So. Electricity is a b****, right? how about a way to counter it besides direct damage?

Here's the preliminary idea:

-Slow down marine research times (everything takes 15% longer)
-Add a Power Generator structure, under the Advanced Structures menu (theres 3 empty slots)
-this structure boosts the research time back up to normal, maybe even to 5% over
-costs 10 res
-allows electrification (rather than the TF requirement)
-if you lose power, elec'd structures go white and do no damage
-maybe even have it so that you'd need 2 Generators for 3 electrifications or something


Just an idea. Thoughts?

I don't think concerns about electrified structures are worth messing with marine research times. However, I agree that the TF requirement for electrification doesn't really make sense and this idea would seem more realistic. IMHO its not worth the time in balancing issues it would take to implement. Still a good thought though.

Don't you think slowing down all marine research until X item is researched is going to make early game slant towards aliens?

I agree that we need the electrification upgrade on another structure, but no powergenerator. They are friggin' space marines. Power is gained trough Nanites.

Which are self supplied with power.

Actually I think this is a pretty cool idea but not for NS. This would be better for NS2. The power generators could be enabled/disabled by the mapper. It would allow objective based gameplay. Marines could use power gens and would have to fight their way to restart main power. It would also add more strategy such as having to defend them.

Umm...you know, this idea is pretty worthless, since no self-respecting NS commander uses electricity anyways, this has no effect.

Electricity is trash, and making it worse will change nothing.

You cant be serious.

Every decent comm knows that the absolute best (and cost-efficient) way to secure a hive is to elec the node and put the pg next to it. Setting up sieges is a waste imo (thats being TOO defensive), and often you dont even need the TF since you only need one (and this could be the 2nd hive you're locking down).

Of course, we're talking about mostly pub play. It still happens in comp, but not nearly as often. Regardless, electrification is at least used often when dealing with hive lockdowns. Elec'd RTs should, imo, have a counter aside from simply destroying it. This was an attempt at such.

um.. youre joking right...

Very interesting idea... So instead of skulks passing through RTs throughout the game, you can hit the generators...

Killing the source... Reminds me of the Matrix in a way...

This sounds interesting and I'd like for it to be added.

This reminds me more about Red Alert 2...

The only good thing elec is good for is when youre playing on a bot server and building elec'd TFs all the way to the hive. Now those are fun times XD

as far as the topic goes, i dont really support this idea. i figure that with the level of technology that the marines already have that they wouldnt have need for power generators and such

i was thinking though that i would liek better the idea of power generators as map-entities at points around the map, that when the aliens damage the power/lights in the facility or around the map (or maybe a section for large maps) until the marines repair/weld it back online. could have potential if implemented and balanced right.

I am not kidding. Handing out 3 shotguns to my best shots will do much more good than electirfication.

I cant believe that church gets soo much resistance, when he states that elec is inefficient, because it IS inifficient.
A much better way to secure RTs and PGs are mines. You can get 3 packs of mines, which totals to 12 mines for your one eletrification. It is much more effectiv, because it removes skulks instantly and gets you the RFK and it pisses the enemy just way more of than elec ever could. So instead of elecing every RT i suggest to just place 4 mines hidden under the RTs feet. The average alien player will just crumble and start biting his keyboard after he dies 3 times in a row, attempting to bite an RT.

you dont need to lockdown hives to win a pub round rofl. in comp games you might, but then you really dont use elec because it sucks

electricity is very expensive and completle useless :|

I would argue that electrification has its uses. It's not COMPLETELY useless, but people seem to use it wrong.

Firstly, 30 res? That's alot. However, you're getting a defence that doesn't require maintenance. Sure you can defend using mines, but then it just takes a few lives for a skulk to break through, then you have to send a marine over there. On the flip side, if a skulk sees electricity, it doesn't even try to attack and simply runs away. So, you almost never get an electricity kill except on higher lifeforms where the electricity has hurt them while they're trying to take down the node. Again, mines do the same thing, but once they blow they're gone.

They mainly are for keeping nodes alive without having to send a marine with mines running around fixing stuff, and good deterents. As for actual effectiveness, they're really good at both of these, but beyond that it doesn't do much.

Thus, that being said, people that use electricity for a pg defense are potentially wasting res. After all, you're probably going to be phasing into there every now and tehn to check on things anyways, so might as well drop a few mines while you're there to patch things up. It's just some comms are lazy and prefer to get elec and leave it alone. Exspensive time saver, but it usually works in pub.

