BlueTemplar wrote: ↑Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:34 am
But how
any AI attack, including worm "artillery" attack would
not be an
auto-attack ?
Ok, again, you're just being nit picky and getting into semantics, but I'll clarify and spell it out for you. By auto-attacks, what I mean are attacks SUCH AS ones that get carried out by basic combat units in RTS games, which you're apparently familiar with. For all intents and purposes, I'd say that player SMG's, pistols, gun/laser turrets, and rockets (excluding atomic bombs since they are "dumb" projectiles) fall into this category, as well as the current spitter/worm attacks.
Contrast "spellcasting" attacks, which are an intentional, targeted ability by specific specialty units that may or may not take time to reach their target, deal AoE "splash" damage (typically either in a circular radius, cone, or line), and rather than focusing on a single unit they will target a spot on the ground. Most of the player weapons actually do this, including but not limited to shotguns, flamethrowers, tank shells, artillery, and nukes. Even though flamethrower turrets and artillery target specific units and fire automatically, I consider them under this category because of the flamethrower turret leading its targets, and the artillery shells having a considerable flight time.
All I REALLY want to see are worm projectiles that create splash damage and take time to reach their target (think flamethrower-based weapons now), while spitter projectiles hit instantaneously from the point that they fire to keep the illusion up.
BlueTemplar wrote: ↑Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:34 am
I'd say that it would be nice if higher tiers of worms still got a (slightly) faster projectile - so that exoskeletons don't make them too easily dodgeable !
I disagree. That level of granularity just seems unnecessary and IMO would be more annoying than anything.
BlueTemplar wrote: ↑Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:34 am
But *especially*, maybe add a "Behemoth" worm tier, with artillery-like range?
(Also, maybe Big Worms should already be able to outrange turrets / poison capsules ?)
Behemoth worms (as you describe them) would just be a total bitch to deal with. Imagine biters expanding and building a base nearby, and you have your laser turret wall set up, which is suddenly taking huge amounts of damage from something that's so far out of your range that you can't even see it. You'd be forced to clear out that particular nest, or risk losing your entire factory... or at the very least, a decent chunk of it. You could argue that this is what the player does with artillery turrets to wipe out biter nests, but biter AI is incapable of feelings and doesn't put any thought, or extravagant time, effort, and planning into the structures it builds. I could go down the whole philosophical rabbit hole of, "Is it really fair to the biters?" but that's not the topic at hand.
On the contrary, I like your second idea quite a bit. Big worms outranging turrets and poison capsules would be an interesting mechanic, as it would discourage laser turret creep, which as far as I'm concerned is a pretty broken midgame mechanic that just makes any newer advances in combat technology beyond laser turrets pointless. You'd just have to make sure that the player has a reliable enough way of dealing with big worms that it's not a complete chore or impossible to clear them out, without using static defenses (exempting artillery, of course).