Getting workers stuck on terraform.

This happens a lot, to the degree I'm starting to prefer jumpy and long range cons/coms just to not have to flatten out my terra and start again/give up workers/com.

Is it something that can/should be addressed?

I'm thinking:
- having workers slide off terra as it happens
- improve their ai to never stand within the bounds of an area that is about to be terra'd
- longer build range
- steeper terra

quote: Is it something that can/should be addressed?

Personally, i'd address its very existence. But i doubt that will happen unless someone finally writes a widget that automates mex walling and stardust hills.

Unlike air dogfighting, which looks cool but is a bit difficult to control, terraforming looks ugly, needs lots of clicks to control, can be exploited almost to a game-breaking degree and also has a tendency to fuck up pathing.
All those problems are of course justified by the strategic depth it adds to the game (like having to click 3 extra times to give your stardusts and crabes extra range, or being able to strategically terraform shit right underneath enemy units).

But since Google has spent so much glue and duct tape to create this ugly crutch, it's certainly there to stay.

So... to address this issue i think it should be impossible to terraform underneath a unit.
Making terraformers slide off wouldnt work because cons often stand at the middle of a terraformed platform which is flat. Terra avoiding AI wouldnt work if you want to terraform a wide area - the AI can't know which areas are about to be terra'd. A terra marker either exists or not.
longer build range has all kinds of major balance implication and doesnt solve the problem, just make i happen a bit less. Making terra smooth enough for veh cons to climb would turn terra walls into terra hills.

SnuggleBass I think that the issue is too minor to fix. Fixing would be difficult. You are free to try.

Yogzototh I don't care what you say unless you demonstrate terraform abuse.

quote: Since this is a terraform discussion can i ask why stinger, defender, lotus, annihilators and most defences don't get bonuses while on hills ? For example Stinger gets nerfs instead of bonuses while on hill. I find that unfair...Even defender attacking down below shots the stinger up the hill

Forever you have a strange tendency of acknowledging the topic of conversation then slamming the train square off the rails. This thread is about getting workers stuck on terraform, not height advantages of statics.

FWIW, I'm a huge fan of the terra in this game. It's not pretty, I don't see why it's supposed to be. It's really very interesting.

Edit: GoogleFrog - I possess no tech skills so would be hard pressed to contribute in this way. I'm less demanding it be fixed than trying to find out whether it would be difficult to fix. It mostly comes up in big teams room.

Yogzototh it is as if you said one of the abuses of Mex is that it makes metal. Those things are not unintentional. There is creativity in terraform which it looks like you dislike.

[GBC]1v0ry_k1ng mex wall costs about 80 metal. Terraform has some unintended shapes though so it should cost 140 metal. I have not invested the time to fix it yet because it would be quite tricky.

I can't remember the last teams game I didn't see someone else terraform in.

On topic:

Would it be hard to highlight to other allied players where the terraform is going to take place? Just like an outline or something with a little number inside of the box to tell how deep/high it will be.

I mentioned the op's point in some terraform post
The main problem with terraform is that even if it has potential to be op, it is so hard to use and consumes so much time when messing with it that by the time you finish making that wall you got your con stuck in, your base is already dead :P

Wait, that's the skydust command? I was scrambling trying to find it the last few games. Just hold still after placement then drag up? No shift/ctrl/alt?

There is a really valid argument to be made, I think, that the huge proliferation of skydusts is not because people didn't know about it, but because the command became so easy to execute.

There is a lot to be said for that, and I think terra would become abusive if reliably walling mexes was as easy as skydust. The fact that only cons really interact with terra is maybe a bit of a design flaw, but at least every fac has cons. If it were easy and ubiquitious I'd expect to see con terra wars: Offensive cons to dig out mexes and engage in in-combat enemy burrowing etc.