Mines can also be countered quite easily by either a single bilebomb (rather than the 20 bilebombs it takes to kill an elec rt), or well-aimed spits, or simply a higher life form taking the damage then running off.

Electricity has *NO* counter, aside from direct damage infliction, which, on an elecd rt, is quite a lot.

Of course mines are great for defending pgs. But you forgot to mention another thing. A smart skulk will often find a gap on a pg covered in mines (assuming non-pro placement). With pro placement, where theres no gap, it only takes one skulk martyr (or a single spit) to create such a gap. Voila, defense is countered yet again.

I'm simply stating all this because people aren't giving elec its credit. Heck, the Electrification Strat, where you just electrify every rt right from the get-go, actually works pretty damn well often enough. Its the lamest way to win a game, so i very rarely use it, but it does have some very strong points when used properly.

As mentioned, elec is also a tech-and-forget. When you have multiple areas of high conflict, you want to be able to focus as much as you can on the area that needs the most attention. If you mine Eclipse PG and then get everyone to phase to south loop, you run the very real risk of having a single skulk spend one life taking out one mine, then the next biting the PG from the gap he created.

And even furthermore, elec can be renewed. Marines should basically never weld RTs, EXCEPT when they're electrified. Then they absolutely should. Its like getting free mines back.

Anyways. The idea here was just to add more dynamics to the electrification scenario. And yes, it definitely stems from 'real' RTS'... Real Time Strategies, like the C&C series.

Having Power Stations built into the map is a pretty cool idea. A mapper could actually do this, but he'd have to really watch the entity count. I actually brought up an idea akin to this in the mapping forum, where certain RTs being capped would actually brighten up the entire map. I.e., the 4 nodes around Marine Spawn would each control their own sets of lights in every room, so when they're all empty, the map is very dark and minimally lit. When they're all capped, its Veil. Could be fun.

NS2 should have an option for placed power stations... or this could simply be done with models and weldables, in the current system.

bilebomb > elctricity rt, in clan games it doesn't take so much time to take electricied rt down and as for marines it's better to drop few sgs and push somwhere instead of spending res for uneccesary things, if you push aliens it's impossible for them to get on rts and marines can get upgrades faster but well it requries a bit more skill than on average public game, for commander and for marines. Mines aren't bad idea but it's takes effort to place them and it's not that hard to see them -_-

if you do an elec strat against a decent alien team you wont have enough uprades by the time the second hive is up to counter it. so then the second hive will go up and all your precious elecrified RTs will be killed by bilebombing gorges and metabolise fades. your marines wont be able to defend your RTs because you havnt received the big payoff for having so many RTs yet because they are still paying themselves off; meaning you will have little to no upgrades and not enough res to drop guns. now you will lose your RTs about the same time they start to net a prohpit. next thing you know your un-upgraded marines are boxed into marine start by 2 hive focus fades.

the only place electrified RTs hold an effective place in any game is in a proto vs. 2 hives game. even then eleced RTs arent really needed, its just nice.

Heh, those are fun! Now I've moved on to slightly more serious gaming than that (yet I stink at aiming still), but those massive electrifications are just plain funny. It must be quite a large electricity bill for all those electrified TF's

------
On topic:
I think this is a great idea, I like the RT capping and light levels idea, kind of like a step down before NS2 (dynamic infestation).

About electrification; if you electrify your nodes, it would only be some of the key area's. Take the map ns_lost for example, if their hive is cargo, it would be wise to electrify Temp Control because lots of traffic goes through there (marines and aliens alike). The fade's wouldn't really be taking down Temp RT because they would be more preoccupied by the marines.

You wouldn't go electrify Coolant or even Equillibreum really, because they have very low traffic or would encourage skulks biting on these RT's (sometimes an early detection of a building (or non-building) hive). It all depends on the traffic by both teams, the amount of fighting in the area and the importance of the area.

I find that elec can be used in many different ways though.

Your temp example is a good one. That has to be one of the most important rooms in NS, trumped maybe only by Cargo in tanith. Electrifying these rts can really solidify a static defense.

Yes, gorges can bile elecd rts quite easily. But the gorge needs either adrenaline or an MC nearby. Adren means hes jokingly easy to kill, and the comm, being decent, would give quick orders, or even better, see the gorge on MT before he comes near. A cel gorge with an MC nearby would be tougher, and would also have an exit strategy (both in the MC and in being able to bhop away), but it would also require an additional 10 res on their part.

