from bile bomb as a structure
#6 being immobile would essentially make it an easy target for 2 or more aliens unless the base was still being defended by marines. In otherwords it is not a be all end all defense solution, but more like the whip which deters rushers.
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You are right Sentries are "POTENTIALLY" 'game breaking.' As in that if the marine use them, they are wasting res and it gives the aliens a chance to come back.
Sentries in their current incarnation are game breaking, as people who don't know what they are supposed to be used for get them when their base is being slaughtered.
(like new or very old commanders)
And expect them to defend the base.
Well
They are really just a waste of res.
They should be used as sentries, not early game hive killers.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=121229" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=121229</a>
Take the movie "ALIENS" with the sentry turrets as inspiration, make the sentry turrets more useful in corridors rather in marine bases/etc. by giving the sentry turrets 45 degrees field of view or less (so that they are more useful in corridors compared to big open spaces) and buff their firepower enough to kill 1-2 'rambo' skulk(s) trying to get inside the marine base.
Why not turn 2 sentry turrets into a 'complete set' consisting of 2 sentry turrets with a sentry battery and make it so both sentry turrets face the front and disable the rotate function so you can't have the turret(s) covering their rear and the battery should have a VERY short radius to avoid any ideas about placing the battry around the corner out of sight I think the price would need to be around 20 Tres to 'justify' it's usefulness.
The balance for this is quite simple, just like a 'gorge nest' can be overwhelmed by a large group of marines, so should it be with sentry turrets when attacked by a large group of skulks if we are talking about deployment of sentry guns early on in a match.
Then mid-late game sentry guns would become 'obsolete' since by then we would see fades with blink or even just with shadowstep being able to get pass the sentry guns with ease and destroy the sentry turret battery not to forget mentioning the gorge with bilebombs.
As of the whole argument for 'not good enough to put a cap on sentry turrets/whatever' well what about the cap on hydras for the gorge? In my own opinion I think it's great way to avoid hydra mass spam so why shouldn't it be allowed to put a maximum cap on sentry turrets per CC/etc.?
Sure my idea might sound '****ty' but atleast it can only be better than using sentry turrets for taking down alien structures early on in a match, especially if we are talking about defenses for the marines.