Do we really need mass points?

Hello there everyone, at the risk of being flayed I'd like to take a minute to ask: Mass points..... do we really need them?

I'm going to volunteer to be the heretic and say no. It becomes a weird sort of constraint, and it slows you down before you can build the good stuff and then go and smash you opponent.

Any thoughts?

They make the game intressting, you have to fight for them right away, thus starting the conflict with the enemy faster and giveing you some sub goals (the main goal being, destroy the enemy commander).

If you dont use mass points then aloot of people will just tech up, build a huge army, crash them togheter over and over until one win. While this can still be fun it gets old realy quickly.

I usually played on LAN in supcom with unlimited resources, just for fun or against sorian's AI with high building speed. It's could be fun, but it's not something you want to do often.

But because some people don't like to lose, so they going turtle and game is starting to be very boring. Mass points force you don't being turtle.

If you want to build good stuff then use cheats, that way you can skip the resource part and get on with smashing things.

If you want to compete against others (for fun, or for pride) then you need things to compete for and compete over.

fight for ressources is a basic part of nearly any RTS. Of course for a lot of games there exist "unlimited" ressources mods of some kind, but for a competitive play, its important to have ressources.

In that case it doesnt matter, if they are really limited like in Starcraft, where after some time the map will be empty, or only limited in ressources per time and planet like in PA. You have to fight for them in both cases.

Note: There is absolutely no flaming\ baiting going on.

Its just that while fighting over mass points is necessary for play... it just seems pernicious, mass here and nowhere else?

On the other hand I suppose a way out would just be to play on a metal planet I guess, Mass for all YAY!!!!!!

Hope someone will make a mod to turn mass points on\off though.

Although I am enjoying the lack of functional mass points in the alpha right now, I can't wait to see them working as intended. It adds more depth to the game without asking more of the player. Well, maybe a little more, but it isn't really an inconvenience. They are a part of the spirit of this game and its roots, they are necessary.

I also agree that mass points should stay - fighting over ressources always makes the game more interesting and forces engagements between enemies. You could probably always make a mod which enables unlimited ressources though...

Yeah... I hated Core Prime. It made the end of the ARM campaign ridiculously easy, and made the beginning of the CORE campaign very floaty.

Okay, yeah, it was sort of fun to have infinite Flashes or to fill the map with Big Berthas. But where was the challenge? I killed the CORE commander with PeeWees. NOTHING BUT PEEWEES. It was like I was hunting cockroaches with a flamethrower at a petrol refinery. They're sort of hard to hit, but you can always just use more fuel.

Yes we need mass points. This should be so obvious that no further discussion is needed.
They are one of the biggest improvements I am currently waiting for tbh.

I like both sides, and even both together.

Why it would work without mass points: The game would feel more like it currently does in alpha, where you just expand slowly farther and farther and farther. Land volume will become the new currency, just spreading like a virus. The game would be decided by the most efficient virus, not only the one that spreads most but also the one that maintained base integrity and high level structures first.

Why it would work with mass points: You would have to fight for control over specific spots. This would actually be a game of efficiency, building the most efficient small bases around spots of metal, and building on the easiest to defend spots and the spots that are more likely to hide from the enemy.

Why it would work with mass points being only a bonus but extractors can go anywhere: This would allow both strategies at once. With the proper balance, one would have to do the best either by building such a large mass of inefficient extractors that their base covers enough surface area to make up for lack of metal points, or by collecting mass points tactically enough that a handful of colonies built on metal produces more metal and thus stronger units faster than the guy who just covered land in them, or by doing both land coverage and metal points when convinent.

I would like it to be an option to do any of those 3 for a game setting. I personally like the last one myself, with the right balance one would need to get some metal points but wouldn't be completely screwed if they ended up with less metal points. Makes sort of a "dual objective for victory", land AND points not one or the other.

Just have a mass anywhere gamemode, gods. I see no logical point behind this, having no mass resource at all and just energy would have the same effect.

mass points add map struggle; we dont need a mass overlay it was tried in Spring and didn't work out

Exactly.

On one game, player was building mexes only on those spots. Adorable.

Yeah we do, i feel dirty otherwise. I build on the spots though, but i still think there is far too many.

Yeah, if an Extractor generates +7 mass, there needs to be far less Mass Points, more mass points at strategic locations (specifically naturally untenable ones), and more "low value" mass points.

I build on them whenever I'm playing with other people. May as well try to replicate the finished product and make it more challenging.

I'm pretty sure that number will vary based upon the size of the point.

I also want them to stand out a bit more, when there are forests covering the things it's a pain to see.

This^
But can we add an option like "Without Mass points" or something like this for players who want to play with limitless mass?