As mentioned, elec can be used many ways. If the hive is Maint on eclipse, you could attempt to cap the usuals (stat, triad, eclipse, maybe tjunct, maybe powersub), and then electrify first triad, then station, then eclipse, then power, all the while teching, albeit more slowly. You'd first focus on A1; then on PG tech; then however you want to branch after that.

BUT... the few times ive actually used this strat, i find that rts really do last a lot longer, especially early game. If you keep up the offensive, it can really work out. Its just a lame win, thats all.

4 electrifications = 120 res. 1more if you count the turret factory. I still think giving the entire team shotguns...twice...will make my nodes last longer. Offense is the best defense. If yuo are activrely pressuring THEIR nodes, they will NOT be concerned with yours.

Alien nodes are more precious than marine nodes. They are harder to put up. Hence, if your team attacks their tnodes...you'll either save your own nodes by drawing aliens to your team, OR both teams will trade nodes.

And guess what? If aliens lose 2 nodes and marines lose two nodes, marines win...BIG TIME! You've just delayed their Fade and hive by another minute I bet.

that is not always the case. i see people all the time request shotguns when they cant kill one skulk attacking them with it... granted you shouldnt give weapons to people who cant freakin aim halfway decently, but it depends on who you are giving the shotguns too-- too often ive seen a group of marines grab shotguns then run out and be killed by a single fade + skulk... then you have not only wasted the res in equipment but then your res nodes/ structures around the map are left vulnerable...

this of course doesnt always happen but i do see it fairly frequently.

Its also a pub vs comp issue, and you have to keep both in mind. But, in either case, aliens needs at least one skulk always hitting the isolated nodes. Its THOSE nodes that are a prime elec target in certain elec strats, because they *WILL* last longer. If its less than two minutes, its not worth it (in res-to-res, not counting the use of the extra equipment instead of an elec, etc), but these nodes can often stay up for well over 5 mins. Its simply too difficult to get the required elec counters (BB gorges, fades, oni) to these, and for them to remain safe, in many game situations. Its in these situations where electrification can prove extremely useful, and its hard to rationally deny this.

The original point of this thread was to give a workaround for countering electricity. I dont elec much, but i DO know that it can be extremely effective. I dont elec much because i know its the lamest marine win there is, NOT because it doesnt work. With a proper, secondary counter, perhaps the electrification cost could even be reduced by 5 or even more, further harming the naysayers who always focus solely on the cost.

It's lame if it works, becuase you're ensuring a slow, painful death for the kharaa.

It's lame if it does't work, because you're ensuring a painful (but not necessarily slow) death for the marines.

Really now. Just hit the alien nodes. Doing that will win the game more than electrifying. Trading nodes is always in the marine team's favor.

Seriously though, where are you going to find 120 extra res swimming around? You need Phase gates, armor1, weapons2, maybe hand grenades by 4 and a half minutes. I just don't see where those res comes from.

From the pub star who reached the hive round 0:30 and makes shure that all khaara stay in the spawn que

Church, there are other tactics which provide better gameplay in general, as we all know. But this is about electrification, not about whether or not it should be used, but how to balance it. If a counter like the Power Generator idea was actually put in place, then maybe the cost of elec could be dropped down.

But i already said this in my last post, and you completely ignored it. You're fully trying to derail the thread now, so please, either talk ONLY about this idea, or please, stop posting.

And the last thing i'll say about people talking about the res for all this? You dont save up 120 res then elec 4 nodes at once. You cap your initial two res and maybe elec one, or maybe even wait until youve capped another one or two. Then you begin A1 (since its the biggest requirement really), elec another, get PG tech, elec another, get grenades, elec another. Something like that. The best elec strat balances out the tech and the elec as much as possible. The end result, more often than not, is that res flow stays very consistent and continually increases, as all those isolated nodes are no longer just being dropped by the disposable skulks who know the importance of doing so.



Keep in mind too guys, this is just one idea to stir discussion. Perhaps another method of countering elec could be to have a cloaked wire that goes from the RT to the wall, maybe with the mapper creating 4 different sockets, one that the rt would randomly lock into.

It wouldnt affect any other lifeforms, but the gorge's healspray would decloak it for one second, while also disabling the elec for one second.

A counter like this would ensure that teamwork would be required to counter the elec. You'd need a gorge, and a gorge who was using in energy while not actually healing his team. He's also have to really be on that spray, because one second isn't a huge amount of time, though one second of electrification on a skulk is.

