How should the terraforming mechanic be rebalanced (if ever)?

no.

Dear santa.. every year i ask for quake missile to be buffed... yes i know its already a cheap terraform.. but its still uber unused and super uber situational

please make it twice as powerful so that i dont feel stupid making it to counter terra porc walls that just get repaired back to impassable before units can blink

even if it did cost 1/2 as much it would still be rarly used.. whhhhhy have a super unique unit that is meh?

even if it was 4 times better it could be stopped by building a lotus ontop of the wall

its just... a sad.. lonely.. unloved unit =(

I genuinely dont know how I feel about combat terraform. I like the cool things it can do. What I don't like is the amount of perfect split-second UI-mastery that it requires, the all-or-nothing nature of it. Also, although I haven't really seen it yet, I bet that you could get into a terraform war with 2 comms or whatever that might get finnicky and janky as hell. There's a lot of situations I could imagine where it might just become a quick-time event.

Now, I don't feel like I've seen it nearly as often as I theoretically could, but I bet if we had some terraform-Godde playing the game, it'd be OP as shit relative to however it feels like now. Terragodde would be shot-blocking skirmishers, he'd go engineer commander every time and never lose it, he'd trap cyclops' every time they slowed down to navigate wrecks.

That being said, I suspect that after however many years of it being as it is now, the veterans are used to things as they are; and fundamental changes for things that aren't broken might receive pushback whether there's merit or not.


Regarding civil-engineering, non-combat terraform, I actually would like to see it experimented with in competitive games a bit more, and would petition to test out a decrease in cost of 5, 10, or 20 percent - even if that's just to compensate for the APM-cost/UI-wrestling.

quote: even if it was 4 times better

Woah there top gun, let's say you put down that buff ray and we talk this thing out like adults, before someone gets hurt.

I've tried to use quake against natural terrain and was unimpressed. For 400/1600 metal, I was hoping to be able to turn Mt. Everest into a handicap ramp.

Terraform is an unique feature to games in general and rts games in particular. If you like no terraform, go play somewhere else.

quote: - 1. If hostile units or structures are nearby (within, say, 250 elmos), then constructors wouldn't be able to terraform, since all units would now emit a terraform-blocking aura. (However, special abilities, such as the Dirtbag's mounds or the Quake missile's massive smoothing effects, would not be blocked in this manner.)

Even cloaked units or those outside LOS? Sounds janky.

quote: Question: Would it be technically possible to make terrain deforming effects affect buildings and to allow terraforming of already built buildings?

The engine-default is that buildings don't block terrain manipulation. I block terraforming under structures for two reasons:

• It requires a lot of effort to make structure terraforming non-ugly. Structures could end up with bumpy terrain underneath them, and Skydusts could be made by terraforming the very center of the unit.
• Pre-raising or pre-burying requires an investment that would not be worth spending if it were possible to raise or lower completed structures. Such an ability would effectively reduce choice by trivializing an application of terraform.

Would it be technically possible to split the difference so that constructive terraforming cannot be done to a completed building but destructive terraforming (quake/tremor/whatever) can be done?

Personally I like the way the game allows quick excavation of pit traps. It's a niche piece of assymetric warfare that requires one to prepare in advance. If caretakers are a bit too good at it, then maybe they should lose the ability to commence a terraform (just as they can't initiate any other build)?

I would like to try making structures movable by weapon smoothing, but is is not that easy.