Power Creeps update


  • Dev Team

    @gankdalf

    Will EXTEND_MINERAL reset an existing mineral cooldown and just assume those 100 minerals have always been there, will it delay the cooldown instead? Does it even do anything to the cooldown?

    It has nothing to do with the cooldown.

    If it doesn't affect the cooldown, will EXTEND_MINERAL amounts survive through a regeneration. In other words, can I stockpile minerals in an extractor while it is regenerating?

    Yes you can.

    Will OPERATE_STORAGE drop all excess resources on the ground when it expires?

    No, of course not.

    Can a power creep use more than one power in the same tick?

    No, PowerCreep.usePower() call will override the previous one.

    Will there be any type of upper limit to how many times I can EXTEND_SOURCE on the same source before it regenerates?

    No limits.

    Will we be able to select the order that OPERATE_EXTENSIONS fills extensions?

    Most probably not, since usePower doesn't accept any additional parameters.

    If I see an operator in my room that hasn't used DISRUPT_TERMINAL yet, and I know it will use DISRUPT_TERMINAL on this next tick, will DISRUPT_TERMINAL stop a .send() to my terminal if I send it this tick, or will the DISRUPT_TERMINAL stop it?

    This is implementation details, not ready to answer yet.

    Do power creeps die to nukes landing in the same room?

    I think so. The only exception might be an Executor with active REINFORCE, but it's too soon to decide.

    Why is the cooldown on SHIELD so long?

    Because we don't want to give a single Operator ability to easily build lines of ramparts.



  • @artch Quick thought: What if you had the operator only able to make one rampart at a time on a lower cd. Placing a new one would remove the old one. This allows you to have a great uptime at a higher cost, and makes it a more iconic ability for operators on assaults to be generating defensive bunkers. Although I still think a wall version of it (without the defensive capability like ramaprts) like https://youtu.be/ZA_z6lAomno?t=23s would be a very interesting tool.

    If two operators place a rampart on the same location, or one places it after another, does it stack the health? Increase the duration? Override it? Error?



  • @artch

    Will EXTEND_MINERAL reset an existing mineral cooldown and just assume those 100 minerals have always been there, will it delay the cooldown instead? Does it even do anything to the cooldown?

    It has nothing to do with the cooldown.

    If it doesn't affect the cooldown, will EXTEND_MINERAL amounts survive through a regeneration. In other words, can I stockpile minerals in an extractor while it is regenerating?

    Yes you can.

    That's actually pretty crazy. That is probably one of the most powerful operator powers in the document then. It will require some interesting changes to my mineral mining code, and I am still not 100% sure how I will get my power creep around to all his tasks without burning a ton of CPU, but this power still seems pretty amazing.

    According to an initial estimate, a constantly managed mineral deposit could output just short of double the average amount by a Lv5 EXTEND_MINERAL being used on if off-cooldown. So instead of ~1.04 minerals per tick, it would output ~2.04 minerals per tick.

    Will we be able to select the order that OPERATE_EXTENSIONS fills extensions?

    Most probably not, since usePower doesn't accept any additional parameters.

    I wouldn't mind if it were set on the room. Game.rooms["sim"].extensionFillOrder ... could also move the energy structure usage order there and I wouldn't mind 😛

    Just wanted to say that I am overall fairly pleased with what power creeps look like now. I think the enable power in a room mechanic could still use some work, but besides that I really like the general concept on everything now. I think I have figured out ways to use the operators in combat, and I think that EXTEND_SOURCE and EXTEND_MINERAL are powerful enough to properly defend against DISRUPT_TERMINAL. Super excited.



  • Is there going to be an easy way to recognize when a room enables power creeps other than an API check? I feel like such a mechanic should be visible in the room's controller or through a map view.



  • @artch

    Why is the cooldown on SHIELD so long?

    Because we don't want to give a single Operator ability to easily build lines of ramparts.

    It might be more interesting if it just added shield hits directly to the power creep, depending on what the design concept was behind it. Currently it is only really useful once you reach your target location, since it doesn't move with the operator.

    Another idea might be that it can only be used in specific locations, for example only on tiles beside walls.


  • SUN

    @gankdalf There are other uses for a temporary rampart than just protecting the creep that created it.

    Plug a hole in a wall? (Keep in mind that you can place and protect a wall within ramparts while you build it)

    Drop a boosted something in an inconvenient (but outside a hive) place?

    Troll source keepers?



