~Ideas for Decoys~
Right now, decoys aren't very effective as recons (i.e, the main force in PVP) can tell if they're DECOYs. It's very unlikely that you'll use anything OTHER than a recon for spotting traps, so letting recons spot the "odd ones out" is a bit redundant.
1. Recons should NOT be able to tell the difference between a fake and a real trap (at least, not immediately). They already have ridiculous trapvision as it is; it's only fair that they don't have detection to go with it. Besides, decoys aren't much good if you know they're decoys! They're meant to be there so people can spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to disarm them or carefully going around them instead of wrecking your base!
Alternatively, their "truesight" radius should be substantially reduced so they can detect traps from a long range but actually have to close in if they want to check if it's a decoy or not.
2. Decoy traps should at the very least make a loud noise and stagger people if they go off, as if they were shot. I've been told that they "contain humiliation" and decrease morale, but that's not all that helpful for actually defending a base. I mean, come on. We only get one decoy of each type anyway and they don't really do anything as it is.
23/05: Changed "decoys suppress" to "make people around them stagger as if shot" - not very big, but just enough to stop them in place for a moment. Could just stop a melee rush under suppressing fire by staggering a survivor. People have also suggested that decoys trigger off nearby traps when set off or disarming fails.
3. Decoy Barricades! These are basically the same as regular small barricades, just with LIVE GRENADES inside. Basically, these explode when an enemy survivor tries to use them as cover, dealing damage and leaving the enemy conspicuously out of cover.
With any hope, decoys can be just as important as regular traps in defending your base! (or at least of some use).
Edit 23/05: Other very important improvements to trap use would be display trap blast radius during placement. This is particularly important with scatterbombs, which lots of newbies have trouble placing properly because the firing end isn't abundantly clear.
Binned suggestions:
Other suggestions.
1. Decoy wire traps would be nice, although I'm not sure if it would be OP because they can deny such a large area. Honestly speaking though, how hard is it? All you'd need is what, string painted to look like wire?
This idea... was not very good. I guess attackers need a break too.
2. A decoy survivor that doesn't do anything would be nice too (especially for compounds where the survivors are almost never at home). The only problems I can see with it are that it'd draw fire away from actual survivors, although leaving "scarecrows" around your resources might be a good way to stop raiders from coming in.
In retrospect, this wasn't a good idea but would still make an excellent piece of decoration. Non-functional, of course; it adds to the atmosphere.
Edited by Midimiaow, 23 May 2013 - 01:45 PM.