Topic: Terraforming

Terraforming (TF) Highlights

Gamma only
Restricted Heights
No TF on shore or around TP
Solo and Group TF

Module/Charges
  Raise/lower
  Leveling
  Smoothing

The first question, since so many people posted "OMG that's so obvious", here is your chance to post, before it's released, any obvious exploits and/or abuses.

tl;dr - What 20/20 hindsight issues does TF face when implemented on Gamma only, as outlined in the blog?

Re: Terraforming

Mount doom.

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Re: Terraforming

Might need soil erosion/decay tongue

RIP PERPETUUM

Re: Terraforming

Just finished my first draft of my Concept Island.

Will begin professional detailing a draft later tonight ;D

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Re: Terraforming

I miss "volume contention" and "natural disasters".

If i remove X matter in one location, IMHO it should be necessary to place it somwhere else again. And cargohold is no option, as there are many ways to destroy it in cargo (or the bot)

the idea with the terraforming patter is intresting - where do i draw those patterns - offline in PS ?

since i doubt that npcs will terraform, i wonder there will be any forms of random landscape deformations that can happen? The Story background gives enough reasons: planetary rings for regular meteor shower (seeding minerals!) or the high tectonic activity...

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

6 (edited by Arga 2012-02-15 02:25:10)

Re: Terraforming

Ville wrote:

Mount doom.

So, players will take an existing mountain top, and create a single switch-back path leading to the top, where they build an outpost?

Edit @Anni

Maybe the Heavy NPC's (and PC) can leave craters when they blow up? So you have to repair your battlefield.

Also, from the dev blog

it would likely induce completely flat islands, which is... undesirable.

This falls into the OMG Duh. Me, like other miners, have minor (or serious in some cases) OCD. I spent alot of hours in Second life making terrain flat (until they provided a single 'flatten land' button), and I even built a Land-Mower terraformer.

If it's possible to flatten an Island, I'll try it, and probably have alot of people willing to help (Long Live the Great Wall of Kent!).

If you don't want flat, or domes, or just generic looking islands if you will, then there should be something mechanically stopping me (and others) from doing it.

Also, under OMG, would be moats with castles. Anything I can do to strategically use TF, walls, and any other PBS to make assaulting it as difficult as possible, it will be done. Or if not by me, then someone wink

Re: Terraforming

Persistant walls with no maintenance cost come to my mind after reading all the recent threads about walls tongue

Re: Terraforming

Arga wrote:
Ville wrote:

Mount doom.

So, players will take an existing mountain top, and create a single switch-back path leading to the top, where they build an outpost?

Edit @Anni

Maybe the Heavy NPC's (and PC) can leave craters when they blow up? So you have to repair your battlefield.

Also, from the dev blog

it would likely induce completely flat islands, which is... undesirable.

This falls into the OMG Duh. Me, like other miners, have minor (or serious in some cases) OCD. I spent alot of hours in Second life making terrain flat (until they provided a single 'flatten land' button), and I even built a Land-Mower terraformer.

If it's possible to flatten an Island, I'll try it, and probably have alot of people willing to help (Long Live the Great Wall of Kent!).

If you don't want flat, or domes, or just generic looking islands if you will, then there should be something mechanically stopping me (and others) from doing it.

Also, under OMG, would be moats with castles. Anything I can do to strategically use TF, walls, and any other PBS to make assaulting it as difficult as possible, it will be done. Or if not by me, then someone wink


Something like a totem system from xsyon maybe? you place a totem, you can only terraform x meters around your totem.. x meters is based on number of corp members.

Re: Terraforming

man i must be the only person in game who wants to use TF to make an awesome looking island sad

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks tongue

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ? tongue

Re: Terraforming

Obi Wan Kenobi wrote:

man i must be the only person in game who wants to use TF to make an awesome looking island sad


flat is awesome wink

I wonder if you lower tiles close to the water, if they will fill up... You can make some lakes that way Obi big_smile

Re: Terraforming

People will terraform themselves into an island leaving at most 1 entrance that will be easily guarded and defended.
There will be the "Miner Island" where everything tile apart from a 1KM radius will be impassable so that all minerals spawn there.

Re: Terraforming

Alexander wrote:

People will terraform themselves into an island leaving at most 1 entrance that will be easily guarded and defended.
There will be the "Miner Island" where everything tile apart from a 1KM radius will be impassable so that all minerals spawn there.

on the up side we will know where to go in a heart beat. Also will make camping them in super easy smile

Some times the best counter to a tactic isnt mechanics... but players big_smile

It will be interesting to see how this all goes.

But remember... if it seems to good at first .. watch out  a nerf could be incoming tongue

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks tongue

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ? tongue

Re: Terraforming

The charges aren't going to be free, and of course the time will be extravagent to make any major revisions to a large area.

