3. PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps

PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps

  • Dev Team

    Update: Implemented power effects:

    • PWR_OPERATE_SPAWN
    • PWR_OPERATE_STORAGE
    • PWR_OPERATE_LAB
    • PWR_DISRUPT_SPAWN
    • PWR_REGENERATE_SOURCE
    • PWR_REGENERATE_MINERAL
    👏
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  • I'd like to report a critical bug. You're missing the PWR_OVERWHELMING ability. Given that my slack icon is an Archon this makes the game unplayable.

    On a more serious note: Any planned interactions between power creeps and power banks? Seems like it could be an opportunity to enhance their identity. Perhaps a way to heal in the wild or gain a temporary boost (maybe tough-style) to a power creep for 1500 ticks upon draining energy a power bank. This could also be a power denial technique between players.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    Update: Fixed a bug that prevented PowerCreep.create intent from being executed in some circumstances.

  • Dev Team

    @davaned said in PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps:

    On a more serious note: Any planned interactions between power creeps and power banks? Seems like it could be an opportunity to enhance their identity. Perhaps a way to heal in the wild or gain a temporary boost (maybe tough-style) to a power creep for 1500 ticks upon draining energy a power bank. This could also be a power denial technique between players.

    It's an interesting idea, we have to consider that!

    👍🎉
    1 Reply

  • @artch I'd love to see reasons to bring the more homebody power creeps out into the wild. Op-gen bots, spawn increasers, etc. have a pretty uninteresting gameplay pattern that's non-interactive for other players. If you allowed them to enhance their capabilities with an additional risk it could be fun.

    Just for fun, some options could be:

    • Power abilities operate 1 rank higher when within range 5 of a power bank/for a duration afterwards.
    • Power Creeps have the ability to drain power from power banks to perform effects (heal, boost self, maybe even have it be the only way to regen full use of body parts)
    • Special power creep ability that lets them harvest power directly from a power bank without killing it (might be snowbally but it represents a significant opportunity cost).
    • CORE GAMEPLAY CHANGE: Power creeps slowly diminish over time. They will lose current (but not max) levels over many ticks. They can be rejuvenated with an expensive power spawn ability or by consuming power from a power bank.

    I like the idea of a power creep defending a power bank from enemies in a miniboss format, or risking themselves out in the wild (maybe with an escort) to empower themselves.


  • Can we get the possiblity to setDirections for the powerSpawn?

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @geir1983 Please test it yourself on the PTR or at least watch the attached GIF - power creep is spawned right on top of the power spawn, you move it manually at the next tick.

  • Dev Team

    Update

    • Added aging mechanic to Power Creeps. They now have ticksToLive property which equals to the same 1500 ticks after spawning. When a power creep dies of old age, its spawn cooldown is not activated, you can respawn it immediately.

      Power Spawns can use renewPowerCreep to instantly restore TTL to the maximum without cost.

      Also, Power Creeps can instantly renew themselves from any Power Bank in the wild.

      That means they are effectively as immortal as before, but maintaining them alive becomes a coding challenge rather than automatic feature.

    • Introduced new power:

      PWR_OPERATE_CONTROLLER

      Increase max limit of energy that can be used for upgrading a Level 8 Controller each tick by 10/20/30/40/50 energy units. Cooldown 1000 ticks. Range 3 squares. Duration 800 ticks. Consumes 200 ops.

      Upgrade on level: 20/21/22/23/24

    • Introduced new power:

      PWR_OPERATE_POWER

      Increase power processing speed of a Power Spawn by 1/2/3/4/5 units per tick. Cooldown 1000 ticks. Range 3 squares. Duration 800 ticks. Consumes 200 ops.

      Upgrade on level: 10/11/12/14/22

    • Implemented power effects:

      • PWR_OPERATE_CONTROLLER
      • PWR_OPERATE_POWER
      • PWR_OPERATE_EXTENSION
      • PWR_OPERATE_TERMINAL (it now reduces cooldown as well)
      • PWR_FORTIFY

    • Renamed PowerCreep.spawnCooldown to spawnCooldownTime, it now represents real timestamp rather than game ticks.

