Marine Personal Energy
EmpV
Join Date: 2005-01-10 Member: 34556Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2005-01-10 Member: 34556Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Replacement for Personal Resources</div>It has bothered me when playing marines that there seems to be an unending supply of personal plasma/resources. Especially late game.
There doesn't seem to be a limit to how much you can get and it just keeps growing and growing...
With dropping/picking up of weapons coming, it will only get worse. Players with tons of resources will be able to buy and drop the whole team equipment/flame throwers.
I am suggesting a rename and reinvention of how personal resources work.
There is already a resource in NS2 that is used by the command station and observatory. <!--coloro:#800080--><span style="color:#800080"><!--/coloro-->"Energy"<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I would like to see marines personal resources replaced by personal "Energy". This energy recharges over time like personal resources, but the important difference is that there is a maximum value. (50 for example)
In Starcraft, this is similar to the energy that a 'ghost' has that can be used for abilities like cloaking,lockdown,etc.
When a marine has enough energy for a weapon, he can purchase it. If the marine keeps dying after buying weapons, he will run out of energy and have to wait to make a purchase.
Personal Energy will make it important to pick up dropped guns like in NS1 to conserve energy. It also makes it a very important decision for each individual player. Buying an exo-skeleton/mini-gun could also be important enough that they require all your energy to purchase.
There is also potential to get the commander involved here. An "Energy Pack" could be dropped by the commander using the energy from the command station that is normally just used for building Mac's. This would allow the commander to decide to give an individual marine extra energy to buy weapons/equipment.(Kind of like how commanders could choose who to give weapons to in NS1)
There could also be some additional commander research upgrades that will raise the maximum amount of energy or recharge rate.
Energy could potentially be used by other things like the flashlight, sprint or other temporary abilities.
The numbers will need balancing, but I think the current system needs some serious work. With all the naming confusion, this seemed like a good time to suggest this change.
Here are some images that show how energy could be displayed on the commander and marine HUD.
Commander HUD:
<img src="http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8441/cmdmarineenergy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Marine HUD:
<img src="http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1500/marineenergy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
There doesn't seem to be a limit to how much you can get and it just keeps growing and growing...
With dropping/picking up of weapons coming, it will only get worse. Players with tons of resources will be able to buy and drop the whole team equipment/flame throwers.
I am suggesting a rename and reinvention of how personal resources work.
There is already a resource in NS2 that is used by the command station and observatory. <!--coloro:#800080--><span style="color:#800080"><!--/coloro-->"Energy"<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I would like to see marines personal resources replaced by personal "Energy". This energy recharges over time like personal resources, but the important difference is that there is a maximum value. (50 for example)
In Starcraft, this is similar to the energy that a 'ghost' has that can be used for abilities like cloaking,lockdown,etc.
When a marine has enough energy for a weapon, he can purchase it. If the marine keeps dying after buying weapons, he will run out of energy and have to wait to make a purchase.
Personal Energy will make it important to pick up dropped guns like in NS1 to conserve energy. It also makes it a very important decision for each individual player. Buying an exo-skeleton/mini-gun could also be important enough that they require all your energy to purchase.
There is also potential to get the commander involved here. An "Energy Pack" could be dropped by the commander using the energy from the command station that is normally just used for building Mac's. This would allow the commander to decide to give an individual marine extra energy to buy weapons/equipment.(Kind of like how commanders could choose who to give weapons to in NS1)
There could also be some additional commander research upgrades that will raise the maximum amount of energy or recharge rate.
Energy could potentially be used by other things like the flashlight, sprint or other temporary abilities.
The numbers will need balancing, but I think the current system needs some serious work. With all the naming confusion, this seemed like a good time to suggest this change.
Here are some images that show how energy could be displayed on the commander and marine HUD.
Commander HUD:
<img src="http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8441/cmdmarineenergy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Marine HUD:
<img src="http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1500/marineenergy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Comments
Why not merely have RESOURCES and ENERGY , the ENERGY using structures and MAC's could replenish at the same rate the Marines currently gain PLASMA, and the Marines would then use ENERGY as a personal resource ?
The extractors supply a flow of RESOURCES and divert ENERGY from the grid to the Comm at the same rates they provide CARBON and PLASMA now, so instead of ENERGY just ticking over at a constant rate it would also be Extractor dependant, benefits from the upgraded Extractor.
You would have to have a seperate ENERGY pool for the Comm , a personal pool for thier use and a team pool for using in the CC.
In short , ditch the PLASMA resource totally and convert current PLASMA using functions to use ENERGY.
Unending Plasma Endgame
-Think big picture... there are no upgrades, exo armor, or jetpacks implemented at this time. Plasma won't be as abundant.
What is not good....
-Every marine having the same plasma recharge rate.
-Not rewarding for playing well.
-Making marines more dependent on commander for supplies/weapons.
-I agree that dying and just buying a new weapon right now is not really a big deal. I think it will be later when your adding upgrades; making losing that weapon a huge loss of plasma. Picking up and swapping the more expensive stuff will be beneficial.
-I don't see the problem with the commander being able to drop weapons if he thinks he needs to with commander plasma.
Yes, you can. There is not a major change happening here. I am just trying to make things easier to understand for players by making energy and personal resources the same thing.
Currently there is Carbon, Plasma, and Energy. (3) Carbon = Commander. Plasma = Personal resources. Energy = Comm station/observatory.
What I am suggesting is having just Carbon and Energy. (2) Carbon = Commander. Energy = structures/players.
It doesn't function any different than capping personal res, but players only have to think about 2 resources now.
Another thing that will help commanders to be less confused is to eliminate the use of Plasma/personal res in the command station. This way the commander is only concerned with Carbon/team resources and command station energy. I think command station energy should be used to drop meds/ammo.
Although I do like the idea that commanding should not involve the comm's p-res, just energy and t-res.
What EmpV is proposing is replacing each individual marine's personal-res with a constantly renewing resource without the need of resource nodes. That would not a good change, as personal-res is currently only gained from controlling res nodes, and is a major strategic resource that the game balance relies on. Having a non-exhaustible resource like "energy" would greatly reduce emphasis on map control in the game.
Marines may require an "energy bar" later for Jetpacks and other equipments, so it should be reserved.
I actually didn't say anything about energy regeneration not being tied to resource nodes. It will regenerate just like personal resources do now.
The system works fine now as is, there just needs to be a maximum value. I am not suggestion the replacement of the current system, just a change in the way it is displayed and a maximum cap.