Content Suggestion New Type Of Containment Breach - Reactor Overloads

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ScavBane

ScavBane

Well-known Member
Jun 25, 2025
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United Kingdom
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
This suggestion introduces a new type of event to system breaches, The reactor overload Event which will be on occassion tied with the system breaches. Currently, containment breaches occur randomly or through the breach queue, and sometimes there is an accompanying power outage. While this adds something for tech experts to do, and can be annoying if tesla's are down, it does not actually provide that much extra roleplay to E&TS, who will actually have to put some effort in and work with combatives to repair the site.

Alongside the breach of an SCP from the queue, the site’s reactor goes into overload, triggering a full-site blackout, meaning only dim emergency lights will be your guide through this or night vision goggles.


How it occurs:

  • The Server Playercount must be above 80+ Players, and there must be 12+ MTF Online.

  • The breach queue will list both the SCP breaching and if there will be a reactor overload, although if meta wants to be prevented, you can have it listed silently.

  • The site will experience a total blackout, until reactors & Boxes are repaired

  • Combatives (MTF, Security, etc.) will need to escort tech experts to the reactor area in order to begin repairs.

  • A 30 minute timer begins when the overload occurs. If the reactor is not repaired before the timer expires, it results in additional containment failures as more SCPs are automatically released from the queue. (Max of 2, although this is entirely optional this result)

  • SCPs may attempt to interfere with the repair process by using their breach tools to release additional SCPs or patrol HCZ, but they cannot indefinitely camp the reactor area (no longer than 5 minutes of continued presence).

  • Once the reactor is repaired, Technical Experts must also restore all of the Electrical Boxes throughout the site before full power is stabilized. Importantly, this finally gives HCZ Boxes a purpose. However, you only need to repair the reactors to prevent the additional containment failures. (Which again, are entirely optional, I am just giving it more of a danger if it isn't done.)

    Note: You can still contain SCPs so if you get 106, and he's protecting reactor. You can rush to get a D-Class to get down to his CC to contain him.


Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:

N/A


Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):


  1. Much more Escort Combative Roleplay - Combatives must actively protect Technical Experts during reactor repair, creating escort roleplay basically and requiring communication and planning between combatives and non-combative departments, more importantly, this actually gives E&TS more involvement in site roleplay rather than just being a side department. Tech experts become a massively more important role. As well as Engineers.

  2. Actual Urgency During Breaches – Instead of breaches being simple (an SCP breaks out and runs loose until he is killed by someone who's not E-11), reactor overloads add a countdown and additional consequences if not handled properly. The tension of triggering further SCP breaches causes people to be more stressed out on getting it resolved more quickly which can be beneficial or lead to downfalls if they're not calm and patient during it.

  3. SCPs have another purpose in breaches – SCPs can do something else, which is prevent reactor repairs, attempt to free additional SCPs, or use the blackout to escape which although is good n all, will just lead to them being quickly evaporated by certain GOC with charge rifles. Don't tell me the SCPs on surface can do damage unless it's 173.

  4. WIll make it feel more epic and heavy nostalga from the original scp game – A containment breach causing a reactor overload and a blackout will make it feel like it's SCP containment breach void the fact it was caused by 079, this will make players really believe they are in an actual containment breach that is terrifying rather than.. oh no, SCP Breach, anyway. The requirement of flashlights and NVGs, just makes it more fun. I know this is already a thing with full power downs during 3 SCP Breaches, but the fact it's like until repairs rather than just randomly pops back on is much more enjoyable. As well as the fact if you add the fact it will lead to more scp breaches if not solved, you are basically praying for MTF to get in HCZ solve the crisis rather than just knowing they will be waiting for the SCP to come up to primary with a firing line.

  5. HCZ electrical boxes HAVE A PURPOSE, they are never broken by anyone and just sit there most of the time. This encourages more active knowledge from E&TS as knowing that all the ones that break after a power-out is just in LCZ is so plain.


Possible Negatives of the suggestion:

  1. Without clear in-game guidance, players may not understand what to do during a reactor overload. This could lead to confusion if mechanics are new and not informed properly to the playerbase.

  2. If Combatives fail to repair the reactor in time, the release of additional SCPs could overwhelm the site quickly which could lead to frustration and code black, and then a warhead which can be icky.

  3. E&TS become too important for a small role - Because they are key to resolving overloads, Tech Experts and engineers may feel overwhelmed by their requirement to exist, and let's say someone is afk for like 2 minutes on Tech Expert, the flak they will get for not rushing reactor may be annoying.

