Storage Hexagons

[NoobSauce]

I would love it if the storage hexagons somehow stored energy themselves, rather than giving Odin City more capability to store energy.  It might be crazy hard to code (and if it is, I'd like to offer help however I can) but I think the end result would be so worth it.

Obligatory reference to The Space Game: The batteries made forward bases so much easier, since you no longer had to have something tying it to the main base.  So, rather than having a thick cluster of storage hexagons close to Odin City, bases would be more spread out and organic, with storage hexagons next to the collectors.

(That's another thing, I'm kinda disappointed with how collectors work, I wish energy came out of them somehow.)

[knucracker]

This is a good idea, and I did consider it in the original game design.  I opted to keep storage as a kind of "capacitor" of energy, but keep the "packet factory" only in Odin City.  So if you ever let a storage unit get cut off from the city, you lose its stored energy.

That said, a number of people have mentioned providing structures that can produce packets.  That way you could have separate bases.  This sounds neat, and it probably would be.  It definitely makes sense if the maps were bigger (another common request).

One small technical problem with implementing multiple packet providers is determining which packet provider should produce the packet for a given structure (if there is more than one choice).  One algorithm is the "closest" (shortest on the graph, not as the crow flies).  This would probably work, and I might experiment with it if I implement a new menu system (a menu that lets me add more structures and weapons).

[Aurzel]

i personally like the storage as is, besides i dont use my storage and speed all around my base, i place them between collectors to streamline my network

[NoobSauce]

I love your idea of a menu, Virgil -- that would open up a lot of possibilities for upgraded/tweaked equipment, especially stuff that would give tradeoffs (e.g. Speed diamonds that speed up all packets that go _through them_ to a greater degree than the global speed diamonds, or global relays that drop some packets or move them very slowly across great distances).

[Aurzel]

well at the very least, with a menu button it solves virgil's problem of not knowing where to put buttons for new buildings