Random power related ideas

[Emdek]

There were some discussions what to do to avoid gaining of too much power by extending game play (mostly in first mission).
As far as I remember they key concept was to limit maximum power accumulated etc.
Here is yet another idea how it could be done (I hope that it's not too similar to these already presented...).

First, maximum amount of power could depend on amount of power generators, for example if you have one power generator without module then you could have maybe 2500 limit and with module it could be 5000 per generator. Also amount of power generators to build would be then limited to ceil(amount_of_oil_derricks_on_visible_part_of_map / 4) (to not allow to cheat by building more power generators only for storing power). But this could be avoided by building many units, so here is another idea, maybe their amount should be limited (to for example 25 or 50) before building of command relay center? There would be still one way to bypass limit by building lots of structures but in first mission there is not so much of them enough expensive to make it very viable to build lots of them in first mission and then demolish later to retrieve power.

Second idea is to introduce kind of battery turret, which could store additional power (for example 5000 per structure with this turret, limited to for example five buildings) and maybe 1000 or 2500 per mobile unit (would be useful when limit of structures would be reached or for transporting additional power between bases, counted as standard unit).

Maybe I went too far with these ideas but these are only ideas and nothing more.

[KukY]

I only like the battery idea, others seem too complicated.

[Emdek]

I only like the battery idea, others seem too complicated.

Yes, I also like the battery part more (especially for move between A and B bases ), but power limits are already planned for campaign, instead of time limit.

[Per]

I like the battery idea, which is similar to how Supreme Commander does it. For campaign, you might have to research them, so they are not available on the first level.

[KukY]

About batteries, maybe insert them in Trucks so they have to come back to Generators for more power in order to build more structures. And maybe something like power lines, we already have models feature "Pylon").

[Saberuneko]

I like the battery idea, which is similar to how Supreme Commander does it. For campaign, you might have to research them, so they are not available on the first level.

Now let's add "mass" resources too.

[Emdek]

For campaign, you might have to research them, so they are not available on the first level.

Yeah, but it would be really useful for transporting power only if researched before end of first campaign, maybe in the last real mission (attack on main New Paradigm base).

[KukY]

For campaign, you might have to research them, so they are not available on the first level.

Yeah, but it would be really useful for transporting power only if researched before end of first campaign, maybe in the last real mission (attack on main New Paradigm base).

And would make sense then.

[Rman Virgil]

.

Battery & Capacitor GPMs for WZ first came up in the spring of 1999 (& many times since then - same with Research Queuing & many other fine ideas that refuse to settle into the dust bin of history) and it can surely be done as a mod but nobody over the last 10 years has done it. I'm pretty sure the idea in 1999 was derived from Total Annihilation (Cavedog 1997 & same lead game designer as Sup Com). Like many good ideas that come up repeatedly over the years it's a matter of someone not only liking it but also willing to do the work to make it a reality.

For some reason this all reminds me of the Helicopter. The original notion was conceived (along with magnificent engineering drawings) by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1480s but the first production helicopter didn't roll off the full-scale production line till Igor Sikorsky's 1942 effort (with some piddly and dangerous toys around the turn of the 1900s) - some 400+ years in between a fine idea and a fine working reality. With that example in mind, 10 years doesn't seem like much of an interval.

- RV

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[Roux Le Corps]

as long as the ideas relating to power are random... how about expensive buildings that generate power without derricks? for maps with limited resources and because i think there is far to few base structures compared to defensive structures.

not sure how this could (or should) be implemented, but IMO a good thing to have.

Also i like the battery ideas, not so much the trucks have limited energy to build with, but the cap in general.

[Olrox]

For some reason this all reminds me of the Helicopter. The original notion was conceived (along with magnificent engineering drawings) by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1480s but the first production helicopter didn't roll off the full-scale production line till Igor Sikorsky's 1942 effort (with some piddly and dangerous toys around the turn of the 1900s) - some 400+ years in between a fine idea and a fine working reality. With that example in mind, 10 years doesn't seem like much of an interval.

Well, us being in the age of the internet and powerful computers that can, in real-time, proccess graphics that couldn't even be rendered by a computer cluster 20 years ago, that changed a little bit
For our generation, a few days is already an eternity to wait for updates and development!
And sadly, most people think that making things in the right way, even simple things such as writing a 8-lines long post, abiding to the correct grammar, let alone creating artistical masterpieces, is a waste of time...
But I agree that patience is a virtue that we shall stick to, however tricky it can be sometimes

Anyway, about the power-related ideas:

I'm especially interested in the "batteries" idea;

I don't think that those should be implemented in the campaign though, for a series of reasons: The main one is that, if the player feels okay even though he is exploiting the game's flaws like that, it's up to him, just as cheating is. I believe that a timer would be enough to restrict that exploit to a certain limit (actually you can "exploit" all of a mission's timer to complete all research and generate more power, so having a certain limit to those is acceptable, IMO).

However, for multiplayer games, having some kind of restriction like that for creating separate bases would be very interesting: One thing that comes to my head right now is the possibility of creating another powerful way of adding new "resource-like" aspects to the game. Those would be transport routes - even though that's not outright "collectable", it can surely be implemented by map-making as a valuable thing to protect and think about, and would add another brand-new dimension to strategy. I imagine ground transport routes, water transport routes, air transport routes, all of those being taken into consideration... That'd be very interesting. Blocking those routes as a way to overcome your enemies would be a new option, rather than just harassing oil derricks as we can right now. It'd also make sensors more valuable, since they'd be essential to detect the enemies' transport routes.

I guess that it is worthy thinking about it, as it'd make the gameplay deeper in a very interesting way. Also, there's that vehicle transport "LZ resource"idea, which would also be definetely an awesome thing to have... But there are already lots of things to make. Surely the devs remember that LZ idea I've mentioned? I guess that Zoid came up with it, in october or november 2009 if I remember right

Well, I may think about something else later

~Olrox

[Kih-ap-hiih]

I agree with with you Olrox.
LZ resource idea... for power when is on low stage after some time, or Cyborgs?

[Olrox]

I agree with with you Olrox.
LZ resource idea... for power when is on low stage after some time, or Cyborgs?

For tank transports.In a nutcase, the original idea was:

Create specific features for the map, much like oil resources, but that allow the construction of LZs (Landing Zones) in which vehicle transports (like the ones from campaign) could unload their units. This would reduce the tremendous impact that a transport that can land anywhere could cause in balance, and also add a new strategical level to the game.

I'm sure that, if you search around, you can find the original discussion in full. That contains further information that you may want

~Olrox

[macuser]

Thats also the reason why they only have the cyborg transport - to create a good reason to use cyborgs