How should the Regen Golem be buffed?

[Faulty Logic]

I voted for a cost decrease, health buff, and vampirism.

You may vote for as many as you want, but try to be reasonable.

If you want an option that isn't here, vote other and describe what you want in a post, and I'll change an <ignore> to that option within a reasonable amount of time.

[Hearteater]

I vote Vampirism and Other, because several of the other options I thought would work weren't really covered.  I intended this as Vampirism OR Other, since I think Vampirism alone would be sufficient (see option 1 & 2 below).

1) Give it Vampirism but allow it to target only fleet ships.  Possibly fiddle with the reload and salvo size a little; it needs to kill slow enough that its own attacks can't keep repairing your losses alone.  Now you've got an alternative to repairing it, all you need to do is keep it alive.  This is assuming Vampirism only gives you at most the health of the destroyed victim.  There is no way it should be healing 600k per Fighter I it kills.

2) Reduce its range to 3k, give it x10 damage to Mark I-IV Guard Posts and Vampirism (but only against Guard Posts).  Effectively it can convert Guard Post health into its own.  Maybe give it a 2:1 on health healed.  If it could heal around 8-10% of its health per Guard Post, that would give you a better method of repairing it.  Of course, Guard Posts never respawn, so they are a limited resource to feed your Regen Golem and you need to get pretty close so you'll probably take some damage getting in there in the first place.

3) Make it a mobile space dock like the Neinzul Enclave, except it spends its own health, and it ignores build time.  So if you click on Fighter I, it instantly spawns as many Fighter I's as it can (up to your ship cap) at the cost of its own health.  Only works while it has at least 10% health.  For extra fun, let it function as a Adv. Factory to make Mark IVs.

4) Give it really strong Radar Dampening, like 1000.  Now give it 1000 repair beams strong enough to instantly repair any fleet craft, but instead of using resources they use the Regen Golem's health.  Give them a very short range so the Regen Golem must be in the center of your blob, and allow them to repair ships even in combat.  Probably limit them to fleet ship repairing only.  This puts the Regen in the heart of battle so it is a lot less safe to use.  But as a result, you can also make it more efficient since it will take enemy fire.  Maybe allow it to regen destroyed fleet ships like it currently can, but I'd restrict it to only nearby deaths (so you can't sit back with it) and make it less efficient (costs x2 health) with a separate cutoff (at 25% it stops replacing killed ships, at 10% it's repair beams turn off).

[Faulty Logic]

The only option not covered by some combination of the given options is number 3, so I assume that's what you mean.

[Aeson]

I voted cost decrease, vampirism, and other.

Other: I liked chemical_art's idea in the other thread about removing the self-attrition, since much the same effect is achieved through keeping it on and having to repair it as it replaces your lost ships. If it got this, though, I wouldn't want it to get either the cost decrease or vampirism.

[Hearteater]

The Radar Dampening option falls short of option #4.  Just giving the current regen golem radar dampening would be pointless.  I felt clarification was necessary.  And Option #2 is definately non-standard Vampirism.  So given that, I felt I'd just copy and paste.

[Faulty Logic]

Removing self-attrition is one possible way to decrease the cost. I don't think it needs its own option.

[onyhow]

Cost, health, and weapon...

Seriously the fact that it's as expensive as botnet is the biggest mistake...

[Bognor]

Curious: Has anyone tried combining a Regen Golem with a few Zenith Caches to make an undying army of doom at moderate AIP cost?  Sounds great in theory but I haven't had a chance to test it.  This has really only been an option since Zenith Reserves had their AIP costs slashed in July last year.

[Faulty Logic]

Alright, this has been up for almost a day, and we have three clear winners:

Cost Decrease
Health Buff
Vampirism

Vampirism: pretty straightforward, allowing the golem to recharge itself at no cost given time and a wormhole guardpost on a scoured planet.

Health Buff: how much of one? I was thinking all the way to armored levels (but without the armor).

Cost Decrease: again, how much? I was thinking to normal golem range. Removing self-attrition was also mentioned.

[TechSY730]

Health Buff: how much of one? I was thinking all the way to armored levels (but without the armor).

Cost Decrease: again, how much? I was thinking to normal golem range. Removing self-attrition was also mentioned.

Hmm, maybe put it up for a vote?

[Faulty Logic]

Iff necessary.

[keith.lamothe]

Magnitudes are less necessary to hammer out beforehand, as playtesting is often necessary to find the right point anyway.  Anyway, this is on my list for the next release, so if you want to present some suggested magnitudes I'm happy to consider them.

[Faulty Logic]

Anyway, this is on my list for the next release

This is a large part of why AI War is awesome. A bunch of players can get a change through in less than a week, consistently.

[keith.lamothe]

Anyway, this is on my list for the next release

This is a large part of why AI War is awesome. A bunch of players can get a change through in less than a week, consistently.

Our brainwashing device has demonstrated relatively high effectiveness, yes.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Brainwashing device codename: keith.lamothe?