Khaara Resource Management
Sirot
Join Date: 2006-12-03 Member: 58851Members
Join Date: 2006-12-03 Member: 58851Members
The Kharaa (now known as aliens in the rest of this post) in NS always bugged me. They were designed to work as individuals but required as much teamwork as the humans. This was most apparent in resource distribution and building construction. The whole idea that a player must sacrifice a good amount of their resources to build a hive is somewhat troubling or even just build some chambers. It put way too much responsibility of the overall team's effectiveness in willingness of a few people to go gorge. Which is not always an issue, but it should be made more appealing if the game would become more mainstream.
<i><b>Here is an example of system that is purely theoretical and I doubt that will function very well. However, it it shows how I would want a resource system to work. </b></i>
<b>Resource Distribution:</b>
Currently the aliens receive individual portions from the overall resource intake with more of it being delegated to the gorges. The result is that skulks are very common and making structures is not encouraged because you could be doing cooler things. What I have in mind is to completely overhaul the resource system for the Aliens. Aliens now manage their resources using a <i>Resource Threshold</i> and <i>Evolution Points</i>. The idea is to make resource management a lot more individualistic while at the same time allowing a player to make sacrifices for the team with less long term repercussions.
Each alien player starts with a threshold of 20, which means that the aliens control only one hive and 0 resource points. You may allocate evolutions and upgrades to your current form (such as improved speed), but they cost points from your overall threshold. For example, to get Carapace takes 10 points and to become a lurk costs 15 points, since you only have a threshold of 20, you can't go a Lerk and get the Carapace upgrade at the same time. You can increase this threshold to be able to afford more forms and upgrades by capturing hives and resource points. Your threshold goes up by 20 for each hive you control and by 10 for each resource point you control to a maximum of 100. Once a resource point is captured, your threshold does not immediately go up by 10 points. It slowly increases by 1 up to a maximum of 10 once the point is captured.
The simpler lifeforms are more customizable while the more advanced become more specialized due to their expense. To create structures and evolve into powerful forms, you must spend evolution points. You receive these points periodically (lets say every 20 seconds), one point per hive at the end of every cycle. They cap at 30 and stay with you even if you die. You can either spend them or donate them to the shared pool, so gorges can spend them to build structures. While you are evolved to an advanced form, your evolution points are cap is reduced equal to the cost of the form. To get an idea of costs, becoming a Fade costs 20 points (making your cap 10) and to become an Onos costs 30 (making your cap 0).
<b>Building Construction:</b>
Gorges create buildings using the shared pool and their individual pool is left untouched, but their income is diverted to the shared pool. A chamber costs 20 points and a hive costs 60 points. This cost may seem steep, but as soon as you acquire an additional hive your rate increases and until the players can afford the fade and onos, they will contribute their points to the shared pool. What this does is allow a alien to pop into a gorge, construct a few building and then return to combat. This makes the aliens a lot more faster than the humans and always a threat.
Is this a good concept to introduce to the aliens or the current system good enough? I stress that this is only a example.
<i><b>Here is an example of system that is purely theoretical and I doubt that will function very well. However, it it shows how I would want a resource system to work. </b></i>
<b>Resource Distribution:</b>
Currently the aliens receive individual portions from the overall resource intake with more of it being delegated to the gorges. The result is that skulks are very common and making structures is not encouraged because you could be doing cooler things. What I have in mind is to completely overhaul the resource system for the Aliens. Aliens now manage their resources using a <i>Resource Threshold</i> and <i>Evolution Points</i>. The idea is to make resource management a lot more individualistic while at the same time allowing a player to make sacrifices for the team with less long term repercussions.
Each alien player starts with a threshold of 20, which means that the aliens control only one hive and 0 resource points. You may allocate evolutions and upgrades to your current form (such as improved speed), but they cost points from your overall threshold. For example, to get Carapace takes 10 points and to become a lurk costs 15 points, since you only have a threshold of 20, you can't go a Lerk and get the Carapace upgrade at the same time. You can increase this threshold to be able to afford more forms and upgrades by capturing hives and resource points. Your threshold goes up by 20 for each hive you control and by 10 for each resource point you control to a maximum of 100. Once a resource point is captured, your threshold does not immediately go up by 10 points. It slowly increases by 1 up to a maximum of 10 once the point is captured.
The simpler lifeforms are more customizable while the more advanced become more specialized due to their expense. To create structures and evolve into powerful forms, you must spend evolution points. You receive these points periodically (lets say every 20 seconds), one point per hive at the end of every cycle. They cap at 30 and stay with you even if you die. You can either spend them or donate them to the shared pool, so gorges can spend them to build structures. While you are evolved to an advanced form, your evolution points are cap is reduced equal to the cost of the form. To get an idea of costs, becoming a Fade costs 20 points (making your cap 10) and to become an Onos costs 30 (making your cap 0).
<b>Building Construction:</b>
Gorges create buildings using the shared pool and their individual pool is left untouched, but their income is diverted to the shared pool. A chamber costs 20 points and a hive costs 60 points. This cost may seem steep, but as soon as you acquire an additional hive your rate increases and until the players can afford the fade and onos, they will contribute their points to the shared pool. What this does is allow a alien to pop into a gorge, construct a few building and then return to combat. This makes the aliens a lot more faster than the humans and always a threat.
Is this a good concept to introduce to the aliens or the current system good enough? I stress that this is only a example.
Comments
Anyways, interesting thoughts. The shared system would have to managed by some over entity as mentioned by locallyunscene. I'm guess from all hints that there will be a shared pool used by some commander-like entity, and individual for equipping yourself.