Compulsory thread title: Check So having played my first few games with trees I fail to see what they add to gameplay other than being a complete annoyance. I'm not going to talk about the pathing issues caused by trees as these will be fixed. I want to see people's views on why they like or dislike trees so maybe I can get a better understanding on some peoples love for them and then question wether the pros or cons merit a change. I find them terribly annoying. They slow down gameplay and it isn't clear wether you can build in a location without having to reclaim trees first. TA handled this by not covering whole maps in trees and the ability to build and see if it was possible to build between trees. I have heard people say it adds strategy and start position decisions but it only makes me want to start in a position with as little trees as possible.
I feel they are a little densely packed at the moment. If they were spread out a little the pathing would be easier and less to reclaim before building. I do like the way they add to game play and make a unique biome instead of just a differently coloured one. It also doesn't take much to add a couple of uber cannon shots into a build order to start the burn off going.
I mostly like the fire stuffs. The reclaiming I can definitely do without, it doesn't take long to clear trees but it takes long enough to be annoying. Maybe if there was another way to forest? Like maybe being able to directly attack them? Of maybe use an area attack? That'd be pretty cool. And useful. And nice to look at. Hint hint Uber. The pathing has potential and I like the idea behind it. We'll see where it goes.
^This I personally like the addition of threes as obstacles and free metal (what kind of trees are these ). But I believe that they do hinder pathing a tad bit too much and Spawning in forest is usually a bad idea unless you have a biome nearby that has open area because tree reclamation takes so long. I'd like to see that instead of having to reclaim trees as you build, they simply disappear when you place a building on them.
Yeah I understand the biome diversity side of it and that some people think they look cool on fire. Have you ever uber cannoned one side of your base to build with harvested metal from the other side. This could be gameplay if the fires were predictable (are they?). Yeah having units be able to force attack a location would be nice. Don't know about attacking trees as this would hamper micro attacking units with bombers etc. Do you mean pathing as in units getting stuck or something else? I haven't read what the plan is.
I just mean the plan to make units path around trees. Unless that's not happening anymore and I just didn't get the memo. But I doubt it.
Yea, i don't see there being any added strategy for choosing starting positions. The tree economy with combat fabbers is kinda funny for a while, but with the way the game is balanced atm, you really can't spare the energy or the combat fabber to be doing such things. And it's always better to kill as many trees as possible, as soon as possible, instead of saving them for a lumber harvest. Although i guess it might be slightly interesting with a low metal count planet, as the option of using combat fabbers essentially like energy to metal converters then becomes kinda viable.. but this is very map specific and almost scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Yeah plus the fact that basing a map to be used best with the trees which are easily destroyed is maybe not the best idea.
Personally, I think trees really add some character to earth planets. Its pure aesthetics, and it makes the game feel a little more destructive, like your robots are actually destroying the environment to kill another robot. I'm sure there will explodable ice bergs, and desert cliffs that turn into mounds of rock as well as lava swells. but this discussion is merely aesthetic based.
Well i kinda agree. If they are there for aesthetics, they should not interact with the gameplay layer. If they instantly disappeared to make way for blueprints that have just started building, i would not really mind them too much.
I think trees on planets are great, the reclaim value is interesting and you just have to see them as real obstacles. If your planning to build a base, don't forget to clear the trees. 1 Ubercannon is usually more then enough, it just takes some thinking in advance. You need to shoot it way before you start up building, because the fires spread slowly.
I like that the trees can catch fire and stuff, but competitively i do not like them as obstacles, because if you spawn in a heavely forested spawn point and your enemy does not, you are just f*cked. Minutes will be waisted to reclaim/shoot trees to be able to build. Plus the fact that if your enemy spawns in the ideal situation next to a forest and you got no trees in sight, he has an economic advantage aswell, the randomization can screw you or your enemy over with the trees ^^
Where a little benefit and a little annoyance, that can translate in imbalance, can improve the game-play? Just asking, I'm not accusatory. Movement modifiers could add something to strategy if Bots and Vehicles would traverse forests and other biomes differently. I would love to see that. Also stuffs that catch fire and are destroyable are nifty. But otherwise, the way we interact with trees at the moment can surely be improved or simplified. I'm pretty much with @clopse in this. I don't like trees coming in the way slowing down constructions and other base's activities.
Trees are great, create one factory that only produce engineers, set that factory to patrol your base. Then ever a enginer is ready, he will help other engineers, or repair something, or if there are something to reclaim nearby and you need more resources, they can reclaim stuff!
I can see what you are saying Carlorizzante at this moment trees can be annoying if you didn't notice them in time, but im sure that a few patches from now they definitly are more part of the game so that players are more aware of trees and what they do. Maybe also commander-spawn forest fires, instead or on top of the already cleared trees to make it even a little easier to make room for your buildings.
Yeah. I'm not so sure about trees as well. It takes units forever to get where they're going. I like the idea of spacing out trees more. Or at the very least have more variation. Have some forests where they're spread out, and some where they're dense. Maybe? I dunno. Hard to predict. It is first pass stuff. I think we'll get there.
I think the main problems people are having are from the fact that everyone is accustomed to trees not playing any role whatsoever. In TA on maps with trees you always had to adapt your strategy and build planning to them. I think they are great and should interact with the player even more (fire damaging bots passing in between trees, making trees actually completely block pathfinding [I think the current flow field resolution might be somewhat too low for this] but at the same time being a little bit more randomly spread out).
