[Suggestion] CW4 ideas

[Jaycephus]

Disclaimers: Written for self-entertainment purposes.  8)
At the end of the day, all games contain abstractions, and the less that is abstracted away, the less fun they can become (micro-management, etc.)
SO, if these things don't meet the fun test, then they should be ignored, of course, but here goes...


Creeper Phase change:
- we know creeper/AC evaporates.
- So, creeper can phase-change to solid, too. Retcon: dissolving walls in CW3 was solidified AC that slowly dissolved by creeper, also eliminating creeper in the process.
- explains 20-unit max height, roughly (abstracted-away currently)
- If calculated height reaches 21, or 30, for examples, 'pressure' creates solidified creeper block that is x10 creeper units, adjusting height above new solid block back down accordingly.
- solidified creeper block can stack, and can phase-change back to liquid under certain conditions, such as removing liquid pressure on it.
- It never turns back to liquid on it's own, but will if shot or is within explosive blast radius, so massive release of liquid-creeper waves is possible.
- Might need a "Don't shoot at solidified Creeper" rule in weapons, but mortars will likely mass-trigger conversion back to liquid.
- Can't be built-on.
- can be slowly dissolved by AC
- solid creeper/AC placeable/stackable unit/terrain (enables the temp wall from CW3, but on both sides).


Conservation of Mass is a freaking Law, Man:
- terrain isn't 'created' by Terps, but most be drawn from one spot and placed in another.
- enables game mechanic of sparse terrain must be used intelligently.
- terrain types are immutable, cannot be converted to other type.
  - terrain types include:
    - Dissolve-able, maybe called SAND in-game
    - un-dissolve-able (STONE?)
    - un-terpable (BEDROCK?) (All of bottom layer is bedrock, but part of terrain could be made of bedrock where terping is meant to be disallowed, such as specific walls, moats, 'buildings.')
- Some terrain is not creeper-proof, and will dissolve over time. Building with that terrain type means you are building temporary walls, possibly.
- dissolve-able terrain may be providing a temporary wall, but will need to be buttressed with hard terrain by Terps, for example, or defended otherwise.
- Terrain to be 'mined' is specified, and serves as material for terrain building. Any terrain Terped-away is stored for use in building up somewhere else.
- A 1-layer map cannot be Terped, unless void is allowed to be created/un-created.
- Gets into trouble with building un-dissolve-able on top of dissolve-able terrain. (tunnels not supported)
  - rule1: layer 1 is bedrock, always impervious, immutable, non-terpable, un-dissolve-able.
  - rule2: can't create map with bedrock on top of other types, but may be able to create walls, hills, 'buildings,' out of 'bed-rock' at map design time.
  - rule3: can't terp un-dissolve-able on top of dissolve-able, but the reverse IS possible. (all to avoid tunnels.)
- Full conservation of Mass might mean that dissolve-able terrain results in increased creeper production.
  - Game mechanic of Keep Creeper AWAY from a large mass of dissolve-able terrain, or you will regret your short life.


Full 4rpl support for as many different sorts of triggers as possible:
- Number (and type?) of enemy units inside of x range of a friendly unit (trigger events by enemy proximity or action-events to a friendly unit)
- Number (and type?) of enemy units in a designated zone (trigger events by units or enemy-action events in zone)
- Trigger events upon enemy beginning or completing build of a specific unit-type.
- Trigger upon world creeper/AC amounts rising-above, or falling-below target amounts. (rising-only and falling-only triggers)
- Trigger for creeper/AC levels rising/falling above/below a set threshold at a unit's position.
- Allow creation of custom game-time-invisible units to serve as map trigger-sensors for above unit-triggers. These could serve as the zone-triggers mentioned above.
- Some of this is to trigger more Story conversation events, not just battle events.


Game-time-invisible custom units:
- basically, serve as map-objects that are easy to place to get modular programmed functionality more easily.
- serve as trigger units for map events, i.e., enemy gets close to a position, AC reaches that point, etc.
- serve as zone specifiers for triggering something based on a zone.
- could switch to visible to 'spawn in' upon a certain event.
- could serve as a map spawner, instantiating other base or custom units on the map.


Stackable units:
- Units that can be built on top of another unit of it's own type
- Optionally serve as a 1x1 pedestal for other base 1x1 units like beamers, turrets, or mortars.
- permits a wall unit that can be built higher, 1 level at a time.
- permits a 1x1x1 energy-shield unit that can stack vertically. (Would like to make a custom shield unit that forms an energy-wall if placed close enough together, with stacking making the wall higher, but visually, that would require modeling of units to allow custom energy-rendering effect as well.)

[GoodMorning]

In order, you'll be pleased with most of the answers:
- Custom enemy unit can do this.
- It's been tried before, in CW3 and CW4 development, and wasn't fun (though it sounded good enough to try again). Custom-terps might be able to.
- The "triggers" you mention are easily doable with CRPL, save for the "total Creeper/AC" - and that's likely to be measurable.
- This is going to be outdone, but was the CW3 method.
- Custom player unit time.

I'm guessing you haven't used CRPL much, and encourage you to learn. If we're lucky, we'll get the events that are hard to detect conventionally - save, load, :UnitBuilt, :UnitLost, etc.

Welcome.

[Jaycephus]

Great. Yes, CW4 will be the first one I am excited to get into modding.

Saw the video with Virgil protecting the trees.

Would be great for the base game to have protection side-objectives, or at least have that being a success condition in a custom mission where you can make maps with a forest, town, temple, tech-facility, etc. that you have to protect from any creeper damage.

[ElCativoGER]

As VR comes up more and more. What about a VR Version? Should be not a big Problem, as you got real 3d Graphics.
Would love to play on Oculus Quest (SteamVR)

[WithersChat]

Camera manipulation with 4RPL
This is my suggestion.