I am confused because it seems that the "energy packets" idea is used for almost everything: building things, charging weapons, and activating totems... but somehow, not healing. I would have liked the game a bit more if healing was dependent on one's energy reserves like everything else. Is there a reason that healing was made an exception?
Healing is based on energy packets already.
_k
Quote from: Kamron3 on January 26, 2010, 03:20:04 AM
Healing is based on energy packets already.
wait. what? i think Timwi is trying to say is why can you not send packets (like ammo packets that you can see) to damaged buildings to heal them. because right now buildings just inexplicably auto-heal at a snails pace when they are connected to the network.
Quote from: Kamron3 on January 26, 2010, 03:20:04 AMHealing is based on energy packets already.
No, it isn't. Are you sure you've played the game before?
Buildings, actually only the weapons like Sams, blasters and mortars regenerate when connected to a network, but they do it slowly, there is no other way to heal your buildings... besides any other building that gets touched by creep just goes Boom anyway
i think kam just got ownd :D
anyway its pretty easy to explain an autorepair system, the lead one i'd got with is nanobots working inside each turret, besides if there was 'repair packets' i think it would be too much hassle, unless it autorepairs as normal and you have an option to turn on a sort of 'repair faster' button which uses energy
I like the idea of quicker healing (upgrade?) or let it depend on your energy reserves.
Now it seems weird that it goes so much slower than building (have the nano bots gone on holidays? ;))
BTW: Does anyone know the exact time it takes to repair damage equivalent to 10 energy units?
Quote from: UpperKEES on February 03, 2010, 01:19:48 PM
I like the idea of quicker healing (upgrade?) or let it depend on your energy reserves.
Now it seems weird that it goes so much slower than building (have the nano bots gone on holidays? ;))
BTW: Does anyone know the exact time it takes to repair damage equivalent to 10 energy units?
Only if you can equate 10 energy units to 4 spanners and a socket wrench. :)
Hmmm, this makes me think. Repairing might indeed not even be related to the initial cost of the weapon.
Without upgrades a blaster costs 25 energy units and a mortar costs 50. Let's say they become both damaged for 50%.
Does it take twice as long for the mortar to become healed completely, or is the healing a fixed percentage per second?
the healing is probably a % of the total health, afaik mortars and blasters have the same amount of that.
I think you are right. I previously assumed that a more expensive weapon would have more health as well (as the health meter is also used to indicate the build progress).
I saw something today that I've seen before and that I have been wondering about. I was building a blaster in an area that got overrun by creeper. Even though I was sending a lot of build packets to the blaster, it never got completed, you could see the health/completion bar increase for every packet received, but then it would go down again.
So in the build stage there is a definite correlation between the health and the completion and the number of packets sent to it. It is an interesting observation.
not necessarily, it might just be that a mortar takes twice as many build packets to give it the same amount of hp
Regarding why units heal without taking energy packets:
A more relevant question is "why can't you accelerate healing of a unit?". Whether or not packets are seen moving to a unit is probably not the root of your question. I'm guessing you really would like ways of accelerating the healing of a unit.
The short answer is that game play would change significantly if you could put a unit in harms way, then fly it back and use excess energy to heal it rapidly. To prevent this, units heal very slowly. This makes your use of a mortar on a mortal bombing run something you can't really do in rapid succession. The reason I wanted to prevent this is I didn't want people to be constantly micromanaging the flight of mortars into the creeper, and then back to heal, then back to creeper. You might also ask why healing happens at all. The game would work without it, that is certain. But in play testing it gave a little extra incentive to save units that became damaged by moving them to safety.... since saving them and letting them heal would be much better than building a whole new unit (for the energy conscious player). This small aspect provided one more little brick in the overall strategic element of the game.
Note that on larger maps it might make sense to have healing centers that can accelerate the healing of units through the use of energy. This might be something I explore in episode 2 of CW.
As for the mythology of how a unit can heal without requiring packets, you can imagine the nanobots that originally constructed the unit can very slowly tap fractal space energy to reconstruct the damaged armor of the weapon.
I suppose in theory the healing could actually be made to use packets without necessarily making it any faster - it's already the case that building consumes packets slower than recharging the weapons.
btw virgil about your little mortar analogy, that can be easily avoided by microing the mortar to lift off and fly away as soon as it shoots, then have it flying for a second or two before landing, shooting and lifting off again, damage in this case is incredibly minimal and the rate you can do it is as fast as you can reload the mortar
Quote from: virgilw on February 17, 2010, 12:46:50 PM
The short answer is that game play would change significantly if you could put a unit in harms way, then fly it back and use excess energy to heal it rapidly. To prevent this, units heal very slowly. This makes your use of a mortar on a mortal bombing run something you can't really do in rapid succession. The reason I wanted to prevent this is I didn't want people to be constantly micromanaging the flight of mortars into the creeper, and then back to heal, then back to creeper.
You don't even have to do that, it's not a valid reason because:
1. Left click mortar.
2. Left click landable spot near deep creeper.
3. As mortar is just approaching spot, (make sure the game is paused), then double tap the p key (pause, relatively fast, but doesn't require mad skills).
4. While doing this you can easily time it to once the mortar has actually let out a shot and you hear the sound, simply move your mortar away and unpause.
5. Move the mortar a slight distance away (anywhere, can be in creeper, does not matter), just enough until you know its cooldown is gone.
6. Move it back, and repeat to step 3, otherwise bring it back so it can recharge and repeat.
The mortar takes such a minimal amount of damage, that there doesn't even need to be healing, unless you accidentally mess it up, which is still rare ;)
umm shadow, did you even read my post?
Quote from: UpperKEES on February 04, 2010, 07:44:16 AM
Hmmm, this makes me think. Repairing might indeed not even be related to the initial cost of the weapon.
Without upgrades a blaster costs 25 energy units and a mortar costs 50. Let's say they become both damaged for 50%.
Does it take twice as long for the mortar to become healed completely, or is the healing a fixed percentage per second?
guys i think that virgil is caught up in a lot of work right now anyway
@dialga
You do realize this topic has been untouched for ages, please don't bring back old unwanted posts to life with posts that have nothing relevant to the conversation.