The point about the 120 res is that you can't get it over the short enough period of time to make it worthwhile.

1) If you're spreading the electrifications out over a period of time, then you're not reaping the best benefits because elecs are only good early on.

2) If you spread betwen upgrades and electrification, you still won't have enough upgrades to fight the Fade. I repeat, you can't get enough res to electrify AND get a1/w1 or 2, phase gates, and most importantly, the SHOTGUNS within those 4, 4.5 minutes.

4) Your idea of healspray dis-abling electirfication seems cool. It might work if we reduce elec cost...like down to 15 res or something and it upgraded faster.

You ever heard the expression "If something is stupid, and it works- it's not stupid."

Same logic applies.

Disagree.

First, we're not talking about stupid... i never said that electrifying is stupid, just that it is lame. When the marines win by having all the nodes electrified and a two hive lock-down, the aliens are at their peak of low morale. Its simply the worst way for aliens to lose, because theres practically nothing that can be done about it. When i win as comm, i want the aliens to say 'god DAMN that was a good game' rather than 'oh my god, please end it already of im leaving, this is so boring'.

Electrifying CAN work, and work very well. Its just a bad strat.

And for your expression of 'if something is stupid and it works... its not stupid', well..

Robbery works for getting money. You can smash and grab all you want. Does that mean its not stupid, by your expression? Well, for temporarily getting money, no. In the bigger picture, getting a criminal record and being put away, for stealing pocket change, is very stupid.



The point of this thread was simply to entertain the idea of a non-direct counter to electrification. If this were to be implemented, whether in the form i presented or in another, then the cost of electrification could actually be reduced to make it even more balanced in the broader scope of NS gameplay. If elec was only 20 res, would comms do it a lot more often? Yes. If this cost reduction was accompanied by some type of counter? Well, comms would still use elec, but it would result in yet another dimension of dynamic gameplay in a game that's already full of it. IMO this would be awesome

it's a bad strategy, but can work very well?? well if it is in fact working well, is it still a bad strategy?? this cant seriously make sense to you- how can something that works be a bad strategy?? hypocrisy anyone? If you think its lame then by all means use a different tactic. As far as the aliens- well, just because its lame when YOU lose against it doesnt mean its a bad strategy- it means you need to work on a counter-strategy.

you speak almost as if electrification means certain doom for the alien team. When a com electrifies a node, one fade can come knock it down, then their is a considerable res waste for the marines. even a skulk with a gorge to heal can manage.


horrible analogy. robbery is illegal, and becuase of the legal repercussions, it will never truly work, which contradicts the very basis of the ideal.

If you guys want to blab about the rigidness of marine tech, go take that somewhere else. Stix is just introducing elect as a sidetech, just as if you added another branch to the tree. I think it would be a cool idea, just as you lose upgrades if no arms lab, no mt without an obs. Certain situations require elected RT and pg. Others don't require it. We can't balance a feature that's not implemented yet. Even REAL features require testing in betas. So don't expect Stixes idea to be holy perfect as he writes it. Just get his general idea down.

Snipe. Say the word 'lame' with me. EL AY EM EE. Thats twice you've put words into my mouth; first it was me calling elec stupid, now its me calling elec bad. I did no such thing with the first, and the latter (which i said once) meant that it was merely the worst working marine strategy. But i did call it LAME about 20 times. Big difference.

i never said that you called elec "stupid", i merely stated that if something is stupid, and it works, then it isnt stupid- and that the same logic applied to your previous comment about electrification.

anyway, its petty. i get your point.

This is assuming you are going to electrify 4 rts. I usually use it once on a map, meaning it costs me 3 shotties, maybe 4 if I didn't have TF down for some other purpose. I've found that electification is a more surefire way of holding an area than giving out a few shotties and watching noobs run off and die, and watching skileld players use them well but not in the area I directed them to.

elec is usually worthless but when it IS applied correctly its devastating. And thats why I am sorry to say I do not like your idea. Its a huge risk to elec. If it works it should pay off, you did well.

And who cares if its lame.. if it works, it works. stupid? does it work? then its indeed not stupid.
Hell, anything getting my team victory as a comm is a go when I am in the damned chair. Even if I order my whole squad (theoratically) to run in a room knifing.. IF IT WORKS I WILL DO IT.

Same goes for elec.

Then you need better marines. If electrification is paying off better than shotties on a consistent basis, then switch servers. Drop shotties to marines that you trust. If you don't trust most of your marines, then you shouldn't comm that game because there is no point.