  4. Moderation may need to work a lot more during these to make sure SCPs aren't camping and that.

  5. If the SCPs that breach are in LCZ, good luck.

Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
  • It increases more importance for the underutilized department E&TS.
  • It encourages cross-departmental roleplay between Combatives and Non-Combatives. Escort Roleplay seems a lot of fun.
  • More purpose for SCP players in breaches rather than just walk around and kill.
  • It adds a scary type of breaches, turning them into chaotic crisis that adds a more enjoyable tension especially with the blackouts that make everyone use flashlights and waiting for them to be jumpscared by an SCP.

    There's a lot of reasons why this should be accepted but I got writing fatigue so I'll just post it for now.
 
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If they managed to make HCZ way more secure then I'd be ok with this, but as it stands the HCZ reactor area is way too easy for a raid party to reach with chemicals like NHU, features like dimensions/instances, jobs like TB or Thauma, or weapons like the Freedom and Sanctum SR, I understand most of these can be countered in their own way, however MTF and other combative forces have too much on their plates to actually properly counter all of these features.
NHU is borderline uncounterable, and a full raid party of 8 people can use a minimum of 720ml of NHU + cortico doses to just rush HCZ reactors, and hold the area before any MTF or combative forces can respond properly.
Dimensions can be countered, but if used by a competent force, they can use Potent Dulox and use alternate routing to just simply avoid high traffic areas across site to avoid potential SRA deployments.
TB and Thauma is a similar situation to dimensions, and have their own strengths that make them just completely ridiculous to fight against, sometimes just unfair to a certain degree.
And as for the 1 shot energy weapons like the Freedom, these can be countered with stuff like shields, or dimensions, or even just other snipers or energy weapons on their own.

This is a really good concept, but as it stands, unless MTF and Foundation get the tools and resources necessary to protect and retake these areas on their own, I don't see this playing out in a positive way for more passive RP departments like RSD and Medical to facilitate the RP these departments are attempting to go for right now.
 
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Acey said:
-SUPPORT

This idea is cool in concept alone and nothing else, let me elaborate:

It's cool and scary and fits the theme of SCP well, no doubt about it. However gameplay will trump aesthetics more times than not. Something can 'feel' and 'look' cool but not necessarily function well.

I. Escort "gameplay"

Not fun nor does it add to RP. Escort roleplay, as another commented before, is essentially a Bethesda-style escort mission. It'd be tedious to do at best and a horrendous time-wasting and frankly dogshit job at worst.

It's so simple! Dodge the massive breach, tesla gates ( lag ), potential CI raid and open the CL4 doors to let the techie into HCZ and then repeat! CL4 personnel have better things to do than open doors and E-11 with override are literally fighting a breach. I am not sending one of my men to run around like a headless chicken to do something so painfully BORING while the rest of us fight off a breach.

By the way, this was the ideal scenario where the techie isn't a complete minge. They're already painfully unreliable and half the time there's no techie on to speak of.. at least not one that isn't sitting in LCZ ignoring the ETS calls to fix 096's chamber. Most of the time, we have to get one of our guys to flag on to fix the doors and the other half they sit there broken for half an hour if not longer. This is to say.. you'd need to take 2 E-11 away from the breach to deal with it. Let's skip the whole talk of how it harms our efficiency as we're usually the only ones dealing with C5, no, let's talk about how BORING that is to do.

II. Breach 'urgency'

As the other commenter pointed out - Breaches are already pretty urgent. I don't know what happens in LCZ but in HCZ we all scramble and immediately start checking cells and making callouts. The entirety of Epsilon-11 drops whatever they were doing and go straight to deal with a Code-5. Adding a timed element to a breach does nothing for it as we already try and sort them out in the fastest time possible ( As SCPs can breach each other ) and we prioritise the proper SCPs.

I feel like you wrote this one without ever actually playing Epsilon-11 or if you did, you didn't stick around much. This comment and the one about MTFs having nothing to do outside breaches. You might not have involved yourself in the many RP opportunities but this E-11 did, does and will continue to. There are plenty RP opportunities for E-11 if RSD do their end and come to test.

III. SCPs have another purpose

LMAO

Just lmao. I'm sorry but this is horrid. SCPs already have a massive problem with camping, namely camping 079's CC and while that is really bad, camping reactor ( Which provides power to the ENTIRE site ) is much worse. Nothing's more infuriating than having to go out of your way to pick up NVGs so you can continue whatever RP you were doing. It's not spooky, it's not scary - It's inconvenient. No one other than SCPs benefit from this and they're already made to be powerful. Fighting in the dark is already annoying for MTFs and I don't think I'm wrong in my assumption that non-combatives feel something similar. I feel like I don't need to go too deep into why playing in the dark with dogshit NVGs and flashlights isn't fun.