    • Renamed PWR_REGENERATE_SOURCE to PWR_REGEN_SOURCE and PWR_REGENERATE_MINERAL to PWR_REGEN_MINERAL.

    Reminder: you can use the Power Planner Tool, it has actual info about all powers (added to the top post).

    1 Reply

  • A comment about some of the levels of some of the effects which consume ops (Operate Spawn, Operate Tower, Operate Storage, Operate Lab, Operate Extension, Operate Observer, Operate Terminal, Disrupt Spawn, Disrupt Tower, Disrupt Source, Fortify, Operate Power, Operate Controller, Disrupt Terminal).

    These are all set up so that the more levels you invest into the effect, the more efficient the effect is in terms of ops. Either the effect lasts longer, or it has a bigger effect.

    Because of this, it feels like you're being inefficient if you use any op-consuming effect at a level less than max-level. But because of the levelling constraints you're pretty much obliged to end up with some "non-efficient" uses of ops.

    It might be that this is intended to be part of the puzzle we're solving when we design operators, so this isn't necessarily a criticism of the design. (In fact I would be strongly against any hypothetical design where there was a single objectively optimal solution). It just feels a little unsatisfactory that I can't design an operator that is "optimal" in my self-imposed terms.

    An example operator that might pootle around a base and work on the economy, with some ability to assist in base defence if necessary:

    5: GENERATE_OPS

    5: REGEN_SOURCE

    5: REGEN_MINERAL

    4: OPERATE_TOWER

    4: OPERATE_OBSERVER

    2: SHIELD

    What I would like to do with this operator design is have no SHIELD and OPERATE_TOWER and OPERATE_OBSERVER both at 5. But when I get GENERATE_OPS, OPERATE_TOWER and OPERATE_OBSERVER to level 2, there's nothing else I can add levels to unless I go into something like shield. But putting points into shield means that some of the other powers can't reach their max level so that feels like this is an inefficient design. Perhaps this is a consequence of the decision to use both REGEN_SOURCE and REGEN_MINERAL (which both kick in at 10) on the same operator.

    So lets try a different design where we replace REGEN_SOURCE with OPERATE_LAB:

    5: GENERATE_OPS

    5: REGEN_MINERAL

    5: OPERATE_LAB

    5: OPERATE_TOWER

    5: OPERATE_OBSERVER

    This design isn't possible - once you get all of those to level 4, you need to put two points into something else to unlock the level 22 upgrade for each of those.

    So it appears that the design is that you can have a maximum of three max level operator skills, and other skills must be partially filled (thus potentially inefficient).

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @wtfrank said in PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps:

    So it appears that the design is that you can have a maximum of three max level operator skills, and other skills must be partially filled (thus potentially inefficient).

    Yes, exactly, this is how it's designed. You have to choose what will be your focus - either ops efficiency (use only subset of powers), or power efficiency (use all available powers regardless of their level).


  • @artch said in PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps:

    PWR_OPERATE_POWER Increase power processing speed of a Power Spawn by 1/2/3/4/5 units per tick. Cooldown 1000 ticks. Range 3 squares. Duration 800 ticks. Consumes 200 ops. Upgrade on level: 10/11/12/14/22

    My current bottleneck is the amount of raw power itself, not the processing speed. Currently i can process all the power i can farm with my power spawns. There is also a intent reduction by processing the power in bulk, but im still not sure if its worth it. I guess if you buy power in addition this makes sense, but what if it can increase the power gained by each power processed instead? Maybe too overpowered?


  • I agree with @Geir1983. There's no way I ever need 6x power processing rate if energy consumption and power consumption stays the same (300 energy/tick for 6 power/tick). From the description it seems to me that a 1:1 map of power to processed power is staying but it's not clear how energy is handled. If it made it more energy efficient it may be interesting.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @tigga You both are high-GCL players having lots of RCL8 rooms. The power supposed to provide a similar processing rate for players who chose power way of development over GCL way.


