Multiplayer scenario suggestion: Proxy wars.

[DaveKap]

I've had this idea for a while but I never thought to come and request someone here make it. I've been told by another modder on another forum that it should be relatively easy to make for Factorio but they didn't want to spend effort on it. Thus, I come here, wondering if someone else would like to take on the challenge.

The scenario is simple: Every player who joins the server is given their own plot of land to build their factory on. Every plot is identical, so there's no imbalance. On top of having their own plot, however, every player has visibility into an arena. As the player builds their factory, they are given the opportunity (through a UI element, I'm thinking) to spend some of their resources to hire biters and spitters. The larger the quantity of resource given, the more numerous the army they build. The better the quality of the resource given, the greater the evolution of the army they build. Then, every five or ten or twenty minutes, the armies of each player have a free-for-all battle in the arena. Whoever has an army left over at the end of the battle gains a point. First to 10 or 20 or 50 points wins! You'll notice I left some variability in here for balancing the final game, there's plenty of spots to change things around.

I think this would make for a fantastic mode because as some folks may spend early, they are also unable to invest into furthering their factory early, so there's a bit of a balancing act going on where the player has to consider how much they should invest in the army. At no point does any player know how much another player has invested until the battle in the arena starts.

So, having now described the mode, I am wondering if anyone would like to take up the coding side of it! Aside from offering a full design document detailing all required aspects of the game (things like balance numbers and which resources to apply, spawn points, how the player's location should be mapped, whatever else you need that is a "decision" to make about designing the game, etc) I can also be on hand to do basic scripting work (I'm a great editor, just a terrible constructor) and balancing tests. This isn't just a "here's a thing, make it for me" kinda deal, I'm fully willing to be involved. I also have plenty of friends willing to try this out as we create it, I just really can't find anyone with enough smarts to code it up.

Any takers?

[Overene]

YES

[DaveKap]

YES

Is that a "YES I will work on this with you" or a "YES I want that idea to be made" YES? I have a half-assed design doc already made that outlines the basic necessary coding requirements (a nice outline that can help you prioritize what you do and don't know how to do already) I can send along. PM me in the forum if you want to help!

[Overene]

YES

Is that a "YES I will work on this with you" or a "YES I want that idea to be made" YES? I have a half-assed design doc already made that outlines the basic necessary coding requirements (a nice outline that can help you prioritize what you do and don't know how to do already) I can send along. PM me in the forum if you want to help!

I meant that as in I like the idea. I probably can't help you make it though because i have very limited lua knowledge

[CMH]

I was hoping such a mod was already made. Couldn't find one.

But rather than the "every 5-10 minute wave", why not a continuous one? Attacking units are built just like everything else, and maybe get sent off to an "attacking chest/building" (maybe set this building to convert it from an item to usable unit to allow for easier storage/transport), which gets released by inserters (which you can control via normal game function). That way you can have it continuous, or set a certain trigger as you see fit for your own strategy.

For realism sake you can always make it mechanical units, so it makes sense for mechs/tanks to be manipulated by inserters, or if you really want to use aliens, cages/stasis cells.

[DaveKap]

I have a few reasons for why I want waves instead of continuous. Most of it centers around dealing with the drop-in/drop-out aspect of multiplayer and how to keep the required scripting to a minimum. The thing you want to avoid is letting someone have their group of biters be in the arena grouped up and ready before another player begins adding their troops, otherwise you have the classic pathfinding problem occur where the grouped up team has a massive advantage over the newly-attacking team because the attacking team is moving in a line instead of as a group. In Factorio, the pathfinding is a bit between Starcraft 1 and Starcraft 2, where it's not completely terrible but it's not very good either. In any case, this mod should prevent letting someone have an advantage just because they build their units first.

[DaveKap]

Figured I'd bump this just to check if anyone wanted to help me give it a shot yet?

[chakrit]

Yep, kinda agree that theres no need for an arena, just let the biter loose on the other side as soonas it is bought. Whoever gets resources faster will eventually snowball into a victory by killing the enemy player.

[DaveKap]

Yep, kinda agree that theres no need for an arena, just let the biter loose on the other side as soonas it is bought. Whoever gets resources faster will eventually snowball into a victory by killing the enemy player.

I figure it's time to ask again. I had one taker before but they suddenly became too busy to work on this mod. Any takers?

As for the suggestion of not having an arena and allowing for a snowball victory, I think you're missing the point of the mod. I actually don't want to allow snowball victories. The idea is that if one player is behind, they will still be able to catch up either by out-optimizing their opponent before the next match begins or by investing more of their resources into the arena than into their factory. That particular balancing act is a core component to creating a match that could be won by either side without it being purely dependent on knowing the most optimal way to build a factory. It's like having power-ups in Mario Kart. You don't necessarily win the game because you were better at racing, you can also win via smart use of the items at hand. At least in my mod, there won't be any blue shell equivalent.

[dog80]

factorio legion td good!

[DedlySpyder]

I've already been in contact with DaveKap and with his design assistance I've pushed a version of Proxy Wars onto the mods portal.