Free research

[3drts]

*idea* not *suggestion*

I was wondering how the dynamics of play would change if research was free.
Currently on low oil maps, the research budget may be a significant portion of your power, whereas high oil maps, research cost is miniscule, and the time cost is way more important than the power cost.

I thought back to homeworld- research was free (homeworld 1) - you just needed to invest in a research ship (or 6), and it worked quite well.

But research in Homeworld was fundamentally different from research in WZ, there were no upgrades, only unlocks (Even the "Heavy Corvette Upgrade" was not an upgrade, it unlocked the more expensive heavy corvette, which was supposedly an upgraded version of the light corvette - sort of like a factory module "upgrade")

Scouts at the end were the same power they were at the beginning - the same is not true of machinegun viper wheels.

The only point of research was to unlock counters.

The starting scouts were still cheap very effective units for their cost, at any point in the game (but woe to them if they came across multigun corvettes, a pair of missile destroyers, heavy corvettes, or almost anything defended by a defense field frigate)

Research in WZ does far more than just give you more options to increase versatility, so I am not sure free research would be good.

But it would certainly free up more power on low oil maps, without making them spam fests like high oil maps.

If people like this idea and want it in, research facility cost should be doubled or trippled.

In homeworld, 1 research ship cost as much as 20 scouts (and scout was a misnomer, they were very much effective combat fighters- often forming the bulk of an attacking fighter force - the game files refer to them as the light interceptor) or 13 interceptors (game files called it a "heavy interceptor"). They were more expensive than the smallest capital ship class, the frigates, more expensive than an Ion Cannon Frigate (the first ship you get with enough firepower to be a serious threat to a mothership)

They were not cheap, but they were apparently self contained and cost nothing to operate.

Something similar would have negligible effect on high oil maps, but would increase combat/force sizes on low oil maps.

What say you guys?
What are your thoughts on research facilities costing nothing to operate, but giving them a higher start-up cost?

[KukY]

*idea* not *suggestion*

Then this is for "Mapping/Modding" forum.
Someone please move this.

I could make such mod...

[dmkp]

*idea* not *suggestion*

Then this is for "Mapping/Modding" forum.
Someone please move this.

It's for ideas and suggestions. He said it's an idea. And does it matter where its posted as long as it is near its relevance which it is.

[Zarel]

*idea* not *suggestion*

Then this is for "Mapping/Modding" forum.

I thought this forum was called "Ideas and Suggestions". Who renamed it to "Suggestions But Not Ideas"? :-S

(Unless you're sure of what you say, please leave moderating to the moderators; thanks.)

[KukY]

I thought this forum was called "Ideas and Suggestions". Who renamed it to "Suggestions But Not Ideas"?

It's for ideas and suggestions. He said it's an idea. And does it matter where its posted as long as it is near its relevance which it is.

Ok, I got confused with this:

Ideas and suggestions for how to improve the Warzone 2100 base game only. Ideas for mods go in Mapping/Modding instead.

Zarel, *please* stop anwsering to me in red.
Every time you do,something bad very bad happens around me...

Anyone has any comments that aren't on my post?

[Zarel]

Ok, I got confused with this:

Ideas and suggestions for how to improve the Warzone 2100 base game only. Ideas for mods go in Mapping/Modding instead.

This is more of a general idea of "what if... Warzone was different?" Here's a valid place for it.

Zarel, *please* stop anwsering to me in red.

Red is my "mod voice" - it means I am speaking for the forums, and if I tell someone to do something in red, it's effectively a forum rule. That's as opposed to me writing in black, which is me just speaking for myself.

[KukY]

Red is my "mod voice" - it means I am speaking for the forums, and if I tell someone to do something in red, it's effectively a forum rule. That's as opposed to me writing in black, which is me just speaking for myself.

Well, moderator's color is blue, red is for devs...

[dmkp]

Red is my "mod voice" - it means I am speaking for the forums, and if I tell someone to do something in red, it's effectively a forum rule. That's as opposed to me writing in black, which is me just speaking for myself.

Well, moderator's color is blue, red is for devs...

:rolleyes:
Colour of their name at the bottom of the forum doesn't matter. He's using red to make it stand out!

[Zarel]

"Staff voice", then.

[Olrox]

"Staff voice", then.

But Zarel, why don't you change the font size as well??? attach project logo perhaps?? xD
Just kidding, sorry

Anyone has any comments that aren't on my post?

Well, if you don't want people to comment on it, PM is a good way. Forums are for people to express their opinions on topics and their respective posts, after all.

Anyway, our friend here didn't mentioned he wanted a mod. I think he meant "I don't want this to be applied yet, I want to hear what people have to say about it". Usually suggestions are more certain, usually followed by a brief (or not) description of how it could be done. But anyway

I like the idea of an option to make research power-free, but also think that the investment phase (green progress bar) could be more lengthy then. Hmm, I can't be sure, but I really think that the green phase isn't recovered when you abort a research an retake it a while after (as it does with the progress, yellow bar).

Actually a good thing to balance free research, IMO, would be to make the whole progress "unrecoverable" if aborted. It's free, but you have to think carefully about it!

What do you think?

~Olrox

[Black Project]

I like the idea of an option to make research power-free, but also think that the investment phase (green progress bar) could be more lengthy then. Hmm, I can't be sure, but I really think that the green phase isn't recovered when you abort a research an retake it a while after (as it does with the progress, yellow bar).

Actually a good thing to balance free research, IMO, would be to make the whole progress "unrecoverable" if aborted. It's free, but you have to think carefully about it!

This feature was enabled in the PSX version of Warzone, but for ALL types of researches (with power cost too!)

I remember myself in eighth gamma mission when i aborted accidentaly the Third Level Missile Codes, was 75% completed, restarted it's progress again from 0%, but was too late: few minutes later the LasSat was blasting my foward defense and...

...well, you know the rest of this story xD

Thats a great idea, IMO, because since most of later researchs (early Tech 2 and later Tech 3 or EVEN Tech 1) are more expensive than units, depending which unit you will have to produce as far as i know

Agree with making the Research Center more expensive, i don't know which price we can put in, but $400 is enough, no more than this.

But be careful, make sure it's well defended or an simple air raid will trash your precious facility with that important research with 99% of progress (Oh my god, that Uplink Center research was 99% completed, now i have to research all that sh*t again )

So i think, IMHO: for each research you do, that power could be invested to build a new battle unit (Compare 10 research topics that cost $450 (or less, if you think that is too much), you'll spend $4500, but lets say that you want to produce 10 Lancer Scorpion Tracks, it cost each one &237, you'll spend $2370 and you still have $2130 to make other stuff, like defense, 'borgs, base structures, etc.

Lets compare:

HVAPFSDS Cannon Round:
Cost: $300

Lancer Scorpion Tracks:
Cost: $237

But, why not make Hardcrete Walls free (Holy Sh*t! MASSIVE WALL SPAMMING!!!) xD xD xD
Just kidding/joking

Regards BP

EDIT: Changed "Heavy Cannon Scorpion Tracks" to "Lancer Scorpion Tracks" to make sense