Buying powerups

[OrR]

A lot of crate powerup suggestions rely on other powerups being available or already in effect and are thus unlikely to ever make much sense. Unless there is a way to choose powerups. So how about adding a possibility to buy powerups? Of course it needs to be entirely optional as it could be very game destroying and only awesome on some maps.

How do you pay for powerups? Well, by sacrificing MWG lives, of course. C-kill a number of MWGs and you get access to a list of available powerups for the sacrificed guys. Of course, some powerups cost more than others, and every sacrificed MWG soul can only be spent once.

Some obvious tactics that arise from this:
-When a group of pretty useless MWGs is outnumbered and about to be overrun, you can simply c them before the enemy kills them and get powerups instead.
-Reaching the population limit, you can just c some guys to get powerups and the guys will be replaced at your spawns in no time.
-Assault attacking will become very easy indeed so probably not a good idea to enable this in Assault...

To make this a little less powerful and a little more possible to counter, what you buy could not be an instant powerup but instead a crate with known content which needs to be deployed at a choosen point by you, then fall and be researched. Players would then have to choose if they want to buy defenses against common attacks early to have them available the moment the attack comes. Otherwise it'd be a minute before that ant killer powerup is actually usable and you'd lose the MWGs for paying at the same time you lose a spawn to ants... Better to be able to react fast and spend MWGs when you can afford it but of course you only have so many task manager slots.

[MrBunsy]

A lot of crate powerup suggestions rely on other powerups being available or already in effect

Uh, example? I've been using them all on their own (with the exception of setting forests on fire in retribution), or have I been doing something wrong?

[KingAl]

He just means that some suggestions people have made in the thread Icepick creatd for powerup ideas involve another powerup being in effect already. This should probably have been in here.

[Moleculor]

Unless I'm missing something, anthill removal requires specific types of powerups. This could be used to really nerf the anthills (at the cost of lives, of course).

[Mas Tnega]

A lot of crate powerup suggestions rely on other powerups being available or already in effect

Uh, example? I've been using them all on their own (with the exception of setting forests on fire in retribution), or have I been doing something wrong?

Magical Forest doesn't serve much purpose without Ants Nest, Virii + Spore Generator, Engineer, or Harvester, and let's face it, you'd sooner set it on fire then give anyone a shot with those options.

I've yet to be convinced Hot Feet has much beyond comic value without Rage or Personal shield. "But you get to <control point X> before <time constraint Y>!" when does that even come up? Most situations like that you're either hosed, or just getting yourself into an inevitable fight slightly sooner.

Erm... OK that's all two of them, and you already mentioned the first, which I've only seen placeable in retribution.

[OrR]

Hot Feet helps a lot when taking over turrets.

[RabidZombie]

Hot Feet is useful on its own. Maybe not so in combat, but for objectives it is.
The faster you get to a spawn point, the faster you'll receive back up.
The faster you get to a hill, the more points you'll get.
etc

Actually, that's about it.

[IronWill]

Yeah I agree ! We really need that sacrifical circle stuff x-)

[Puzzlemaker]

Ditto, this is a great idea.

[DoubleFelix]

I think this would perhaps make the game a bit worse, as it would undo the effects of the weighted crate drops. Perhaps it would take a percent of the multiwinians you have, if you have more than some number of multiwinians?
Like, 100 multiwinians or 10% of your total, whichever is more?

[Puzzlemaker]

Or each consecutive purchase costs 50% more, with it starting at 100. Different power ups would cost more too.

[xander]

I honestly don't like the idea of purchasing power-ups at all -- I think it removes the risk (as you could buy whatever power-up you wanted), and will give the advantage to the winning player. However, if you were to implement such a system, one way that you could keep from disadvantaging the losing player too much would be to give them a bonus, too. One player buys a power-up, and the other receives reinforcements, or something like that. That said, I really don't think it is a good idea, no matter how it is done.

xander