The Oil Searching and Digging Unit/s ?!

[Emdek]

So maybe it should be moved to -1 or 0 (then we could have more human like players numbering )?

[aubergine]

I think the current numbering is fine for now (with exception of scavenger factions - they certainly need numbering like normal players).

[Merowingg]

Very bad idea because what for? Cannot you see their navy blue dots indicating them? And what for give them number while you cannot play them. You can play them only if you give their structures and units to a player but then they still will have colour of particular player. What is more if I place thirty scavenger towers here there and everywhere on the map should they all have thirty numbers? And how would you decide that this scavenger base is a base and need number and the other not? Ok now I will say terrible idea.

[aubergine]

I think you misunderstood my note on scavenger numbering.

Let's say you have a 2 player map. That's players 0 and 1. (assume one is you, another is an AI). Now, if scavs are enabled on that map, they become player 3 (on a 4 player map scavs would be player 7). But the JS API sees map max players as 2, so AI can only access players 0 and 1 from the API. It makes scav player impossible to investigate from AI perspective.

Also, every object on map does have a unique numerical ID. And every object on the map is owned by a player (even trees - they are owned by player 99).

Anyway, this is very off-topic. If further discussion on player IDs and object numbering is desired, please start new thread.

[Merowingg]

You see, you scared the people off

So do we dig or not?

[aubergine]

We will have to design an "Old Jed" unit and also "Higgins", his pet dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwzaxUF0k18

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

I'll see about getting the code going in wz-script. Then it's a simple matter of converting it to JS. Today's been busy as all get out, so I may not move very quickly until after supper.

[aubergine]

I'll prepare some string banjo sound effects.

I'm not sure JS will enable creation of an oil resource, at least not until WZ 3.2 branch. Should be do-able in WZ script though.

*goes off to find suitable string banjo riffs*

[aubergine]

I proudly present...

texas-tea.ogg.zip

[Mr T]

Intrigued by the topics name I jumping in to this discusion. I understand - by all technical jimbo jumbo talk - it's not an easy thing to put into the game, but I also have some suggestion, that probably will make it even harder to make (even more jimbo jumbo talk) but here it goes any way

When making a map, putting out hidden (underground) oil zones. This can be 1*1 or cover the whole map. Each zone have a special amount of oil.

With this, if a player want he can drain he's well fast with many towers, or slow with only one tower (if the zone is big enough to suport more the one derrick that is).
By making them big, 2 or more player can even drain the same oil well (zone) without knowing it, or if they know, the one with most oil tower gets the most oil.
(May be research in "oil pumping speed" can be a new branch on the Tech tree ?)

After the oil drains out the derrick stops, or some other indication that it's out of oil.

(I think it's important to still be able to put in built wells on the map to, but it has to be standing on a oil zone.)

3 types of vehicle it takes - all built in the factories - to make a complete Oil Derrick (http://guide.wz2100.net/b/oilderrick)
* One vehicle to find the oil (like a radar vehicle)
* One vehicle to drill and build a oil well (oil resource), a vehicle that turns into to the oil well.
So that u have to produce 1 drill-vehicle for each oil well
* And finally the truck that turns the oil well into a derrick.

[aubergine]

IMHO it would be better if, once oil field has been detected, a truck builds some structure that drills for the oil, and then once oil is found the structure either turns in to a derrick, or a truck has to remove the structure and replace it with a derrick.

I like the oil fields idea, where multiple derricks can extract oil from the same oil field, depleting it faster. There are already audio messages in WZ about oil resources becoming depleted which could be used to tell the player when an oil field has run out of oil.

[Iluvalar]

Any idea that could give a bigger edge to the players that know better the map should be discarded.

[aubergine]

what if the oil fields were randomly generated at start of game?

[Iluvalar]

Sound like a recipe for a catastrophe. The fields would need to be spread enough to avoid giving a random advantage to someone but at the same time large enough to be relevant as a field. It sound incompatible together... Or at least very hard to achieve.

I also add that personally I would not like to track my oil this way. And I believe I will not be alone. So if you want to add those derricks as an option, it will need to give at the end a pretty marginal gain. So it doesn't worth more than another kind of research or investment.

It seem like a lot of trouble to add derricks as an alternate source of power in a game where derrick is, for now, the only source of power. Just my 2 cents.

[Searge-Major]

upgradeable derricks is my dream!

A bit OT I guess, but why not? We already have engineering technologies, for each one there could be a costly oil derrick upgrade. If each upgrade had the effect of an extra derrick, it would make oil much more worth protecting.

what if the oil fields were randomly generated at start of game?

At the very least, there would have to be rules regarding the placement of oil, so that no player would suddenly find themselves with a distinct advantage over the others.

Regards, Searge