Just thought of this idea, comment on what you think.

It's a compromise between 'storing' the cat-pack, and making it accessible asap.

*Drum Roll*

Cat-pack, when picked up by marine is stored. It is consumed the 1st time the marine hits the +attack button.

Tada.

On the other hand, that's a bit strange, on the other hand, that would be damn useful, especially in CO.

Until the pro-alien members come in to shoot this down, this idea has no problems whatsoever.

/me votes yes please.

its been suggested before. i wouldnt mind it. i personally think it should drop when you start shooting. i dont think you shoudl press a button to activate it because when they go to ns they would be all like OMG COMM GET CATPAXTHX. wait wi kant i press my catpack button WTH COMM YOUR NOOB. catpacks must be dropped in ns games to keep reliacne on ze commander.

okay.. bind "+attack with catalyst"

Well I've replied to something similar, I said for CO the cat pack should take effect as soon as a certain amount of damage was done to an alien( like 10%) or the hive(like 2%)

This has it's advantages but this would work better with the storage idea so you spawn with a catpack and it deploys as soon as you start hurting things.

Now for normal though it's different some times the comm drops cats for his marines so they can get somewhere quickly rather then help them shoot aliens cats are horrible for players that can't aim like myself (I'm getting better I promise) Unless if you want to take down a structure fast.

I'm not so fond of it being deployed as soon as you start shooting though I think it should work on damage amount like the idea I said for CO It is triggered when you hurt something. But otherwise a great idea!

Good idea.

Could always swing your knife if you wanted to 'activate' it for running/bhopping somewhere.

Hehe yea that'll be a little funny.

"Zchting Zchting" Whee I'm speedy gonzales!

It'll probably be the easiest compromise, since newbies who receive the cat-pack will still activate it the moment they attack, instead of not-knowing it exists or having to press an extra button.

And dropping it during combat will still have an instant effect since marines will be firing.

Shotty rushes, yay!

No, seriously, I say thumbs up for this. Since the commander shouldn't be the one to tell the marine that get is to inject, logically thinking.

good idea. so the marines would only be able shoot again once the cat pack is activated yeah?

Ok. I don't think this idea will work. Why - Here goes.....

Binding the catalyst to the attack key means as soon as you press the attack key the cat is started. Total effect time i believe (although probably wrong) is somewhere in the region of 8 secs.

Marine picks up cat pack.

Skulk leaps out toward you, a single sg shot deals with this. You know have 8 secs of running around really fast and being able to shoot really fast.

After 9 secs a fade comes round the corner - oh **** no cat pack.

By all means make the cat pack storable, but don't bind it to the attack key, make a seperate bind key if neccesary so the marine has to 'use' the pack, but dont bind it to the attack key, very bad idea.

actually soul rider, i disagree with you. that imho would make it too overpowered, storing a catpack until the moment when you start firing still gives you an advantage over the current system

Not really because you still gotta make the call, do i use it now, or do i wait? And that way you could think its a single skulk, and get it wrong and die, or you could use it and waste, it's still a judgement call with split second timing and how many of them do you get right? I know that i get most worng, hence why i suck at NS.

Soul rider, so your point is:

Case: Oh no a skulk is coming to attack me, but I think a fade will be coming after me about 10 seconds later. The commander just dropped me a cat pack. So I will hold my fire for 10 seconds until the fade comes before firing and activating my cat pack even though there is a skulk just 50cm away from me.

With the current cat pack system, there is no choice for the marine. The commander makes the call when to cat his marines. The commander can cat the marine AFTER the skulk is dead and it'd be wasted.

The inventory slot / another button cat pack idea has already been suggested before, which gives the choice to the marine. The current cat system gives the choice to the commander.

So I thought of this way, which is a compromise.

Its neat. I still think the tech should cost more and a marine respawns with one a la HG tech.