Cool solution to Creep upgrade system.

from Demigod Forums

So, right now there is a growing linearity of opinions on creep upgrades, mainly that angels and priests are pretty much not worth buying, and only serve as a way to inflate the cost of catapults.

I think I have a pretty cool solution to this.

As it is right now, we have a citadel upgrade that unlocks the new type of unit. I would change it so that you ALWAYS get more troops at the noted warscore ranks, of the appropriate kind, and that the upgrades you buy specifically for that troop type increase their effectiveness in special ways:

  • Priests gain the ability to heal, or heal more.
  • Angels gain additional movement speed and vision range.
  • Catapults get greater attack range
  • Giants attacks gain some amount of AoE to them.

The advantages we get out of this:

  1. It smooths out the experience curve. A team ahead on warscore is still doing well, but gives the losing team a little bit of a chance to catch up, by giving them slightly greater gold/xp rates for a while.
  2. It causes games to finish a bit faster.  Since angels and priests are auto included in waves, gold and experience rates will uniformally increase as time goes on. As it is, most 'good' matches end up with both sides trying to 'starve' the experience out of the opponent.
  3. No more noobs buying that priest upgrade at rank 4, and everyone hating them.
  4. Makes the troops a little more unique feeling, by showing how they are meant to be used.
  5. Makes the process of getting more and better troops more integral to the game experience. Troops will upgrade no matter what, they aren't simply a finishing toy for the team that wants to end the game.

Alternative idea would be to make the unit specific upgrades also decrease the amount of xp/gold given to the enemy when they are killed.

demigod
3,257 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Nice idea, but I don't know if I like the fact that once you get a high enough war rank you automatically get Giants. I feel that having to upgrade to Giants is part of the game.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

Interesting idea, but I'm wondering if this would cause people to simply stop caring about flags altogether.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

Interesting idea, but I'm wondering if this would cause people to simply stop caring about flags altogether.
End of quote

flags would still be essential to have the best war rank, and you always need the bonus they give.

 

I also think that something should be done to the creep upgrade system but your idea has one problem: you are removing some depth here. Being the first one to buy giants is a decisive move, whereas with your system, it would be a lot less interesting since once the opponent has the adequate war rank he has the same units as you have...

Still, i would like to test that idea, sdk where are you?

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Well, if war rank causes your opponents to rapidly gain XP.... But I guess the XP would be negligable in comparison to the bonuses they give.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

One problem here is that sometimes the team that reach Rank 10 first did so by spending bunches of gold on items and flag locks. So once they reach Rank 10 they have no money to buy any creeps just yet. This allows a smarter losing team to make a come back if they saved up some gold for their creeps or they can get back their flags at that point.

I don't know if what I said came across right but basically it seems like it the losing team would have a harder time coming back. Also have addition creeps from the beginning might encourage AoE DGs a lot more and hinder the single target type DGs.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Actually regabond, I think this is more of a solution for the first problem you mention. Because the winning team will smoothly go up in creep power as warscore raises, so will the losing team end up having more gold and xp because of it, so while the winning team doesn't have to spend 6k for giants at warscore 10, the losing team probably has that much more gold because of the earlier gotten priests and angels.

I think this actually may be a very important change to DG, because it gives some angle of attack for a losing team to try and catch up.  It won't necessarily be much, but it might make the game feel a little less landslidey.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

What if all options were available for purchase at the start (still going in order) but when you reach the next warscore rank, you get the unit upgrade for free (Giants would be at 11, priests at 5).  They would need to tweak some of the costs, but you could rush troops and upgrades, or level your DGs and let the warscore unlock troops for you.  This way, flags are still important (who doesnt want +20% HP/Mana?) and it allows troops to still play a large part in the game.  I'd also add in an upgrade that added +1 to each of the minor units (Lower then catas) or allowed you to increase the number of troops per wave some other way.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

My idea was simpler..  have a citadel option that grants your creeps the ability to spawn randomly across the map, rather than the current on rails method .

It would help with losing team staging a comeback.. instead of watching oppostion team who have farmed enough to hold onto flags and cap their xp.  whilst raping your meagre on rails troops.  Could possibly limit this random spawn either by rate or limit it to angels and below?

That way the cats and Giants are still on rails in terms of spawn, whilst the lower tropps with upgrade start appearing randomly.

 

I hope this makes sense, it's late ;)