Metal Planets - Should Metal Extractors Be Buildable Anywhere?

If I remember correctly, metal maps in Total Annihilation allowed you to build Metal Extractors anywhere. Finding metal was never a problem on these maps - I think each extractor produced more metal too. Personally I'd like it if this were the case in PA, it seems odd that a planet made of metal would only have certain regions where metal could be harvested. Thoughts?

I voted no because Metal planets already have the potential to have giant planet destroying laser built-in among other things.

That combined with practically infinite metal doesn't sound like a good thing.

Mike

I don't think that shouldn't be default, it should be a game option, or something like that.

Agreed.

You missed an option:

NO GOD NO.

The problem is simple: if you allow that, it becomes a matter of who spams mexes more, and more efficiently. It's not about war, it's about micro then.

I would even prefer a somewhat mid-way solution of an even, geometric distribution of metal spots, than allow Mex Everywhere solutions.

By geometric i mean: evenly spaced metal extraction spots on the planet in neat "rings" and in greater numbers.

Allowing metal extractors to be built anywhere on a metal planet would completely destroy economic balance, as you would effectively have an infinite metal supply by spamming metal extractors. The only way to compete with somebody on a metal planet would be to establish your own presence on a metal planet, turning the game into a battle to build metal extractors faster.

This.

I think it would cause a very large inbalance; i would prefer energy converters to convert energy to metals, at great expense to boot.

Metal should be hard to get by default, until late game.

This is a neat idea. It solves the conceptual weirdness of having metal deposits on a metal planet.

Personally I didn't play Total Annihilation at all competitively, could anyone who did weigh in on how metal maps affected the economic balance?

Voted yes, but I understand the problem if there are players on metal planets and players not on a metal planet in a game. However what is the point of metal planets in the firs place if it is not the TA style spamming madness?

You don't need a game option to enable and disable it, just don't play on metal maps if you don't like it.

I want to be able to build them anywhere because its different to the other planets. I think the metal spamming turtle problem could be solved by tweaking how energy is collected. If there were important energy collection points like geothermal vents etc and not just energy generator spam I think the game would be more interesting on all planets including metal with its unique metal everywhere attribute.

The metal planets are already going to function as some kind of superweapon; they don't need infinite metal as well to make them unique.

What about making it be optional?

I like it being optional, but it does make sense as a default. Same for asteroids, which can be almost solid metal.

Options are always good.

Fragmenting the player base is rarely good. More options means digging through more crap games to find something playable. Even now it's a pain sifting through all the people who think size five planets and twelve planet systems make for fun games. And that's before people have the opportunity to mess with metal placement or adding piles of mods.

Oh, just don't play on specific maps you don't like in a game with randomly generated maps. How, praytell, are players who don't like your opinion supposed to see the future? Just self destruct their commander every time a randomly generated system has a metal planet in it?

This is a good point, however is this solvable if they implement filters? A check box that removes metal planet systems from the search result would seem to suffice? I would hope they will add filters for number of planets and size of planets too in the final product.

I believe you see a summary the system with a list of planets before you enter the game?

Furthermore, it's worth mentioning that even without metal-extractor-anywhere planets, players could in theory already be placed on separate planets with drastically different resources - if one planet is smaller than the other an imbalance already exists. And currently if both players start on the same planet, both have the option to migrate to a planet with greater resources. I think this is a good thing; choices such as whether to focus on greater resource flow for a late-game advantage or quick aggressive strategies increase the depth of the game.

We could go for the middle ground and have metal worlds have more metal spots to collect from positioned in rings around the planet.

Along with lots to reclaim.

That doesn't really matter, long term it will be an options whether you guys do it or not, what matters at this stage is which one is better for the gameplay you've envisioned.

Mike

I think I liked metal planets as weapons more than resource hulks to pick at eternally.
Also think that the metal points on metal planets should be modeled as some sort of slot. Rather than natural metal outcropping, it could be a storage access. Build the extractor on top and its more being fed by the planet and less the machine world being mined. This is just visual however, and has no change to gameplay whatsoever.

This is an excellent idea.