This is a work in progress master thread of my ideas. If I add something, I will try to do so torwards the top. If you post, start the post with a tag if you want to more quickly and accurately refer to a specific piece. Not all ideas are created by me, some here are merely endorsed by me as "what I consider badass and possibly best for the game" So without further ado, if you would indulge me, this thread shall now become my personal miniforum. Here we go... [Turret Variety] I think different turrets should have different roles. Here is my idea: Single Barrel have no ammo system but do 1.5x the attack power of a turret without ammo so it isn't good but doesn't fizzle out. Double Barrel should have ammo and faster rate lower damage so it kills more units with less health but kills high health units slower, with ammo system it fires much less after about 12 dox kills. Triple Barrel should have ammo and slower fire rate but stronger shots so it kills higher health units faster but lower health units slower and less lower health units in a setting, with ammo system it kills 6 dox before slowing up but it does kill 2 vanguards within that time (against dox the damage is wasted as overkill) Ranges: I am not so sure I like having turrets of different ranges, it encourages t2 teching just to have basic units with range exceeding turrets and for turrets that keep up with t2 basic ranges. I am fine with Cost Effective: For their ultimate speed penalty, they do deserve to be cost effective. 2x seems enough imo. They should be able to kill 2x their cost in units in one setting, any more than that should overwhelm them. [Walls] They should add 2x a turret's standard health, and cost a single barrel turret themselves (worth it plus this balances their repair cost). They should add extra health, have only enough range to hug the turret and be protected by the turret still (2 walls thick should allow 1 wall to be attacked from safety by standard units). They still buy time that way. I would like to see a variety of units bypass walls, not just shellers. [Anti-Air Turret] T.5, commander can build, "gatling turret", by popular demand, it kills basic units at a steady rate like a laser turret. T1 is missile turret, average range, fires 8 missiles that 1 hit kill, but fires sluggish afterwards where gatling turret out-dps. T2 is flak turret, average range, fires like gatling turret but with ammo system, same damage as gatling turret, but with AOE, and after what would have killed 8 single units it suffers rate of fire reduction. [Artillery Variety] T1 should be steady firing, lower damage, shortish range, they are about good atm basically. T2 should be really slow fire (1 every 15 seconds?), lose it's AOE but have really long range and moderate damage. Perhaps it has enough damage not to kill anything but really flimsy mex and pgens, but it's damage can be repaired by combat fabbers in and of itself on main structures, it's perk is being able to reach out and do that damage from safety without a useful fire rate. Some people don't like full map artillery, but I think in TA it shows potential for balance as long as it is limited. Mexes, you can tip a game in your odds killing t1 mexes from safety, but you can do that somewhat with nukes, artillery is just a different unique balanced flavor with snowballing and more focus in using, and besides most decent players could rebuild single mexes as fast as they die easily in the scenario of artillery killing them. [Catapult] Instead of artillery, I would like this to become a more liberal tool variant of a nuke launcher, or a t1 missile while nukes are t2 missiles. Make catapult missiles fabricate on their own in 40 seconds a piece, have holkins aoe, store 5 at a time, and moderate cost of missile production. Then, make them autofire by default to use without macro, and with hold fire command you can manually use missiles in barrages when you need. Increases the concept of this unit greatly. To balance as a t1, it should take 2 missiles to kill units even though it does have small aoe, and it should take all 5 to kill any structures really. Technically, one silo wouldn't even kill a wandering commander. Yes, it should keep range limit. [Nuke] This isn't so bad atm, just needs higher cost. Give launcher higher rate and efficiency, and nukes more cost, so launcher builds nukes in 6 minutes unassisted but fabbers speed it up much less and 2 launcher at same time building 2 minute nukes is pretty much your whole economy. MAYBE even lower the damage so some structures survive a single nuking just barely. [Antinuke] Give it 2 tiers. T1 can intercept catapult missiles, but have a natural cooldown. It is cheaper to intercept missiles 1:1, but if multi-fired it will only prevent 1 missile and let the rest by. T2 intercepts catapult and nuke missiles. Yes, this means catapults can create an opening for nukes and blow the cost of an antinuke. Yes, this theoretically could be prevented by putting 1-5 t1 antimissles around the antinuke to catch catapult missiles so the antinuke doesn't have to. Give the antinuke a smaller range, but cheaper. I like the idea of getting rid of starting-with-missile, since it queues a missile itself upon build anyway and can be auto-assisted with a fabber "area patrol" ordered after a build as long as the area patrol only covers the antinuke. Suggestion, name t1 antimissile to "parasol" and t2 antimissiles to "umbrella". Name orbital laser to "SXX1304 Terrestial Attack Satellite" and ground laser to "SXX1304 Orbital Defense Facility". [Factories] I think factories should keep current cost, should have higher fabrication speed, equal efficiency that is better than fabbers, slightly longer unit rolloff time, unit costs remain relatively same or slightly more with one exception, Fabber units cost 2x more. This means you would use less fabbers and more factories, since a fabber can make a new factory with better results than being tied up in assisting. [Radar] Scouts should have their current long range vision, be immune to radar themselves, and when they are in range of enemy radar the enemy radar itself should show up as a radar blip to it (and it glows player color to indicate it detects radar). T1 radar is okay atm, maybe even could use nerf if barely. T2 radar could be same as t1 radar but "directional". Meaning, it has same range as t1 radar, but the edge starts at the structure itself, and goes in the direction the radar faces. So, it has twice the range, but in a circular area as if the radar was built half a radar's distance ahead. It gives it "reach" without making it inhereintly better.
