More PAC Creeper units - Ideas thread.

[Vertu]

I always felt that the default PAC, including expansion A, lacked something more. Something more than just moving Creeper around like turning it into eggs for blobs to pick up, making stashes to create sudden waves, pushing it around with Field generators, ect. All of these things involve using available Creeper and trying to achieve a goal with that available Creeper or trying to support it indirectly like with Skimmers from launchers or blobs destroying ERNed units. Everything in the current PAC can be countered quite handily in a Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) style and over coming these counters takes significant effort, like 4 launchers to overwhelm a single unERNed, well supplied AA(Anti-Air)-Missile Launcher and Skimmers are so easily shot long before they can even drop their stun shrapnel anywhere useful.

I want ideas for other units. Ideas like the LURE when compared to the other PAC units. The LURE doesn't directly involve Creeper and instead involves units. It's influence on units is what aids your built-up Creeper, luring Depth-seeking, heavy-hitting units to firing at suboptimal locations. I want more units that affect towers.

Also in PAC, there is no real sense of infrastructure. Sure the launchers have their fire delay reduced after the first launch but then we go back to how it takes 1 Missile Launcher to stop any Spore plays unless you get like 4 per AA which could if been used in Emitters. I want more units that give a sense of built-up infrastructure. The closest we have are Emitters but you tend to always put them on the front-lines rather than to buildup Creeper in the back unless for something like the Egger which consume Creeper rapidly.

So if you have some idea, I would like to hear it. The more wacky and unusual, the better. I like wild ideas.
Idea Limitations:

Spoiler

• No field stuff. It all looks like a nightmare to manage. Fields are invisible forces that can push around Creeper and/or Anti-Creeper. The Fiend Gen, actual shields (from Totems and Shields in vanilla), and sprayer (when set to AC Pull) are all examples of units that use fields.
• Few flying units. I feel as though it would be a mess to implement balance in such units especially with my VAUs (Vertu-Air-Units) CPack. They need some form of counter (like AA) but without being a RPS kind if unit. If you want to give an idea for some kind of air-unit, be sure to give details on how to balance it with how it would work. If you know the "Creeper Lord" unit, I would consider that a prime example of an air unit that fails this criteria unless heavily changed.
• No Creeper Nukes. They would have too-low lows and too-high highs. If they work, they are Over-Powered, if they are countered, they are Under-Powered. The Strategic Creeper Missile (SCM) from my Creeper-V-Lab however is a successful Creeper Nuke in balance but will not be player-creatable. It will instead be a support unit out of your control. A kind of check for the PAC map like AA-Check (devastates backlines if failed) and response check (steamrolls if failed [randomly targeted unit gets hit and SCM payload is released which then rampages if this "check" is failed]).
• No solo units. If a unit does not need Creeper to function, it shouldn't be able to say.. casually walk to the Rift Lab and kill it on it's own. This is a rule for any unit that can be moved by the player to any location even outside of Creep. Basically it can't "solo" something. A potential valid idea would be a unit designed to smite snipers in it's range. Allowing you to destroy Snipers without needing Creeper under them but that's it.
• No supreme influence units. If you build a unit in any location and it does.. say.. reduce ARG production from the Factory, that's a violation. The LURE is an influencer unit, not a supreme influence unit.
• No sleeper-like units. Things like the Creeper Cannon and Bat-Bombers from the Sleeper units as they are meant more for fighting against a player automatically than for fighting against an AI and being used by a player. A player can respond to such units but an AI would have massive difficulty in doing so, making such units heavily unbalanced for non-Player_V.S_PAC.
• Units must be on-theme. I can't accept a PAC unit like a Satellite that fires a laser at units on the surface. It doesn't fit the Creeper's theme. The Creeper does not ever create space units as it's all about the planet.

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Current units: (Latest versions may not be in any PAC map yet, also only applies to CPacks with ".Vertu" in their version tag).

Spoiler

• Basic Emitter (Can be nullified and can't be manually destroyed if nullified, requiring you to rescue it).
• Basic Launcher (Creates a snigle Spore, Blob (that can grab a nearby egg), or skimmer. Can be set to hold fire. Decreased fire delay after first launch).
• Stash (With adjustable stash-size settings. Larger stashes have a longer delay before they can absorb Creeper after releasing it's stored Creeper. Absorbs Creeper in a 1:3 ratio. For every 1-Depth of Creeper absorbed, 3-Depth is added to the stash).
• Crimsonator (Converts Creeper that's on top of it into Crimson which is heavily resistant to direct damage but slightly weaker to AC).
• LURE (Draws fire from depth-seeking units like Mortars. Can be destroyed by some custom units but has 10 health. Has a delay in activation after placed under enough Creeper).
• Egger (Creates eggs with 1,000 payload (blobs can pickup nearby eggs) by absorbing Creeper on top of it at an uncapped-rate. Can be turned off without destroying it).
• Field Gen {USES 2 POWER} (Creates a field to push Creeper towards the direction it's facing. Can be disabled without deleting the unit).
• Creeper Forge (Absorbs a capped amount of Creeper to slowly create more power for you to use).
• Anti-Nuke (Shoots down incoming nukes).
• Tactical-Creeper-Missile-Launcher (TCML, uses 3 power) (launches Creeper Missiles against nearby targets at a regular interval).
• Burst Emitter {Uses 6 Power} (Releases a giga-eruption of Creeper once every few minutes with a longer initial start delay).

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Discretions/notes:

Spoiler

• Do not expect me to maintain this in any constant manner. There is no motivation other than how I like Creeper World 4, coding, and designing.
• Keep complexity low. I can't make a unit that can do many unique things at once. A good setting is Role, Purpose, Function, Effectiveness, Single Gimmick. Note that this is just a guideline, not a requirement. Those are found in Idea Limitations.
  
  • What is it's job?
  • Why would you use this over another unit?
  • How should it fulfill it's Role?
  • How good is it at doing it's job?
  • What is it's single special quirk? (If it has one). Be sure to keep the number of gimmicks low.
• You can provide a custom mesh and texture or even entire scripts, models, or CPacks but know that this is not preferred and I may not accept what ever you may provide with your idea for me to make.
  
  • Meshes and textures are somewhat acceptable. Be sure to include the intended theme of the mesh/texture so I could express that same theme more accurately when coding the unit such as adding changing colors based on behavior.
  • If you are going to provide a script(s), BE SURE TO HAVE COMMENTS IN YOUR CODE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND! I don't know your coding logic and how you created it so you need to provide some explanations about your code. Also be sure to have the code formatted in a somewhat-neat manner. Jamming massive expressions in a single line of code makes it very difficult to add modifications to. Sequencing your coding logic is more preferable as it makes it easy to inject some extra lines and read the flow of logic.
  • If you provide a mesh/model that is uncolored by default, include your intended color scheme or I will make my own based on the resulting model.
  • Make your scripts modular. Don't use magic numbers or very specific logic. Make generalized code that can have much of its data easily modified. An example was the basic PAC script before I modified it. There were no modifiable variables for the Emitter strength, Spore payload, Skimmer payload, ect. They all used magic numbers. Within the Emitter Base script, the created Emitter always had the magic number "30" for it's Emission Amount. Instead of magic numbers, create defined variables like "$Emission_Amount:30" which can be easily altered at any time.
• Be sure to provide a detailed explanation of your idea but also try to be concise. I would rather not read a 2 paged wall of grey text.

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NOTE
This page has not been sustained and will never be updated. It is legacy from a time before VPAC's creation and has long since been irrelevant.