Zap Traps And Corpus Invasions

[neoragdoll]

Firstly forgive me for my habit of calling Arc Traps as "Zap Trap". I just find it more fun to call them that way.

 

Okay now back to the main issue. Well maybe not yet, let's go on with some rants, skip the next 3 paragraphs if you don't feel like reading.

 

Many of us have experienced the monstrosity known as "Broken Lights". They used to induce migraine and killed our warframes outright at the start of missions before any hardcore potatolords could even say "git gud". They also spawn near the extraction room in Grineer Galleon, which can lead to the following situation: imagine you ran out of Life Support in a Survival mission but still managed to dodge all those Grineer and finally when you reach the extraction room with 5hp...ZAP! You're dead because some Broken Lights managed to dodge your 10/10 vision and spawned on the very high ceiling in that tileset.

 

Now of course we would not tolerate such cheap mechanic in our gameplay. DE listened and gradually change the Broken Lights. Started with toning down the white flash, then making them more visible and edit spawning behavior so that they do not instakill us at spawn zone. Still, with huge damage and incredible range (10m ingame!!!), they were not simply "anti-rush" but more of an encourage to use frame with high durability (also Rhino Prime was released back then, just some coincident I tell ya). Finally DE decided to rework them into the Arc Traps we know now.

 

Now instead of instantly dealing 400-500 damage for a single shock, Arc Traps project a continuous stream of lightning that do damage continuously as long as you are in range (still 10m). They also get their own ingame model, which reflects their intention as trap devices - compact, easy to conceal and put to places where it would be least expected. They are also given a very distinct zapping sound to warn us when we approach one.

 

Main parts now, people. Aside from immunity to explosions and some ridiculous spawning location inside Grineer tileset (i.e right on the door and floating in midair when the door is opened), I have seen some pretty serious problem with the zap traps during invasions. Now you all know they guarantee to proc a Shock status on hit, which doesn't mean much to us Space Ninjas. However, the AI units do not get such privilege. When shock status is inflicted on them, they will be incapacitated for a few seconds to simulate the muscle spasm or malfunctions in the case of Robotic units. Now combine the 100% shock proc with continuous damage. Zing! Arc traps becomes a death trap to AI since there is no escaping it once they in range. When a Corpus invasion happens on Grineer tileset, more than often you will see a squad of Corpus rendered harmless by a single Arc traps (did I mention that one Arc trap can attack multiple target and shock proc also produces chain lighting to nearby units?). The Grineer also somehow managed to put the traps deep inside the Corpus ship even before the invasion so that the boxheads will get electrocuted inside their own ship. Now I can't find any reason why such blatant sabotage is ignored but I know for sure that, if not for the greed help of Tenno, Corpus will certainly lose the war because all their units can be disabled by a single mass-producible Grineer device.

 

TL;DR: Zap traps can disable all Corpus units on Invasions making them even more easy.

Edited April 15, 2014 by neoragdoll