I've been in two games so far and each one has only had about 10 metal spots and its a size 2 planet, positive this isnt right
(Moving this to Alpha -- soon-to-be-beta page -- for the moment.) And, yeah, we lowered the amount of metal spots!
To answer your question "Why so few metal spots?". Fewer (and more spread out) metal spots forces you to expand and fight with your enemy for map control. This results in more intensive gameplay were you fight from early game to late game. While having aloot of metal spots makes map control less valuable, making it feasible to turtle (those mega clusters), in many cases resulting in stale gameplay (Just sending armies into a grinder over and over again gets old, you need sub goals to fight over, the metal spots are such sub goals).
by the way: if youre in planet editor you see two grayed out sliders saying metal density and metal cluster --> i assume, you will be able to determine how many metal should be around
Yes, the devs have confirmed you will be able to customize metal density and the like per planet, just not fully working yet.
I felt the gameplay change from this adjustment immediately. Expansion is feeling much more relevant.
As much as I'm pro less metal more tactical fighting, So little metal just leads to more agressive / much harder to deal with commander rushes. Just weaken the primary weapon and games will be much more enjoyable.
At first I thought people were setting up planets with less metal, but after realizing this it sounds like a solid plan. Problem in alpha was inexperienced players didn't have to expand and could slowly turtle (which isn't a bad thing but shouldn't be first choice for strategy) and immediately start on t2. Now with the limited resource sights I can see even young players figuring out expansion is key. I really like it. Only thing I hold against it is that every time I spawn in a game I have very limited starting metal around me. Hope they will configure this so clumps of metal are still pretty tight at least for starting areas (4 or 5 is fine for start of a game).
Because of the limited metal spots, before it was possible to build T2 extractors on unclaimed metal spots, but with the reduction in metal spots, will we be able to upgrade T1 metal extractors to T2 without having to break them down first?
I really like the reduced metal count. It makes it so that you actually HAVE to fight if you want an army, where as before.... you know. I just played a 2v2v2, started on a 31 metal spot planet, with a 21 metal spot planet orbiting around the sun. Me and my teammate were forced to attack the nearest person we saw and take their metal.
unfortunately it's kinda true. When you go for a metal spot, there is usually a commander protecting it. I have to agree that the primary weapon should be weaker, and the D-gun would be the commander main defense.
I can build an army just fine. Its just a slower process in the beginning of the game which is fine. Just means more expansion early on, and making sure you build small raiding parties to harass your opponents until you can build a substantial attack force. Also with the fact that the beginning game should be more microing units to get an edge early game when you don't have many units.
I've played a moon map where there were like 5 mass spots. One in my base, one kind of close, the other in the middle. The only viable strategy was to turtle, rush tech 2 and not to fight for map control (there is no need to fight for it when there is nothing to fight for). You don't have to explain me how to fight for map control, I'm playing FA for 6 years, where map control is key. It's really not in PA currently.
That I haven't come across. Are you sure it wasn't a custom map? And what was the size of the moon? And are you using crt+n to put icons on the metal spots?
No, it was a standard quick match. And yes, I'm sure they was 5 mass spots. Also, who I have to blame to not put ctrl-n ON by default? Who want that off? Seriously?
You guys aren't intentionally moving "starting planet"? Because the scale 1 moon always has like 7 mass points. While the scale 3 planet always has 20-30. 20-30 is enough to get you somewhere. By which I did mean 6-12 is. 6 gets you a developing base, by time you reach advanced factories its hard to manage metal but then you get t2 mexes. Upgrading 1-2 t2 mexes and maybe grabbing 2-4 more metal points, and your back in the good again. Fighting over the next planet gets you even more resources, which more gurantees an edge on ground warfare with the economic powerhouse of 7 more metal points, than it does gurantee a KEW attack. As far as scale 1 moons having 7 mass points, this is why I think with metal point work and a small 10-20% increase in metal points, you would have a perfect amount. Because with 10, each player getting 5, on a planet your commander could circumnavigate in a minute, you have plenty of metal and plenty of room to carry out your task, which at that sort of close quarters can only be build a makeshift militia and push at your enemy off metal points.