  • @pundemonium I mean... at best it only has 25k hits



  • It'd be nice if power creeps had some way to heal. One of the cool aspects to them is the infinite life, which means you can do things much further from home than normal.

    If there was a power creep ability that could heal (maybe the aoe repair also grants some healing), or if they had some weak passive regeneration (heal 5% max health every 100 ticks) it would free up some interesting if sub-optimal power creep ideas.

    That plus something like a long cd power "Conduit: Sends creeps carry contents to a terminal" could allow for some long range raiding that was more than just destructive in its aim.

    I do think the strongest form for power creeps is going to be spending almost all on eco, just given the numbers and % of time its making an impact.

    EDIT: As a side note, on the power creep leveler, I'd add the type to the top bar when selecting skills

    Creep: 0 level -> Commander: 0 level

    EDIT2: Small error on reinforce, extra 10 on cooldown. REINFORCE LEVEL 1 Make the creep itself invulnerable for attacks on the next tick. Cooldown 20/18/16/14/12 10 ticks.



  • As a general thought: It might be worth considering combining some of the weak mirrored abilities.

    Disrupt Spawn and Operate Spawn (or Encourage and Exhaust) are both fairly situational, and you'd probably not want them in most cases. But if it was one ability that let you do either much more flexible. Also, it will allow more powers to be added.

    The other benefit of combining offensive and defense is that users won't take as huge a penalty for the 99% of the time they aren't on offense. Sure, it won't be fully optimized, but at least it's not useless that you sunk most of your levels into an attack power thats worthless. Similar to how a work part can be used for repair or dismantle, if you only got one creep and had to pick to do one or the other.



  • To be honest, the impact of having an overly situational ability depends on the cost for switching powersets. If it's a free thing you can do once every 10000 ticks, you can just switch on your situational offensive power right before the offensive operation where you want to use that power.



  • Whats the benefit then? Spend all your power purely on eco, then suicide a couple of creeps half a day before you go offensive? I feel like its not a system that encourages interesting gameplay, its just a slowdown mechanic on an already slow gameplay experience.


  • Dev Team

    @davaned said in Power Creeps update:

    If two operators place a rampart on the same location, or one places it after another, does it stack the health? Increase the duration? Override it? Error?

    It will create another rampart with another health and duration.


  • Dev Team

    @crusher48 Sure, this property will be visible in the Controller UI as usual.


  • Dev Team

    @davaned Power creeps don't have heal abilities on purpose - they are supposed to act along with your regular creeps together rather than poking enemies solo on the other side of the world.

    "Send to terminal" power will be likely added to the Executor later.

    👍

  • Dev Team

    @davaned Combining economy and military powers might make choosing options less entertaining. It's a trade-off you have to consider, whether to drop some economy efficiency in order to be able to attack with better efficiency. If all military powers were just a "bonus" automatically, the decision-making process would lose a part of the fun.



  • @artch Excellent, really glad you'll add a terminal power. One of my main complaints about warfare in screeps is its really hard to benefit from it, its almost always purely destructive. Making raiding potentially worth it will be cool.

    I agree with the healing, although maybe an ability that vampire drains another creep hits as an attack that heals the executor. I do like the challenge of having an immortal (via renewal) raiding squad that runs around and can self sustain with mining and renewal.

    My main complaint with military/work not being combined is that there is 99% a right choice. You wouldn't spend your limited power on a creep that has a useless ability. At best right before you plan to attack you will make a creep with the offensive abilities, and then suicide it when you are done with it.

    I think most of the fun comes from thinking of ways to use abilities, not which ones you get to use. But there is definitely some burden of complexity with combining the powers. I think if you get the data on it you'll probably find that its at minimum 90%/10% going to be eco chosen each time. Thats a bit of a shame, because there are so many cool things that are unlocked by the more offensive options, but they are outweighed by the general usefulness of the defensive. Abilities that have offense and defense built into them (berserk unlocks a lot of potential, for example) are really well designed imo. Anyway, just a thought to potentially open up more options.

    As an aside, I'd love to see more abilities that affect the terrain. Like one that creates temporary roads (eg TTL of 10) or swamps, or walls. Things like poison gas or non-aggression safemode zones would be more out there but also options. I think fights in neutral rooms could use some more interesting tactics, and this could be one way to unlock it.

    Quick idea:

    Stasis - Target creep rendered invulnerable and can do no actions for 3 ticks, medium cd, and are unwalkable terrain. Taken out of the battle (shut down their power creep, remove their healer) or defensive to give your creeps time to prepare (save a creep close to death, block a key location, defend against an ability).

