[POLL] What to do with wreckages?

Another option would be...

Wreckages are rubble. They should scatter the area with little metal fragments (a simple texture change), so that the fabbers can still claim wreckage but it would make the area pathable. When you destroy something, you would expect it to be blown to bits. You don't expect the fully intact shell to remain.

That's what options 2 and 3 are for, and what Total Annihilation did:



Note the big bulky debris, the damaged debris and the thinly distributed debris.
If you over-killed a target then the debris would degrade straight away.

awwww, soooooo so close but my poll option isn't in there.

even with multiple choice there's nothing i can vote with this one.

I wanted non-cosmetic (mass drop) but zero collision

Honestly, I'd rather have wreckages work like in FA: they can be reclaimed, but don't block pathing or shots. That way, they retain strategic value, but don't make big fights into a mess of attrition.

Unfortunately, I didn't see an option like that in the poll.

I know that's what option 2 and 3 are for, and they are the options I voted for. However I was meaning that unit debris is ALWAYS shown as just THINLY distributed scraps (more like a texture on the environment, rather than a rendered object). Maybe the structures, such as mex, energy gens and building remain as physical objects which still block you path, but for the units, I reckon thinly scattered metal is the best option (maybe a pool of melted metal for units destroyed by infernos). Either that, or similar to Total Annihilation yes.

This is kinda false. Was it really a 'choice' to reclaim wreckage in TA? No not really. You were forced to do it because of low metal income. It was NOT a 'strategic choice'.


At the end of the day, more 'options' by itself doesn't always equal a better game. If you followed that logic, I could argue that TA was flawed because it didn't allow me to build flying magical leprechauns. If only TA allowed flying magical leprechauns to provide more varied strategic considerations.

It is all about getting your core experience to a point where you like it. Then fitting and adding features on top of it to complement or enhance that core. You see this same philosophy across many popular games.

As I said before, PA has a faster metal pacing, and untill you find something inherently wrong with this system, there is not much justification to re-design the entire experience just so the player can have meaningful wreckage.

Here is my two cents on the subject. I like the idea of wreckage a lot. Its both visually appealing and can result in some interesting scenarios gameplay wise. Both because of blocking paths and the potential incentive to reclaim.

What I would do is adjust naval wreckage so that it sinks and isn't a pathing issue. Yet allow it to be still reclaimed.

As for the land. I never really saw the wreckage as causing any major annoyances on land. But it was also almost never reclaimed. So what I would suggest is allow the fabbers to basically be able to area reclaim all wreckage in an area around them. This speeds up the reclaim process and incentivises reclaiming more. Imagine just being able to send one or two fabbers over an area and sweep up all the metal that is there in 5 seconds or so.

If pathing still bothers you then maybe a compromise. Make only the very largest of units and buildings leave wreckage?

I vote...

G) Other (Specify)

Specify: I think naval shouldn't have wreckages at the least, and that all mobile bulk army units shouldn't have wreckages. Commanders and structures having wreckages is fine, as well as trees.

Really, I always loved the idea that oneday wreckages could be built over without reclaim, just make the wreck instantly disappear when built atop of and the structure being built overtop cost less the difference of the wrecks. If the wrecks are worth more, the structure is free. If the wrecks less, the structure builds at half or whatever percent the metal drain. THIS IS HARD TO PROGRAM, but would make wrecks extra tactical.

I think unit wrecks should be entirely removed (as they are right now) and replaced with rubble, so there's nothing to cause pathing problems or block shots, but they can still be reclaimed.

Technically speaking you can actually get statistically significant results with only a small number of people in your sample. Much less than 1000. 54 may even be enough. The issue is sample bias I.e. You are selecting for people that read the forums which are probably more, shall we say, hard core.

this. So much this.

this can be posted as an answer to so much drivel I see on the forum.

Salvaging wrecks would not be an option if it were added to the game. (as a real mechanic I mean; what we had before was worthless as far as I can tell)

I personally am suggesting that Uber rebalance the entire eco system (no pun intended) around salvaging wreckage. I think it would make for a better game.

Poll needs an option for: The supcom way is the best way.

Guys as far as i know it wasn't attempted even. We never got the chance to try properly. I mean i see what is being said here ofcourse, but when did we have the closest to perfect setup available for us in a build that would actually allow us to use reclaim to the fullest? In my opinion we never did. Fabbers ALWAYS needed toomuch energy, no exceptions. Combat fabricators are vulnerable and inaffordable, and before they used up toomuch energy aswell. Wreckages can bug appearantly that they don't get auto reclaimed. Wreckages can be pushed around the globe. I mean it should only be a small step for players to send fabricators and combat fabricators after your biggest army to surround the tankgraveyard with walls and turrets to protect your guys there who are reclaiming everything eventually. In PA you got a lot of resources, ok this might not work in favor of reclaim. But the balance is unfinished so decreasing metal income slightly to make reclaiming more interesting seems like something that could have been attempted.

Oh and to add to this. Even with uberbalances i reclaimed in almost every game. It wasn't that helpfull usually but i was assuming that combat fabricators price was eventually going to be less then an entire factory because wysiwyg.

I voted "fine as they were" cos my suggestion doesnt fit to another vote:
make them pushable. Units should drive through fields of wreckage by pushing them to the side.
Wreckages pushed together should just go over each other, they dont need to block themselves.

Big tanks (advanced) can roll over wreckage. Bots could jump or hike over them. There is so much possibilities. Simply removing it, is the lazy one.

And of course they should be more valuable like they were in supreme commander.

I like the idea that some wreckages stay and block shots and movement, as long as they have hp. Afair that's how it was before the patch, wasn't it?

The wreckage's are a modfication of the terrain, something People actually asked for. It can create chokes, and open/deny attack routes and generally adds a layer of depth, when otherwise sending endless streams of units, attacking from a single angle, might have been the best option. You get more potential for army movement and flanks. That imo sounds like a good thing.

That would change wreckages to move-able physics objects, meaning more problems for pathfinding and client/server-performance. I don't think that would work out very well.

Having wreckage affect pathing and be a valid target for gunfire was weird to me coming from Supreme Commander. If both of those things were removed it would've been quite a bit better I think.

The economy isn't balanced around reclaim though, in SupCom it is an extremely valuable resource, but the scale of economy in PA doesn't really allow for wreckages to play a significant role.

I liked how they changed the terrain, but some times it was annoying. It needed more work and I understand that Uber needs to prioritise.

But why remove the completely and not just remove impact on pathing / projectiles?

Doing that would have meant removing a single line of code - as opposed to deactivating wreckages for every single unit by hand.