TL;DR
After watching the last episodes of the PvP-Production battle on twitch/yt and the recent problems that did arise I sat down and gathered some ideas to maybe improve it.What ?
So here are just some (or maybe a little more) ideas I came up with that I want to share with and open for discussion.My take on the scenario is that it basically is
"A tug 'o war of different factories competing with their production-machinery against each other to see who has the biggest net-worth / stockpile of goods"
But onto my random list of ideas now (in no particular order):
- Science is worth nothing!
We're here to produce goods and research is something noone can get a physical grasp on. So while you can & should advance in technology to produce better goods, your stockpile / points won't increase from science-packs. - Only what you have in stock counts!
So if you lose a bufferchest full of electrical engines, your points drop. It's a about the net-worth of our factory and not what we once had. This also includes things like the rocket. Yes you COULD launch it, but that would remove this asset from your stockpile hence remove points. Better build a second/third/etc silo and get another rocket ready to go in those as well. - It's a tug o war, let's steal from the others!
Let us connect pipes and pumps to pipes from other factions outside of their bases. So we can tap into THEIR resources / power (steal ore from their belts via inserters and ship them with trains to our own facility? setup a rogue-pumpt to suck their oilfield dry and pump it to our refineries? That's how corporate / factory warfare runs, right? - I'm gonna feed on your tears!
If I destroy a bufferchest from you, instead of (or in addition to) you loosing points I also get a % value of the stuff I send to nirvana - Subsidies!
Remember Transport Tycoon Deluxe? I'm sure you do! Every once in a while or on a set timer, an announcement will be broadcast that in X minutes, non-intermediate product Y will reward double/triple/whatever extra points until a different product gets a subsidy - Show me what you got!
When a round starts, a bigger area around your starting location if revealed to let you get an idea and prepare a suitable strategy instead of going in with the idea to mass oil only to realize apart from your starting oil nothing is close by. - Restistance is futile!
Make biter-evolution a tech that can be researched. Something like +5% increase per research level but every team can participate. If only one team goes that route, it will get very expensive to get to 100% but as every team can dip into it, it's easier to get 4x to level 5 instead of 1x to level 20. Turning the surroundings to a death world. It would be military tech and support teams that want to cut-off competitors from distant resources because in the end biters are still like the borg: Against everyone! When the evolution gets bumped by finishing a research, all teams should get a notification. Maybe even with the team that completed it to know who's looking for trouble. - Knowledge is for everyone!
Start with all non-military (or having a ingredient/predecessor tech which includes grey science packs) unlocked. So everyone can commit to a path they like but PvP will require getting a science-park up and running. - But after that, we will fights with sticks and stones!
We're in a factory warfare here. Yes we've launched rockets into space and nuked the locals to hell but now we need to recover and get our production up and running. So there's no need for artillery, lasers or nukes (basically disable all the very late game weapons and stick to skrimish/hit'n'run stuff /make laserturrets for example only buildable inside your starting point and outposts only securable by bullets, walls and mankind. - Didn't see that coming!
Radars scan faster but don't provide a constant field of view (except for spectators). But you have permanent vision of your starting area. This way, you have to pay attention to outposts. Especially if someone starts to tap your resources and steals your stuff "Hrm, why is our incoming iron-ore line not fully compressed anymore?" - The following public service announcement is brought to you by...
Some global announcements for different events. A bit like empire earth where it told others "A player has reached the iron age" => "A team has produced the first red/green/yellow/etc. science pack" or tank or power armor for example, but w/o telling the name of the team. - mi casa es mi casa
The rush-time is not for leaving people out of their base but preventing other IN to it. This way you can expand really early, maybe build the main base even outside the normal boundaries to hide it or try to cut-off competitiors from external resources but you are still save inside your own walls until the times over. - Let them work for you.
Handcrafting removes the points of the ingredients but won't get you any profit out of it. Because we're here to automate a factory and not support manual labor. It will be an annoyancein the beginning but not really noticable in the endgame. But it will counter stuff like "Ok, everyone hold on tight and handcraft those 100k stonewalls now!" - I trust my terracotta army
Restrict military equipment from being built but instead supply each team with a standing army at the beginning of each round which has to be used wisely for PvP
Why ?
To make the whole concept of the scenario more fleshed out and allow for creative playstyles and more diverse tactics while sticking to the two big things in its name: production and pvp!Thanks for sticking with me until here.
As said, it's my take on this stuff and I'm happy to hear your opinions on it. Whats garbage, what could be improved / used, or whats technically not possible after all...
cheers and out,
DNightmare