I think everyone misses the deeper use of an electrified RT. When an RT gets electrified, it becomes virtually invulnerable to skulks and lerks. What this means is the only thing that can kill it are fades, onos, and gorges. "Who cares, a fade can easily kill an electrified RT". True but while that fade is killing that RT because his little skulk friend can't what does that mean for the marine team? Effectively it switches the role of the fade and skulk for a couple seconds. Rather than gthe fade going off to easily kill advancing marines, he's stuck swiping away at an RT. What is the skulk doing? Going off to try and find a lone marine to kill, and in a good rine teams case, ends up dying. So now this electrified RT has gotten your team up to 3 res in RFK, and removed a fade from pestering your marines for a good 30 seconds or more, which sometimes can make all the difference.

How about: instead of a power generator, the comm simply needs to place a 'power coupling' (pronounced 'cupling', im just unsure of the spelling) in base somewhere. This would cost, say 10 res, and would be the prerequisite to elec rather than the TF. Then, it would take say 5 bites on the power coupling to turn off all electrification for 30 seconds.

Something like that would be a (start to a) decent, balanced counter to elec.

good teamwork is a counter to elec

Following up on Legato's post:
Don't forget that between the time the skulk kills the unelectrified RT and the time the unelectrified RT gets rebuilt there is a 1 to 2 minute gap that the RT isn't collecting res. That's 15 - 25 res not being collected by the RT + and extra 15 res being spent on the new RT + a marine building the RT rather than being at the front lines.

Also, if you electrify the RT, that skulk who would have killed the unelectrified RT will probably go off, attack MS and die. That gives you RFK, adds another player to the alien's spawn queue and ultimately makes the skulk be less effective than he could be.

Finally, don't forget that the unelectrified RT will most likely be killed multiple times. That means even more rebuilds and more res taken to rebuild the RT.


In short, We can say that
The electrified RT will:

• Collect enough res to repay itself.
• Collect extra res from not being killed.
  

• Be low maintainance.
• Be protected from attack.
• Not need to be defended from attack.

The unelectrified RT will:

• Collect less res than it's counterpart over time.
• Cost additional res to rebuild.
• Not collect res between dying and being rebuilt.
  

• Be high maintainance.
• Cost the marine team more labour force and time to rebuild.
• Need to be defended from attack.
• Be more vulnerable to attack again.

I hope my sentences and post in general make sense... its late and I should be getting to bed. I hope this somewhat silences the ones doubting electrification, even if I have derailed the topic.

yeah i wanna follow up on legato's post as well he brings up a lot of good strong points as apose to what is mainly bicering which note i did read all your opinions.

The best exsample of a elec strat I can give is main group heads out side of ms with closet direct rougte to hive, along the way they cap the closest node out that side of base, while two man small squad builds some stuff at ms. they elec cap it and see if the first wave of aliens come no wave, ok push on. They push to the node just out side of hive and cap it, at this point they elec, they can stand with in the elec feild and almost garrentee that no rine will die, any sulk that happens to close the distance is zapped any sulk trying to sneak with cloak gets zapped just before they bite. you can almost garrentee leave one man at a elec res node and he can hold it, any sulk with the objective of run passed is going to have a hard time and even if he wants to run passed he will more than likely try and take him out, any sulk with the objective to take him out will fail.

the body of the group can usaly push into the hive and they take down the aliens hive node in a couple of shots they then retreat out the other side of the hive to the next closet res node and shot it down cap it and elec, if there is no node to do this they drop a tf with in seige range and elec. the small squad back at ms thats built most things can then head out the other side of spawn and can cap and elec the first node they come across from their they can walk the map and take out nodes, any alien wishing to hit ms usaly attempts the node first but is forced to avoid it, with the direct rougte to the aliens main hive clear as rines move from elec res node to node you can leave one man at the elec node out the other side of spawn.
The two man team push to the other two hives and take down elecs the nodes there. any other node on the map just needs to be cheacked occatianly by the two man team that moves from elec node to elec node.

