[Discussion] The case against overpowered power creeps
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Dear friends and colleagues,
Annoying as you all know me, I'd like to (re)open up this subject that has been discussed two times last year. You can find the earlier posts here:
- October 2016 - Do not cater to the elites
- August 2016 - The case against power creepSince there's no point in arguing against power creep, I will instead argue against making them overpowered and mandatory.
I. Making PCs mandatory
I can understand the desire of the devs to tightly couple PCs to existing economies in order to incentivize their use. However, doing this will greatly increase the base complexity of a game that is already stupendously complex. How many players with 5 rooms and remote mining do we have right now? 300?
How many players with lab code do we have active now? 100?
How many players have power harvesting active now? 44?
When this subject was approached in the past, we were always told that power would be an alternate path to GCL which can be approached independently, but you would not be forced down this path. What has changed?
Power is and should be an end game mechanic. It should be relevant after you have tackled early economy and development. After you have dealt with the market and boosting. By that point, you're probably already 6 months into the game.
The existence of boosts is a huge cliff between the new and the old. One player with boosts can steamroll over a 10 room regular player without difficulties within 24h. The existence of the market has somewhat equalized this disadvantage since it's easier to hack together a boosted army/defense when under pressure.
However, boosts are relevant mostly in warfare which makes them a coding pursuit which can be postponed in favor of focusing on core economy or efficiency. If you make PCs tightly integrated into the economy, players no longer have the option to postpone this subject. They must take it into account, understand it and implement it to a certain degree.
It's easy to lose sight of how complex this game is and the investment necessary to build up an effective AI. I'm ashamed to realize how much I've spent over the past year here and I'm nowhere near the "end game".
II. Making PCs overpowered
This is intertwined with point 1. Providing extraordinary powers will intrinsically make power creeps a mandatory part of the game. Their effects need to be balanced in such a way that they would have greater value and importance for the problems faced in the end game (CPU usage, siege warfare in fortified positions etc).
It's also important to be careful with these abilities in order to maintain or improve the existing balance of the game rather than throw it out of orbit.
It's also important to ensure that these abilities do not make other parts of the game obsolete, but rather enhance and diversify them.
Conclusion
Power creeps can be an opportunity for strategic diversity and a wellspring of interest and innovation for veteran players. However, we should be cautious and reserved in their implementation. I'll close with an old saying I think we should consider:
"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away" ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
King regards,
A concerned citizen
AtavusPS: I'm also quite concerned that so much development effort is being spent for an end game mechanic relevant to <100 players. It would make a lot more sense to focus on making this game more accessible and engaging for the little guys.
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Since I'm only few days old, I cannot talk about most things you said Atavus, but I'll throw in my 0.02$ over your PS. I came to the game few days before the PC design doc was revealed. And I must say that I'm quite afraid of the impact on new players.
I'm currently in the Novice Area with players of higher GCL level. What happens if one of them focused on harvesting a bit of power before Respawning? Will he be able to make PCs once he reach RCL8 and steamroll me since I will have absolutely no way to counter this? Even if I can get the help of nearby players via terminal supplies to boost my creeps, he can still instakill/disable/shield/fatigue them while all I can do is try to find a way to kill his PC AND expand (wait low GCL, nvm)... or at least counter-attack him before his PCs comes back into play as economic booster to counter.
From what I've seen on the leaderboards, adding PCs will mostly help the top 50 players while the rest will struggle to even get Power/Write decent code to control them increasing the difference in power between veteran, intermediate and new players.
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I think preventing power creeps from being spawned in novice zones would make a lot of sense.
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@tedivm: I'm not so sure. Any player who has previously farmed power will be at least GCL4, and even as things stand I'll almost always put my credits on the highest GCL player to dominate their novice zone. Denying them the ability to experiment with power creeps won't change this, but it will make them that much less prepared to engage with the rest of the world.
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After reading the proposed abilities for power creeps, I found them to be extraordinary as well. Abilities like "Kill" and "DISABLE_TOWER" will have drastic effects on sieges giving up much of the defender's advantage in the existing game design. I'm finding it stressful to imagine making a power creep defense that is "safe" from other power creeps and newer players are pretty overwhelmed going up against boosted creeps as it is, power creeps + boosted creeps would be more or less unstoppable. With so many abilities, it'll be hard to account for and test each one when building an active creep defense.
Due to the range on the kill ability, The only way a non-power player can stay safe it is to build a base that is entirely ramparted which can lead to base layout conformity. I'd like to see more balance with power creeps and more ways of countering them without power by spending high amounts of energy, cpu, spawn time, etc.
