An idea about Minerals and Resources

So when looking back at all of the scale pictures and images of the Desert Biome, my mind began to wonder off and created an interesting idea.

So I had noticed there was a crack in the surface near all the bases and was wondering, maybe we could create small little flying robot units that could go into these cracks and search for minerals.

When they come back out they would give you a data pad that would identify all the resources found in the cracks.

Then if it was rich with minerals you could send miners, if any will exist, into the crevasse and begin getting your minerals.

Just something I wanted to share because I thought it was cool!
Best,
SteveZ

Why not just build a core mining facility for extracting loads of mass from one single location?

Could make for an interesting planet if they only had 2 or 3 mega deposits and no smaller ones.

Two different types of metal deposit? Might be cool. It's partially justified, as shallow resources are no guarantee of deep deposits and vice versa. The difficulty in holding small deposits is determined by how they are placed around the map. Big deposits create valuable targets worthy of raids.

It sounds like an "advanced" metal deposit, which shares an intriguing parallel with the tech system:
• Basic deposit - dirt cheap, low yield, common, basic mex only.
• Advanced deposit - expensive, high yield, rough terrain, rare, advanced mex only.

I really dont think Game Resources will go that much into detail. They already said ther will be different ways to generate resources but essentially we will have Metal/Mass and Energy and have various different ways to generate them kinda like TA.

I agree, basic deposits for all the essential units then bigger more richer minerals for super duper crazy units.

A mass extractor that you build on the edge of cliffs and cracks would be cool.

TA had something sort of like this, the metal deposits gave back different amounts of metal depending on how big they were, and some veins extended such that you could cover it with more than one metal extractor.

I suspect the yield calculation was a very simple thing like "the area of the metal deposit covered by the extractor * a constant" but you could absolutely see a difference between capping the tiny metal spots you found on grass worlds (like 0.3 to 0.5/sec) vs capping a nice metal patch (2.0/sec) vs slapping one down on a metal world (2.3/sec).

I'd be entirely ok with seeing something similar in PA, rather than the identical mass spots you saw in SupCom. I'd also be ok with deep, rich, rare metal deposits requiring the T2 extractor (though you could use it on normal mass deposits as well.)

Somthing I have always wanted to see was water surface based mass deposits where you would build "oil rigs" out at sea.

But under water mass deposits would be just as cool.

This would be interesting.

I've never had much interest in sea based units.

They always seemed very slow, with no major incentive.

Additional resources would perhaps provide that incentive.

That would be really cool, that would be a great idea for rich deposits of oil that could have benefits.

In this topic i would just turn the tide of things, mass is mass, even tho you have different atomic structures with enough tecnology and energy you can turn any kind of atom into another by fusion, so that shouldnt be a hindrance for this uber robots

So to speak, to be able to make better units, upgrade, get out of the planet, etc.. it would be a matter of resources, some mass as a basic cost dependent on the size and diferents amounts of energy for each objective, of course some buildings should have energy unkeep too, if this is a strategy game, you should be able to effectively target your enemies economy.

Saying this, i will establish 3 types of basic sources for energy (all the same really)

1º Normal Hidrogen, you can xtract it from water in terran and water worlds, asteroids an moons in form of ice, etc.. in desert worlds by the acumulation of humidity or oasis/ice caps/ etc... (so this planet should have a hindrance in energetic economy at the start) and of course lava planets, here you can substitute hidrogen for geothermal plants that make hidrogen out of mass spending the energy they get from heat in an accelerated rate that the process of making it from water/ice.

2º the second type of hidrogen will be deuterium and tritium, you get this from the same sources as hidrogen but only after a nearly midgame update, the real world appliances of this are the same (fusion reaction) they just only make it cheaper to do in terms of starting energy, but, for the game, it would be interesting to make it like 5 fold the energy of normal hidrogen, so this will enable you to get strong land/air/water units and be able to get to space with enough cargo to make a base in another celestial body.

