Drifter Worker

dickbassdickbass Join Date: 2011-07-10 Member: 109402Members
in Ideas and Suggestions
The drifter as it is right now is just a builder. He can do the flash bang but that is rare.

So i have a idea on how to make the drifter more unique. Make him be vital in with the resource gathering.

So to do this you would want to cut the resources a harvester gets by itself in half or so.

So the idea is u can link one drifter to one harvester. He will go to the harvester get in front of it and lean back and stand straight up and attach its belly to the ball of the harvester. Stay there for 5 seconds then come off and will glow redish and go back to the closest hive. Then will go to one of the sides of the hive and lean back and stand straight up and attach its belly to it for 5 seconds and repeat over and over. When he comes of the hive he will bring a good amount of resources.

This is kinda like the workers in sc2. It would make the resource model for the aliens more unique. Give the drifters more of a purpose.

Good idea?
Bad idea?
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Comments

  • Chris0132Chris0132 Join Date: 2009-07-25 Member: 68262Members
    I wouldn't mind it if you automated it, but given most of the res nodes you will hold in a game are in hive rooms, I don't really see it being very unique. Mostly I see it being an annoying micromanagement thing you have to keep replacing.
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  • pSyk0mAnpSyk0mAn Nerdish by Nature Germany Join Date: 2003-08-07 Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    This is kinda like what was done in Insects Infestation, where workers run along pheromons to resource towers to gather res.
    We already have infestation/cysts to create some kind of attackable support chain among other things and there are probably other, better ideas to give drifters more purpose and actions, if really needed.
    Drifters causing more network load, blocking hallways and begging for more commander babysitting are a few downsides that come to my mind regarding your idea.
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  • dickbassdickbass Join Date: 2011-07-10 Member: 109402Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1859355:date=Jul 10 2011, 05:57 AM:name=Chris0132)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chris0132 @ Jul 10 2011, 05:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1859355"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I wouldn't mind it if you automated it, but given most of the res nodes you will hold in a game are in hive rooms, I don't really see it being very unique. Mostly I see it being an annoying micromanagement thing you have to keep replacing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Well think starcraft. You have workers that get the stuff and bring it back to the base. If you build more workers and macro better you get more res. If you forget to build a worker when you have enough then your messing up. I think resource management and gathering should be something the commanders should have to macro more. So maybe macs will go to the extractors and get download the res and go back to the commander station and upload it. Maybe you can have like 3 workers per tower and they only speed up the resource flow if there all gone u still get some.

    This would make it more of a rts game. Where u have micro building and fighting and macro gathering.

    The game seems to be sided to the fps genre. I wish there was more rts in the game.
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  • Chris0132Chris0132 Join Date: 2009-07-25 Member: 68262Members
    Yes and I think the starcraft mechanic is stupid. I prefer games like company of heroes which just requires you to control ground, or games like command and conquer where your harvesters serve to gather things from outside your sphere of control.

    Having to build a collector then run to and from it is just pointless micro, it's another stupid thing for you to forget to do, it certainly isn't fun.
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  • Taxen0Taxen0 Join Date: 2010-07-30 Member: 73357Members
    first of all the pathfinding will have to be improved before testing this. but a problem I see is that it will
    put more (boring micro) work in for the commander.

    It will be far too easy for a solo marine to just run and kill a drifter, severely crippling the economy for the aliens while you build another one (if you notice, and it doesn't get killed as well), and waste precious infestation energy.

    If this is to be implemented there would have to be an advantage to the additional risk, like the possibility to have more drifters / harvester to gain additional resources.

    example:
    1st of all cut back the res gain to 75%.

    Then, lets say that every 2nd "tick" of a rt is added to its individual "pool".

    Drifters can then come and get the resources from the pool and carry it back. the speed you get res will depend on the distance your drifters have to go, but 1 drifter should be able to carry enough so the closest rt get to about 100%(the current) efficiency with only 1.

    depending of the distance 2-3 drifters would have to be used to "harvest" all the excess, taking the total gain to 150%

    I'm just brainstorming here, but "with great risk, comes great reward"?
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