Power Management Rework
Hello Everyone!
It's been fantastic getting to watch everyone get their hands on the game and enjoy it. The reception seems super positive so far, and I'm extremely excited to continue working on the game alongside all of you. We have a long way to go, but we're off to a great start!
As many of you have probably noticed, I've spent a considerable amount of time the past few days cleaning up bugs players have been running into, and getting them patched in a timely manner. I want to ensure the playability factor is there before I begin working on any significant changes and new additions to the game; that mainly being the first major update (which will take a few months in development) and reworking some of the systems in the game.
One of these systems is power management. It has been abundantly clear you guys do not like the power system in the game atm, and for good reason. It serves no real purpose other then to slow you down, and is clearly not a fun challenge to try and solve. So, it will be receiving the first rework!
[h2]Power Management Rework[/h2]
The rework to power is mainly to contrast it nicely with heat, where the two are meant to have similar implications in the game and bounce off one another nicely. Right now, heat does a fairly good job at that, requiring you to balance your heat output to not attract too many enemies.
Power however, feels underdeveloped in this area - it serves no real purpose other then to hinder your progress, and the solution is just "spam generators until the little red notification goes away". It's clear that power was not fully thought through, and so it will be first mechanic I focus on updating. I am doing this sooner rather then later because I believe this mechanic will heavily impact how the game plays, and having it in a good place before starting any major content updates is essential.
[h3]Proposed Changes:[/h3]
Below is a list of the proposed changes that have been drafted thanks to a discussion poll on our community Discord server. A lot of great feedback was collected, and here's what we came up with...
- Logistical buildings will no longer require any power to function. They will ONLY produce heat.
- Turrets will no longer output any heat. They will ONLY consume power to function.
- The initial power capacity you start with will drop drastically
- The amount of power defenses consume will drop drastically (see below for examples)
- Generators will output significantly less power, and all will require resources to function
- Every defensive structure will be getting a MASSIVE buff to accomodate for this
As you can see, these are some pretty heavy changes that will impact the game balance quite a bit. In this system, heat and power will bounce off each other much more naturally, creating a system where you need to strategically balance both. This will also incentivize being smart with how you construct your turrets, as each one will have a much larger impact on your base and how well it can defend itself.
[h3]Rework Balancing Example:[/h3]
In the below example, the values go off the basis of the Initial power supply being 100w, and generator effectiveness being reduced (compared to what they are now) and requiring resources.
- Repeater power consumption decreased to 1w (Range & Damage buffs applied, to make the repeater capable of dealing with light enemies in a more reliable fashion)
- Shotgunner power consumption decreased to 3w (Damage & Firerate buffs applied, possible range reduction to make shotgunner more of a close-range defense built for waves)
- Ranger power consumption decreased to 5w (Range & Accuracy buffs applied, so that it can reliably take out larger units. Possible nerf to firerate, to make fast-firing units more appealing)
This creates a system where each defense feels like they have a bigger impact on the game, but you'll have a limited number you can work with at any given time based on your overall resource throughput. This also creates instance where you need to decide between wanting to store & use a resource, or putting it towards power for increasing your power pool.
[h3]What do you think?[/h3]
Please let me know you think! This rework will go underway sometime next week once I've had time to discuss with the community what the new values of things should be, and there's a more solid idea of exactly how this system will work. It will go up on the experimental branch and be open for feedback.
In the meantime, you can expect v0.1.3 and v0.1.4 over the course of this week, bringing more bug fixes and QOL improvement to the game. I am committed to working on Vectorio full-time so we can make it the best tower-defense / automation game it can be, and I hope this commitment to you all will continue to show as early access progresses, and discussions / feedback are actioned promptly.
Thanks for reading,
~ Ben