The obvious intended use, is to flatten the area around where you are going to put your outpost, and to make highways. Generally, to create passable terrain. If the mechanics allow you to create impassable terrain however, then that's a defensive tool that everyone will eventually use; the only difference being to what extremes.

Assaulting up a switch-back, with strategically placed walls for ewar to hide behind and surpress/demob, will give long range bots at the top a lot of time to shoot while attacking bots make relatively little forward progress. Any outpost owner would be grossly neglagent if the terrain and mechanics allowed it, but they didn't do it.

The question would be, if there was something at the top worth going up 'heart break ridge'? Will PBS structures be 100% destructable 24/7? Which is a whole other issue, as at this time, there's no single corp with tz coverage to defend something 24/7 (if another corp or alliance came with a full attack). Nothing against current corps, but they all have a weak time zone, in which other corps have a strong presence; but that's a whole different issue.

Re: Terraforming

Annihilator wrote:

If i remove X matter in one location, IMHO it should be necessary to place it somwhere else again.

This. Definately this.

15 (edited by Siddy 2012-02-15 13:19:30)

Re: Terraforming

Oh jolly, finally i can also create arena! (beta footage)


Lemon wrote:

Just finished my first draft of my Concept Island.

Will begin professional detailing a draft later tonight ;D


Something like this?

Re: Terraforming

Zoom's Devblog wrote:

... we can scrap those old island texture masks too, and that means less memory usage, smaller patches, and a smaller datafile.

So I'm guessing that Gamma 1 and 2 islands can be HUGE. \o/

Re: Terraforming

Siddy wrote:

Oh jolly, finally i can also create arena! (beta footage)


Lemon wrote:

Just finished my first draft of my Concept Island.

Will begin professional detailing a draft later tonight ;D

hey siddy whos actually in that vid?

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks tongue

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ? tongue

18 (edited by Siddy 2012-02-15 15:10:31)

Re: Terraforming

Young male, maybe Mancs, he is youngest of them all. Dunno for sure.

Obi Wan Kenobi wrote:

man i must be the only person in game who wants to use TF to make an awesome looking island sad

We all know what you like you dirty sheep lover...

19 (edited by Annihilator 2012-02-15 18:04:52)

Re: Terraforming

Siddy wrote:

Young male, maybe Mancs, he is youngest of them all. Dunno for sure.

cant be Mancs - last time i have seen him, he was to young to have a mustache... and that was AFTER release roll

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

20 (edited by Siddy 2012-02-15 19:29:03)

Re: Terraforming

Annihilator wrote:
Siddy wrote:

Young male, maybe Mancs, he is youngest of them all. Dunno for sure.

cant be Mancs - last time i have seen him, he was to young to have a mustache... and that was AFTER release roll

Hehehehe, nice one, Anni. Now run before mancs finds you big_smile

PS: did you check if he has any hair in the... special place as well?

PPS: Who do have mustache at this day and age? looks totally like 80's Queen fan...

Re: Terraforming

Ludlow Bursar wrote:
Annihilator wrote:

If i remove X matter in one location, IMHO it should be necessary to place it somwhere else again.

This. Definately this.

could be a whole mini-game, with dump-truck-bots and back-hoe-bots.

Or putting it in field cans, and just letting them time out.

However, what if ...

Lower TF charges were seeded on the market, and when used put 'dirt' ore in your cargo.

Raise charges are player made, using 'dirt' ore.

Smoothing and leveling are also player made with 'dirt' ore, but nothing is transferred to your cargo when used, as the ground is just reshaped and not changed in volume.

22

Re: Terraforming

I think that there should be no restrictions on areas within the gamma islands, the not being able to terraform near teleports is not a good idea I could deal with if there aren’t a bagillion TP’s on the gamma islands.

I think 2 TP’s per island would be a good number. Otherwise people will just simply go to the minimal distance away from a TP’s that you can terraform and just terraform it off there so no one will be able to use the TP’ anyways. This happened with walls and it will happen with Terraforming. All it will do is make the islands smaller.

The solution is to not place so many TP’s on an Island (I will cut off any TP's that do not benefit me and so will others)

OR

Let players relocate the position of the TP’s in the terraforming process … this would be cool.

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23 (edited by Siddy 2012-02-15 19:28:36)

Re: Terraforming

Why cant there be some sort deep strike feature that let you chose the point of entry to certain degree of accuracy anywhere you want?

Re: Terraforming

Siddy wrote:

Why cant there be some sort deep strike feature that let you chose the point of entry to certain degree of accuracy anywhere you want?

something called "dropship" ?

with PBS having the ability to build AAA it would be a risky method to enter an island, if you accidentally choose your landing point to close to a pbs that you didnt expect there.

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: Terraforming

Internal Gamma TP's can be player built and located, but externals should be hard pointed.

TP's are natural choke points, so its most likely that any outpost defense will start there. If Gamma's are big enough to support multiple alliances living there, then trying to TF off the TP's will be difficult, and reversible by the opposing side.