Digitalis Enhancement

[Ranakastrasz]

-Will be trying to reproduce this in editor when released regardless, to the best of my ability.

I had an idea on what you could do with The new scripting language in CW3. And I came up with some interesting ideas of some things you could add. Some of them would seriously alter gameplay. Some, would merely make Digitalis that much more insidious. Included Alterations to Digitalis, as well as everything it can fabricate, on account of my imaging it as the creeper's own version of a packet network.

Bits and pieces of this would be an interesting addition to the game, even if not everything is added
Some are depended on others. (Building types require Buildings to exist first)
Some stand on their own. (Terraformed Terrain Decaying)
Some would majorly change the game. (Creeper Owned Lesser Structures)

"-" Indicates a mostly seperate alteration or addition to the object
"*" Indicates more information on said Alteration or Addition
"~" Indicates something optional, which could go either way
"%" Indicates something that is only loosely connected to my goal of making Digitalis really evil. It can easily be implimented without the rest of the stuff, unlike a lot of other stuff.
">" Indicates a comment.

Digitalis
- Will grow in three levels
    *Designated areas get T2, normal speed
    *Other areas only grow to T1 maximum, grow far far slower. (fills up deep in creeper territory, negligible up front, unless you ignore it totally)
    *Superhighways may form to support action, T3, and rather quickly. Will only form from T2 areas. Decay back to T2 after ~60 seconds from last packet.
      >Might also form passively (Large enough areas of T2 form T3 in middle), or be manualy designated.
   > Digitalis can spread to the whole map, if only to a minor degree, but still prioritises the selected area.
- Digitalis path touched by construction packets get supercharged, going up to T3, and creates super-highway to attract creeper (Bias on adjacent cells towards it in a semi-large area ~10 cells). Build packets drag creeper with it (unsure how much) (If build packets exist). Will tend to cover build site while building, to protect the project.
- Anticreeper will cause it to decay.
   > I am treating creeper and anticreeper as more powerful area denial than structures.
- Creeper flows faster on Digitalis (Scales with Tier)
   (More conductive metal for heat flow simulation, or higher transit rate fraction)
   > Causes more in the way of acceleration as digitalis spreads, especially on main pathes.

Creeper buildings
- Has most features stolen from your structures, aside from flight.
- Uses packets supplied by Digitalis, and Digitalis Sources (emitters by default)
   >Optional: May just get passive recharge from being connected. Want energy reserve however.
- Construction points are designated. When connected to Digitalis generator, sends packets to them (Or connects highway path, with bias field towards it). After connecting, Wait for a sufficiently stable connection, require ~10 seconds connection, and at T2. Make sure to abort countdownif it gets cut off, and restart.
- Immune or resistant to quite a few unit types
    * Shielded if covered in reasonable levels of creeper.
        >(Submerged essentially, so near evaporation threshold creeper wont protect buildings, while tidal-wave level creeper will)
      >Thinking ~1 layer CW1 term, but no idea how that translates. I think CW3 maps are taller.
    * Morters and blasters deal lesser damage, none if shielded
    * Sniper works (less damage if shielded)
    * Titan-level attacks will work. (less if shielded)
    * Anticreeper hurts it, similar to normal buildings
    * Nullifier insta-kills it. (No fractal alloy to protect it)
- Regens (slowly) if digitalis is supporting it. (faster for higher tiers)
- Does not leave a power zone behind on death.
   *Destroyed Emmitters and other fractal alloy reinforced structures, if destroyed, but the location is reclaimed, will rebuild the lesser version of itself.
   >Doesn't require a space-time warping suicide bomb to take out, so no rip in space for you to take advantage of bleeding energy with.

