3. What if mineral compounds had effects when they evaporated.

What if mineral compounds had effects when they evaporated.


  • The idea is straightforward. When a dropped compound evaporates each tick it emits different effects based on its effects as a boost.

    • UH Attack all targets within range 1 equivalent to N * ATTACK_POWER / 8
    • UH20 Attack all targets in range equivalent to 2 * N * ATTACK_POWER / 8
    • XUH2O Attack all targets in range equivalent to 3 * N * ATTACK_POWER / 8 Where N is the amount of dropped resources (before evaporating) and / 8 is because the attack is spread around the squircle rather than against a single target.

    The other boost chains are similar:

    • LH N / 2 * REPAIR_POWER to all structures or N / 2 progress for all constructionSites within range 3
    • LO N * Heal / 8 within range 1
    • ZH N * DISMANTLE_POWER / 8 to all structures within range 1.
    • ZO 1 fatigue removed from all creeps within range N.
    • KO N * rangedMassAttack.
    • UO N extra harvest power to all creeps.
    • GH 0.3 * N upgradeController.
    • GO 0.3 reduced damage for all creeps in range N.

    The next are more subjective

    • KH prevents all resources and base compounds from evaporating within range N.
    • KH2O prevents 1 compounds and below within range N.
    • XKH2O prevents tier 2 compounds and below within range N.
    • G All resources in range N evaporate 1 extra.
    • OH nothing ... yet.
    • ZK nothing ... yet.
    • UL nothing ... yet.

    Why? Because it would be fun to walk a carry creep full of a careful mixture of resources up to a wall to drop a bomb. Even better it adds variety to creep layouts as CARRY could be useful in offensive situations, e.g. carry some ZO to allow a fatigued attacking army to arrive more quickly. Or a healer creep carrying GO to protect their patient from more damage. I also think it might add to peoples enjoyment as the production of compounds in the lab become a little more perilous (with hilarious failure modes).

    Some fun numbers for a sense of the impact this would have in battles. 50 WORK parts boosted with XGH2O that died at with 1000 life left would drop 200 XGH2O in their tombstone. Assuming that tombstone was not cleaned up that would deal lots of damage to a wall; 200 resources does 200 * 3 * DISMANTLE_POWER / 8 = 375 damage to adjacent buildings each tick. If the compound remains unpicked up it'll do 20100 * 3 dismantles = 376875 damage in total. Against a 3x1 flat wall 1,130,625. Against a corner 1,884,375.

    A 50 CARRY creep full of XGH2O could drop 2500 for 46,8753 dismantle damage per tick or 58,617,187 total. Impressive

    Compare that with the output of the creep had it remained alive; 4 * 50 * 50 * 1000 = 10,000,000.

    Some perspective however, is the massive damage is dealt over more than a creeps lifetime and would be trivial pick up and disarm.

    Even large pile of XUH2O can be disarmed by a carry creep picking it up. The creep might die from the XUH2O radiation but the resources would then be safely stored in the tombstone.

    The KH boosts functions as a hard counter for G boosting, while KH2O is a hard counter for the lower tier compounds. Tier 3 compounds are uncounterable by either side.

    A final thought on balance, adding a mechanic where resources can be attacked to decrease the amount without evaporation would also make sense to prevent a defender from being overwhelmed with a flood of tier3 compounds (allowing the attacker to win by purchasing the victory).

    👍