Page 1 of 1

Add new damage type: Plant

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:52 am
by Peter34
I'm thinking some modders might want to add early-game Agent Orange Grenades, releasing clouds of chemicals that damage only Trees without doing anything to player characters, Biters/Spitters or machines. AFAIK there's currently no way of achieving that, but a new damage type which all entities except Plants are automatically 100% immune to, would enable it.

Re: Add new damage type: Plant

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 3:54 pm
by Krayt
Right ... Agent Orange doesn't damage other entities or life forms.
I do not think so.
Your idea would sound more reasonable if it did direct damage to trees only, but at the same time let the pollution level in that area rise as well instantly as well as over a certain time after using it.
This would in return help the biters and spitters in their evolution.

Re: Add new damage type: Plant

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:44 am
by Peter34
Krayt wrote:Right ... Agent Orange doesn't damage other entities or life forms.
I do not think so.
Your idea would sound more reasonable if it did direct damage to trees only, but at the same time let the pollution level in that area rise as well instantly as well as over a certain time after using it.
This would in return help the biters and spitters in their evolution.
Just removing the Trees themselves helps promote pollution a lot. I recently tried a solo game with a Very Large starting area, and I kept restarting until I got a desert area, because I was sick and tired and more sick and tired of having to use Hand Grenades to remove a million Trees.

But in spite of the VL starting area, the aliens came and attacked me after only a few minutes of play, when I had polluted only a little. Whereas with VL starting area and a heavily forested place, I can pollute a lot and it'll still be hours and hours before they come visiting.

Still, I don't see a problem with Agent Orange adding to local pollution. In fact I don't see a problem with Agent Orange hurting the player either. That's not really a problem. The concept just needs to be a cheap way to remove lots of Trees, cheap and able to be available fairly early game, meaning it can't be a meaningful anti-alien weapon since that would disrupt game balance, or add pressure to make it less cheap to build, both of which would be bad.

Re: Add new damage type: Plant

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:03 am
by Krayt
How do you propose to produce some of this agent in early game? Using a Chemical Plant with which inputs?
Water probably will be on of them, but I don't know if there are suitable materials for another input material.