SmedBlog: Harvestable Resources

[Hamma]

I'm doing targeted feedback threads on all items from Smed's Blog. This one is for player harvesting.

Harvestable resources - imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.

Thoughts!

[Mox]

This could be a nice thing.

I imagine some huge harvester vecs with turrets for players.

Something like movable capturepoints.

[Blackwolf]

Moveable capture points has some potential.

Weak harvesters like Star Craft II that are susceptible to air and ground raids would force players to guard them. Depending on effectiveness, it might generate a great aspect of battle, or it might force players into a boring position.

[ringring]

I don't mind as a concept.

However the questions that occur to me is why would you do it?

Would the resources you harvest accrue to you? To your outfit? To your squad? To your empire?

I'd presume harvesters (oh god it sounds like fishing in rift when I say that) can be attacked to prevent them from doing it?

It does make you wonder that they took ant runs out because they wer boring, alledgedly, but then are thinking about introducing this.

[Zebasiz]

Well, People were sad the ANT was gone. But now it seems we got another gatherer.
Depending on how they do it it reminds me a lot of Mining runs in EVE. Groups having to have ships to guard the miners.

[ComerEste]

Honestly, while killing people in PS2 will always be fun, it would be interesting if there were other elements besides killing people. I am definitely looking forward to them letting us build our own bases/towers/outposts in the future and it would be awesome if this was part of it. Like you have to use the minerals these things gather to upgrade your base, so they become another strategic asset to defend/attack.

[VikingPignvin]

Taking a spec ops team to take out theese harvester and cut the enemys resource income would be amazing

[Akrasjel Lanate]

By proposing Harvestable resources he also wants to say that conquered space wont generate engouth resources to support a player needs for vehicles and suff. And that it require more resources, itherwise such option wouldnt have a point.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Akrasjel Lanate

By proposing Harvestable resources he also wants to say that conquered space wont generate engouth resources to support a player needs for vehicles and suff. And that it require more resources, itherwise such option wouldnt have a point.

True. .

link this to additional vehicles that require special rare resources .. it's all getting a bit rpg, gathering, crafting....

[Zebasiz]

Originally Posted by ringring

True. .

link this to additional vehicles that require special rare resources .. it's all getting a bit rpg, gathering, crafting....

Well a big part of war is the logistics of supplies. This could be a neat way to make the war have a bit more depth. Protecting supply lines etc. Rather than just defending bases.

[Stanis]

Originally Posted by ringring

True. .

link this to additional vehicles that require special rare resources .. it's all getting a bit rpg, gathering, crafting....

Reading Smeds complete post.

It sounds like Star War Galaxies: The FPS


Not a bad thing as I loved the crafting and resource aspects of that game and felt the rpg generic kill 20 rancor missions combined with rpg style PvP let it down. (This would be SWG when initiall launched, before the Jump to Lightspeed also added space vehicles and combat).

Forgelight is an MMO engine. I wouldn't be suprised if they are targetting an merged FPS MMO style of RPG focussing on skill based action and combat rather than mouse clicking abilities.

[Crator]

Originally Posted by Akrasjel Lanate

By proposing Harvestable resources he also wants to say that conquered space wont generate engouth resources to support a player needs for vehicles and suff. And that it require more resources, itherwise such option wouldnt have a point.

Exactly. I kinda like this idea. Will make resource control more tactical and perhaps give you a reason to actually defend a hex that isn't part of the capture system.

[Akrasjel Lanate]

But the harvesting also could be limited to some new rare resources.

[Blackwolf]

I'd like the idea better if it wasn't restricted to just outfit made bases.

If the resource harvesters functioned from every base, that gives a very distinct possible target for spec-ops teams to go after for resource denial purposes. It generates a vulnerability and would add a great deal to continental combat.

The gatherers should spawn from bases only though, not towers. And have to travel to locations where the resources are.

TBH, it's a nice idea but it might be impractical. NPC ANTs would have been a far better solution. Every base in PS1 had roads leading to nearby Warpgates and it wouldn't be hard to program an ANT to follow the road to and from a warpgate to it's target base and unload it's NTUs.

[SpottyGekko]

I'm always in favour of features that make the gameplay deeper, but not if it's depth for the sake of it.

I'd say we need to play the game in release version for a while before this topic can really be tackled meaningfully. Right now we don't have a good idea of resource supply and consumption rates, so it's hard to tell how harvesters would affect the balance.

But I could see resource harvesting as a potential lifeline to a faction that's lost a large slice of territory though. Sending out ninja squads to setup harvesters deep inside enemy territory could provide an interesting meta-game. That faction's shortage of resources would be a strong motivator to do something that would normally be seen as "boring".

If the harvester diverted resources from the hex owner to the harvester owner, it would become an economic weapon. It would mean that the larger a faction's territory became, the more that faction would have to patrol their territory to winkle out ninja harvesters. This would add an additional cost to holding large swathes of territory.