  • I would think a player with less gcl will have similarly less access to highway rooms and thus have access to fewer powerbanks (due to owning less rooms), putting him in a similar position? I have been focusing on power farming lately, going after all powerbanks i can reach and still i cant haul back more power than i can process.

    If the power kept the energy cost at 50/reaction or increased the gain of power it would benefit new players and still be an attractive power for higer gcl players in my opinion.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @geir1983

    I have been focusing on power farming lately, going after all powerbanks i can reach and still i cant haul back more power than i can process.

    You might consider buying it on the market then, if you want to level up your Power Creeps as fast as possible.


  • I did already process 16,8m power last month by what i could haul in myself and still the power spawn is not the bottleneck for me. Sure i could buy more power on the market and im certain im not at the limit for what power can be farmed, although i do consider it to be a high amount of power processed already.

    I just find it unlikely that the power of increasing the speed of the power spawn will get much use, as its hard to come by power in such a quantity that you cannot already process it at the current rate. Just my 2 cents.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @geir1983 I was answering not to you personally, but to a "player with less gcl will have similarly less access to highway rooms and thus have access to fewer powerbanks" that you described. If such a player has chosen the power path and got many high level Power Creeps that are capable to provide huge income, he may be able to buy a lot of power from the market, and we don't want the processing rate to be a bottleneck in this case.


  • @artch Glad you liked the aging idea, I like the initial design. I do think it will give power creeps a more nuanced gameplay. It also makes the operate observer much more interesting, as you are now trying to sustain your PCs.

    For your consideration: Perhaps power spawn can regen 1500 TTL and power banks can regen more (3000 TTL?). We'll have to see with how it goes in gameplay but a longer time frame would give players a bit more freedom for creative non-economic designs (summon teleport highways etc) without the creeps spending large chunks of their life looking for another hit of that sweet sweet power.

    TL;DR: Balance to make non pure eco power creep play (eg not in room with PS) a little easier.

    Secondly, I agree with the operate power comments. I would probably avoid giving bonuses to power processing (eg. it costs less energy) because that seems very snowbally.

    If you want to make something along those lines, I'd make a way to gain access to power that isn't reliant on wide empires. Make something so that Tall empires can get more power.

    • Power bank regen/creation/kill/increase ttl
    • Generate power at the cost of ops
    • Power spawn efficiency: Get 1.1-1.5 power per power processed. Make it very expensive compared to finding banks, but if you don't have access to much you can do that instead.

    FYI I am not a huge fan of the leveling gaps either. It isn't a feel-good mechanic taking skills you have no interest in, at least for these op-limited skills. Can I suggest adding a "Stats" skill (tree?) for the PCs? Something that levels up their health/carry/maybe max TTL. This would open up some new elements, like maybe using PC's as superman workhorse creeps. Basically It could also be a tiered unlock:

    • Level 1 gives increased HP
    • Level 2 gives increased carry
    • Level 3 gives increased TTL
    • Level 4 adds health regen over time
    • Level 5 some cool bonus

    Edit: If TALL is the goal here, each and every room selection is critical for a tall empire. Potential option would be power creep ability to claim a room at the cost of its life + ops. Obviously large implications with that, but worth considering if you want to incentivize/enable few rooms. Usually expansion is a crawl with growing rooms then moving on to next spot, which isn't doable if you don't have spare GCL. Power creep ability on controller to maintain a room ownership beyond GCL is another option.

    1 Reply

  • hmm could make the powers of the power creeps body parts to be attached to the power creep. It might make things a tad more interesting and the creep could change designs based on the parts and level. 🙂

  • Dev Team

    @davaned said in PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps:

    It isn't a feel-good mechanic taking skills you have no interest in

    This mechanic is the core idea behind the entire Power Creeps design. We don't want to allow building highly efficient specialized creeps with only a few powers. We want to force players to wrap their heads around limitations, consider trade offs and make choices how to use what they have most efficiently, rather than min-maxing a single best build of an Operator for each task.

    By the way, hits and carry are increased each level by default.

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