Conduit to auto-replenish extensions from storage, etc
-
I think it would add to the base building experience if there were a way to connect your extensions to a storage so that the energy from the storage or container could flow into your extensions when they need to be replenished. Perhaps you can have the spawn hooked up too.
-
I love this idea - however I think there may be a way to do this in a way that doesn't render Creep transports obsolete.
I'm thinking having buildings which can be programmed like Creeps, and can move resources to one another, whilst letting creeps travel over them. Maybe a little circle indicating how much and what type of resource is inside, with a connection graphic not unlike the one of the roads? I was going to do such with creeps, but the only issue was having them replenish themselves over time as they grew old.
In short, this idea sounds amazing, but it'd need to be done in such a way that existing systems still have a use.
-
Distributor logic is one of the key parts of the game. Being able to program an efficient distributor in terms of energy, cpu and spawn time is a good challenge in the game.
I don't believe it would be appropriate to simplify this challenge by providing an alternative mechanism.
-
Which is why I think these 'conduits' should have some challenge to it, making it harder to set up than creeps, but easier to maintain. Maybe have pulses required by a pump, or maybe have it so that only one valid consumer can be on a line at any given time, otherwise the conduit would 'jam' - this would require players to create 'valve' conduits to open and close connections, creating greater difficulty to set them up. This would make players have to think harder about their choice of transporter type, and make creeps be more efficient for in-base usage, and conduits more for mining outposts. This would mean that if a player really wanted to hardwire a base then they could, but it'd be extremely costly for them in terms of time and resources.