A different shard
-
I feel the world is currently too homogeneous, and want to propose a new shard type that can add some new challenges to screeps, especially for the more experienced players.
This is a new shard with the standard map properties like shard0-2, but without the possibility to spawn directly into it. It is also quite small, maybe about 16/36 sectors starting out. The only way to establish a base on the new shard is going through a portal like intershard expansion between the current shards.
The portals however is not permanent, and go from all the current shards. They have even shorter duration than the current intrashard portals (less than a day). The penalties to creeps is the same as the current intershard portals. The short duration is both to make it hard to use much time to establish a room on the other side, and quickly move portals around the normal shards to allow as many people as possible to travel to the special shard.
The only new feature I see for this request is a new portal type, otherwise it will function as normal. I think it can give players some new goals, and can fuel alliance/diplomatic play.
With some more custom features I think this can be even more interesting, and I've thought of some possibilities:
- Richer rooms, either by adding more sources or higher energy values.
- Because it is a small shard, it can be a faster shard. Tick duration of 2-3 seconds?
- Special properties like harder invaders, tougher source keepers
The custom features might require additional customization, but can make it even more desirable to colonize. I think this could be a make the game more interesting with regards to combat, alliances and new "features" without too much development time.
(Yes, it is a bit inspired by Wormhole space from Eve Online).
Would like to hear what you think, and please add any additional ideas for making the world less homogeneous.
Lastly, any chance of seeing a road map or developer updates any time soon?
-
+1
-
This would be awesome!
And with the low investment of only a new portal type.
Please consider this
-
The costs for this are related to maintaining a separate shard database and servers in the cluster, it can barely be considered "low investment".
-
At least consider it when/if you are making another normal shard. Use the 4x4 or 6x6 sectors in the middle for this purpose. Make the area restricted with natural walls and disallow spawning in the rooms. Increase the number/values of sources, and make it accessible only by a new type of portal.
My main concern still stands, the world is kind of boring. A SE-sector on shard1 and a NW-sector on shard 2 is basically the same thing. Don't get me wrong, I've got a todo-list longer than I want to admit, but I feel like I've tackled most of the big things. I also think there's others who feel the same way.
Combat code can always be evolved further, and SWC has been a great motivator for many, me included. On the MMO-server however, there's little reason for me and many others to further develop it, unless we participate in war games or just plain destruction.
There's enough space for anyone with at least decent combat code to wipe out some newer players around you for new rooms. There's no reason to attack some of the more established people, except reasons stated in the last paragraph.
What I want to see is an area that is more desirable than the average room/sector, where you need top notch combat code to establish yourself and hold on to the rooms. Maybe a big alliance will just take all of the new space, but that's fine. Maybe it will not be very many who are able to try to establish themselves, but it can be a showroom for advanced to combat tactics and a place for "world news".
I still feel that this adds a lot of new "game content" without taking much development time or make the game any more complex. It makes the world more interesting, and it can be a motivation for both new and more established players.
-
I would like to see a seasonal shard, wiped every 2-3 months or so, preferably also a fresh GCL start.
-
I very much like the idea of areas that are more desirable than others. The shards are homogeneous and the only real differences in any particular sector is who is there. Maybe there is some bragging rights to holding the center area, but there is no incentive for conflict, or for me to go anywhere.
It would be extremely interesting to have areas that AIs, especially groups of AIs would have to work together to hold, and there be some reason for them to do that.
I get the point about not wanting to open a new shard. Instead, how about something like there could be something in the middle room of a sector, a puzzle, a NPC boss, something. This could be an interesting programming problem to solve. It could be made even more interesting by only being solvable by more than one player forcing AIs to coordinate.
Once solved, this would unlock something interesting. Extra resources, a special building that does something neat, and beneficial to the group of people involved, and it's nature could be unique to that room. Some of the rooms could be higher level, with better rewards and harder puzzles / bosses, more people needed. Whatever.
This would be able to be included in the current infrastructure. The good, center rooms could be rare, and valuable, and therefore sought after by other groups of people, creating conflict over specific sectors.
Having the special rooms being in the center with the portals adds some extra excitement, as you never know when your enemies will have access to your specials.
