Storage. Okay, it's used in CW1, and sort of used as a tech upgrade in CW2, but it's not influential. It isn't MEANINGFUL. Beyond allowing you to over-build for a longer time without choking, it has no influence.
I want to see storage that actually accrues energy (as ammo packets) and discharges them again to nearby structures needing energy, rather than the construction/weapon requesting a packet from the home city. This fulfills some of the functions of both the packet-speed structures from CW1 and the wormholes from CW2. From a strategic standpoint, it can replace the main function of both, while adding more strategic consideration than either one.
There are a few distinct effects I forsee:
- First, keeping weapons charged over long distances. Small storages kept near the weapons that eat a lot of ammo could effectively increase their ammo limit.
- Second, quickly building structures on a front line far from the city, for things that have to be built quickly. (For instance, advancing unpowered turrets to clear the way for building new nodes. This would shorten the trip they have to take to help them be built quickly.
- Obsoletion of storage structures/upgrades. By storing excess energy externally,
- Obsoletion of packet-speed constructions (CW1). By spreading storages across your network, you would largely eliminate the need for packet-speed upgrades. You would also add strategic considerations of where to position caches of storage so that they can easily fuel network-wide projects. A storage shouldn't be large (5-10 packets) but each one that is close to a construction project is that many more packets that are ALREADY at the construction/reload site. If even one packet can arrive from the city by the time those run out, you will have eliminated lag. Even if those packet's don't arrive by the time your storages run out, you've still gained time, unless your entire network runs out of storage, and the project has to draw from the city directly.
- Perhaps it would not totally obsolete wormholes (CW2) - they can't transport packets across creeper. However, you have to transport packets to that location to build a wormhole. If players had to build storages instead, not only would they be able to store a stock of packets behind enemy lines, but they would also be required to periodically blow a path back into that area in order to re-stock those storages as they run dry.
I realize there are logic problems inherent in the idea. For instance, when a storage runs dry, what does IT do? Restock from the city only? Restock from another storage? (Creating a daisy-chain of storage restocks from the city all the way to the active project.) What does the project itself do? Wait until the city restocks the nearest storage, or draw from the next nearest storage?
My reccomendations are mostly in the interests of simplicity:
When a project requests packets, have it request from the nearest source that can dispatch them. (Whether that be city, or storage.)
Keep storages small. (5-10 packets.)
When a storage runs dry, have it restock from the city only.
They should not be mobile, but you should be able to reclaim the energy in them if you need to destroy them to make room.
Make storages discharge more slowly than the city does. (This will have the effect of a single storage not being enough to soley fuel a single construction/reload project.
In conjunction with storage, make 'shortcut' techs more restricted/expensive. Things like packet speed should be more expensive than a storage solution because not only do they have the same/similar effectiveness, but they also take shortcuts around management/strategic considerations. Packet speed (particularly) should still exist as an option though, because there are certain gamer mindsets that will prefer to burn their way through with brute force and speed upgrades, regardless of the cost.
Lastly, I wanted to suggest many various settings for the storages, so that they would supply only ammo or only excavation or only
construction based on their settings - however, this may (or may not) be taking the micromanagement and layers of options too far. Perhaps their default settings should accomodate any packet type, but the amount of total storage is increased if you make it specific to a single type.
There are a few options available in making these work - most revolve around making them 'smarter'. For instance, if you make storages request packets from any storage that has double its' energy (or whatever amount) then packets would automatically daisy-chain from the city, recharging storages which recharge storages until the packets reach the project.
I don't like this idea because it lifts a strategic consideration from the player, who would normally have to maintain enough storage near the project to last until the city can begin recharging them. Most of my reccomendations do revolve around simplicity, as I said, but CW is largely a game of management, and so they also revolve around leaving it to the player to make sure they support the player's needs, rather than utilizing a powerful and intelligent script to see to all the player's needs.
Quote from: Ranakastrasz on January 01, 2012, 04:47:36 PM
Wrong forum,
Can a mod move this to the CW2 suggestion forum?
This applies to both CW1 and CW2 - there's simply no 'suggestion' forum for CW3 or any/all CW's. Perhaps the general forum, but it didn't seem to fit.
I agree that this is more appropriate to CW3 than to CW1 or CW2, since it would introduce a major change in mechanics. It would shift balances and mechanics in user maps and campaign maps that were made based on a different set of rules.
Truthfully, even aside from adding new units to CW1 or CW2 (which is very unlikely) - this seems like it mimics the effect of microrifts too much. In practice the vast majority of situations both microrifts and the storage building would fulfill the exact same role, and whichever is cheaper to use will be the only one used, with the rare exception of building a microrift underground and then flying away before the creeper reaches it.
The only other real difference would be the ability to store huge amounts of energy when you don't have build space to generate enough energy to fund a big assault, for instance taking out titan emitters with only around +10 energy or something like that - but that completely mimics the effect of the storage upgrade. Between the storage upgrade and microrifts, I guess I just don't see what this would actually add to the game that couldn't be accomplished by cost changes/number of upgrades available and such.