I was thinking about this the other day, It would be great if mex all looked the same but had different outputs. I would really like a feature like this as a settable option before game, maybe to add more strategy/challenge to the game.. Currently every MEX point outputs 100% letting extractors draw the maximum amount of metal they are capable of. It would be awesome if mex point's had variance to their output.. first mex placed placed on a planet outputs 100% so a basic extractor would produce 7 metal per tick and an advanced would produce 28 metal if placed there, second mex placed on a planet outputs 85% so a basic extractor would produce 6 metal and an advanced would produce 24 metal if placed there, third mex placed on a planet outputs 70% so a basic extractor would produce 5 metal and an advanced would only produce 20 metal if placed there. Then have this repeat until all mex points on a planet are generated.. If all mex points still look the same it could add in some extra challenge to the game and maybe a bit more strategy as players will need to monitor how much metal is gained from extraction points to work out which are the best to upgrade to advanced first.
Well for one, using that system would mean mex nr 7 and beyond would produce 1 or less metal per tick. A t2 mex would be 3,4 or less metal per tick. A planet can easily have over a 100 mex points. So it would just be like driving with the handbrake on. Even with less punishing percentages, It will only do one thing: slow the metal economy, dragging down the rest of the game. The only way i could see variable mex points work is when some points are made better. For example: a few mex point could be over a rich ore vein. The metal extracted from these points is much purer. Giving the mex a 20 to 30 percent bonus to metal production.
it maybe better if there were less mex points as there would be reason to battle for the higher yielding point's But either if it was a minus or bonus to some mex points output i think it would be adding strategy as you will still need to monitor mex outputs and decide upon which mex to upgrade first to advanced.. and maybe scouting an opponent and taking out their high yielding mex points would be good.
I like the idea of different metal yields, if the player knows the difference. The strategy here is for example: "should I go for the lots of low-yields close to my base or should I go a bit further and take these few high-yields?" If you want less mex points then they just need to implement these mex sliders in the planet editor. Metal planets should have lots of high-yields. maybe it should even go more drastic in output values: basic/adv. \ yield \% of total mex 4/16 minimum 10% 5/20 low 30% 7/28 normal 55% 9/36 rich 5%
Metal is the only finite resource and theres only one way to produce it, there's no need to cap anything.
I wouldn't agree with that, if you want an extra layer of strategic depth by adding varying metal output I think you should give mex points that are further away from spawn zones/on other planets higher output, instead of adding varying metal output in a totally random way.
If you can't tell how much a metal spot yields by looking at it, this is a terrible idea. Otherwise it's mediocre, and somewhat obsolete given that clusters of metal spots have a similar effect.
Variable extractor point is an okay idea. It is not useful for controlling T1 placement, since those have to be cheap enough to be useful everywhere. It has potential to control T2 placement by giving some locations better payoff than others. It also flattens the economic curve, as players rush for the best spots and slowly max out on the rest. Unfortunately, no game in this series has been competitive enough for such a subtle difference to matter. Better spots can be given more extractor points, which is "good enough" for most eyes.
All you really need is a small, medium & large mass deposits and have mines output based on the size of the deposit they were on. It isn't very noticable, but something similar to this was in Total Annihilation where there was basically a few different metal deposits with varying amounts of yield. To be honest, Considering metal deposits look horrible on metal planets I'm inclined to believe that these are all place holder art and that each planet will have its own set of unique graphics, for example the metal planet could have an access port with its own extractor model to be placed on top of that retrieves supplies from the surface rather than mining them. The same could be true for under water metal spots, they could have a graphic that better represents the oil drill motion theme the water extractor has going on. The game is in beta right now, and the economy's a fragile, poorly balanced thing. Adding more complexity at this stage is like trying to put the frosting on a cake before you've baked it. I'd personally like to see varying mass deposits not only in art but amount of metal brought out of them, It will add more depth and strategy to the game if you have start spots with few large deposits Vs those with allot of small deposits, Making another important pre-game choice, which I think is part of Mavor's Vision for PA.
