An Idea I had for allowing more base variety
So it's not exactly a secret that the strict way you have to make basically a straight line from start to finish kind of kills some of the creativity, but we also don't want players to have no idea/be unable to finish a map. I propose a solution: Dropoff Points
Dropoff points function as a checkpoint where your little genmat carrier can off-load their resources for another, new type of carrier to bring to the 'core' of your base. There could also be a dropoff point to 'revert' the new carriers back to the original type, allowing for builders to 'swap' between these various carriers in a single base.
So far I've only been able to come up with one new type: Latchers
Latchers are essentially what happens when a genomorph is given your grappling hook. They can't walk, making them totally stationary if they have nowhere to grapple to that isn't just the ground. However, they can grapple anywhere a raider could. They find the most efficient path to the genmat or next dropoff point, sending their grapplehook to attach to any nearby object to help them move. This gives them extra verticality and freedom, but not in a way that players can't replicate.
This was mostly off the top of my head, so if there are any problems with the idea, feel free to let me know!
Comments
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how does this change from a single straight line from start to finish? seems like it just makes that straight line go straight up and down rather than straight left/right?
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Simple, you don't have to rely on straight pathways anymore. Nor does there have to be a pathway at all. latchers could theoretically have near full 360 degree movement, so long as an object is in range for them to attach to. Rather than walking from point a to point b, now you can make islands and open spaces for the latcher to travel to. The only restraint to their movement is they can't walk on their own like the regular transporter does.
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while you CAN do that, how does it change that people are going to make single tunnels using the verticality?
for example a room of death with a hole somewhere in the ceiling to be grappled into. a 1x1 tunnnel going straight up with like 3/4ths of it being some kind of acid parkour tunnel, the top having a trap and there being more traps around the mouth at the begining, with like cannonbacks firing bombs down. why wouldn't people just continue the 1 wide tunnel style builds and just change the dimension it moves in?
your idea adds options yes, but it doesn't change the requirements of there being a path from start to genmat and back. i'm not fully against the idea, but i don't really see how this is going to encourage multi pathing any more than multiple floor paths would.
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So, I was imagining a sort of 'chaining' system to the drop off points. You could select a drop off point, and have it 'connect' to another point that it would have to reach before trying to finish its path to the genmat. This would allow you to essentially 'force' the genmat carriers to take a more roundabout route. Of course there would have to be limits to the chaining, you don't want an infinite (or at least annoyingly long) loop of the carrier going in a circle between the same drop off points. Raiders have to be able to find the genmat after all. That being said, a lot of your post (if I am misinterpreting, I am sorry, this is just how I understood it) seems to be about changing the design of base building to make the builders HAVE to be more creative. That isn't my intent. While having the option of more varied bases is nice, so too should they be allowed to have simpler bases. Base building is supposed to be up to the players, therefore what kind of base they make should be up to them.
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i'm merely trying to point out worst case scenarios of it's implementation because MostEfficientTacticAvailable will involve that nonsense.
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This seems entirely too convoluted. Honestly, it isn't difficult to make creative HRV paths in a non-linear outpost.
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What if they just gave the harvester the ability to jump, and us the players the ability to set the path of the harvester just like we can with the guards?
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setting the HRV path in patrol will lead to idling the HRV, looping in circles, or just running a path that takes 30 minutes to finish.
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What about just adding ladders to the game? Nothing fancy, just a low capacity "trap" that lets the harvester or the guards climb that section of wall?
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simple and effective.
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Sadly the 'ladder' idea was suggested in the past and the devs openly shot it down in a live AMA (iirc).
I am taking a wild guess that such a thing was comsidersd in early MYM development and was deemd too diffuclt or too exploitable.
I hope 'alternate objectives' become a thing. My wife lokes to joke about the objective always being on screen as 'collect the gen mat and escape'.
IMO it would be so cool to have other placable objectives (or even other win conditions) to add the the raiding experience. The optional/additional placeable ones could be not HRV constricted (like tombs) and while the main objective still remains the same, raiders would have more reaon to go off the beaten path.
Of course builders would take this opporotunity to murderlize raiders horribly and eventually raiders would just ignore them (like tombs), but it woild be fun while it lasted.
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"Of course builders would take this opporotunity to murderlize raiders horribly and eventually raiders would just ignore them (like tombs), but it woild be fun while it lasted."
a placable objective that isn't optional is what the builders want. something that makes the outpost less linear and require more exploration. and yeah, we're suppose to murderlize raiders. they're supposed to not get murderlized while trying to get the objective. thats the game loop.
MYM was always marketed as throwing your body into situations so you could look around and get intel so you could do better next run. a subsection of the community believes the game is supposed to be some flawless deathless dungeon run where whatever build the player prefers should be able to destroy ANY outpost without changing it up. it was never advertised that way, it isn't built to reward that kind of play, and it shouldn't be.
running a brutal raid in 4 minutes with no deaths rewards 200 rank running a brutal in 3 minutes with 1 death gives 125 (these numbers only apply to gold+)
after 8 raids, both players have gained the same ammount of rank. that takes less than an hour to happen. meaning if you have only 1 hour to play, even if you aren't perfect, if you're faster. you climb higher.
the rewards are set up in a way to encourage high octane play. slow playstyles are valid, i don't enjoy them, but they're valid. but it isn't what MYM was DESIGNED for.
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