3. Power Creeps update

Power Creeps update

  • SUN

    I did not need my full spawn capacity even when I had SK farming on. That said I could not actually use full spawn capacity due to inefficient filling code/layouts.

    Even with operate_extension thrown in It would be physically impossible for me to make continuous use of operate_spawn.

    This is a problem with my code that I should of overhauled six months ago but... I know I won't be the only one who has trouble using this power to its full potential.

    I say this to point to the relatively higher bar for entry compared to the other powers. Many of of these powers can be integrated to existing offensive/defensive/economic strategies with trivial effort (even if such a solution would not be optimal it would be usable)

    That said with the infrastructure to support it and a decent power commitment you could give military spawn-rates quite a kick, something that has been proven to cause my main spawn bottlenecks so... high investment high reward?


  • More pointless questions about WIP powers \o/

    1. Does DISRUPT_SPAWN prevent renew?
    2. Is it possible to use .cancelSpawn() and then OPERATE_SPAWN to quickly spawn a small creep before the an operator can reapply DISRUPT_SPAWN?
    3. Does DISRUPT_SPAWN even work if the spawn isn't spawning anything?
    4. Can one power creep use EXTEND_SOURCE on the same source 3 times to make it have 18,000 energy per regeneration period, since the power cooldown is less than the source regeneration period?

    Lastly just a random idea. Should use costs maybe scale with levels? I feel like some of the random powers you are forced to take become useless, since they don't stack and cost just as much as the level 5 version to use. It might be cool to have the option to use 3 level 1 powers together, rather than 1.5 level 5 powers.

    1 Reply

  • A few thoughts @artch

    1. Being able to see enemy power creep "bodies" will be very important, but it would also be very valuable to see when a power has been used. For example, if you dodge an opponents "kill" power because you ducked under a rampart AFAIK there will be no indication that anything happened for the defending player. This is not a rewarding experience.

    There are a lot of powers that are very hard to track down. Consider adding a way to see opponent power cds/usage to make it more interactive.

    1. What do power creeps drop when they are destroyed? Other creeps drop a fraction of their body cost.

    2. In-game Events Power Surge: Consider having a period every month or two where power spawning is quadrupled. This will give players a chance to catch up and lead to increased player engagement during that time period. There are some other events related to invasions and portals but given that this is a power creep thread...

    3. Power creep spawning: What does it mean for a power creep to die? Does their body worth of resources get locked up for a respawn period? Can a given power spawn only spawn every x ticks with a long cd? Does actually spawning a power creep take a long time? I'd love more details on this.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @gankdalf

    Does DISRUPT_SPAWN prevent renew?

    No it doesn't.

    Is it possible to use .cancelSpawn() and then OPERATE_SPAWN to quickly spawn a small creep before the an operator can reapply DISRUPT_SPAWN?

    Yes, it is. Also, you don't have to apply OPERATE_SPAWN again, since its cooldown is 1000 ticks.

    Does DISRUPT_SPAWN even work if the spawn isn't spawning anything?

    Obviously it doesn't, since there is no active spawning to disrupt.

    Can one power creep use EXTEND_SOURCE on the same source 3 times to make it have 18,000 energy per regeneration period, since the power cooldown is less than the source regeneration period?

    Yes.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @davaned

    1. Being able to see enemy power creep "bodies" will be very important, but it would also be very valuable to see when a power has been used. For example, if you dodge an opponents "kill" power because you ducked under a rampart AFAIK there will be no indication that anything happened for the defending player. This is not a rewarding experience. There are a lot of powers that are very hard to track down. Consider adding a way to see opponent power cds/usage to make it more interactive.

    Every power activation will be visually indicated by its icon, see this video. As for exposing this info to the API, see Events system discussion.

    1. What do power creeps drop when they are destroyed? Other creeps drop a fraction of their body cost.

    Power creeps are never permanently destroyed, unlike regular creeps. When killed (temporarily), they only drop carried resources.

    1. Power creep spawning: What does it mean for a power creep to die? Does their body worth of resources get locked up for a respawn period? Can a given power spawn only spawn every x ticks with a long cd? Does actually spawning a power creep take a long time? I'd love more details on this.

    These are implementation details. We'll move on to them when we start actual development on the PTR.


  • @artch

    Obviously it doesn't, since there is no active spawning to disrupt.

    It isn't that obvious when a nuke can kill a spawning creep, leaving the spawn to continue spawning nothing.

    1 Reply
  • Dev Team

    @gankdalf That's a bug, spawning should stop when a nuke lands, we'll check that.

    👍