Opening first this discussion with a question:
How many items in the Uplink go unused by Syndicate members? Are there items you never see bought purposefully, no matter what? Only used when they come in a Surplus?
/
I’ve noticed quite a few items like this. Job-specific ones such as the Combat Bakery Kit, or the Librarian’s Cane Sword; they cost either more than most people are willing to pay considering the current methods of combat make them more ineffective in comparison to say.. a gun. Such as the Cobra or Viper or Python…
Even then the bounds of discussion on items that see little use; the Syndicate Dusters, the Camera bug, the Throwing Knives.. are you starting to see my point?
The Dusters? North Stars are better in every way. Gibbing tools? Syndi Toolbox is 2TC with a whole set of Tools, Rigged Boxing Gloves at least even offer an alternative that is also much more silent.
The Knives are never bought because.. why? Throwing is a slow, extremely risky proposition with a paltry sum of damage considering also the cost of the items themselves in TC.
The Camera bug? It’s costly and the Camera viewing interface is a bit clunky, making practical use a bit odd but it has potential I suppose.
/-/
Please feel free to chime in on things such as these that you feel are never used, and the reasons why that may be.
I hope that to some of the Maintainers that it can offer valuable feedback that might be not given otherwise.
I actually use the knives a lot and think they are GROSSLY underrated and underused. 6 TC is fine for them and I promise you do not want them cheaper. These things scale with robustness and making them cheap will turn all your veterans into maintenance monsters.
Otherwise I agree with everything else and hope there is some pricing tuning or logic that puts discounts on things commonly not purchased.
the one reason I am iffy about the camera bug is just that it can be hard to even know which camera you want to look at without trial and erroring. doubly soo if they are unnammed in mapping. my simple fix would be to make it so camera bugs give you a AI EYE visualization. and whenever you re-open the ai eye it leaves you where you left off.
Its more issue of camera monitor UI in general being not easy to use. I remember discussions saying AI eye would be too OP for warden, I guess if the camera bug were to be changed to hook into AI eye vision… Wouldn’t it be a downgrade, as no longer you would be able to keep eyes on the doors to department to see if nobody is coming, while doing some antagonistic activity?
It is a stealth item. It does not make a loud buzzing noise when activated and swung. Instead it makes the usual slash sound that is common to hear around the station.
It is the difference between someone 2 rooms over screaming “e-dagger in dorms!” before you even swung once vs trying to investigate where the noise is coming from before even saying anything.
All of these items do have applications, they’re just not the best of the best of the best. Syndicate knuckle dusters may not be as quick at gibbing as northstars but they’re a hell of a lot quieter and cheaper, and they’re available to everyone unlike the rigged gloves. The throwing knives are armor piercing and very much good at what they do, especially given the price. The Camera Bug is intended as more of an espionage option and is particularly useful if you need to steal something in a given location and want to wait until the coast is clear.
They all also have the purpose of filling up surplus and super surplus crates.
Edagger doesn’t bleed, can be quickly concealed, when paired with the ultrabright or radio jammer, most people won’t detect you. Worse case scenario you lie and said you found them like this, then drag them off to med.