If aliens recap the hive node, push in and take it out the effect is any alien wanting to get out and push some were is going to have a tough time. the issue is aliens if they lose the first nodes and the nodes havent pay for them selves and then they lose the gorges who droped the nodes they are in dept, you take out the hive node, they cant get out of dept.

ok maybe a bunch of sulks manage to rush a rine siting on a elec node, they take him out. they still cant take out the node. try it with shot guns, you hand out shot guns, you moveing thur the map you are requested to work in two's on or your own, you get jumped your res is wasted. the two sulks that just jumped you take out the none elec res node you just droped thats 20 res wasted, wanan try again. you take 2 men or three men, you move to the node if its up you clear it take out aliens it might be cleared, you push on do you leave the node undefeneded, ok so 1-3 men move on, if one man manged to find a node not caped can he take it out before aliens swarm? 3 men ok so your last caped node isnt defened, your half way thru secureing and building the next node, your previous node comes under attack, do you split the group leave the half built node to go back and save the last. hum its getting dicey, ok rush build then head back to the last node, leave one man na ya all go back one ya not fast enough, prahaps one of you dies from a ambush, thats another five res the node goes down, ya new node is under attack. prahaps you leave one man at the second node and two head back, you head back, you kill the sulks just before they drop the res node, the sulks kill the one guy you left at the node, one sulk is chomping node two the other two sulks head for you guys/the node thats almost dead, they ambush head on fire fight, ether way there's a chance your just lost another 5 res plus your buddie who no ones is near to get his gun back. any way the fight takes to long and the lone sulk chomps your node down, here you came off good or what but the chomper sulk is going to take the vents and chomp down ya first node as your just pushing back into the area you just lost.

The other option is to push to the hive in large groups with shotie's. seal up the nodes and try for a phase gate. at which point if something gets around behind you it has free range on your nodes, maybe you have one guy on patrols, ops he died thats another five res and a few nodes latter, aliens now have fades. and you had to do your best to hold area for 3 minutes while phase techs up.

Ether way your loseing nodes and your loseing guns and wasteing med packs, all to have them get a fade or two any ways. you elec ok you dont have free run of the map, but if you hug your node you definately play the resources card and in most casses win.

their was a huge stint of this a while back on aussie servers, sealed up hive 4-5 res nodes eleced in the first few minutes, there where no counters, fer say, it won most every time, Unless the node and the rine team could be taken out before they got the seal hive node up, which takes mass cowardination, from every alien and they all must know they are doing a elec strat, *which means no aliens any where else on the map , cos if that node gets built and eleced its over. additonaly carapace and regen where helpers so DC droped in first few seconds.

a few things i also found worked, the rougte they pushed out of ms, if two aliens can get up there go gorge and drop OC's to block said rougte as well as oc's that shoot the elec res node it blocks further passage until finaly phase tech comes, or at least is a dangrous med spam gorntlet, the only other thing that really helps is trying to hit MS res node, its the least likely to be eleced, their just isnt enough res to do 6-8 nodes.

as for which rines you hsould kill, those attacking spawn are just holding you in your objective is to get out and find the two guys roaming the map caping the node, elec nodes and MAKING sure they dont cap and elec hive nodes. cos just by chance you do get enough res to re hive whats the point tradeing hives to a hive room with a elec res node. also being your objective to escape from the sealed up hive also allows you to regen, get into place and hit the elec res node campers sealing up hte hive from more than one side.

Anyway the fad and garrenteed win die down as marines just simply want bigger guns. They found camping in a elec feild to be boring at best.


Any ways i am all for the power gen / couple link idea, I think it needs to cost like about 10 res, can elec the same normal buildings but apon reciveing X amount of damage say 200 or a full energy bar of gorge spit the elec starts to fail and it must be weld repaired, not fussed which building its built from. if would be nice if no power ment slower research times. but then i would say the couple link would need to be TOTTALY destroyed to effect research times.

and yes in C&C I am a huge fan of takeing out power plants, most people dont know what to do.

<3 Milo

Lets just agree that in order to make elec work you either need a superior marine team or you need to be in the nether regions of skill-land

lol
this is why i started this thread; if a counter was put in place for electrification, then maybe elec could cost less.

Check this idea:
-instead of requiring a TF to elec, the comm instead needs to place a Power Coupling structure somewhere, perhaps a certain distance from the CC, and it costs maybe 20 res.
-Once the comm has a power coupling, he can elec tfs and rts for 20 res.
-if the power coupling is destroyed, all elec turns off.
-If the power coupling is rebuilt, it takes 15 seconds to turn power back on to the elec'd structures.
-the power coupling would have fairly low hp, say half that of an armory, or perhaps 3/4s


This would obviously change the way elec works and is used, but it would also make electrification its own viable tech path. Right now its too expensive to be used much, especially in a balanced game. Its also almost too powerful in some situations, plus, when used properly, the current elec strategy results in perhaps the worst losing game for the aliens possible.