I was going to write "in before CB makes a mission where it is necessary to deactivate stuff", but now that I check I note we have to mentally add the F-13 Turret to the list of stuff Deactivator can remove and also one where you can gainfully use the +6 range band. It's about equal for a Jujak Engineer in a Haris to attempt removing the F-13 with Combi as Deactivator assuming both have cover (more likely to remove with Deactivator but higher risk of taking a wound) edit: numbers ran in +3 rangeband. If you get within +6 it'll of course be a lot better to Deactivate them.
There's lots of interesting things you could do to spruce up deactivators. You could design them so that models with a deactivator don't trigger deployables or AROs from deployables. You could make them like jammers but for deployable weapons, allowing you to disarm deployables without needing LoF. You could remove the "deployed on the game table" clause and have them create a new state that turns off all your equipment until you successfully reset (also make mimetism equipment); basically make it cause burnt state. The concept is neat and could offer interesting counter-play options if it was tweaked a little bit.
I used deactivator only once. Irmandinho had problem with mine of his path, and I preferred 1 dice on 16, than 2 dices on 8.
Deactivators used within area/range of effect of a deployable (so the 8” band mostly) should be high-stakes (like demining in real life). If the trooper makes the WIP check, the equipment is disabled without affecting the trooper/anyone else. If the trooper fails the roll, it takes the hit/pulse/whatever. This creates a situation that is both useful and dramatic. It also creates an incentive to actually use the item, and to learn the subtle advantages it gives over just shooting mines. If players don’t see a fairly easy-to-grasp incentive to use a piece of complex equipment in at least one way, they will never bother with the subtle parts. The variant hacking programs like Icebreaker or Basilisk from N3 which had uses but were less common than the easy-button of Redrum etc. are good examples of that. Strongly disagree- we really don’t need more non-LoF interaction in the game right now. While Minesweeper is more indirect (affects equipment, not troops), being able to sweep things that don’t get AROs without even having to see them feels very non-interactive. It’s the fun of thing that feels swingy and less fair, and which N4 really tries to avoid. Much agreed that Minesweeper should go if it can’t get some tweaks, but would much rather see a couple small changes make it into really fun if risky gear that makes Combat Engineers as cool as they should be (okay Kurgats and EVAders are already cool, but the rest could catch up!). The Lunakhod was an AMAZING Minesweeper bot. Mobile, had its own koalas (which could also sweep mines back then), and a nasty close-range weapon. It wad the perfect tool for stealing deployables efficiently. Unfortunately it wasn’t obvious enough, so got under-used, then Minesweeper got gutted (and they hacked the unit’s cost too high).
There are also metas that have ruled that mine template can't touch their own camo-marker. In these metas, you can use the old superjump-trick to have a LoF to the mine without it being triggered.
That's a very interesting take on it for sure. I assume the ruling is that the template can not be placed inside the camo marker rather than touching it (as otherwise mines wouldn't be able to detonate at all until discovered) - which is using the template placement rules. I think that's the correct companion interpretation for metas where mines can be hit by templates touching only the top camo marker and not the camo marker's base (and of course equally the incorrect one where the interpretation is that only the mine's base can cause the mine to take damage)
Never used them. Never realy missed them in N4. Back in N3 (with AD deviation) I lost a Netrod to my opponents Kameel REM, because it landed just in front of it..
I actually just used a Deactivator in a tournament game this last Sunday. My opponent deployed a minelayer Speculo with a mine on a ledge overlooking some of my units. I was able to Sensor it though a building and then have the Medchanoid use its Deactivator to remove it on a 17 or less. Anyway I want Sniffers back. In fact, I want something like a Pitcher for Sniffers.
So would I, Sniffers actually did something and saw a fair bit of use and yet they were canned because no-one used them and the deactivator which almost never saw use stuck around. Also beware the pitcher sniffer, you could FO through them so you would end up with a way to spotlight shit while bypassing firewalls and ecm.
That was Sat-Lock iirc, which was good but doesn't exist anymore (and was hampered by rulings that you couldn't target things like mines).
there is only one way to make deactivators useful. eliminate lof requirement and make face to face for close range.
How do you make it face-to-face when one of them is a template weapon and, therefore, has nothing to roll?
Simple. wip or BAAM! if wip is succesful then the mine doesnt explode. If not mine explodes. cinematic action.
I don't think that's a very good idea. In part because of the rather extreme target values (on some units it's "roll below 21 on a 20 sided dice or BAAM") but also in part because the distribution of Deactivator doesn't seem to have been given out with any thought of them working effectively in this role (e.g. it's one of very very few points that's bloat on Evaders).