I will come back with a more detailed report later, but I just wanted to point at something concerning the economy of Necrons and pretty much all other factions. All of the suggestions so far about little new strategies to save more Power/Requisition early in Tier 1 and 2 are without the difficulty setting and the resources rate in mind.
I don't know if any of you played against 4 Necrons on Hard/Harder with High resources rate, but I can say that to win any such battle, on any maps, you need to be more than used to play this game. Just taking the turrets suggestion with the Necrons for example, trying to decrease the numbers built from 4 (per Monolith) to say... 1 or 2 to save Power (that's the ultimate goal isn't it) would do absolutely no difference even at Tier 2 at High resources rate. But it would certainly help some at Standard resources rate.
Now the thing is that economy-saving strategies isn't always good for pure off-line skirmishes, in my opinion, it's different on-line with humans at play, but off-line it's another story. It also depends on how you like your skirmishes. I myself am the type of player who likes seeing the A.I defend itself, because I like to attack a lot. If the Necrons for pure example are "forced" to change their tactics to go more offensively (having more resources by limiting defensive strategies will inevitably result in more offensive actions) and decrease their base defenses and delay the construction of a second Monolith (or a third one) it will certainly show up on the victory score board after their defeat.
I don't know if any of you see it the same way I do, but there's so many variables to consider when touching the economy, it's the reasoning behind it, and how much it will impact on how people like to play the game in majority. I don't read the Relic forums often, where to fans mostly comment on this modification, but here I ask: were there any "complaints" concerning the Necrons in particular with DoS 3.0? Other than the fact that they just kick serious arse?
I want to be clear here, I am not against having a discussion on all of this and even trying "new things" but I, myself testify that I like the Necrons like they are right now, they already kick some serious arse as it is, and to be honest I just don't see how "less" of a threat they are in Soulstorm than they were in Dark Crusade (prior to Patch 1.2 at least). I've seen enough on-line matches replays and seen enough A.I in action to know that the Necrons don't need much changes with their economy-related tactics, if none at all. But that's just me of course, which is why I'd be curious anyhow to see how it'd end up by changing some of the things that Inquisitor suggest.
As for the Necron Warriors dancing, in my head it's a simple thing, they shouldn't dance at all. We have enough to see Necrons infantry in general being affected by morale loss, which in my eyes makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but yeah, I know, outside of the lore, considering only game-play and balance, it apparently "had" to be done, but even then, I wholeheartedly disagree, but anyway that's another subject.
I just think that, overall, the Necrons Warriors are just too durable even just in Tier 1 to take any advantage from dancing, and like Arkhan says, they are too slow for that to be effective (that's the end result, dancing and being slow is almost asking to die faster, it's better to stay put and fire what you can, but yes, if you're fast enough then dancing and retreating does help a lot). I guess we could try to see how it turns out if changes are made to the NW's dancing, I'm ready to try that out yes, of course, it's up to the coders to decide, and up to us to suggest.
And there's one thing I do agree completely with Inquisitor, about the Necron's turrets placement. It can be a problem at times. It's not always the case mind you, but it does happen to see for example three or four, or more (if two or three Monoliths are present) turrets around one or two Monoliths which in the end blocks the way to vehicles and Tomb Spiders from moving at all. As I said, at least from my observations, it's not always happening, and it does depend on the maps, but I have seen it happen on many different maps already. But you know, to be honest, it happens with all other factions too, and it's not just with turrets.
I have a suggestion for that in mind, but I don't know if it can be done at all.
Would it be possible to simply kill any inactive units if they don't move after a certain period of time? Because we're talking about A.I here, so if any units controlled by the A.I don't move for 10 minutes then it means either two things: 1) there's a bug in the A.I code making that unit inactive somehow, or 2) it's stuck and cannot move despite the A.I knowing what has to be done with that unit.
There's a potential problem with that however that I can see in advance. If for example killing stuck units would be possible, and let's presume it's being done, then a problematic consequence to that is simply that another unit, let's say a vehicle, will just get built at the exact same production building, and again it will get stuck because in the end the problem is the placement of structures around that building and not the unit itself.
At least each factions do build production buildings near LP's/Relics outside of their base in Tier 3 and when they have enough resources for that, but then again those structures help them get more units at once on the field in less time (which is certainly a good thing, let's keep it that way please), but it doesn't "force" the A.I to build
from those new structures, they can still build from the ones they built in their base which by Tier 3 and in long-lasting games will end up being surrounded not only by turrets or just other buildings of all types but also often being surrounded by allies structures as well.
It's a simple problem visually to observe, but on paper it has to be complex. I'm putting myself in Arkhan's shoes and seeing that issue must result in eye rolls. I don't know how exactly it could be fixed. The very best way I believe is to restrict what can be built around a specific type of structure once it is built. You know, the area around a building before it is placed on the ground, it determines how far away from it can other buildings be built (or how close to it, depending on how you see it). Well, that "restriction" area is very small on turrets, and it's the main reason why we see them so close to a Monolith in the Necron's case, ending up in possibly blocking the way eventually. That's a tough one really, perhaps Arkhan and his magic will come up with something to "fix" that.
But coming back to my suggestion with inactive units killing... maybe if the
source (the responsible building) of that unit can be identified then it would be possible to condemn that structure from building any ground vehicles anymore, so that way no future units built from there will get stuck and there will be no need to commit suicide on 'x' numbers of stuck units constantly, but of course the condemnation of the concerned structure(s) would only be possible when there's a third or even fourth one. But then again... wouldn't it just increase the problem if we just increase the numbers of production buildings in the end. I really don't see what can be done about that to be honest. And it's a problem seen in so many other RTS'es too (3D ones at least, since I've never seen that happen in Age of Empires 2 of course, fortunately 2D sprites cannot be stuck).
Edited by Zenoth, 15 November 2008 - 02:16 AM.
I just checked the wiki, and it seems I wasn't quite right, upgrading the second/third HQ has these benefits:
