Central Power Station

[The Great New Denial]

In my days of playing warzone multiplayer, I found that somebody, sometimes me, sometimes someone else, on the same team would take all the oil derricks. Since I can't attack these derricks to take them, and constantly asking for donations is bothersome, and invading the opposing faction for derricks requires resources that I simply don't have. So what if teams were to share power in a similar way as they share research?

I've decided that a way to do this, while still making sense in the context of the game, would be to have some kind of central power station. I drew some rough sketches, shown below:



The idea is that the power station acts as a pool. Players who wish to contribute, and have rights to take from, the pool build a module of their colour around it. To accomodate around eight of these models, the size of the central power station will have to be 2x2, and to accomodate the modules I suppose it'll have to take 4x4 of tile space, minus the corner tiles. The central power stations resmembles a standard power station, just bigger and with more spikes with those... blue orbiting science things.

The modules each have a large pipe going in and several power cables going out, the idea being that any fuel that the team collects will go into the power station through the pipes, and its ration of power will be delivered trough the cables. The modules will act as a kind of opt-in system, so any players who do not wish to contribute/recieve from the pool simply don't build one next to the station.

Then there's the splitting of the pool. I suppose it's a split between each player being entitled to the reciprocal of the number of pool members, or a free for all where everyone is allowed everything. The reciprocal method has the down side of offering no advantages to the derrick-monopolising player, thereby proventing them from joining, while the free for all runs the risk of everyone becoming bankrupt. Hmmm.

[Merowingg]

I think it is very interesting idea. Still people come up with extraordinary things ans at the same time so simple.

Maybe it would not have separate building, but a speciall (wired? piped?) connection that would join your power pland and the one of the donor. At the same time the donor should have ability to shut of the stream at any time. To save himself or to stop you from at the momen that he decides, overusing him.

Also the (pipes?) could have some tover to defend themselves at some points, to make it easier not to die within seconds. Also automatic connection between the donor and a player in need should be possible. So you do not build (pipes?) step by step while you have problems, or he, but the truck/s authomatically start from any end. Depending on who and if has the money.

On the second thought, special a litle bit more expensiv building, which would distribute oil could be possible to built by the donor. Then from it the rest follows above.

Those are my ideas to yours.

To sum up. I do like your idea

[aubergine]

I think it's a great idea, but perhaps too much complexity in its current form. After all, people want to be focussing on their attack/defence, not power systems.

IMHO it would be better if there was a power distribution building, that a player could make, which would share a certain amount of power with their allies who have also made such a building. Thus, it needs to be reciprocal -- you either share both ways, or you don't share at all (other than manual power transfers). It's settings panel would let you choose high/medium/low/off sharing level, so on high it might donate up to 20% of your power income to allies who have less power than you.

[Merowingg]

Ok it shall be made very simple.

And how do you imagine this sharing both ways. I have 100 of power. Aubergine I need help I scream. You give me 1000 of power to build this particular power plant. Ok I built it, and how I move from here with this both ways sharing, as the very beginning I assume I still would be bad enough to recover. And what I instantly need those 20% as I am defences of yours, and when I am lost you are too within seconds.

[Rommel]

Maybe something more like a "powerpool", ie once built each player contributes a small percentage of energy to it and once a player runs out of energy they start drawing directly from this until they have energy of their own again. Sort of based on a concept like an insurance policy. Make it so only players whom opt in (build a powerpool) can utilise this.

You could also make it so that you can only draw on the energy added AFTER you have built your powerpool structure, this would stop sneaky people building one late in the game, although you really don't want to do this because you pretty much want your team member to have power to research, defend, attack, etc so this would probably be counter-productive - although it does smell a bit commie...

The main thing is not to over complicate the feature, if it requires too much messing around to implement, on a coding level I mean, it will probably not be done. The idea should really be implemented using existing UI / Structure elements that we have now. Maybe have it like a powerpool module that you add, just like a power module, so that the more power gens you upgrade the more insurance power they will generate. This in it's self could be enough of a work requirement to outweigh the benifit a bit because by the time you have researched this you will be needing those trucks elsewhere so the energy gained from this could actually be free, albeit a small percentage of what you are mining, to save impacting the current game dynamic.

You could then have like a reserve energy bar which would would be like the current energy bar but draw from the "insurance pool", so if you do run out of your own power you will be utilising the energy that is being added to the pool by your compatriots. This would work very well I think with the elements we currently have available to the game.

[Shadow Wolf TJC]

Personally, I wouldn't expect more experienced players to make use of this, since manually giving power to other players upon request would seem to get the job done cheaper.

[Merowingg]

So now I am confused. On one hand it should be something easy so a player could meanwhile recover from his nightmare, we assume he already have big problem. On the other hand advanced player adjustment sound fair too