[Orbital] Orbital launcher, deepspace radar = T1 Since it is planned to eventually become diversified with in-orbit factory, it might be looking into to make it a t1 factory. I mean, it has it's drawbacks because of resource generation, but with proper limits planet expansion could be just as common and easy as land expansion. It wouldn't be linearly faster even if made t1. It should obviously remain the least efficient and maybe have tiers of things. [Deepspace Radar] Detects a scout distance of vision above it in orbital layer, can't see entire planet worth of orbital layer that it is on. Does detect any orbital transfers and any orbitals on other planets. To get total orbital view, simply put a deepspace radar onto 2 planets or use multiple deepspace radars on your own planet (nearby umbrellas and distributed amongst base). They are as cheap as t1 radar is currently, their abundance only adds macro and utility. [Orbital launcher] T1 fabber, astraeus, t1 fighter, radar satellite, spy satellite, t1 suicide satellite ("morning star"?) [T1 orbital fabber] Radar Satellite, Spy Satellite, in-orbit factory, t1 orbital turret ("grapnel?"), Teleporter [radar satellite] should probably just be the same or less than t1 ground radar, slow travel speed, you can fairly easily fly it over top of enemy and just defend it. Also gives same range worth of orbital shell. [spy satellite] scout's vision of planet surface, fairly fast, radar cost, same range worth of orbital vision [T1 in-orbit turret] should probably just have slightly longer range, double health, same rate of fire, same damage per shot of fighter, while being twice as expensive and stationary. [T1 teleporter] Built in orbit, descends once onto target, becomes stationary land structure as is now. [T1 Suicide Satellite] basically is like a bomb bot, it costs 2x a fighter and moves like a fighter, and has a one time use to move onto another satellite and explode or descend like astraeus and explode on land target. It should kill orbitals, and do enough damage to barely destroy a t1 structure. It should be able to get to a single stationary fighter or turret. It still would be counterable from land and only punish absolute orbital absence, and each use costs the whole unit. Also, this would pretty much be able to kill anything within so much a range of the launcher due to it's speed off it's spawn allowing it to travel before dying, a form of launcher spawncamp prevention. [In-orbit Factory] All Launcher Units, T2 Fabber (not t1), SXX, t2 nuclear suicide satellite, pretty much any moving satellites. Allows luxury of autoproduction and such. [T2 Orbital Fabber] t1 orbital turret ("grapnel"?), t2 orbital turret ("anchor"), in-orbit factory,t1 radar satellite, t2 spy satellite, teleporter, t2 orbital antinuke [T2 orbital turret "anchor"] same damage, rate, and range of fighter, 10x health, 4x cost, stationary. Practical for enemy fighters to ignore anchor to shoot down target satellites, satellite just tanks damage while dealing area damage and is difficult to get rid of and even takes 2 suicide satellites to kill. Staggers with t1 orbital turret since t1 has longer range and less health. [SXX Laser Attack Satellite] same as current [t2 nuclear suicide satellite] single use satellite, same cost as sxx, acts like suicide satellite with less speed, nuclear explosion on impact with ground (enough to kill units and t1 mex not structures), used to clear large areas of planet for invasion. Cannot travel between planets. [Metal Extractors] t2 ones don't produce more than twice t1 ones, t2 units cost more, t1 units stay the same. [Units] To Be Continued...
[Turret Variety] This gives me an idea: Instead of having T2 turrets that are longer range, we could have T2 turrets that have shorter range. For example, we could have an expensive short-range T2 turret that is out-ranged by most units but out-ranges Vanguards and does similar damage as the latter. Such a turret could be very powerful when it comes to preventing an enemy army from walking straight past your defences into your base and stopping Vanguards. But it would need support from other longer range (T1) turrets, because even a swarm of (or even a single) Dox could kill it easily - if someone were to leave that expensive thing undefended.
What I do like about range variety, is like unit columns, you can overlap ranges to form a single edge-range where everything shoots all at the same time. You are right. It sounds counter intuitive, but would actually be BETTER, if t2 turrets were shorter range, they would be placed where a wall would confide in safety in place of the wall and less hp and more cost, and their shorter range would line up edges with the turret behind it. Makes it a better choice of addition instead of straight up replace. That was the concept of some of those ideas, to add a t2 to an existing t1 instead of using a t2 and reclaiming the t1. In your situation, a lot of the time the t2 wouldn't work on it's own, and the t1 works on it's own but in limited power, but the t2 and t1 being built in a variety of configuration keeps one safe while the other gets a lot of help. Even in attacking, you can choose to focus fire on the short one and then walk through the other one, or fire on the longer ranged one and then simply shoot the other one from safety.
I like your ideas. But as per protocol, I must declare that I don't like the current anti-nuke mechanics and prefer that we not alter the current system, but introduce a different counter/defence system. Carry on trooper.
So you want the Holkins to become a catapult, and the catapult to become a tactical nuke launcher? Right.
Well the ammo is abstracted for units anyway, considering how they all likely have nanolathes to make ammo for themselves. So im not entirely against ammo (Short bursts of fire, with time to recharge ammo) for units, as long as it is visible for units and to the player.
