The Upgrade of Builders

[Karawasa]

ETD has come a long way on SC2 (and even more so from WC3). The new modes Wars (Patch 1.5), Mazing, Heroes, and Teams are great. They add a lot of replay value (depth) to the game. I want to continue this trend. But not with a mode...

Here I am proposing a new core game mechanic. That mechanic is abilities on your builder. These would cost mineral and would take the form of buffs or nerfs in your area only (no PvP). You would purchase them from a submenu on your builder. This would be easy and streamlined similar to the build tower submenu (i.e. not some stupid pop up dialog).

What I need from you guys are ideas of what these abilities could be. They should not be PvP so ideas that affect only you. Ideally we would come up with 14 (to fill the submenu). To get the ball rolling;

• Buff attack damage for all your towers by 30% for 15 seconds
• Buff attack speed for all your towers by 30% for 15 seconds
• Buff the movespeed of your builder by 100% for 90 seconds
• Add a 20% chance to receive double damage to all your creeps for 30 seconds
• Nerf the movespeed for all your creeps by 20% for 30 seconds
• Yamato cannon with 5 second cast time does insta-kill
• Nukes a 6 AoE dealing 25% of HP as damage
• Create a vortex with 6 AoE (sucks in all the creeps) at target point that lasts for 10 seconds
• Recall (move) all towers in a 4.5 radius to the position of your builder
• Send target creep back to the spawn point
• Blasts a 4.5 AoE stunning creeps for 5 seconds

[WindStrike]

Decrease rate of cooldowns. Things that this would do:

• Cooldown timer on Forge buff goes down to 50 seconds (example).
• Torrent towers gain 25 energy.
• Hail would fires at x3 for 7 seconds and 2 seconds downtime.
• Runic fires its ability for 4 seconds and 5 seconds downtime.
• Disenchant goes off every 0.75 seconds.
• Stuff like that.

That's all I got. I take it these things wouldn't be heavy increases but maybe... 20-25% increases at best?

[WindStrike]

If you're going to add such a menu to builders, then you may want to move all of the other queries and buttons off the builder to the Elemental Summoning Center. Heck, it makes more sense there anyways. But yeah, you don't want the whole builder menu clogged and convoluted, so... may want to consider that.

[holepercent]

the issue with the summoning centre is that it isn't really actively in the player's area, one reason why the old tower wars with the creep spawner in the space of the summoning centre failed so bad.

something that you only need to use every 5 waves when there are no creeps in play is different from abilities that possibly are used every wave.

[Karawasa]

This new menu would only be one additional button on the builder. When you click it then a new command card would appear (just like when you build something). Hell, I could just replace the current "Commands" button to the left of "Change Builder" with this new button and then no additional space is taken.

I have decided to shy away from the upgrade idea. I don't think anything purchased should be constant for the rest of the game. So this menu will feature 14 different ABILITIES that cost minerals to cast. They don't need to be global anymore (i.e. could target a tower or point).

Keep brainstorming!

[WindStrike]

Hahahah, that's what I thought I read initially, lol. Guess my misreading turned out to be true.

Regarding increasing move speed of builder, I think a passive upgrade you can buy for your builder would be better. A simple, 500 mineral cost for double move speed. It would still be in the abilities menu, but it'd be at the bottom.

Speaking of passive things, I suppose a build rate increase could be another thing.

[Karawasa]

List updated!

[holepercent]

[joke] Is there any tactical use in making your own creeps stronger? like +damage resistance on your own creeps? [/joke]

[WindStrike]

Suppose you could, might increase your bounty. Though that'd be easily abusable, lol. And you know me - all I do is abuse.

[Karawasa]

I have decided there is a place for upgrades after all. The following will be permanent;

• Buff attack damage for all your towers by X% (maxed 30%)
• Buff attack speed for all your towers by X% (maxed 30%)
• Buff the movespeed of your builder by X% (maxed 100%)
• Add a X% (maxed 20%) chance to receive double damage to all your creeps
• Nerf the movespeed for all your creeps by X% (maxed 20%)

The following won't be permanent;

• Yamato cannon with 3 second cast time does insta-kill
• Recall (move) all towers in a 3 AoE to your builder
• Create a vortex with 3 AoE that lasts for 10 seconds
• Nukes a 6 AoE dealing 33% of Max HP as damage
• Create a temporal rift with 4.5 AoE that gives instant build

[Karawasa]

Done! Coming to patch 1.5 beta soon .

[WindStrike]

Kay, dunno what happened, but my previous post got nuked. Anyhow, regarding the 10 second vortex, it should probably only last 2 or 3 seconds. As it is, it'll suck up practically the entire wave and then release it all at once. Aka, splash wins by default.

Otherwise, things look pretty cool. Can't really give my opinion on it until I've played it.