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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0026579AI War 2Gameplay IssueMay 12, 2022 5:07 pm
Reporterpmm5000_1 Assigned ToZeusAlmighty  
Status closedResolutionfixed 
Product VersionBeta 3.905 Release Candidate 2 
Summary0026579: Necromancer Static Defences
DescriptionNow I do get it. Yes. Necromancers are not meant to be reliant on Static Defenses. Because they are meant to be played differently. And for the most part I do agree. Just....here's how I see the defenses as they stand. And my view will of course be terribly skewed due to the difficulty level I play on.

Catapult-Orbital bombardment and great on maps where the warp points are actually towards the center instead of the side. And on maps where they are on the sides, best when you can spend a few hexes to have multiple of them. I use them when I feel like I can spare the hexes and need Sniping. However, it does feel like you need multiple catapults for them to be of any use.

Lightning Spike- I have zero reason to let these wastes of hexes ever come into my life. Like yes, they have the ability to wipe out multiple units that come out of the warp gate when they are clumped up. Except...plenty of enemies can just fly past them and murder your necropolis. And the Harmonic ability? On a character that basically forbids the idea of using multiple defenses of the same type? This would make perfect sense if they didn't use Hexes. But they do. So why use them? Especially when the enemy will go right out of range and murder your necropolis? They need like a tractor beam and/or paralysis on them. Their point is to guard the entrance, so they should GUARD the entrance. I hate these so much.

Skull Pile-I'm actually somewhat iffi on them. Granted they do fulfill the use of Watchmen and murder anything in the vicinity, buuuut...2 hexes is a lot. But I will definitely put one as soon as I have 1 Treach, 1 Protect, 1 Shipyard, 1 Life Totem, 1 Tachyon Totem, and then Skull Pile.

Totem Life- Fantastic for uncrippling the flagships. And...they do have a somewhat respectable attack, and they are what I actually use instead of the Lightning Spike to guard the entrance until I need more room for other Undead Homes.

Totem Protect-Honestly. I just make sure I have one of these on every Necropolis to attempt to protect it like a Forcefield. It does feel like a token defense though. Like, a good luck charm. Could probably use better scaling in terms of health and shields on account of that. Unsure though.

Totem Tachyon- Kinda amazed me when I used this to defend the entrance to my homeworld and was getting attacked. It actually did damage. Honestly pretty neat and useful for 1 hex.

Totem Treach- Quite honestly the best defense and definitely worth the 3 hexes. Traps enemies in a spiral loop of death and despair and keeps them from leaving the system for sure.

My main issue here is, I'm more inclined to use the Totems than I am to use Towers. I feel like it would be better instead to attach the towers to the Mark of the Necropolis rather than have them separately. And that actually includes the Bone Pile. It would make better sense and use of the Catapults which somewhat need multiple of, and the Lightning Spikes which you definitely need multiple of, and Bone Piles which are somewhat necessary in terms of defenses for Defensive Necropolis.

Essentially, you can for sure get by with one of each Totem, but you can't really get by with one of each tower. It's a pittance at best. It would also give more incentive to upgrade the various Necropolises that you will make and definitely solve the issue of little to no protection for them. Also, it feels like that's what your aiming towards anyways based on the tower limit scaling.

As for the defenses you can capture or convert. I'm looking for something more reliable and more focused.

NOW IMPORTANT NOTE: I would only do this for Necropolis Empire and NOT Necropolis Assistant. Granted. I never played Multiplayer, and probably never will. I live in the boonies and my internet is sketch. At the same time, this is one of those times where I would definitely take the opportunity to draw the distinction between the two.
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

pmm5000_1

Mar 2, 2022 11:24 pm

reporter   ~0065047

I thought about it. And an even better tweak to this would actually be to create a separate pool just for the towers. And Minor would start at 1 and go to 7, Major 2 and go to 14, and Defensive + Phylactery 3 and go to 21.

Either that, or create a way to hack the Necropolis in order to increase their pool.

pmm5000_1

Mar 2, 2022 11:45 pm

reporter   ~0065048

Alternative Idea. Create a Tower Spire. That you give hacking points to, to automatically place lightning spikes and catapults.

