New briber route ability (Rough idea)`

[Shyslywolf]

Ok so i had an idea and i thought i might throw it our there and see if anyone else liked it as well... I have played many routes over the last few years and my favorite's have always been the briber routes. The most frustrating part about the briber routes to me is when someone comes along and wipes out your entire arsenol of stolen troops, leaving you to start over from square one and getting nothing for them.

Here are my thoughts as to a solution:
Make a new development called "asimilated troop replication"

This research would allow you to reproduce troop types that you have stolen for about double the cost that a person would regularly pay for them.

It could definately add a new twist to the game...

Studying foreign/alien technologies would obviously take longer and be much more expensive to replicate, but in my oppinion would make briber routes so much more fun to play. I would guess that to learn the replication ability of a troop type we would also need to learn the training of the troops like the other routes have to do.

that is my two bits... any thoughts pro or con?

 

[tobapopalos]

It would utterly unbalance the route. Puppets themselves are pretty expensive, so once you've bribed a few decent troops you could just replicate them instead of buying puppets, allowing you to set your troops up however you like. Bribe a couple of attack dogs and you can then have a ready supply of very cheap health flak. Bribe a couple of sirens and you can stock up on stunners to take care of TLs, etc. etc.

A big no for this idea.

 

[antisback]

So effectively people could buy stiker/sa combo's etc?


far too abusable sorry


What i wouldn't be against would be injuries for bribed units

 

[Alcibiades]

Toby is correct that in that presentation it would be unbelievably overbalanced not to mention insanely powerful.

The only solutions i can see at the moment to stopping the abuse of such a development would be to make the 'replicated' units prohibitively expensive (2500-5000x as expensive?) so as to prevent someone from, as toby said, bribing a few Attack Dogs and then replicating 10s of millions of them or whatnot.

Another solution would be that you could only reproduce units to a certain maximum, and then only a certain number of units. That way you would have a cap for the number of units, and the style, so as to avoid someone massing a particularly useful set of units. So you would have to choose maybe 2 units you wanted to bring back 'from the dead' as it were, and then only have a max of 1 to 2mill each.

Or perhaps to add a twist to your idea, you could have some sort of Unit Bank, or Barracks (if you want to stay military) where you could dev 'barrack blocks' to maintain 'safe' troops which would be untouchable in battle. So you could stash away a few mill of your units (to a max of say 15mill, or whatever else is decided) of whatever types you wished but which were unavailable to be pulled out of barracks for a certain number of ticks (12, 24, 144? i have no idea how long it should be). So sure you could 'save' some units, but they would be next to useless in a fight you knew was coming so you couldn't see you have inc eta 5, bring out your troops, and then send them back to invulnerability. And of course you wouldn't want to be able to save too many units so as to not overbalance the route and make the Puppets unkillable.

One of the most fun things i endured when playing puppets was the ability to start from scratch and work my way up from the bottom again. Since I am under the impression you get insurance for your bribed units killed (been awhile since i played puppets ) then you can still buy plenty of puppets and then start again. While it might be a bit frustrating to lose all your hardwork, on the upside you can start again and bribe all sorts of low people and build a whole new army. I understand some people might not find that fun, but rebuilding is one of my favourite times in this game.

I would have to say, that on the face of it, this suggestion as you present it would overbalance the route. So a thumbs down to your suggestion, but further discussion could produce something interesting. Of course we could avoid this whole debate simply by instituting Injuries for bribed units.

 

[septimus]

Playing puppet this round I know the frustration of losing your bribed army, but that's the same for any route, losing your staff is not fun, but it's the way it goes. You get insurance for the bribed staff so you can rebuild just like anyone else. I think it's fine as is.

 

[f0xx]

Jesus Alci you wrote a whole essay when you could've summed it up in one sentence

 

[tobapopalos]

Jesus Alci you wrote a whole essay when you could've summed it up in one sentence

But when we do that we get flamed for not being nice to the newcomers

 

[Alcibiades]

Jesus Alci you wrote a whole essay when you could've summed it up in one sentence

But when we do that we get flamed for not being nice to the newcomers

I was trying to be nice, and add some further options for them to think about...

I guess you can't win, eh? Get flamed for being too nice, or get flamed for being a dick. I know which one I prefer.

 

[TaO]

Compulsive Collector
Possess at least 1 of every 'standard' (non-alliance, non-admin) unit in game at a single point in time (requires at least 95% of all possible units in a single moment)

If you do any sort of this *save your bribes* there is no skill nor fun in getting the award, which then imo makes this award useless, and should be removed aswell.

The game isnt designed to be easy, the game is here to put effort in it to win it.

 

[timtadams]

WHAT IF

you could only buy up to the maximum amount you had ever bribed! (or some percentage of that, maybe 50%)

So if had bribed up to 3m RPGs and i had 2m vampires (for example) and then someone comes along and kills them all, then i would be allowed to buy up to 3m RPGs and 2m Vampires. If then i bribed another 1m of each so i had 4m RPGs and 3m Vampires and i lose them, then i am able to buy up to only 3m RPGs and 2m Vampires

See what i mean. So you cannot buy up to the max you have ever owned, but to the max you have ever owned that were bribed.

And then you can add the percentage factor and possible price increase

it could work imo, if you think about it

 

[tobapopalos]

Yeah, that along with a vast price increase would be better than the original idea, but I still don't like it. It's too much power to choose your ratios, which is not what playing puppets is about.

 

[Alcibiades]

Yeah, that along with a vast price increase would be better than the original idea, but I still don't like it. It's too much power to choose your ratios, which is not what playing puppets is about.

:winner:

 

[f0xx]

WHAT IF

you could only buy up to the maximum amount you had ever bribed! (or some percentage of that, maybe 50%)

So if had bribed up to 3m RPGs and i had 2m vampires (for example) and then someone comes along and kills them all, then i would be allowed to buy up to 3m RPGs and 2m Vampires. If then i bribed another 1m of each so i had 4m RPGs and 3m Vampires and i lose them, then i am able to buy up to only 3m RPGs and 2m Vampires

See what i mean. So you cannot buy up to the max you have ever owned, but to the max you have ever owned that were bribed.

And then you can add the percentage factor and possible price increase

it could work imo, if you think about it

Or how about this -

I know the frustration of losing your bribed army, but that's the same for any route, losing your staff is not fun, but it's the way it goes. You get insurance for the bribed staff so you can rebuild just like anyone else. I think it's fine as is.