Rebalancing Distribution Nodes

[RockyBst]

With the new salvage mechanic there's been a lot of talk about flying distribution nodes. But the truth is, the poor humble original distribution node is sadly underutilised. Unless I'm playing a serious fallen spire or other massively high AIP game, I just can't justify the +1 AIP for popping it. Not for only 600,000 metal, which is all of three Mk I starships.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else is feeling the same, and what kind of proposals you can come up with for a rebalance. Personally, I'm thinking something like this:

- No AIP on death
- Up the metal gain to 1 million
- When popped the node adds a million metal to the owning AI's salvage stash and instantly fires off a reprisal wave, with a 30 second timer, regardless of current total salvage.
- (Possibly) distribution nodes are immediately destroyed on planet ownership change

Maybe the salvage reprisal isn't the best idea given that it will fly straight into exo-class choke points in most cases, but it would also have a chance of hitting a newly taken planet if the node isn't popped ahead of time. And for 'only' a million metal, I don't think a much harsher response is called for. 1 million salvage works out to 714 Mk I bombers, but those numbers can obviously be tweaked.

If you wanted to add an extra little wrinkle, you could make them targettable by player-ally and maybe even hostile-to-player forces...

[Aklyon]

The last one is just no. You want to save distribution nodes for where you aren't at full metal, not delay planet capture because you're at your metal cap.

[keith.lamothe]

If you wanted to add an extra little wrinkle, you could make them targettable by player-ally and maybe even hostile-to-player forces...

The Dark Spire Approve of this Message.

[RockyBst]

The dark spire already have a habit of popping distribution nodes. And data centres. And counter-attack guardposts. And, if you look at them a bit funny, the occasional guardpost or irreplaceable.

Still though, I'm somewhat disappointed by 10/10 so far. I was expecting far more ravening hordes than I actually got. Especially with the recent guardian and guard posts changes, they may need a little pick-me-up.

EDIT: Oh hey, do dark spire still not target carriers? Possibly room for a change there ... along with the cookie monster

[keith.lamothe]

Still though, I'm somewhat disappointed by 10/10 so far. I was expecting far more ravening hordes than I actually got. Especially with the recent guardian and guard posts changes, they may need a little pick-me-up.

Definitely.  I have plans for them.  But they need a better AI first.

[Draco18s]

Thought:

What if they increased the scrap collection on a planet (10%?), which worked for both the player and the AI, but also had a rapid infusion of cash when killed.

Now they serve a purpose other than being pinatas.  The AI built them to gather scrap and distribute it across the galaxy.  The humans might want to pop these (when the AI controls them) to both deprive the AI of that scrap (and capture the immediate resources for ourselves).

In human hands they gather scrap for us, but in a pinch could be sacrificed for a large pool of resources up front at the expense of long term scrap recovery.

[RockyBst]

Core turret controllers have also been a fairly major detriment to the dark spire actually, used to be they could slip behind your lines pretty much with impunity. Now they're just killed straight away, other than the odd forcefield immune one popping a command station / irreplaceable.

Ooh now Draco, that's a nice idea. Far more interesting than just a loot pinata. Not sure if it still needs some anti-destruction response (as at 80k health these things go down EASY) though.

[Aklyon]

Yeah, they'd need some sort of reboot hp-wise if they became something more than a loot pinata. But I like that idea, Draco.

[Lancefighter]

I dunno if increased scrap collection is crazy enough for distribution nodes - it seems too boring. Like I cant do anything with it other than kinda hope I get a dist node on a world I also want to defend.

How about scrap gained on any planet with a distribution node is distributed evenly between all distribution nodes? Or maybe just all ai scrap gained is split between every dist node?

I do kinda see the idea here, that the dist nodes should be passively useful as well as actively a loot pinata, but I want to also give them passive value while they are in your backwater somewhere. Maybe just a hacking option to make them into destroyable +metal income boxes?

[Draco18s]

I dunno if increased scrap collection is crazy enough for distribution nodes - it seems too boring. Like I cant do anything with it other than kinda hope I get a dist node on a world I also want to defend.

So pop it.  Free money.

How about scrap gained on any planet with a distribution node is distributed evenly between all distribution nodes? Or maybe just all ai scrap gained is split between every dist node?

I'm not sure what the goal here, is.

[Lancefighter]

I dunno if increased scrap collection is crazy enough for distribution nodes - it seems too boring. Like I cant do anything with it other than kinda hope I get a dist node on a world I also want to defend.

So pop it.  Free money.

Pop it.. for 1aip. :\

How about scrap gained on any planet with a distribution node is distributed evenly between all distribution nodes? Or maybe just all ai scrap gained is split between every dist node?

I'm not sure what the goal here, is.

I do kinda see the idea here, that the dist nodes should be passively useful as well as actively a loot pinata, but I want to also give them passive value while they are in your backwater somewhere.

[Draco18s]

How about scrap gained on any planet with a distribution node is distributed evenly between all distribution nodes? Or maybe just all ai scrap gained is split between every dist node?

I'm not sure what the goal here, is.

I do kinda see the idea here, that the dist nodes should be passively useful as well as actively a loot pinata, but I want to also give them passive value while they are in your backwater somewhere.

I don't see what that value is, is my point.

[tadrinth]

Seems like they should restore a large % of your metal cap.  Maybe also add a large chunk of salvage to your homeworld, so that it also gives you income over the next few minutes. 

These basically either save your bacon (in which case gaining an AIP is effectively a rot-your-teeth sort of solution, like warheads), or they save you time, which might or might be worth the AIP depending on the AIP/hour.  Given how much you can vary the AIP/hour, the second situation seems impossible to balance.  I think that argues for removing the AIP cost, and maybe adding some other mechanic to discourage popping these.  They're one-shot, so they're kind of already in trump-card territory.

I don't like them as passive econ structures.  Right now they're a very pure decision, and I think that would muddy their clarity. 

If they launch immediate salvage waves, that discourages them from being used to save your bacon.  Then they're more of a 'get back on your feet' or 'get ready for an approaching threat' sort of thing, which is less fun.  Going on daring raids into AI territory because you need resources while in the middle of getting your butt kicked seems more !fun!.  A delayed reprisal would make it worth popping these in the middle of danger, in exchange for dealing with a response later when things are hopefully less dangerous.

[Histidine]

Maybe I need to try a game harder than 8/8 one of these days, seeing as I'm going "wtf, you can't spare one miserable AIP?"

[Lancefighter]

I've actually been doing pretty much nothing but fallen spire campaigns at 8/8 ais lately. I suppose its not even the whole '1 aip is precious' as much as 'this collection of metal wont even build a single ship'...