Too Many Minerals!?

[LordofAscension]

I've come up with all sorts of resource mechanics, some better than others. One of them took the original gas mechanic and had a limited number of times it could be done, each time increasing mineral cost and decreasing gas yield. At some point I tried to combine it with a mineral mechanic that allowed workers to get a +M per trip boost for a fixed number of trips at a fixed gas cost. That combination made resources extremely flexible, potentially allowing a player to turn a build order on a dime and do something completely different.

A few days ago I thought about blizzard's direction with the macro mechanics and decided it might be interesting to make the Terrans the only ones with mineral/gas resource mechanics, as it suits their theme better than the other two races. My most recent incarnation of the gas mechanic is the ability to increase not the total amount in each geyser but rather the per trip yield for workers gathering gas. Purely as an example, let's say a Refinery costs 100 minerals and SCVs gather gas at a rate of 4 per trip. This mechanic would allow the player to spend something like 50 minerals to increase that rate to, say, 6 per trip. You increase your gathering rate as if you had gained a partial geyser, but you don't get any more total gas than you would have had you just left the geyser alone. So, you still need to expand, but you can accelerate the advancement towards high-level units and tech if desired.

Anyway, just another one of my random ideas

Right - because T needs another way to get fast reapers

I think the issue needs to be balanced. I see what Blizz is trying to do by limiting gas and for the most part I agree. Don't forget these are all official "Blizz" maps - they'll be tons of recreations of SC maps that will be awesome and have more gas.

~LoA

[ArcherofAiur]

I think the big thing is that there is a difference in whats good for gameplay early game and whats good for gameplay late.

[Josue]

Let's just keep it simple:
Minerals-->Gas
Depleted Gas Drilling
-Depleted Assimilator/Refinery/Extractor has a Drill ability costing X minerals
-Vespene Geyser gets Y quantity of Gas which can be extracted again
-Drill can be used Z times before vespene geyser becomes completely depleted thus becoming exhausted of resources.
This way you can "Pay" for more gas with minerals

[ArcherofAiur]

Let's just keep it simple:
Minerals-->Gas
Depleted Gas Drilling
-Depleted Assimilator/Refinery/Extractor has a Drill ability costing X minerals
-Vespene Geyser gets Y quantity of Gas which can be extracted again
-Drill can be used Z times before vespene geyser becomes completely depleted thus becoming exhausted of resources.
This way you can "Pay" for more gas with minerals

Thats making it more complicated.



Let's just keep it simple:

Depleted Gas Drilling
-Depleted Assimilator/Refinery/Extractor has a Drill ability costing X minerals
-Vespene Geyser gets Y quantity of Gas which can be extracted again
-Drill can be used Z times

[Josue]

Thats making it more complicated.



Let's just keep it simple:

Depleted Gas Drilling
-Depleted Assimilator/Refinery/Extractor has a Drill ability costing X minerals
-Vespene Geyser gets Y quantity of Gas which can be extracted again
-Drill can be used Z times

Err what? isn't it the same thing I said but just reworded? Anyways, That's what I was going for.

[ArcherofAiur]

I clipped off the end.

[Norfindel]

If you put an extractor/refinery/assimilator on both geysers in your base you gather gas about 1.5x faster than you would in Brood War.

That means that any base with only 1 geyser is going to get 0.75x the gas rate of BW. I hope that can be modified in the editor, so if you want to give the players faster gas income you aren't forced to put 2 geysers everywhere. Specially because minerals can be gathered at faster rates.

[unentschieden]

Remember that there needs to be a correlation between number of Bases and "Player-power". Gas is pretty much the only limitation on how strong a Player can get under ideal conditions since Mineralincome can get "too much" with proper Macro Mechanic ussage.

[GnaReffotsirk]

I think the resource to nexus/cc/hatch is like 1 square closer in comparison to that of scbw.

Also, if you look at worker harvesting in scbw, SCVs have a slight delay when turning, probes have even slighter ones, and drones turn quickly.

All I'm saying is that the diversity is gone.

[Nicol Bolas]

That means that any base with only 1 geyser is going to get 0.75x the gas rate of BW. I hope that can be modified in the editor, so if you want to give the players faster gas income you aren't forced to put 2 geysers everywhere. Specially because minerals can be gathered at faster rates.

Why? It shouldn't be modifiable (not without going UMS). Why would you want to make bases with one geyser?

The whole point of Blizzard doing it this way is to make gas cost more. If you want gas, you have to pay for it. You have to pay 50% more in overall costs for the extractor, and 100% more in workers for it. By changing this, you're changing the fundamental resourcing model around which all unit and building costs are based.

That is not acceptable.

Also, if you look at worker harvesting in scbw, SCVs have a slight delay when turning, probes have even slighter ones, and drones turn quickly.

All I'm saying is that the diversity is gone.

That kind of "diversity" isn't a good thing anyway. Basic mineral income should not be something that differs between races.