Creeper World 2 2

[Zoura3025]

So, does anyone else here like creeper world 2? Because I do; in my opinion, the side view formula deserves way more credit than it gets. Just the simple addition of gravity and tunelling makes for a completely unique experience -- one that I miss dearly (despite having just finished CW2's campaign, I already miss it, lol). So, don't take this as a hard design document, most just like a giant "changelog" over what I'd add, remove, and otherwise change for CW2. Sidenote: This is sort of me letting my brain run wild, so I apologize if the formatting kinda sucks; organization is not my strong suit.

General Changes/Style

First off, I think a 2.5D style could work really nicely, with weapons flying in front of structures as they're moved. Chances are, unit graphics would have to be modified to account for the fact that weapons would be omnidirectional, but It could still work, I hope. In terms of oother major stylistic changes... I gotta be honest, I know nothing about graphic design. I just know that CW2's graphics are my favourite stylistically, followed by 3's graphics. I'd almost like to see the units come back with their classic looks, just 3D-ified (kind of like how collectors just got an update in CW3, with extra detail but an overall similar design).

Enemies and Map Details

As for new enemy mechanics: I think Drones were great, and should return. Phantoms are just spores but for the side-view game, so those should be there. And of course, creeper. I think a worm unit could work really nice: A unit that stores creeper, and then crawls up and along walls with it, bursting when shot (perhaps it also protects the creeper inside from AoE attacks?), or upon colliding with a structure.
Another concept would be the enemy using sort of "corrupted" micro rifts, allowing for instantaneous transport of drones (and worms, maybe?) between two points, even if they're separated by solid terrain.

Speaking of solid terrain, different terrain types would be a nice touch: For example, dirt woud erode when exposed to creeper, while gravel would allow creeper and anticreeper though while blocking packets and units (a "drain", so to speak).

Player Resources

And now, new (and returning) resources for the player to (mis)manage.

- Ores are now split into a handful of types: Yellowium, Grayine, and Bluite. Yellowium is used by Tech factories to produce Tech Gems, along with technytes; it's also used as ammunition for the shield generator (see below) Grayine is used to build certain structures, like Scaffolding. And lastly, Bluite is your source of Anti Creeper.

- Technytes return as a form of upgrade currency, much like how they worked in creeper world 2. However, they can also be mixed with Yellowite to create Tech Gems, which act similarly to Amp gems from Particle Fleet; slap one on a unit to double its fire rate, ammo capacity, and range.
- The tech list would be similar to creeper world 2's, however, Build Speed, Terraforming Speed, and Ammo Capacity are now upgrades. Build Speed gets 5 upgrades, each upgrade increasing build speed by 20% (all 5 upgrades would yield a doubled build speed). Terraforming Speed gets 3 upgrades, each of which gives +33% terraforming speed (all 3 grant doubled Terraforming Speed). And lastly, ammo capacity gets 4 upgrades, each upgrade granting +25% ammo capacity (for infrastructure and weapons; all 4 upgrades grant double ammo capacity).
- Energy and Ore capacities can now be upgraded an infinite amount of times. Packet Speed, however, is still limited.

Player Units

Returning

- Ore Rigs can mine all ore types, and work a bit differently. Ore blocks now provide endless amounts of ore, however, the rate at which they are harvested is liimited by the count and efficiency of the player's ore mines; ore, however, comes in veins, consisting of just one block up to a dozen or more. Larger veins can be extracted faster, with an Ore Rig's "range" measuring up to how many blocks away the ore can be before it's too far away.

- Shields are a sort of modular structure; shield blocks that can be used to block off holes return, however they no longer regenerate on their own, and take more damage over time as the creeper it's holding back gets more and more dense. However, the player can build Shield Generators, which consume Yellowium to regenerate shields at a fixed rate (improving with range upgrades).

- Mortars should be a special unit, not necessarily buildable by the player, but able to be found on certain worlds. They are specialist units that fire lobbed projectiles, inflicting heavy damage with shells that punch through dense, deep creeper, exploding about 2 tiles in (or when hitting a wall). Their lobbing nature gives them a parabolic range with an infinite range in the direction of gravity but limited range to the "sides" and against gravity. They will always be placed so they fire in the direction against gravity (on 0G worlds, they can be oriented in any direction, and have an "upwards" conical trajectory).

- Blasters make a return as cannon shells are subject to drop-off and arcing in gravitized scenarios; while on the surface these can be negotiated with thanks to lobbing, in tight tunnels, it's a different story. They fire very quickly and prioritize close creeper, however upgrades in targetting technology allow the player to adjust potential targets (enemy units) as well as target priority (near, far, densest/highest health, etc.) for the situation. They are fairly cheap (perhaps 20 energy), but burn through their small ammo capacity quickly.

New

- Scaffolding is a new unit, allowing for sort of "reverse-terraforming", where "blocks" of scaffolding allow you to replace terrain you've destroyed. Scaffolding can support units that have to be placed according to gravity, and has 20 HP (it degrades when exposed to creeper). A variant of scaffolding, Grated Scaffolding, allows creeper and anti creeper through it, while allowing normal units to rest on top of it (it still takes damage when exposed to creeper). Both variants of scaffolding require Grayine to construct.


Thanks for listening to a large dump of my thoughts! This is obviously only a beginning concept, but I just wanted to get it out there while I still had the CW2 high from beating the campaign. Cheers!