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[Happylisk]

Spoilers ahead, beware. 

There are numerous reasons to go to Waste.  There are also numerous ways to survive Waste (speed, luck with certain pre-fabbed events, serious firepower).  A combat cogmind who goes into waste without enough speed, without any of the more favorable events occurring, and without big enough guns is very likely to end up naked, or at the very least severely mauled.

I suggest adding one more way: a terminal close to where you land.  Give it a single command to turn off the trash compactors, and give the hack a low success chance and the terminal a high lockout chance.   

As precedent for this addition, I submit the following: 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You could even balance it so that performing this hack reduces the Alert drop you experience by going into Waste.  The hack would still be situationally useful if you went to Waste either to collect damaged high tier parts, or went in looking for a fight and discovered you couldn't hack it (har har).

[Kyzrati]

I knew what the video was before even opening it

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hm, I don't know...

I built the Compactors slow enough that you can outrun them on anything but multiple treads, or when too overweight. Although I admit I have less experience traveling through Waste than you all

Theoretically Terminals allow you access to anything indirectly, but yes it would be possible to add a feature that limits a specific terminal further to prevent that. And this terminal would also have to behave differently in that you couldn't wait for it to stop tracing, otherwise it could be too easy to eventually make the hack.

A good hacker could also too easily trivialize Waste, using it whenever they pleased without fear of consequences, or even intentionally to farm for potential benefits.

One aspect worth mentioning: The experience in Waste might change somewhat with the yet-to-happen propulsion overhaul. That area is, after all, often about outrunning enemies. I'll try to spend some more time passing through Waste on my runs (I really should've done it on my last seed run--I believe I would've had better chances of survival).

[Happylisk]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You're right that guaranteed terminal would enable Waste scumming.  It would work as a thing that occasionally appears, like the ally event, but then it's questionable if adding a unique-ish terminal that sometimes appears is worth it. 

[zxc]

I cleared the wastes on the weekly seed Recycling Vacation with srs firepower . Side point but I think it is very satisfying destroying large enemies like crushers and behemoths!

I'm not sure the wastes need a terminal. If it has a low chance to work, then only serious hackers will benefit from it most of the time, and they usually have the speed to avoid hurt anyway. It would only truly benefit the heavy packrats also carrying a large number of hacking utilities.

[Kyzrati]

Yeah, I don't plan to put a terminal in Waste.

I think it is very satisfying destroying large enemies like crushers and behemoths!

That was my impression, too. For the first time when playing Alpha 5 and loaded with firepower I was no longer worried about facing off against Behemoths--it wasn't a question of whether to take them down, just a question of where best to stand when I do it

[Decker]

I plan to ditch my hover units permanently if those propulsion changes are as good as they seem. Yet I don't want to lose the benefit of the wastes. I came up with a cheesy method (untested).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dig through two tiles with an energy cannon, hole up in there. Switch to non-wall-damaging weapons and go to town.

[zxc]

I plan to ditch my hover units permanently if those propulsion changes are as good as they seem. Yet I don't want to lose the benefit of the wastes. I came up with a cheesy method (untested).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dig through two tiles with an energy cannon, hole up in there. Switch to non-wall-damaging weapons and go to town.

I make use of this in the regular complex and other branches. Good idea to try it in Wastes, as they are melee and large. If this works then no doubt the walls should be upgraded to be impenetrable as it would be optimal.

[Kyzrati]

♫ Oh the problems with designing a fully-destructible world... ♫

(Edit: On a more serious note, I'll be putting a stop to this cheesing in Alpha 6.)

[zxc]

♫ Oh the problems with designing a fully-destructible world... ♫

(Edit: On a more serious note, I'll be putting a stop to this cheesing in Alpha 6.)

I hope you'll make it so that crushers can just walk through the walls thereby destroying the walls. That would be a lot cooler than just making the walls impenetrable.

[Kyzrati]

I wanted to do wall smashing very early on in Cogmind (I have that mechanic in X@COM and it's really fun!) but I couldn't get it to work elegantly and decided to drop the feature. After reading this thread I did add it back to the list, though, and we'll see .

That said, it's not the only solution here (but definitely the coolest). And I'm not going to make the walls impenetrable.