BadgerBadger

Mar 3, 2022 12:15 am

manager   ~0065049

There's only ever going to be one pool of hexes to draw from. Changing that would be a non-trivial development effort

pmm5000_1

Mar 3, 2022 9:01 pm

reporter   ~0065098

Fair enough. Hmm...meh. I guess this is one of those things you would throw into a mod down the line. Anyways, I'll be trying a level 7 game now.

pmm5000_1

Mar 4, 2022 12:23 am

reporter   ~0065101

I GOT IT!!! I finally figured out why Lightning Spikes bother me so much. THEY ARE LIGHTNING SPIKES THAT SHOOT LIGHTNING!!! And they don't have any Crowd Control on them.

If anything gets hit by Lightning the following usually happens: Electricity courses through the body of the object. If the resistance is high enough thermal energy is created. If the conductivity is high enough electrons will follow the path of least resistance. I.E to another ship.

That part I'm on board with and is implemented. What isn't implemented is the whole, engines explode, the body is paralyzed due to the controls being fried, and weapons aren't working right either and have garbage accuracy. Kinda like getting tazed. Which is what this should be doing. So, they simply need to slow engines, add some paralysis, and slow weapons. That's the role that's missing! Actually good CC. Then it would absolutely be worth the Hex.

pmm5000_1

Mar 4, 2022 12:25 am

reporter   ~0065102

Oh. And it could follow a progression scale like Normal->Slow Engines->Disable Engines->add Slow Weapons->Disable Weapons->add Weak Paralysis->Full Paralysis.

ZeusAlmighty

Mar 19, 2022 10:05 pm

manager   ~0065513

*Lightning Tower now does paralysis. 1 sec per mark (max 7 sec) to ships with mass <= 2tx. They also start with a cap of 5 to make use of their harmonic bonus sooner.

I'm sympathetic to the view that Totems are more interesting than Towers. I made Totems because the orbital mechanics is so cool and opens up a lot of creative opportunities

I see Tower defense tech, in principle, intended for players who want more traditional defenses. To get the most bang for your buck, you need to devote more hexes to defenses, but they get quite powerful when you do, compared to the investment of pure Totems. That's the idea anyway

Strategic Sage

Mar 20, 2022 9:32 pm

reporter   ~0065526

I'll just say there are other lightning weapons in the game that don't paralyze. If it's good for Lighting Tower to have paralysis for balance, great - but thematically I don't think it matters at all one way or the other.

pmm5000_1

Mar 25, 2022 7:22 pm

reporter   ~0065595

To be fair, I was just looking to give the Lightning Tower an actual role in a Necromancer's Defense set up instead of, what it was. Now at least, it can serve as CC. And since the update came out, I can now play with it.

ZeusAlmighty

May 12, 2022 5:07 pm

manager   ~0066739

Tower Defense Tech has gotten far more impactful ever since Guard Posts benefited from the tech

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Mar 2, 2022 10:35 pm pmm5000_1 New Issue
Mar 2, 2022 10:45 pm BadgerBadger Assigned To => ZeusAlmighty
Mar 2, 2022 10:45 pm BadgerBadger Status new => assigned
Mar 2, 2022 11:24 pm pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065047
Mar 2, 2022 11:45 pm pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065048
Mar 3, 2022 12:15 am BadgerBadger Note Added: 0065049
Mar 3, 2022 9:01 pm pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065098
Mar 4, 2022 12:23 am pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065101
Mar 4, 2022 12:25 am pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065102
Mar 19, 2022 10:05 pm ZeusAlmighty Status assigned => requires feedback
Mar 19, 2022 10:05 pm ZeusAlmighty Note Added: 0065513
Mar 20, 2022 9:32 pm Strategic Sage Note Added: 0065526
Mar 25, 2022 7:22 pm pmm5000_1 Note Added: 0065595
May 12, 2022 5:07 pm ZeusAlmighty Status requires feedback => closed
May 12, 2022 5:07 pm ZeusAlmighty Resolution open => fixed
May 12, 2022 5:07 pm ZeusAlmighty Note Added: 0066739