While T2 Metal Extractors are not exactly the most spectacular units to preview, they will nonetheless become one of the most essential structures in game, worthy of being brought up as one of the first. Unlike original Total Annihilation's Moho Metal Extractors, these will not produce metal many times over the amount that basic Metal Extractors do; instead, these will only produce exactly twice the amount. Higher tiers in TA Zero will be designed and balanced so that there will not be uncontrollable escalation of units' statistics and resource requirements for their production and use. Thus any higher metal production rates are never going to be necessary.
In addition to enhanced metal production rate, these will offer greater survivability through heavier armor and/or shielding. Arm's T2 Metal Extractor is surprisingly sturdy and is affordable compared to the other two since it doesn't have any special features. Core's one is heavily armored, will retract into armored state when under heavy fire, and is equipped with a plasma shield which can block occasional weapon impacts while the unit is active. GoK's T2 Metal Extractor is as lightly armored as its T1 counterpart, and it will rely on its void shield instead.
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Sweet, even the mexxes have some unique properties.
I suppose its been said many times over but it would be so awesome to be able to upgrade mexxes rather than reclaim them or self-destruct. Why isn’t this possible when I see Escalation have all these crazy unit upgrades? Something about mexxes just make it impossible?
…or maybe it really doesn’t bother other ppl all that much like it does me? Hehe
I believe there is actually a TA engine thing which stopped devs from adding upgradability to mexxes – take a closer look around the Escalation subforum and I think you may find the exact info about it.
Or it could just be my memory’s messing up again and the devs are slack. :P
This was one of the things I most disliked in Supreme Commander. Mexes being able to upgrade themselves without construction units and multiple levels of available upgrades enforced players to constantly loop through their mexes to see what were upgraded and what not, and was one of the major contributors to turning the game into SimCity rather than action packed wargame. Then again, in TA there would be only one costly upgrade to make for each mex, and they would be visually clearly different, so I don’t think it would be that bad.
The reason why it hasn’t been done in Escalation (or any other mod) is that this would require making basic mex larger, and I guess the extra unit ID required for the upgrade also counts in case of Escalation.
Making basic metal extractors larger to leave room for the upgrade isn’t really a big deal, and can actually be very useful as it will ensure you won’t have to blow up your base to make room T2 extractors later. I think T1 to T2 metal extractor upgrades could probably work in TA Zero if the costs are balanced right, for example the upgrade version could cost more and build slower than the standalone version, this would allow for the convenience of upgrading when necessary without destroying your existing building while offsetting the advantage of being able to upgrade anywhere without a constructor.
Units’ statistics cannot really change upon upgrading. Max damage can be adjusted via damage modifier and some things like firerate can be changed via script, but since damage modifier is already used by shield system or armored state, the upgraded unit would basically remain just as wimpy as the original unit was. Also, there is no way to change metal extraction rate, and any upgrade regarding it would have to be accomplished through some fixed amount of additional production. Unlike other mods, this particular thing would anyhow be feasible in TA Zero.
I like N72 idea.
la verdad todo esta buenisimo pero si alguien seria tan amable de desirme como me puedo registrar a http://www.tauniverse.com/ para poder comentar hay tambien porfa