PTR Changelog 2019-02-01: Power Creeps

Tigga

Limiting withdraw makes sense - makes it a lot less of a "burst" thing - sounds good to me.

deft-code

Would it make sense to allow PCreeps to renew themselves via power they're carrying (consuming it)? This would allows a single operator to stay in or near the room for an entire siege.

Davaned

@deft-code Hm, it's a possibility. It could be an expensive use of power. Like 100 power * PC Level. Doesn't cost you energy to process, but its permanent power lost.

Another option is to put a "renew power creep" ability on one of the power creeps types. That could cost some power, and it would help play into the interesting multifaceted power creep compositions.

Oh interesting thought: Now that PC require renewal via Power Spawns, possible siege mechanic would be to have OPERATE_POWER_SPAWN able to shut down power spawn from spawning/renewing PCs. Then there is a timer on how long they can bunker up with PC's since they will have to run for another room/power bank.

Also, there are so many powers right now. I'm still in favor of having some of the weaker eco/offensive powers get bundled into one similar to work parts being able to build and dismantle.

EDIT: Also, another power creep power that could be awesome would be the ability to DISRUPT_REPAIR (possibly as an AOE) to prevent any structure from being repaired. This would be a great counter to the wall/rampart strat of ignore the attackers and just dump more energy into it.

duckymirror

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

Also, another power creep power that could be awesome would be the ability to DISRUPT_REPAIR (possibly as an AOE) to prevent any structure from being repaired. This would be a great counter to the wall/rampart strat of ignore the attackers and just dump more energy into it.

I'm not experienced with this at all but I think it's difficult to keep repairing ramparts/walls with a disrupted terminal.

Davaned

@duckymirror Agreed, it's certainly a lot more difficult. Although having ~2.5x current energy income via power creep boosting sources would certainly help ease that. It'll be super interesting to see how the meta shifts.

deft-code

When defending in a siege renew vs respawn won't be a big difference. In either case if the PowerCreep or PowerSpawn is destroyed the defense is compromised. When a PC dies of old age it doesn't receive a cooldown.

deft-code

I wanted to play with PowerCreeps on the PTR but the StructurePowerSpawn.createPowerCreep method is missing.

Pundemonium

@davaned Walls out seems to be a becoming more viable approach in order to protect the sources; the most dangerous unit (power creeps) can just duck into a room for a single tick anyway.

Ultimately at the highest level of attack/defence I expect more complicated strategies such as moving towers and multi-room spawning of defenders (for flanking) to be practically necessary.

But I hardly take part in combat so what do I know.

artch

@deft-code There is no such method in the API. Use PowerCreep.create and then PowerCreep.prototype.spawn.

SystemParadox

Why are power creeps spawned on top of the power spawn? This is inconsistent with the way normal spawns work. Is there a plan to make normal spawns work like this in the future? If so, then I'm probably in favour. If not, then shouldn't power spawns work the same way?

Can the power creep move back on top of a power spawn after moving off it?

artch

@systemparadox Because of technical limitations how power creeps are implemented. They exist in the cross-shard database, and main process is used for their spawning rather than processor, which doesn't have access to room terrain and all objects.

Can the power creep move back on top of a power spawn after moving off it?

No, it can't.

artch

Update

IMPORTANT CHANGE: When you permanently delete a power creep (either from the UI or the API) you will lose 1 Power Level in your account, i.e. your processed power decreases. This is the cost of reprofiling PCs. It is always the same regardless of a PC level and their number.

This means you have to consider carefully how you create and upgrade your power creeps. Reprofiling PCs may be a viable strategy sometimes, but this can't be done very often, and you are incentivized to have static PC builds rather than reconfiguring them constantly for current situations.

Power creep deletion will not happen instantly, but a 24-hours timer is started instead (see PowerCreep.deleteTime). You can cancel deletion from the UI at any time, or by spawning it. Also, a email is sent when a power creep is marked for deletion.

When we first launch Power Creeps in production, we'll provide a 30-days period of free deletion without losing levels. The same approach will be taken when any balance changes occur, or new skills/classes are added.

This timer is currently set to 1 minute on the PTR.
Added another bit of the UI:

This button doesn't work yet, but will be deployed very soon.
Power creeps life time is increased to 5,000 ticks.
Removed StructurePowerSpawn.renewPowerCreep. Use PowerCreep.renew on a Power Spawn instead.

