Destructible Resource Moon "Shields"

posted on February 24th, 2012, 1:25 am

Idea: A resource moon variant that is surrounded/encased with a destructible shield that reduces mining efficiency until the casing is destroyed. (The shield could perhaps regenerate over time, although I personally do not like that idea so much)

Inspiration: the destructible rocks found in certain expansion locations in Starcraft 2

Potential lore explanation: The moon/planet is surrounded by a field of asteroids that obscure mining sensors

posted on February 24th, 2012, 2:30 am

Interesting.  I think I would rather have straight-up destructible rocks that allow passage through an area after they're destroyed, but this would make for an interesting variant.  You could give people extra moons near their home bases without allowing them to tech-rush straight away.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 3:37 am

I like the idea, but maybe rather than having to wear down a shield, having to blast an outer layer of rock off of the moon to get at the dilithium/tritanium core.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 3:58 am

Isn't that essentially the same, in game terms?

posted on February 24th, 2012, 10:30 am

i like this idea, and why not, even if it turns out it causes balance problems, map makers don't need to include them.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 11:33 am

i like this idea, and why not, even if it turns out it causes balance problems, map makers don't need to include them.

Seeing more options in map design would be cool. Balance concerns addressed by above statement.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 12:26 pm

for me.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 4:47 pm

This looks great, but I'm just thinking, Borg? their 1st 2 ships can take down 1-1 about anything in early game. This would  fall in like 3 secs for them.Otherwise looks very balanced for all the others.
+1 from me

posted on February 24th, 2012, 5:26 pm

Isn't that essentially the same, in game terms?

Yeah, but it makes more sense to me than a random moon just happening to have a shield generator. It also makes it apparent by looking at it whether or not it's mine-able yet.

posted on February 24th, 2012, 6:51 pm

Yeah, but it makes more sense to me than a random moon just happening to have a shield generator. It also makes it apparent by looking at it whether or not it's mine-able yet.

Well, the original idea was to have it act as some sort of asteroid field or something, which wouldn't look anything like a shield.  It would just act like one (in a sense, because it probably wouldn't recharge).

posted on February 24th, 2012, 9:20 pm

I would go for something like this.

posted on March 21st, 2012, 12:34 pm

bump

posted on March 21st, 2012, 1:43 pm

What about resources that flow slower in the beginning but the longer you mine the more you can extract? Would bring yet another dimension into resource management.

It's like building up an infrastructure to make extraction more "actually available" and efficient ... which takes some time and work. Additionally... I was always a fan of limited resources. It brings more coution into a game.
Asteroids and other space bodies should also be included into the resource system imo. Whcih doesn't mean that you mine it - buts its a valid option out of a range of options such as moons. The current resource system is very, very simple.