Sniper tower: Both // Mainly to counter units,
-Cannot effect Nullifiers
   >Would be lame if you tried to nulliy it, and it killed it.
-Blocked at cost by shield fields
   >So you can protect your units from them.
-Less effective if (anti-)Creeper covers target.
   >Attacking submerged anything disperses energy, but doesn't really harm (anti-)Creeper
-Attacks any structure in range.
   >Priorities Combat units, not network nodes (cannot be overridden)
   >Priorities Unshielded, but this is secondary. Will target shielded blaster over unshielded relay.
   
Creeper Tower: Emmitter, Both // Lets the creeper advance, especially up cliffs, and send heavier spore waves.
- (Same as the one that sucks up anti-creeper and shoots it as morter shells at creeper, but reverse)
   >Because nothing says 'Oh Crap' like some Creeper Morters setting up shop just outside your base, or worse, back door, and start taking out your uncovered Relays.
- if out of range of any reasonable targets, create, store, and launch spore waves.
    *Trys to sync with other launchers, especially Fractal Alloy ones.
    *If no Fractal Spore launchers exist on map to begin with, will not throw spores..
      ~May instead bias creeper towards random enemy buildings (reselect periodically, or if said building dies)
      ~Or else throw creeper (falling short, max range) in that direction.
         >Either way, will push that creeper towards your base
    *% Spores, when created, choose ~3 random enemy buildings. Attack the one closest. (Applies to all spores)


AA Laser: Air Exclusion Zone: Both // Makes Air Assults costly instead of impossible.
- Mirrors AA tower. Shoots down Strafers, bombers.
    *On death, Strafer and bomber bases must rebuild the aircract, at some fraction of the build cost, then reload.
   
Terraformer: Player// Adding some extra functionality to counter Digitalis.
- Attacks digitalis directly, through creeper.
   *However, dense creeper slows how quickly it works.
   >With more deadly Digitalis, you might want a way to kill it without clearing the creeper off of it first, or at least not all of it. Could be critical for attacking persistant superhighway nodes, which keep sending heavy creeper waves at you.
- Repairs damaged Structures in range.
   *Can Set each job to Off, Priority 1, 2, and 3. Numbers are exclusive, Off is not.
   > Since your structures will be taking a bit more in the way of damage, passive regeneration just won't cut it. Terriformers seem like they would have the proper equiment to do field repairs, on account of obvious mass fabrication at range capabilities.
-%Terriformed Up terrain is decayable.
   *Digitalis tends to wreck it, while creeper tends to take its sweet time.
   > Making a tall, impossing wall works, but it will tend to crumble away if creeper, or digitalis attack it. Digitalis will quite aggressively tear it down.
-%Structures with uneven bases, if lucky enough not to rapidly explode from creeper having decayed that area...
   *Might decay over time
   *Might have to spend time running thrusters to not fall, (unless its just a corner or four), essentially slowing down it's timescale, or disabling it outright.
   >Since this would be possible due to decaying terrain.

[Kingo]

I am planning on trying to emulate digitalis in a CW1 map.
I truly cannot wait for the wonders of CPRL :)

[billybob]

This looks like a PC will need to run TONS of code... wonder how the new language will handle this. I am skeptical on how this is affect frame rate.

[Michionlion]

This looks like a PC will need to run TONS of code... wonder how the new language will handle this. I am skeptical on how this is affect frame rate.

It'll be a piece of cake.  A computer could run a couple thousand CRPL scripts or things like it in the background - in fact, most of them do.  J was experimenting a while ago with massive amounts of cores, I think he got to 10,000 or so before he was down to 15 fps.  So... yeah, not a problem.

[billybob]

This looks like a PC will need to run TONS of code... wonder how the new language will handle this. I am skeptical on how this is affect frame rate.

It'll be a piece of cake.  A computer could run a couple thousand CRPL scripts or things like it in the background - in fact, most of them do.  J was experimenting a while ago with massive amounts of cores, I think he got to 10,000 or so before he was down to 15 fps.  So... yeah, not a problem.

Well lets hope people don't use that many! I wonder if my PC would hold up... its old by gaming standards.