Davaned

@artch Holy crap, that's really rough if you have a lot of power. Make sure you have something visible for whether this reset of a creep will cost you a level or not/tracker for free reset periods. Clarification on level cost: Does it reset exactly the value of that level, or does it also wipe away your progress towards the next level ? If you were close to the next level and you reset your level back will it return to its previous level immediately on next tick? On next time you gain power? (like RCL if you downgrade then upgrade)

Quick question because I had thoughts about the power spawn having the renew method: Can you renew allied player's power creeps? For things like around the world trips or helping out allies in a siege. Now that it's on the power creep it seems less likely, but I thought it was kinda cool as an option.

artch

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

Make sure you have something visible for whether this reset of a creep will cost you a level or not/tracker for free reset periods.

Yes, all sorts of warnings will be everywhere.

Does it reset exactly the value of that level, or does it also wipe away your progress towards the next level ? If you were close to the next level and you reset your level back will it return to its previous level immediately on next tick? On next time you gain power? (like RCL if you downgrade then upgrade)

If you have PL 10 with 95% progress to PL 11 and delete a creep, you will be PL 9 with 95% progress to PL 10. This mechanic is already on the PTR, you can test it.

Can you renew allied player's power creeps?

Allied power creeps can renew themselves using your power spawn if they gain access to the tile nearby.

artch

Update: Power Creeps creating and upgrading UI has been deployed. Use the button from the Overview or this link.

SystemParadox

The upgrade UI looks pretty, but I found it very confusing. Because everything starts greyed out and highlights when clicked on, it's not at all obvious that you can click items multiple times to level up multiple levels. When I reached my max level limit I clicked on one to disable it and was surprised to find that this wasn't what happened. Even then, I thought nothing had happened before I eventually worked out that it had increased to level 2. Possibly this is because the tooltip covers over the level text (which is also pretty small).

The bars around the circles are not at all obvious. I didn't notice them at all. They need to be much thicker, and I don't know why you are dimming the icon of the one you are hovering over. The key time you need to see them - when they change - they're almost invisible.

The 10/20/30/40/50 UI is ok, but because the hover popup closes when you click to increase the level you never see it animate, so then it's useless and confusing instead.

Some suggestions/requests:

Make it more obvious that we're setting levels, not just enabling
Make it possible to decrease levels without using the undo
Make it clearly visible what level is required to unlock, without having to hover over each of them
Don't cover the other icons with the information. Hovering to see information is bad UI anyway

Why not split this into two panels, with all the icons in the left panel. You click on an icon and it selects it and shows the information and current level in the right panel, with buttons to increase/decrease the level.

SystemParadox

I must say I am very concerned with the way the new UI is being developed. I love the art style. But please, please, make the UI clear, obvious, and useful FIRST, and then, AND ONLY THEN make it pretty.

Screeps is a game about optimising numbers and statistics. There is nothing more frustrating than a UI which hides the important information (I'm looking at you, market history!). Please prioritise showing this information over any kind of aesthetics.

I would suggest that the default assumption for almost any page in the system should be a boring table of data, which you can make pretty with icons. Think very carefully before deviating from this.

deft-code

I did not find the UI nearly as confusing as SystemParadox, but I had played with the prototype quite a bit before.

I didn't notice the bars around the icon at first but effortlessly discovered it once I'd upgraded a power twice.

I was worried the dark red theme would be a color blind nightmare but I didn't have any problems.

I love the way the way the PowerCreeps change their coloring as they're upgraded. It might be cool to do something similar for the powers as well. Or maybe it would water down the effect. Either way I like it.

It did take me while to notice the locks on powers I can't enable yet. Curiously I immediately noticed them for powers I had enabled. I got on here to ask why the lock icons were not used for all blocked powers. Only then did I notice the grayed out lock icons on the higher level powers. I'd suggest making the locks more visible on the powers you don't have enabled yet. Maybe keep the locks uniformly red whether the power is enabled or not.

Putting the undo button next to the upgrade button was little nerve wracking. I wasn't comfortable with it until I'd gone through the upgrade flow (which is very pretty by the way).

artch

Update: Implemented remaining power effects, now all Operator powers are implemented.

artch

Update

Renamed Power Level to Global Power Level (GPL), or Game.gpl in the API.
Added cancel parameter to PowerCreep.delete(true).
Power Creeps are now available in ptr beta branch on npm and Steam:
```
npm install screeps@ptr
```
You can run this command in CLI to add some processed power in your account and start testing Power Creeps on your local server:
```
storage.db['users'].update({username: 'MYNAME'}, {$set: {power: 1000000}});
```