after playing the game, what do you want to see in the editor?

[Krell]

I would like to have an enemy unit like an an emitter or gateway, but is a field generator, and is essentially a dummy building. field events would be allowed to reference units, and if the corresponding structure is nullified, the field would toggle it's state. This could allow for some interesting things, Such as an emitter that emits an insane amount of creeper, but has fields holding it in place, and when the emmiter is nullified, the fields shut off, flooding the area. I think I would also like shields to take damage proportional to the amount of creeper adjacent to it, rather than just how many tiles, possibly using an exponential variable in the equation, or just what layer of creeper it is.

I second this post. I like the ideas for the editor and for the shields. Though I don't know how well it would do since shields are pretty balanced as of right now.

[UpperKEES]

I think I would also like shields to take damage proportional to the amount of creeper adjacent to it, rather than just how many tiles, possibly using an exponential variable in the equation, or just what layer of creeper it is.

I think you'll change your opinion about this when playing harder maps. Just keep in mind that the story & bonus maps had to be playable and entertaining for any kind of player; from newbie to advanced. For both the code maps and the custom maps you'll be able to pick maps with the features of your likings, including difficulty and I can tell you that you'll often need every second that the shields will buy you. When using them against titan emitters they would only last for a few milliseconds if their damage was proportional to the Creeper density (or just a few seconds when using a logarithmic scale).

Shields are affected by the Creeper like any other unit (which I like and which is similar to the unit behaviour in CW1), but shields regenerate their health much slower, see here for details.

[Ranakastrasz]

Not necessarily, unless you want to show me your calculations for shields, using my secret arbitrary variables for damage and my secret arbitrary damage equation that uses said variables  ;D
Shields are just like any other non combat structure, and dies instantly, but also acts like decay-able terrain, terrain in that creeper cannot spread to that space, if it did, the shield would die instantly, like when you turn it off, and two, like decay-able terrain in that it loses health for each cell in contact with it with creeper in it.

[TonyP2000]

Personally, for those who think shields take too long to be destroyed, even in huge amounts of creeper, you can always send out some drones to take them out in one hit.  ;)

[UpperKEES]

Not necessarily, unless you want to show me your calculations for shields, using my secret arbitrary variables for damage and my secret arbitrary damage equation that uses said variables  ;D
Shields are just like any other non combat structure, and dies instantly, but also acts like decay-able terrain, terrain in that creeper cannot spread to that space, if it did, the shield would die instantly, like when you turn it off, and two, like decay-able terrain in that it loses health for each cell in contact with it with creeper in it.

Of course shields have a special ability (blocking Creeper), but apart from that they take damage like a military unit (not influenced by the Creeper density) and heal when not touched by it (albeit slower).

[Ranakastrasz]

Well, I suppose I could assume that you know something I dont about how they work, in that that do in fact take damage like any other military unit, meaning that they only take damage at a finite rate when creeper occupies one of the 9 cells they are also occupying, and ignore any cells that they do not occupy, as you are one of the __, (mods? devs? testers? I dont know which technical term to use) But I am Pretty sure they function like an Economic unit, in that they die instantly to creeper, but cause the cells they occupy to not be considered for creeper spread calculations while they are active, and they take damage if cells that are adjacent to them are occupied by creeper, proportional to the number that have creeper. Also, I would not be surprised if they regenerate constantly, due to the notable rate that creeper damages stuff.

[UpperKEES]

Sure a shield would be destroyed when there would be Creeper underneath it, but then you wouldn't have been able to build it in the first place, would you? When you deactivate a shield it will indeed be destroyed like any other unit on the systems tab, but I assume your proposal was about activated shields.

Your suggestion was to let the damage depend on the density of the Creeper adjacent to it and I believe I answered clearly why I think it's perfect the way it is now. Play some harder maps (soon) and please let me know what you think after that.

The default heal rate for units is 0.003/frame.
For shields it is 0.001/frame.  Originally, shields had a heal rate of 0.  I gave them a heal rate a few builds ago, but double that rate recently.  It is still very slight, but present.  Useful when you have a little damage and then manage to keep the creeper at bay (or drones).

Interpret anyway you like.... :)

[Ebon Heart]

and it'll still take a while to destroy weapons as well.

Actually, if you want something to act like the real DB you might aswell place a wall. Nothing gets through it, as with the Real Beam, maybe for the AC killing part coat it with some dense Creeper.
Might be somewhat thicker then, but acts exactly the same.

but packets don't travel through walls.

[Ranakastrasz]

Well, I'm just saying that if you were to make it so that creeper density of 100k (as an example, I'm not sure what baseline to use), I think, not positive, would deal the current damage, 10k would deal half that, while 1M would deal twice that, would not seem likely to be too extreme, as a ten-fold increase would only half the lifespan, while a one-hundred-fold increase would quarter it, though thinking about it, considering how insane people are in CW1 with creeper intensities, It could be a bit too extreme.

[Sqaz]

and it'll still take a while to destroy weapons as well.

Actually, if you want something to act like the real DB you might aswell place a wall. Nothing gets through it, as with the Real Beam, maybe for the AC killing part coat it with some dense Creeper.
Might be somewhat thicker then, but acts exactly the same.

but packets don't travel through walls.

Nor do packets travel through the creeper the DB would normally consist of so I don't really see the problem.

[Ranakastrasz]

I would like to have an enemy unit like an an emitter or gateway, but is a field generator, and is essentially a dummy building. field events would be allowed to reference units, and if the corresponding structure is nullified, the field would toggle it's state. This could allow for some interesting things, Such as an emitter that emits an insane amount of creeper, but has fields holding it in place, and when the emmiter is nullified, the fields shut off, flooding the area. I think I would also like shields to take damage proportional to the amount of creeper adjacent to it, rather than just how many tiles, possibly using an exponential variable in the equation, or just what layer of creeper it is.

On extension, I would like an extra building made out of fractal alloy (invulnerable, like totems in game 1) with a similar function, which when powered, would do something like activate or deactivate fields, and would have a selectable energy upkeep. Imagine an scenario with a metric ****-load of creeper pressing down on your base about 4 minutes after the mission starts due to the roof decaying, and you have to quickly dig towards the structure, and power it, which causes a shield dome to activate around your base that would prevent the creeper from flooding you to death.
Imagine a custom map built similarly to the last mission, where to prevent [DATA EXPUNGED] you would have to nullify a structure for each of the [DATA EXPUNGED] which would cause the fields to deactivate.

[Ebon Heart]

With that idea in mind... could you make an emitter that would burst every time it's hit with a nullifier, and have it give a bigger burst each time... you could make an emitter where the only good way to destroy it is to create like 10 nullifiers right around it.

[Ranakastrasz]

That would be more complex that my idea, if only because it is not just a simple validation, unless it was done as an emitter that emits nothing unless it has been hit with a nullifier within the last second or two, and has a very high rate and magnitude.

[Ebon Heart]

something like that.... and I think a field controlled by whether or not an object is powered would be equally tricky.... but both would be neat, and offer a lot of options.

[Ranakastrasz]

Well, I figured it would be more or less a Boolean validation, where If x, then y, else z. If the building exists/is powered, then the field is on/off, Otherwise, the field is Off/on.