    To flesh out the executor drain ability: Drain: Deals X damage (increased by berserk), creep heals for X. Excess healing forms a shield for the next tick. Creep parts destroyed by this lose their boosts.

    This to me seems like an interesting tradeoff of which offensive ability do you pick. Do you pick punch, for the utility? Do you pick drain, for the self-sufficiency? Snipe, for the range? You'd only pick one, maybe two.



  • @artch something I want to both point out and ask: Are there any plans to add more powers to classes after release, or will they remain the same forever?

    I ask because with the current leveling system, it looks very tricky to add in new powers without rebalancing the entire tree from the ground up. It might be simpler to do with the MOBA-like system you said you might be drafting.

    I also wanted to know, since if they are going to remain unchanged forever, I need to spit out my giant list of power ideas sooner rather than later.

    Finally, why do different power creeps have different maximum levels? It would be nice if I could over-level a power creep up to the "global" maximum to gain more hits/carry. It makes sense if you wanted some power creeps to be easier to kill, but it seems strange that it also means those classes can't have as many powers.

    And just because I am going to list some power ideas \o/ I am not going to list costs, durations or cooldowns because those require some amount of balancing thought 😂

    • PORTAL - Creates a temporary portal from the current location to a bus room within N linear range.
    • DISRUPT_LAIR - Adds N ticks to source keep lair respawn timer.
    • OPERATE_NUKER - Temporarily increases nuker range by N rooms.
    • OPERATE_ROADS - Roads in the current room only generate N (fraction) fatigue per weight.
    • DISRUPT_ROADS - Roads in the current room have no effect for N ticks.
    • DISRUPT_MOVEMENT - Adds N constructed walls randomly placed around target position with 1 hit.
    • OPERATE_CONTROLLER - Increases maximum energy used to upgrade this controller by N for X ticks.
    • DISRUPT_CONTROLLER - Prevents using more than N energy to upgrade this controller per tick for X ticks.
    • DISABLE_SAFEMODE - Removes safemode from the current room and puts safemode on cooldown for this room. Can only be used on controllers owned by you.
    • SLOW - Creates an area of temporary swamps at the target position
    • BOUNCE - Any creep that attacks this creep is forced to use a .move() intent in the opposite direction of this creep
    • GHOST - Position information for this creep is unavailable for other players. It reports random positions within the room. It is known to other players when a creep has activated ghost.
    • BEACON - Immediately triggers invaders in the current room, which resets the harvest invader timer.
    • WARD - Prevents invaders from attacking this room for N ticks. If an invasion were to happen during this time, it would reset the invasion timer.
    • SPRINT - Creep can move even if it has fatigue for X ticks.
    • RAISE_DEAD - Resurrects a creep from their tombstone with ticks to live equal to N percent of the tombstone ticks to live. This creep cannot be raised again.
    • DRAIN - Deals N damage to target creep. If the damage destroys a creep part, the part is permanently destroyed, receive X% of target creep's cost as resources, proportional to remaining ticks to live. If amount is greater than carry capacity the resources fall to the ground.

  • Dev Team

    @davaned

    At best right before you plan to attack you will make a creep with the offensive abilities, and then suicide it when you are done with it.

    Since redistribute cooldown will be very long (up to a few days), it doesn't seem to be an easy decision.


  • Dev Team

    @gankdalf

    something I want to both point out and ask: Are there any plans to add more powers to classes after release, or will they remain the same forever?

    It is possible, but it should be done very carefully.

    I ask because with the current leveling system, it looks very tricky to add in new powers without rebalancing the entire tree from the ground up. It might be simpler to do with the MOBA-like system you said you might be drafting.

    We're working on another levelling system, see this post above.

    I also wanted to know, since if they are going to remain unchanged forever, I need to spit out my giant list of power ideas sooner rather than later.

    I believe Operator skills set is fine for now. We're focusing on balancing them now, not on finding new ideas. Some of your proposals might make it into other classes though.

    Finally, why do different power creeps have different maximum levels?

    Because currently they have different total number of skills.



  • 0_1523651603069_30d9203a-2243-4240-8e05-f91bbf099fdf-image.png

    The new level rings are kind of small. If this is (at least somewhat) representative of the final leveling screen, could these bars become more distinct, and easier to tell apart? Potentially becoming wedges instead of lines.

    Also, the inner ring of GENERATE_OPS obscures the level rings quite a bit.