Should Booby traps Deny Saboteurs?

[MTKing4]

Evidently by This Video Saboteurs ignore booby traps, but should that change? I think it would be a good change and making a good use of an otherwise useless (mostly) Feature/upgrade

The example here is to booby trap scuds to prevent timer reset

[ImTimK]

It would be pretty epic if can deny saboteurs, that's a real game changer and the upgrade wouldn't need a price reduction then.

[HeissesFeuer]

it would be nice to use booby traps to deny saboteurs, but then should demo still get the booby traps upgrade for free?

and what about stealth and tox? they don't have booby traps, should that change?

[MTKing4]

Demo weaker than stealth and tox, so it should be fine

[ImTimK]

it would be nice to use booby traps to deny saboteurs, but then should demo still get the booby traps upgrade for free?

and what about stealth and tox? they don't have booby traps, should that change?

Those are good questions, balance between GLA's differ greatly per map, Demo is the best on very campy maps with a lot of money like Oil Rampage. Overall however, Demo and GLAv seem weaker than Tox and Stealth, so this change would be advantageous for them.

Let's break it down per matchup:

GLAv mirror: For $1K SW camp becomes more effective and Saboteurs less viable. GLAv vs Tox: Nothing changes, Tox doesn't have Sabos or Booby Traps. GLAv vs Demo: Demo can protect his buildings for free against Saboteurs. GLAv vs Stealth: GLAv can now protect his buildings if he purchases the upgrade. Tox mirror: Nothing changes. Tox vs Demo: Nothing changes. Tox vs Stealth: Nothing changes. Demo mirror: Nothing changes. Demo vs Stealth: Demo can protect his buildings for free against Stealth Saboteurs. Stealth mirror: Nothing changes.

[HeissesFeuer]

In my opinion, it doesn't seem fair that demo gets the upgrade for free while GLAv has to pay 1000 to get it. Plus having booby traps deny saboteurs could make saboteurs completely irrelevant against glav and demo. What I would suggest is to remove the upgrade from the barracks and make booby traps pay to use (you need to pay every time you use a booby trap), it probably should be more than the cost of a saboteur. Which means you can still protect your scuds with booby traps but also need to protect them with tunnels and stingers. That way saboteurs aren't completely irrelevant, while still giving glav and demo an extra protection against them.

[ImTimK]

Currently I feel it's balanced when looking at the greater picture of balance between the factions. Like MTKing and I said, GLAv and Demo in general are probably less strong on the majority of maps. When you add up what Demo has to invest extra in his unit production, it easily justifies the free Booby Trap ability.

Booby Traps are underrated, forgetting to use them as Demo is a surely a mistake. Killing and denying Burton from destroying your oil is huge. Delaying the enemy oil from capping your oil also worth it, if you only delay it for 1 minute you already have your $1K back and the enemy misses out on this money, that's a $2K difference. It should be meta in multiple matchups and situations.

I like the idea of further buffing the upgrade and denying Saboteurs is surely an interesting one, however I feel the same that it wouldn't be nice if a new meta completely makes Sabos unviable. Maybe a counter nerf idea would be making the explosion radius smaller so it only protects a part of bigger buildings. Perhaps could add an upgrade to the palace that makes the boom bigger, for a reasonable price.

[ImTimK]

An alternative idea to make Booby Traps more viable in more matchups would be adding a manual detotation button, so that you can defend against multiple treats like TT's aswell if you time it correctly.

[MTKing4]

An alternative idea to make Booby Traps more viable in more matchups would be adding a manual detotation button, so that you can defend against multiple treats like TT's aswell if you time it correctly.

That would need a command set button for detonation to all trappable buildings, I'm not sure all of them have free slots for that, like a war factory or tunnel for example

[ImTimK]

I think the waypoint button is pretty useless, does it work without it?

Or maybe make the bomb itself selectable?