Areas for building using Radius's from Starbases and mining

[Bigmachk]

posted on December 6th, 2010, 2:51 am

Last edited by Bigmachk on December 6th, 2010, 2:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

I got this idea from command and conquer red alert 3. Instead of being allowed to build anywhere on the map how about you can only build near your starbase or mining stations. Starbases will have a big radius set so you have enough room to build all your stations around it where as mining stations have half the radius size. Only the mining station or a starbase can be built anywhere on the map. This will stop people from dominating a area of the map in early game by building a starship yard or turrets near resources before a mining station.

So to get a forward yard, turrets etc up you would have to build a mining station first to acquire the building radius. This will also make players focus on how to defend the area while you can get these stations up.

posted on December 6th, 2010, 2:53 am

I got this idea from command and conquer 3. Instead of being allowed to build anywhere on the map how about you can only build near your starbase or mining stations. Starbases will have a big radius set so you have enough room to build all your stations around it where as mining stations have half the radius size. This will stop people from dominating a area of the map in early game by building a starship yard or turrets before a mining station.

So to get a forward yard, turrets etc up you would have to build a mining station first to aquire the building radius. This will also make players focus on how to defend the area while you can get these stations up.

Why? The reason for that in the CnC series is power distribution. Each space station by neccessity is it's own independent facility. there's no real reason for such a limit here.

[Bigmachk]

posted on December 6th, 2010, 3:01 am

Last edited by Bigmachk on December 6th, 2010, 3:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Because at the moment you can build a yard in early game anywhere, especially near resources and with a few ships dominate that area till late game because you can easily repel attackers by repairing constantly.

Heres a good example why I want this feature in.

posted on December 6th, 2010, 3:30 am

Most of the time, though, those yards are built at resource expansions anyway.  Also, most of the time the mining station(s) is(/are) built before the yard.  So this wouldn't change much.

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on December 6th, 2010, 4:45 am

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on December 6th, 2010, 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Not to mention it would kill off rebuilding, as well as cause all sorts of problems on larger maps - or for that matter, on maps where you want to setup some wayward defenses (like sensor stations) at chokepoints. 

[Anonymous]

posted on December 6th, 2010, 12:05 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on December 6th, 2010, 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Not to mention it would kill off rebuilding, as well as cause all sorts of problems on larger maps - or for that matter, on maps where you want to setup some wayward defenses (like sensor stations) at chokepoints. 

hey dom, that picture u attached is empty for some reason.

about the idea:

justification for it is that resources (dil/tri/sup) need to be moved around and are stored at mining stations and starbases.

maybe if the build radius only applied to non turrets. turrets dont need resources coming in after they are built, but yards and research stations need the resources coming in to build and research. that way sensor stations could be put in out of the way places.

for most players it wouldnt change much. mining stations would have to come before yards. it would prevent putting a forward yard at your enemy's base and make it very difficult to do so at their exp, as you would need both a mining station and then yard.

whether i think the idea should be implemented is a different matter, the only good reason i can think of to implement it is to stop offensive yarding, and that can be balanced in other ways. i just think that this is too much effort for something that doesnt add much to the game. as this isnt really a simulator.

posted on December 6th, 2010, 12:10 pm

Because at the moment you can build a yard in early game anywhere, especially near resources and with a few ships dominate that area till late game because you can easily repel attackers by repairing constantly.

Heres a good example why I want this feature in.

That example's more of an oddity than a problem. It isn't that easy to send a fragile Constructor to the border of an enemies main base. 9 times out of 10, it would be found and killed or taken before the Yard is up.

posted on December 6th, 2010, 4:27 pm

hey dom, that picture u attached is empty for some reason.

Wow, that was super odd... I was trying to post that picture in the Screenshots thread and it wouldn't let me... 

posted on December 7th, 2010, 6:43 pm

Besides good scouting would prevent a proxy yard, but even if a proxy yard goes up their are ways to take it out without committing all your ships. Like long range ships or turrets.

posted on December 8th, 2010, 5:48 pm

Besides good scouting would prevent a proxy yard, but even if a proxy yard goes up their are ways to take it out without committing all your ships. Like long range ships or turrets.

  Well it's not THAT easy .  In fact it's usually impossible to PREVENT a proxy yard from being put up in certain circumstances.  Once it's up there are ways of taking it down, but on certain 1 v 1's and certain team maps it actually causes some distress .

  I commend Bigmac for trying to think up a solution to it, unfortunately I think this one would be too game-altering .

posted on December 8th, 2010, 9:37 pm

Well that is what I was trying to get at, proxy yarding might be annoying but getting rid of it would make the game a lot more like C&C then anything else and not really like star trek. I mean think about it in star trek their are random stations all over the place.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 5:56 am

My thoughts: Have yards only at starbases.

That would make it so rather than randomly building yards as you advance, or as an early game offenseve measure, you have to actualy do more than abuse game mechanichs (IE: a few ships and a yard holds easy) to win.

That said, to the guys in that vid, great game. Only way for it to have hurt more would have been if the warpin had a Steamrunner, the rom could have possibly lost his starbase.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 11:22 am

I don't think it's abusing game mechanics.  It's been a tactic for as long as I can remember.  The basic strategy for each non-borg faction requires the player to build a second yard at their expansion.  It would be far too game-altering to have shipyards only at starbases.  It's more of a defensive thing than an offensive one, anyway.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 10:51 pm

Besides good scouting would prevent a proxy yard, but even if a proxy yard goes up their are ways to take it out without committing all your ships. Like long range ships or turrets.

at least as dom on duel you can have a proxy yard up at your opponents expansion while he is building his first ship (for most races).


i think the reason you don't see people building proxies at their enemies exp asap is out of politeness more than anything else.