Hazard Beacon

Post by **zombywoof** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:11 pm

Weylin wrote:QUOTE (Weylin @ Jul 6 2009, 11:12 PM) But... would this cause any possible imbalance?

No
QUOTE Would it be difficult to add?[/quote]
No
QUOTE Would it be abused too much somehow?[/quote]
No

This is a useless addition as long as we can still chat. Either a regular probe would work just as well or better, or you could simply chat or pm the information.

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:33 pm

The main difference with probes is that you can carry a ton of these things at once. They could also be made available to all ship classes, rather than just scouts. So, while it's not indredibly useful, it seems a fun enough thing to try.

Chat can be easy to miss especially in pick-up games or when dealing with spam. It often *is* missed, even by vet players (I see this all the time). Also it can be hard to describe something via chat sometimes; i.e. the precise co-ordinates of a point of interest. Also, if you're, say, probing your sector for TP2 scouts, and suddenly get eye, you might well be low or out of probes. One rack of these beacons could be enough to help track down the source of the eye.

Psychosis wrote:QUOTE (Psychosis @ Jul 7 2009, 12:18 PM) i dont see much functional use beyond the "ohh pretty" aspect

This also seems like a very good reason to me.

Anyway, this addition can help teamwork, and is another way for the team to communicate, so it's hard to see it as a bad thing in the least. Except if it locks up one of those "def" things that we decide we really need or something technical like that.

Dorjan · Post by **Dorjan** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:08 pm

spideycw wrote:QUOTE (spideycw @ Jul 7 2009, 04:07 PM) Frankly this just sounds like a way to just dumb down Allegiance

I don't think it'll "dumb" down alleg. Since it's only use is a warning. And why not? Aleph is caltroped? Drop one of these babies next to it to warn other pilots. It's something that would be "useful" is some situations and also you lose a rack of prox or cm or missiles to use it.

I like it.

edit: although i don't forsee it being used very often

Xeretov · Post by **Xeretov** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:35 pm

Dorjan wrote:QUOTE (Dorjan @ Jul 7 2009, 03:08 PM) I don't think it'll "dumb" down alleg. Since it's only use is a warning. And why not? Aleph is caltroped? Drop one of these babies next to it to warn other pilots. It's something that would be "useful" is some situations and also you lose a rack of prox or cm or missiles to use it.

Thats just the thing - lets say the aleph is proxed but not camped. What does the beacon tell the team? Absolutely nothing. I see the chat getting flooded more with "Whats this beacon on the touni aleph for?" than people do now asking "is it clear?". The problem is compounded with newbies dropping beacons all over the place because the shiny lights look cool. At least when they do this with probes they're being useful.

On top of that the beacon would probably outlive the warning it was intended for. Aleph is camped? Drop a beacon. 3 minutes later a prober is flying to it and sees the beacon. Either they have to spam the chat again, or they avoid going through the aleph to try probing. By now its clear, but that beacon still says its camped/proxed. The sector beyond doesn't get probed, and a techbase dies to an uneyed bombrun.

Weylin · Post by **Weylin** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:16 pm

Well, the thing is basically what girlyboy explained... They aren't remarkably useful, but you can carry a @#(!load of them.

Communication is important and all, but when a lot of activity is going on, you need a way to leave a visual reminder.

These should not be deployed for a short term prox camp (in which case you should just tell people it may be proxed), but rather, for something like a massively caltropped and droned aleph (in which case it may be there for a long time).

The misuse of them is why I said they should not be very long lived. If you see one by an aleph, just ask "Is Virk mined?"
You don't have to ask "Why is that hazard beacon there?"

(0)'s using these otherwise useless deployables was one of my concerns

Dorjan · Post by **Dorjan** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:47 am

Xeretov wrote:QUOTE (Xeretov @ Jul 7 2009, 09:35 PM) Thats just the thing - lets say the aleph is proxed but not camped. What does the beacon tell the team? Absolutely nothing. I see the chat getting flooded more with "Whats this beacon on the touni aleph for?" than people do now asking "is it clear?". The problem is compounded with newbies dropping beacons all over the place because the shiny lights look cool. At least when they do this with probes they're being useful.

On top of that the beacon would probably outlive the warning it was intended for. Aleph is camped? Drop a beacon. 3 minutes later a prober is flying to it and sees the beacon. Either they have to spam the chat again, or they avoid going through the aleph to try probing. By now its clear, but that beacon still says its camped/proxed. The sector beyond doesn't get probed, and a techbase dies to an uneyed bombrun.

Yeah I thought of this as I wrote my post. As I said, I like the idea but I don't think it works with alleg.

Xeretov · Post by **Xeretov** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:00 am

Weylin wrote:QUOTE (Weylin @ Jul 7 2009, 05:16 PM) The misuse of them is why I said they should not be very long lived. If you see one by an aleph, just ask "Is Virk mined?"
You don't have to ask "Why is that hazard beacon there?"

You've just posted exactly my point. People are already going to ask "Is virk mined?", the only thing a beacon there is going to do is make more people ask about that. It adds to the confusion, and IMO we have enough of that as it is right now.

Dorjan wrote:QUOTE (Dorjan @ Jul 8 2009, 03:47 AM) As I said, I like the idea but I don't think it works with alleg.

I agree. It would be nice if the beacons were made so that only the person who dropped them could see them, but thats definitely a code change. At that point you might as well just add them to a different dispenser slot, or not even have them as actual items/objects. They'd be more like waypoints are currently, but more persistent.

slap · Post by **slap** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:31 am

20 second timer might help your idea, this would eliminate all the long lasting problems and still allow people to go OH @#(! SOMETHINGS GOING ON!

The problem with this is that it is a vague communicator. When a person drops a beacon at an aleph they could mean any of these things(or others)
-Enemy Camp
-Enemy Tower/Trop
-Enemy Prox
-Incoming bomb run
-Enemy miner
-Con Push?
-Some other crazy distracting drop of a flashing light?

A 20 second timer would help somewhat. Your ahead of the bomb run, you peak pop back out and drop one? Maybe useful, but a VC of "the aleph is mined" is much more useful. While an idea created in good faith, with some potential for help it would need serious revision to help us with the game.

Freyja · Post by **Freyja** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:45 pm

Not a huge fan except for pretty light.

However, to deal with noobs, make a token charge in credits.

Vortrog · Post by **Vortrog** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:10 pm

Pointless tech this is

If you wanted to make a useful deployable item, then:

- Magneting minepac (a probe that turns into a minepac when a ship nears it regardless of cloak / sig)
- Magnetic Pulse Probe - low sig probe that pulses on the same event as above (good for far side of aleph camping or placing around TP2 rocks)
- Magnetic Combat Drone
- Magnetic Plasgen
etc etc

These options would remove the role of permascouts, so both are not good for the game. But what great techbase defence mechanisms against HTT, TP2 drops and SB runs.