metal is dumb as rocks now

The Dox is named after one our animators, btw. Dox is his handle. The community member Dox, just happens to get it as well.

Let's keep this constructive. If you guys have things to talk about regarding metal placement. This tit for tat is tiring.

Yes . . . who would put turrets to defend one metal spot, that's such a waste, it's not like the enemy would gain anything if I lost . . . oh wait, I'm getting upset about that because one metal spot hurts me to lose it, thus I should be defending it.

Seriously though, while amount of metal effects game pacing, a slower pace is not a bad thing. Some of us like games to last more than fifteen minutes. Having less metal means that victories are more meaningful, controlling wreckage is more valuable, and expansion is more vital. The planet shouldn't be covered in units, it's much better with outposts and lower unit density.

Indeed, too many resources only results in the removal of tactics. If everything is defended, there is no point to scouting. If armies are always huge, there is way to bypass them (sometimes literally, there's no room to do so). In short, scarcity makes you think. It makes you cry when you lose three metal deposits, and rejoice when you destroy two enemy adv factories. Instead of wading through endless lines of energy and metal resources, your progress measured only by territory, you scout to find where the enemy has his energy, and end it.

In short, more fun, better. I don't play TA style games instead of starcraft style because of unit count. One reason is because the unit count can be as big as I can build it, but also because minds matter more than clickspeed. Too many units creates a background 'noise' of enemies and defenses in all places. That's fine, in a highly developed enemy stronghold planet, but when I smash that planet, I don't want it to be built back up in a few minutes.

::

In short, metal is fine. Scarcity makes tactical choices more meaningful.

I think for April Fools, Uber should reduce the metal income of T1 Extractors to +2.1, and T2 Extractors to +6.0.

Ya see, that's how things were in the great ARM/CORE galactic war sonny. We had no fancy shmancy +7 Metal income, and we didn't start with no 10k energy. All we had was our 1 metal spot, 3 Solar Generators, our D-Guns and our balls.

TA is a nice game, but the early game wasn't really the best thing about the game. The early game in TA is actually really slow, and that's not a good thing.

I disagree. I found out the fun way that you can in fact Zerg rush an ARM player with nothing but Weasels.

It's not as slow as you think. Early game resources came mostly from rocks, not extractors. They pushed you over the big hurdle of producing factories (which were pretty damn expensive to start). After that, it was all unit production.

Rock deposits are the way to go for early game resources. I could write a huge post about it but I won't. Suffice to say that it gives money when that money is needed most.

Apologies Garat, I was getting flamed last night by some dude and I was getting worked up. I know all these problems will be solved by the slide bar via the editor. Also the community is currently working on a mod for that. No one likes change and we're all just worked up for the game to be finished. Everyone expects way too much, myself included.

As a new player it is immediately obvious that you should build metal extractors and makers in TA in order to get your economy up. It is even clear that reclaiming wreckages is an important aspect as it can block movement and net you a lot of metal. Reclaiming rocks however is very unintuitive as there's nothing that guides you towards that direction. The rocks aren't visually distinct as reclaimable objects unless you specifically target the rock with the knowledge that it can be reclaimed.

To further clarify:

I am fully aware that the game will change a lot in the near future, it's just that I find the metal reduction too drastic to play with right now. I am also fully aware that the purpose of an alpha and beta is to develop the game and not balance the game to be perfectly playable.

At the same time however, to test a game it is more beneficial to have an overload of metal than have a shortage of it. And while the early game is obviously the largest issue right now, the metal scarcity throughout the game allows for far less units and thus far less opportunities to experiment with interactions.

There's also nothing in the tech tree which suggests how important the role is. Reclaiming resources is so powerful that it deserves its own dedicated high speed unit.

Anywhere where a user can spawn should be completely void of metal, except for, let's say, 3-5 nodes. All remaining nodes should spawn outside of the player start locations.

Saying "it's good, it makes you fight over land" is a moot point, if one player starts with 10 nodes, and another starts with 2.

The best way to keep balance at the beginning of the game is to have static node compositions; nodes that spawn near or around the commander unit, while ensuring that no other nodes spawn within the starting location.

Any solution that involves "Exploring" isn't going to be consistent and certaintly won't be balanced. I hate referencing SupCom, but they had a static 5 node composition at the starting of a match; It was always 5, and it was always near your commander. Not saying it needs to be exactly like that, but it will have to be close to that.

You'll never balance nodes, when they are randomly generated on a planet, without having considered player starting locations.

Personally I think theres too many nodes dotted about. If they were at key points it would allow for some good king of the hill moments. Id like it to be more ground control and less of a cluster ****. Atm it just feels more like a unlimited money starcraft map... dunno maybe im still a nab but id like to see the map as key points instead of a mess off green dots. Often it feels like supermarket sweep trying to get as many veins as possible before any real threat of an army shows up.

How not to complain about a mechanics issue in a game:

• Say over and over how awesome/l33t/pro you are
• Disregard anyone's opinion if you believe they haven't played as long as you
• Get really really angry
• Threaten to leave the game.

The game feels way more aggressive and strategic now the metal is reduced, alpha was just a spamfest, who can get the biggest eco the fastest, now map control is way more important which is the way all good strategy games play.

You're not criticizing the reduction of metal. You're criticizing the distribution of metal, specifically around spawns.

They're looking into that because, yes it's broken. I spawned on 2 metal with maybe 4 spots within range. Within the same range, 2 enemies had over 10 spots easily accessible.

Still, you don't have to react so intense. It doesn't get your friends and it certainly doesn't get anything accomplished with Uber.

i would opt for a system where the game post-processes the locations of commanders and adds metal spots to the starting location (a fixed number) so everyone has the same start.

They should make it so the commander spawns with 4 metal spots around him, then just leave the rest of the metal how it is. that way its fair game + it forces' that expansion on you! Wich imo is what the game is about! DOMINATION and ANNIHIALATION ! Not sit around in a safe area with 100 metal spots to camp with.

Before we resort to arbitrary stuff like this we should wait and see what will become of the 'Egg'.

Mike

The lack of metal and having to fight for control of the metal, was what made me come back to try this game.