3º The third type of "hidrogen" will be Helium-3, that can be only obtained in Gas Giants, making them a REALLY desirable option, being them their own miniature star systems having like 3 moons, or 6, with a lot of stationary orbits to pack equipment, they really are the ultimate battleground of the game, of course, to move asteroids you will need the amount of energy than this 10 fold hidrogen gives, you can gather it with only deuterium but it will take twice as long, and if youre fighting at the same time probably 4 times longer than if you have a helium-3 mine.

teleporter for materials through the bases should be a must, but it shouldnt be sent with the initial builder, but built when you gather on the spot enough resources, giving others the chance to see your base and counter it.

regards.

I see where you are going with it, but every game seems to have only three main sources of minerals.

I would like to see PA do something different with it. Since they have a good variety of planets, doing something complex with there resource system would a new layer of strategy to the game.

I think getting resources from certain places should allow benefits and what not. Instead of having to just mass three main minerals you could have an interesting variety.

Let's see. Fusion, fusion, and... fusion. Yeah, that pretty much covers everything.

Water deposits should be standard, because every world can have an arbitrary amount of land or water. Naval play is screwed without it.

The OP's system is quite a bit different. It's more along the lines of "geothermal/hydrocarbon" points. A few spots have a much greater yield, but demand an advanced structure to use.

It creates a different scaling system for the economy. With TA's system, every single metal point has 2 yields- low and high. After teching up, every point can advance to high yield, basically tripling your economy and rendering the basic extractor obsolete.

With this system, you have explicit low yield and high yield points, with no direct connection between them. Their effectiveness is based on how many nodes of each flavor a planet has. Lots of advanced nodes will favor advanced extractors, which are expensive and more vulnerable to direct attack. It plays out differently from a bunch of basic nodes, which have a cheap and disposable extractor.

Yes, thats the thing xD, 3 level fusion plants depending on the fuel used, you can obviously make it like this too:

1º Fuel cells that work with any kind of hidrogen
2º Fusion plants that use isotopes
3º Antimatter extracted from the radiation belts of gas giants --> http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4ba0f009dffe1

That will be cool too, but if i propose this, is basically because in the genre of RTS its very rare to see other main resource escalating than minerals/metals/mass/etc... the energy is allways there, but or poorly implemented or in a second stage to other resources, in PA the amount of energy needed for some tasks like moving asteroids is grotesque, thats why it should be very cool to use it as main resource and make mass a second in line.

but thats just my opinion :mrgreen:

regards.

Simple, but yet complex. This is exactly what I want to see in the game.

Strange... did Mike take a day off?

it would be his first in like 6 months.

I like the idea of some of those beautiful giant tiles posted in the art release being more than just gorgeous eyecandy. Some manner of adjacent mining station or something being able to extract minerals either through permanent drilling structures or remote mining drones would be pretty neat.

I'm also curious to see how gas giant mining will be differentiated from ordinary drilling for minerals (let's be honest, it was metal we were mining in SupCom, not 'mass'), if it will. Gas giants were a stretch goal, not part of the core game, so...?

>.>

Well if you Insist! ;p

Hitting the hit points;

-Variable Metal output has been brought up a few times before, I'm of the opinion that most/all Metal spots should have the same output.

-My rough draft for naval Resources originally seen here;

-The potential awkwardness of random maps and random Mass/Metal placement is already tough to figure out, the idea of making cliffs/crevices or whatnot also act as resources just piles complication on top of the entire system. You build Extractors on top of Mass/Metal spots, nothing more nothing less.

Mike

This would mean there is only a single type of extractor. It could work, it's just very limited.

An advanced metal node allows for a high risk, high reward form of gathering resources. A risky economic structure in general boosts the damage and value of raiding both on and across planets.

For example, a high yield node is an ideal target to permanently destroy (nuke?), as it represents far more long term damage than trying to destroy a standard node.

It's no different from a geothermal point in practice. A special land feature acts as a location for a special structure. That's all there is to it.