How important are walls to you?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by jpinard, August 22, 2014.

  1. jpinard

    jpinard Member

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    When metal is all over the place, and with all the aircraft and orbital stuff - walls seem almost pointless.

    * Do you use walls in the game?
    * If you do use walls, how do you use them?
  2. melhem19

    melhem19 Active Member

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    yeah, sometimes
  3. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    Walls have 5000 health with a metal cost of 20, and most units cannot fire over them. This makes walls INCREDIBLY health to metal efficient. Place like 1 - 3 in front of a tower and that tower will really be able to take a hit. A line of walls... Only infernos and (possibley) vanguards can get through.
    Planktum likes this.
  4. jpinard

    jpinard Member

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    squishy - I'm not quite understanding how your wrote your post. In most maps I play there is no real "front". So is encircling them a good idea or too ineffective from a metal count or time perspective?
  5. masterevar

    masterevar Active Member

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    Circling may take a lot of time and can leave your base unsecured.
  6. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    The "front" as I consider it is anything outside of your circle of a base. Basically think of your base as a round circle, expand as such, and set up towers facing outwards from the circle, place walls on the front of said turrets.
    websterx01 likes this.
  7. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    defensive line to make it more difficult for groundunits to get to my base even if it merely brings just a few seconds those seconds can be crucial .. using fighters for air defense and umbrellas or anchors for orbital defense ...
  8. mot9001

    mot9001 Well-Known Member

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    Imo walls are a gamble, they require apm, workforce, eco and sometimes bullets can still fly over it and damage high targets like commanders. But they also work great in some games and can definitly help you win.
  9. Geers

    Geers Post Master General

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    Well they hold up my ceiling so that's always g- Oh you mean the game.

    I don't really use them, when I do I don't think I've ever had the thought "oh gee I sure am glad I built that wall".
  10. Nicb1

    Nicb1 Post Master General

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    I tend to use walls in all of my PA games. I usually tend to have a line in front of a set of turrets just to allow the turrets to do more damage before the enemy is able to destroy them. This is useful especially against ground based advances. So in my instance I find walls to be incredibly useful. If walls were to be removed I would probably start raging about it.
  11. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Walls around defensive towers are very very useful.

    If you use defensive towers, you should use walls.
  12. ledarsi

    ledarsi Post Master General

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    There are really two kinds of walls, and we really only have one of the two kinds right now.

    The current walls are mostly an impediment to movement. While they do take a lot of damage to destroy, in practice they aren't actually absorbing a lot of hits because people are using weapons that go over them.

    The other kind of wall is an impediment to fire. Like a bertha shelter that was created as a third-party unit in TA. These walls are big and tall enough that they completely block all but the highest firing arcs.

    Walls in PA are short, and many structures and units are much taller than the wall, but cannot pass over them, meaning they can be seen and targeted. I'm not saying walls are bad- they are very useful for blocking certain weapons. But the optimal use for such walls is to tightly surround a turret rather than use them like a wall, forming a solid perimeter.

    Walls in SupCom were the same way- you don't use them around an entire base like a real wall. You surround a turret that is tall enough to shoot over them with the smallest number of walls possible, obtaining a lot of protection against certain weapons for very little cost.

    Much bigger walls would be a lot more functional. Very tall walls that block almost all movement and weapons, and even sight, would be a very useful perimeter around a base. And could even create uses for all-terrain bots, or jumpjets.

    And if we really wanted to get ambitious, what about walls that are so big that units can walk up on top of them? I think such constructions are possible within the PA engine.
    arsene likes this.
  13. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Walls take time to destroy, and work great at blocking chokepoints.

    Great at wasting your enemy's time enough for you to act.
    MrTBSC likes this.
  14. elodea

    elodea Post Master General

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    walls are great. However, i always see them either under-used or over-used.

    You shouldn't be building great walls of china aka your own coffin
    ace902902 and squishypon3 like this.
  15. killerkiwijuice

    killerkiwijuice Post Master General

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    So you're saying the Chinese are living in their coffin?

    Seems legit
    Last edited: August 23, 2014
  16. Geers

    Geers Post Master General

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    I'm pretty sure the workers who died whilst building the Great Wall were buried under it.

    But what he means is "don't box yourself on you sly turtle you".
    squishypon3 likes this.
  17. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    I think they are important and I use them right.

    I usually throw up just 2 a turret, touching corners as to block shots from just one angle, the most probable angle of attack.

    If the turrets are side by side, there is only one direction to attack. If the turrets are by themselves, might use 4 or 6 to defend a chokepoint pathway.

    Too bad turrets are weaker these days.
  18. onyxia2

    onyxia2 Member

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    I like the ambitious walls Idea, like Uber is ambitious and should totally implement this tier 2 wall, or whatever! And units should be able to walk on top of it and there should be towers built on top of this wall as well, with units able to pass through the tower. Ya know like a Mid-evil Castle wall, only tougher and actually be a considerable investment.

    I'd imagine big tanks would be awkward moving around on this wall, probably something built for robots to help em defend you instead :) But seriously I wanna see this wall in the game!!
  19. elodea

    elodea Post Master General

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    Of all the points of contention you would go to that? o.0

    It doesn't even hold true. Look at the impact when china meets industrial nations for the first time. Look at the impact of current chinese economic policy compared to the old old way of closed borders and purposeful ignorance.

    Bottomline: Don't turtle yourself into a corner.
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  20. Clopse

    Clopse Post Master General

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    I use them to stop fabbers been sniped and started to use 1 to protect mex from difficult angles to defend it from without losing the mex.
    squishypon3 and elodea like this.

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