Spring RTS Engine

Added !merc command to autohosts - switches you to mercenary. Mercenary can play on either side, but has no upgrades/is not tracked by the system.

New unregistered players are autotreated as mercenaries.

neat

Excellent. I always thought this kind of approach was necessary for PlanetWars.

edit: nm, misunderstood.

Do they have to play as Arm when playing on Arm, Core when playing on Core?

Licho wrote:New unregistered players are autotreated as mercenaries.

I rather liked how people not smart enough to read their pms even when told to do so were not allowed to play


Otherwise an excellent addition to the game. Hopefully we can get some really good games going.

I would prefer it, if just the better players could become mercenaries and could never switch back into a faction. Also mercenaries shouldn't be able to build all units, but on the other hand they should get something special the factions don't have.

pxtl: yes, mercs playing on arm side are forced to be arm and core to core.. still no mixed factions allowed.


jk: thats another option. Problem is it kicks in only late in game and also that it needs bigger changes of the system, webgui and all. So it has to wait till core rewrite.

Cool idea. jK's mode would win even more, having special mercenairy units would rock. Maybe allow good players from the previous round to start a round as mercs?

Licho wrote:pxtl: yes, mercs playing on arm side are forced to be arm and core to core.. still no mixed factions allowed.

BAWWWWW

I think mercs should be tracked as their own meta-faction (no planets, but their own scoreboard and stats such as most common side etc).



And on a side note, remove PW metagame economy plz

KingRaptor wrote:

Licho wrote:pxtl: yes, mercs playing on arm side are forced to be arm and core to core.. still no mixed factions allowed.

BAWWWWW

I think mercs should be tracked as their own meta-faction (no planets, but their own scoreboard and stats such as most common side etc).



And on a side note, remove PW metagame economy plz

USE CHICKENZ!

That would be great for a laugh, too. Player joins up Planet Wars game, spawns in and gets the "WTF is this?" moment when he sees himself stuck with the Chickens.

Of course, with that approach the question becomes whether to force them into an alliance or just give them some other goal - like "the chicken player who deals the most damage to both factions (lesser-damage is his score) wins the Chicken-player competition.

At this point I'm letting the spitballing get out of control.

Pxtl wrote:USE CHICKENZ!

You beat me to it!

Time to revisit chicken faction balance.

What balance?

Chickens still need slugs, cabbage and mothers. But atm chickens are low on my todo.

No, chickens need an anti-nuke.

CarRepairer wrote:No, chickens need an anti-nuke.

Why? If they're being played as assistance for the main factions, their teammates have anti-nukes. If they're being played as a neutral 3rd-party stuck in midfield, you'd have to screw with their economy (eg. Nanoblobs-style exponential with a hard-cap instead of resource-based) enough to make sure that they're playing second-fiddle to the main game between Arm and Core, and in that case giving them anti-nukes would be both counterproductive and redundant.

Pxtl wrote:

CarRepairer wrote:No, chickens need an anti-nuke.

Why?

I meant generally, as a real third faction. I'll start a new thread.

For proper mercenaries i would like something like that:

* real third faction, but not allied with each other, just scored independently
* not owning any planets
* income only from battles, based on computer calculated probability of victory (using existing ELO rankings and overall faction performance). It would give more credits for playing on weaker side than on stronger.
* extra income possible if players decide to pay extras for mercenary. Faction can place extra offer and if you win mercenary gets the bonus.
* black market with units - they would be able to buy and sell units on the market system. Nobody will see what units they own (unlike with faction players).

For this to work normal faction will need to be much better too, with planetary based improvements etc..