Season #2
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Thank you all for your ideas! We have carefully analyzed them and decided that in Season #2 we will go for a cooperative concept that we call symbols and decoders. It will be similar to the current score collectors, but with a few enhancements.
Every room with a controller will have a neutral structure called decoder. It is only active when some user owns the controller, and its efficiency depends on the controller level. However, it is an unowned structure, which means anyone can use the decoder, not just the room owner.
Each decoder is assigned with one symbol. There are 22 symbols in total, meaning there are 22 types of decoders in the game.
New objects called symbol containers will spawn randomly in all rooms, similarly to score containers in the current season. The container will have some amount of symbol resources (e.g.
RESOURCE_SYMBOL_ALEPH). You have to take this resource and bring it to any decoder with the same symbol. If the resource and the decoder have matching symbols, you can transfer resource and receive season score. The amount of score is resource amount * controller level (in the decoder room).Since there are 22 symbols, it is impossible for one player to have all needed decoders under their own control (it would require GCL 22). In order to maximize score, you must cooperate with your neighbors who own decoders of different types, and gain access to their rooms. In turn, those players will be possibly interested in your decoders. And since it is beneficial for you to bring your symbols to decoders in higher level rooms, it may make sense to help your neighbors to develop their rooms rather than destroy them.
This is a unique experience for Screeps which we think may have big potential for this and following seasons.
This is not set in stone yet, so feel free to suggest any other improvements to this concept.
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Will the Market / Terminals be enabled?
I can imagine a scenario where a single player only ever turns in the symbol in their starting (highest RCL) room. They would use the market to exchange all their other symbol types for that single kind.
I kinda like the idea of forcing players to devise a cooperative system where creeps need to meet in the open and physically exchange goods. Harder to program and easier to ambush!
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@keidence It will be the same as in the current season: no market, terminals only work between your own rooms.
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what's behaviour when Rampart is placed ontop of decoder ?
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@gadjung Decoders will be placed in walls similarly to controllers, so ramparts on top of decoders are not allowed. Although you can build ramparts around it of course.
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I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this concept... which I guess is a good thing? Maybe?
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I like the hebrew-esq alphabet. I also like that cooperation is strongly encouraged but not totally required, since you can also just bust through enemy rooms to drop off resources. Any thoughts on having caravans also contain the resources, or even a protoresource that can be redeemed at any decoder?
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I think lowering the difficulty to get some score on the board is nice for newer players, but I'm pretty sure this isn't going to solve players getting wiped.
With the rule set proposed like this, I would definitely team up with 1 or 2 other players which ranked top 20 this round and still wipe all the smaller players in between. I would really urge to implement a mechanic which was proposed multiple times in the feedback topic to cluster the top 10 ambitious players together in the map center.
If you would just include that controllers in the sectors near the map center give you 10x the score, the sector sector at range 10-20 rooms 3x score and rooms further away 1x score I think you would perfectly solve this issue.
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@qzarstb I am not sure top players would like to cooperate with each other. It is probably safer for them to have relationships with smaller players than with someone who competes for the same rating.
By the way, if you only cooperate with 1 or 2 players, you will not be able to score all resources.
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@artch Top players will definitely work together unless they're competing for the same spot in the ranking during the later stage of the season.
If you work together with 1 other player you can fully control 6 sectors together if you just wipe all smaller players. You'll each have 10 rooms so if you pick those carefully you can together process 90% of everything spawning in those 6 sectors.
Compare that to working with 4 or 5 small players, it'll be a chaotic mess. It's true that you'll be able to process probably every type which gives you potentially a higher total score but you'll loose much more due to score which those other small players capture and "waste".
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@qzarstb said in Season #2 concept:
I would really urge to implement a mechanic which was proposed multiple times in the feedback topic to cluster the top 10 ambitious players together in the map center. If you would just include that controllers in the sectors near the map center give you 10x the score, the sector sector at range 10-20 rooms 3x score and rooms further away 1x score I think you would perfectly solve this issue.
With this approach (top player cluster and distance-graded decoders) there's no point in entering since top10 can easily dominate all 8 sectors closest to center (while still wiping anything outside of it) and i'm really not sure if combat there would be 'worth their time'. It would end up more as a CK3 diplomacy and intrigue at top of a ranking instead.
I'd say that the map should be made BIG on purpouse, so in order to win, ppl would need to clump together
@artch said in Season #2 concept:
By the way, if you only cooperate with 1 or 2 players, you will not be able to score all resources.
Almost yes if all of them are at GCL7 (for 3 players cooperation)
2 another questions @artch :
- how the rewards ladder will look like
- do decoders have capacity/cooldown
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@qzarstb You can only use decoders in owned rooms. Wiping the sector does not benefit you directly, since with your own rooms you can decode as many symbols as your GCL is.
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@gadjung said in Season #2 concept:
Almost yes if all of them are at GCL7 (for 3 players cooperation)
But you will take GCL 7 only after a month. That means you will lose a lot during the first month.
2 another questions @artch :
how the rewards ladder will look like
do decoders have capacity/cooldown
Yet to be decided.
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@artch said in Season #2 concept:
@qzarstb You can only use decoders in owned rooms. Wiping the sector does not benefit you directly, since you can decode as many symbols as your GCL is.
So if i decoded TAW,SIN,RES,PE and have GCL4 i cannot decode AYIN in someone elses owned room ?
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@gadjung You can, but that someone should be alive and not wiped
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@artch Yes but the score spawn in would still be similar as the current season right?
Let's assume I have 1 room myself and cleared my sector: I can gather all the score for 1 type and process it.
Let's assume I let my neighbours live and work together with 4 other players in my sector: We can process 5 types in total, but since we work together on AVG we only get 1/5 of each of those 5 types.
Both scenarios would give me the same amount of score.
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@qzarstb Exactly. That means there is no direct benefit in killing them. You will simply waste resources on war. And if they happen to be not just dummies, you may waste a lot. You will only be inclined to allocate resources to that if they are your close competitors in ranking.
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@artch You see it as no incentive to kill players, I see it as no incentive to keep them around. The amount of "dummies" which cost a minimal war investment to wipe them (at least pre-RCL8) is about 50% of the userbase. But we'll see, I don't expect Tigga/Geir/Rob etc to become good samaritans all of a sudden and it's just a small group of players responsible for like 90% of the players being wiped this round.
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@qzarstb I think we will just create a bigger world this time and allow people to choose locations outside their reach, but at the same time close to each other to team up.
Also, no portals probably.
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@artch Did you already decide on the duration of the second season?