IV. Nostalgia

Nostalgia will never be a good argument for anything and it's not changing with this. Yes, SCP:CB has its great horror elements and is a fun game as is but that does not translate well into Gmod SCP:RP. No, it's not "just another breach" and the requirement of flashlights and NVGs doesn't make it more fun, it just makes it a pain to play. No one likes only seeing 2 meters in front of them whilst having a shitty green filter. It doesn't add to anything - It just blocks most of your line of sight for no reason other than trying to recreate that fear factor, which it can't.

Another thing - SCPs can already breach each other and that by itself is already hard to deal with. The SCPs aren't underpowered. We DO NOT NEED another breach method. Again, this makes me think you haven't played any MTFs or at least recently.

V. Electrical boxes

Electrical boxes already do have a purpose. I'm in agreement that maybe something can be done to involve those into the breach and do something with them but not like this. It's just pointless running around trying to fix them or sitting in the dark for the next hour. Oh yeah. Hour. And as previously stated by my fellow commenter - No one is running towards that far away 939 electrical box with joy. Or the one under SA that everyone forgets about for 20 minutes before ( Most of the time ) I remind them about it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, other than some nostalgia-bait this is a suggestion that could never work. The random blackouts are boring and groan-inducing as they are and we do not need to make them even worse. NVGs and flashlights are NOT fun to use. Escort gameplay will never be fun either. If this were to go through, the now average breach time of 30-40 minutes would skyrocket to the lenght of an 008 breach and would inconvenience not just E-11 but the entire site. It adds 0 fun roleplay and gameplay opportunities - It'd just be another job.
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This yap do be simple to solve.

1. Having to cooperate in escorting Techies to fix a facility that is breaking down is not tedious. Bethesda escort missions are singelplayer, not multiplayer. CL4 personnel do not have anything better to do. E-11 who do not have access to Advanced weaponry would love to escort a techie over face SCPs with bad equipment. There are 5 techie slots, just ask someone to flag on, unlikely that all five techie slots are being hogged by minges.

2. I was E-11 NCO, it's really not that urgent to contain current breaches. Tesla gates literally kill 1/2 of SCP's HP and they become weak to LCZ Combatives. If you are E-11 you should know that you're not the main vanguard of preventing breaches, that would be the combination of all the MTF forces rather than just yourself, imagine if E-11 could singlehandedly prevent a breach pfff.

3. Camping is a staff issue to be solved, failing to report to staff is not a game problem, it's a you problem, staff are not omnipotetant, they cannot see everything so you need to report it. Fighting in the dark is annoying? Are breaches supposed to be comfortable and calm???

4. Nostalgia is literally what drives people to join a SCP RP over a Dark RP server or military RP.

5. They can be moved if you ask Developers nicely.
 
Yeke said:
I have to throw this out here, but people really hate the light outages etc and also triple breaches, how would this help change that, though im surprised at 10 upvotes.
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For the lighting issue, you could make the emergency lights more prominent and more numerous throughout the facility, on top of making NVGs easier to access and with a shorter cooldown (A suggestion could be made for a dispenser-dropped body flashlight that could work out of the C menu as opposed to an SWEP).

As for triple breaches...triples are supposed to be tuff (though should be rare), not free eats for combat xp like single or some doubles tend to be. Plus, foundation jobs don't have to sit in a cc for hours on end waiting to be interacted with while saving their queue spot (I wouldn't be arguing for SCPs retaining their power if those players had more alternative methods of play available to them outside of the breach).

I get what you're saying, but the more we take from SCPs without adding alternative stuff, the less incentive there is for sincere SCP players, leading to people only flagging on so they can help their own department get samples and flag off. I've seen tons of new players try a breachable SCP once, have a bad experience, and swear off playing SCP or even the server itself.
 
Acey said:
By the way, this was the ideal scenario where the techie isn't a complete minge. They're already painfully unreliable and half the time there's no techie on to speak of.. at least not one that isn't sitting in LCZ ignoring the ETS calls to fix 096's chamber. Most of the time, we have to get one of our guys to flag on to fix the doors and the other half they sit there broken for half an hour if not longer. This is to say.. you'd need to take 2 E-11 away from the breach to deal with it. Let's skip the whole talk of how it harms our efficiency as we're usually the only ones dealing with C5, no, let's talk about how BORING that is to do.
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I remember when E-11 called tech experts to 008 chamber then refused their entry when 2 showed up just cause you didnt want to use two amnestics, then proceeded to have one of your guys flag on tech expert to do it instead, preventing RP from the actual tech expert players
 
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