I have an idea that would greatly reduce the amount of manual tinkering in-game.
Mortars should have an option to hold fire unless the creep is at least x thick, say one unit or a half unit or something. I think the default should be 90% of a tick or something like that, and that it should come with a slider bar. You could save a ton of energy very easily by implementing such a thing.
Sometimes I also wished that I could order a blaster NOT to fire downhill at a thin pool when it's trying to protect a collector on its own level, or something. Another slider for how far downhill to fire would also help with energy management.
Both of these settings would have to be implemented on a per unit basis, but the option to set all mortars
Of course, if you implement things like this, you'll have to make the maps a little harder to make up for it. ;)
My apologies if this idea has already been posted.
This has not been posted before (I don't think :) )...
It is an interesting idea, though..... especially for mortars.
Your average player doesn't really understand the subtle mechanics of when mortars are most effective. They assume CW is supposed to be played like your average run of the mill RTS title (namely build as much as you can and send it all to the other side of the map). So they assume that a mortar is better than a blaster and they should put them everywhere.
People have become so accustomed to RTS titles which have little or no actual strategy in them that CW can be a bit baffling at first. When I made mortars I had to decide how they would target Creeper. In most RTS games units shoot at the nearest acceptable target. You can micro-manage targeting in some games (like the DOW series) to get a damage amplifier. But in CW the enemy is all around you and shooting at the closest can make sense (it is what blasters do).... but for mortars it almost never makes sense since the closest Creeper is usually the leading edge and therefore the thinnest.
So it seemed to make sense to make the mortars fire at the deepest in range, rather than the closest. But I honestly never thought about a threshold for when to fire at all.
I'd like to second this. When I'm really cramped for energy, I find my self pausing the game every so often to toggle my mortars for about two shots before disarming them again. I suppose implementing this might make the game easier, but if you made the maps larger, this would help keep the multi-tasking level around the same.
There are some TD ( Tower Defence ) games that have options for what to target ,
They might have options like :
-Hardest
-Closest
-Weakest
-First
-Last
And so on .
But if we know what turrets/towers do ,
it shouldnt be a problem .
So if there are more info in the game about how turrets/towers work ,
it would be easyer to choose the right turret/tower .
i've thought about this too (ussually when i'm getting annoyed at my blaster shooting at a pool of creeper below instead of at the creeper right next to it that's advancing on the collector powering it x.x)
as for the mortars i think that's a great idea, beats having to turn them off every other shot when you're low on power
i dont know if im 3, 4, or 5th to support this but that would be nice.
By the way aurzel ive been in that situation many times before, "cringe" so annyoing
once time i was practically yelling at my screen "Dammit the creeper's right there shoot it for crying out loud!"
or words to that effect >.>
i feel for ya buddy. "cringes at the thought of teh problem" lolz, kinda funny that the turrets that stuipd though
it's run by an AI, what do you want miracles? lol
UR THE ONE THAT POSTED ABOUT THE PROBLEM FIRST LOLZ. :D :D :D
By teh way aurzewl u seem to be the only person on here that can post as fast as i can, or is it the other way around, hmm, needs more thought, "spends next hour in contemplation".
i'm a fast typer, with lots of experience spamming certain pointless topics in other forums, what more can i say
back to the topic :3
I don't know if I've mentioned this yet before - I thought about it, but I don't know if I actually said it - but it would be helpful to be able to restrict the firing range of a blaster in-game to save energy when defending a location. (Though the most useful option of all would probably be the "don't fire downhill" option, which I mentioned earlier in the thread. Firing down at a thin pool that's getting pounded by a mortar when you're supposed to be fending off a thin advancing wave is bad news.)
Hey Aurzel, if this is the topic you referred to when locking my topic on blasters (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=431.msg3289#msg3289), then no, I've not posted in it. And this only talks about smart mortars, I'm also including blasters in the suggestion, which i am herby doing by reference to my locked topic (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=431.msg3289#msg3289).
yes it is, and i stand corrected, you didnt post here
and actually blasters have been talked about here, though not in the OP
Quote from: SPIFFEN on January 03, 2010, 12:56:22 AM
But if we know what turrets/towers do ,
it shouldnt be a problem .
So if there are more info in the game about how turrets/towers work ,
it would be easyer to choose the right turret/tower .
Actually I believe the tutorial in the game or whatever talks about how mortars will hit the thickest pool within it's range and I'm not sure but I believe it's the same for blasters if not that then whatever's closest.
no its not. I had lost a game because a blaster concentrated on a quite thin layer of creep down the cliff and ignored the crap oozing over it from the other side.
Hmm.. that's probably happened to me or maybe not since I tend to use two blasters for any one place. So if it's not then yeah range restriction would be kinda nice to have.
The simplest thing i'd like on this topis is to be able to give mortars a minimum thickness to fire at and give blasters a maximum. sinc mortars are more or less useless against thin layers and vice versa for blasters
For blasters, I think it's more important that you can stop them from firing downhill. If something is downhill and you just want to defend yourself from it, then you just need an occasional mortar shot. However, creep that's at the same elevation as you and closing in will almost always be thin, and you need to blast what's right in front of you. Wasting shots on a pool that's not even close to overflowing is a massive waste of energy. Sometimes you can position the blaster so that it can't reach the pool, but a smart blaster would be better by far.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of maps got a *lot* easier after implementing smart weapons that can be tweaked in-game with sliders. Of course, then you just have to make harder maps, or triple down, or something. :)
take a page from a rather old book.... Have a defensive, offensive, and middle setting
defensive would keep mortars from firing in pits shallower than 3 and would therefore save ammo, and would make blasters shoot only on their elevation (no downhill)
middle would make mortars shoot no shallower than 2 and blasters no lower then their elevation -1
offensive would let them fire at anything they could get there hands on
Regarding the smart mortars I agree completely. Great idea!
Regarding the smart blasters I'm not sure. As far as I understand the way they work (see here (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=21.msg5151#msg5151)), they are most effective on creeper that is exactly one elevation layer thick. So if they can shoot at creeper this thick, I'd like a blaster to do so (assuming this is the closest creeper as well). The only situation I wouldn't want this, is when the blaster is capping an emitter, but I guess a player should take care of that himself, for instance by putting another blaster closer to the the emitter (although I realize this is not always possible on certain maps).
The trouble with shooting blasters downhill is that often thin, advancing creep is an immediate threat to your collectors, and a half-unit-thick creep downhill from you is no immediate threat at all - especially if it's getting an occasional mortar shot anyway.
Sometimes it's useful to shoot blasters downhill, like when you want to clear out the area and build stuff. But a lot of times it's a distraction from the more dangerous stuff that's about to eat your base.
But a blaster will always fire at the closest creeper, so wouldn't moving it (in time) solve your problem in such a situation? And is the thin creeper you're talking about coming from a higher elevation? I'm not sure if I can clearly picture the scenario you're describing....
It can still waste energy by firing down. And sometimes there isn't room to move it away from the edge. Lots of things can happen. Almsot any time that it's firing down at something, it's an offensive maneuver, and any time it's firing straight ahead, it's defensive. And when I need them to defend and half their shots are going off to the side and totally to waste, it's a drain on my energy.