A Strategic Macro Model

[ArcherofAiur]

Remote Mining Droid
Cost: 50 min, 100 gas, 2 supply
-Permanent unit that is slower and more expensive than SCV and therefore an attractive target for base raiding. Can harvest away from the base.
-Designed for deep space mining. Contains all the mineral processing facilities on board. Does not need to return to a command center to drop off minerals.
-Limit one RMD per mineral patch. Gathers 4X the rate of regular SCV. RMDs can mine from same mineral patch as a SCV.
-Unlocked from OC but can be produced by CC, OC and PF.





Supply Landing Pad
Cost: 50 min, 150 gas
-A Supply Depot can upgrade to a Supply Landing Pad.
-Supply Landing Pad recievess a supply pod every minute. This Supply Pod adds +2 supply to the Supply Landing Pad.
-Loses the ability to submerge but gains hitpoints.
-Visual is that it catches falling drop pod supplies every 30 seconds and dismantles it with robotic arms. Robotic arms brings supplies below.
-Unlocked by PF but can be produced by CC, PF and OC.




Refinery Drilling
Cost: 200 minerals
-Refinery ability.
-Increases gas production.
-Allows 6 SCVs to harvest from refinery for 1 min. SCVs must be reassigned before and after.




One of the recent discussion themes has been making the macro mechanics more strategic and less focused on APM. While I am not convinced that is the best route to take I figured it might be worthwhile to explore what that kind of solution might look like.

To this end here are three macro options that I believe would place the emphasis on economic flexibility instead of APM requirements. I am curious to see what you guys think. Im only focusing on Terran right now cause this is a test model. In this model Orbital Command would just do Scanner Sweep. All numbers subject to balance. And yes the supply pad is taken directly from Halo Wars.

[protoswarrior]

Those are interesting ideas. How do you find this will affect resourcing? Does the advanced refinery you have there require an upgrade, or does it just "get" 6 scvs to mine it? Don't you think that you push the Terran machine out too early, sort of like a super-quick Gundam Rush with a collection of say: Tank, Marauder, marine & SCV?

[DemolitionSquid]

Not funny at all.

[Pancia]

Personally, I kind of like these idea's. But then again should you not be helping the protoss mechanic? I mean these are great, my favorite is the permanent mule, of course all these numbers could be changed to reflect balance.

Nifty!

[MattII]

All the ideas are really too powerful (The Remote Mining Droid costs a mere 100/200 and a supply of 4, yet you can get the same mineral income from an expansion as the 800/0 and 8 supply of 8 SCVs and a CC, and don't have to worry about destroying the rocks in the price CC spot), so you'll have to tweak the numbers a bit.

[n00bonicPlague]

Refinery Drilling
Cost: 200 minerals
-Refinery ability.
-Increases gas production.
-Allows 6 SCVs to harvest from refinery for 1 min. SCVs must be reassigned before and after.

SCVs must be reassigned before and after.

I could've sworn that you were firmly against something that would make the most sense being automated actually being manual.

[ArcherofAiur]

I could've sworn that you were firmly against something that would make the most sense being automated actually being manual.

Thats a complicated idea. Consider this a hypothetical model. Would you rather that the Refinery just automatically reassined SCVs or that it just made the gas your SCVs collect 2x as much?

All the ideas are really too powerful (The Remote Mining Droid costs a mere 100/200 and a supply of 4, yet you can get the same mineral income from an expansion as the 800/0 and 8 supply of 8 SCVs and a CC, and don't have to worry about destroying the rocks in the price CC spot), so you'll have to tweak the numbers a bit.

Interesting point. What would you change?

[MattII]

Interesting point. What would you change?

Well first I'd cut the gather rate down to around 2.5-3 times the gather rate of a SCV, and then make it so that it can't mine at the same patch as an SCV, and probably change the price to 150/150, ie, you can mine with these guys for an increased income, but you'd have to spend gas to do it, or stick with the cheaper but slower SCV only method.

I'd also change the Refinery Drilling so that instead of giving a temporary boost of 4 SCVs, it can permanently take 'one' extra SCV, so again, the quicker option is also a bit more expensive.

[Josue]

I could've sworn that you were firmly against something that would make the most sense being automated actually being manual.

Could you explain to me:
What happened to this?

Hidden Content:

[/INDENT]Minerals —> Gas

Another resource mechanic is a modified version of the original gas mechanic. Instead of getting a flat refill of gas for a flat rate of minerals, the effect would degrade each time you use it. This degradation would come in one of three forms: either less and less gas for the same amount of minerals, the same amount of gas for more and more minerals, or a mix of both. In between these "phases" the player can obtain fumes.

The big question is, should there be a fixed maximum number of phases? Obviously, if it is set to return less and less gas, there would have to be and end at some point; however, this wouldn't necessarily be so if you can get the same amount of gas for an ever increasing amount of minerals. In theory there would come a point where additional gas would just not be worth the minerals anymore, and it would be cheaper to expand instead, but this would be a natural limit as each player would have a subjective value on gas.

The big advantage of these two resource mechanics would be allowing players to explore different strategies and build orders. Players who are gas heavy (high tech and casters) or mineral heavy (low tech and warriors) could use these mechanics to really make their own gameplay, and thus make it more fun and interesting.

Of course a very important balance issue would be to ensure that, even with a perfect back-and-forth between these mechanics, there is a net loss of resources. One should not be able to rapidly switch between mechanics in order to gain more resources than someone who never uses the mechanics at all. If you pitted a person who never used them against a person who used them at every chance possible, the latter person should only end up with about 85-90% of the resources that the former person does after the same amount of time. The mechanics are for a quick boost, not continuous abuse.

I think your idea is OK (modified version of the original gas mechanic), in fact I was thinking in a very similar way, however my idea was to add an ability to "drill deeper" to find more gas, drilling costs a certain amount of minerals, so, once the geyser runs out of gas, you must use the ability thus giving you another span of gas. The rest of the mechanic should be kept the way you think: a limited amount of "phases" i.e you can drill only to a certain depth, and every time you do so, you find less gas. I don't know if both mechanics should go, but I personally think this one could work.

Yes. This is what I am talking about when I mention the "fumes" between phases.

AAAHHHH... that's what you meant with "fumes" ROFL
Now I see I had the same idea as you!
PD did you see my edit?
... I usually look at the bottom to see who is watching the thread, but my internet conection was lost for some time , when I refreshed the page you had already posted.

Oh you mean the original thread?

Umm......I think that's back on blizzforums somewhere.

Don't tell me it's "buried" somewhere on blizzforums...
What happened? I'd like to see feedback from people, I think the idea is great!
I don't believe they rejected it!

Drilling was your idea long ago, wasn't it?

So, noobonic, what happened? it was such a great idea, I would be happy for the "return"... it would benefit the three races...
Don't give up!

[n00bonicPlague]

It's floating around somewhere. I forgot what thread I posted it in :\