I like this idea :) But it should be an optional tag and not always enabled for metal maps.
It reminds me of the Startrek Armada series with it's 'regular' dilithium moons and the 'infinite' moons (with the infinite moons being much less likely than the regular kind).
Mabye this could be added as a gameplay mode subsystem into Spring. You could have options setup by the host (i.e. metal concentration, metal migration, wind speed min, wind speed max, etc...) which are normally supplied by the map.
I got another idea too:
At start of the game, the map has no metal at all (or very little), but it will start grow while playing, and it grows faster in the areas where there is more metal.
So it is like tiberian grow in C&C or ore grow in C&C RA
Last edited by TradeMark on 12 Jun 2006, 15:47, edited 1 time in total.
TradeMark wrote:I got another idea too:
At start of the game, the map has no metal at all (or very little), but it will start grow while playing, and it grows faster in the areas where there is more metal.
So it is like tiberian grow in C&C or ore grow in C&C RA
If there is also a corresponding surface deformation that indicates metal (pressing f4 to see the extent of a metal field would get old fast) would make this idea perfect.
Use features. Reclaimable crap on the map has always been the best way for diminishing resources. If a Gaia-faction is implemented then you could even extrapolate that out by having unkillable, untargetable factories building reclaimable units.
Well, the metal map is fairly low-res, so dimming it is certainly less resource-intensive than for example landscape shading... I'd say it is doable, maybe another unit tag "depletesMetal", that lowers values of the metalmap in area of effect. By the way, this could allow for more interesting things like intersecting MeX rings actually producing a lot more metal - but depleting those spaces a lot faster. There could be another tag - ExtractAlways=1, that would make the extractor produce metal at a steady rate until the metal reserve expires completely. A ExtractThreshold=X tag could specify the minimum metalmap value at which the extractor can still extract something - basically for that extractor the metalmap is dimmer by X units. This could make another use for Moho Mines - they mine deeper than normal MeXes, allowing them to extract the metal from depths unreachable. A negative value of the ExtractThreshold would mean the mine is able to get metal from where there is really no metal - Sub-Mantle mines for example, they would get a bonus of X points to the metalmap value, although that value would still continue to diminish into the negatives for normal mines.
Lindir The Green wrote:The reason I don't play starcraft is because of its horrible resource system.
Exactly.
Anyway, if this was a global option for games, much like the "Diminishing Metal Maker Returns" and not an intrinsic element of anything, I'd be fine with it.
it would be really cool it it kinda... sucked the green out of the map and "burned" the ground where it had... would fit the whole "suck the planet dry" thing.
...nobody else has noticed that its already a server tag in the battle screen? It's called "diminishing metal returns". At least it existed in the previous build.
No ti isnt, thats metal makers not metal extractors.
With that turne on, the more metal makers you have the less efficient they become meanign eventually you'll end up with moho makers generating 1 metal for 600 energy if you have enough of them
