Okay, so here I am, extremely bored at work, and I find myself perusing the forums to pass the time. I began reading the suggestion for the 'unit-upkeep' theory, and it got me to thinking. Instead of putting a limit such as upkeep on units to keep the higher-ranked players "in-check" why not institute a unit/development that is required of all players on an equal basis. It would actually change the dynamics and strategies of the game to quite a different level.
The theory/suggestion is based upon a storage center for seeds and plants. This storage center, or Granary, is a building you start with that is constantly required to develop/upgrade in order to be able to store/hoard seeds and plants for both lower ranked players and higher ranked players. If you are a higher ranked player with a large amount of acres, you would be required to constantly upgrade your Granary to the point that you wouldn't lose seeds and plants on an overall daily basis.
Secondly, along with this type development, a new unit can be built/developed that would have a sole purpose of destroying Granaries or knocking them down a few levels. It could be a LET type unit that you need a crapload of to take down a Granary a single level and could not kill/strip any other units, or it could be an INN unit that has a sole purpose of taking the granaries down. Either way, it would be a potentially expensive unit so that in the beginning of the round it wouldn't have much effect, but later in the round it could be utilized as a weapon and as an extra flak type unit that provides a bonus to your attacks.
There's the overall idea, now here are the possible ramifications of implementing it.
Effect on the beginning of the round:
When you start, you have a Granary that can store seeds and plants up to a certain level. Depending on your land amount and acre distribution, you can utilize this starting level Granary only to a certain point. After this certain point, you are required to upgrade it in order to fully store seeds and plants that you would gain over time. This would act as a development/upgrade and would essentially further elongate the flak-wars portion of the round and would slow down the fast-movers and keep the player-base on a more even level. Here is where the idea would first be shot-down by you readers, saying "WHY PUNISH US FOR BEING GOOD!?!?" Simple solution, the first few upgrades of the Granaries would be the most effective and would sustain seed and plant storage to a high enough level to co-incide with an acre count equivalent to 3k maybe? (This could be discussed/changed to work efficiently) They would be short developments so that you are not too inconvenienced by it but long enough to make it so that you have to plan your development strategy accordingly.
(There is probably a whole lot more it would do to the beginning, but this is what I've thought of thus-far)
Effect post-beginning:
The Granaries could have multiple benefits to the game. They could act as a buffer on incomings where they take "x" amount of damage, or they could have no defensive capabilities at all, this can be discussed. Their main attribute however, comes in the form of a building/development that has no limits on its size and needs to be constantly upgraded throughout the round in order to store seeds and plants. For those who are active, you wouldnt need to upgrade so much because you can plant when its sunny and keep your seed and plant storage to a manageable level. For those of you who have a crapload of acres and want to be seed/plant-whores, you would need to pay the price by upgrading your Granary to the point where you have enough storage. The price for these upgrades after the initial upgrades, would be in comparison to the purchasing price of acres or it would co-incide with your amount of land.
This would have multiple effects on the strategy of game-play. In addition, it would keep bot-bashing down because grass and flower acres produce a crapload of seeds and you would need to upgrade your Granary to support seed production from a crappy acre distribution. It would make players more inclined to be more intelligent about their acre distribution and attack choices. A new unit would be introduced that could either act as additional LET flak or additional INN flak, and so on.
I know it would most likely be very complicated to institute, but I think it would be something that would have a very interesting effect on game play. A veteran player's strategies would have to be re-worked but their core strengths and knowledge about the game would still be relevant.
This is an idea that popped into my head and I figured I would throw it out there to see what you all think.
Thanks for reading
(Writing this just swallowed up a half-hour here at work!!! Hoooray!!!)
The theory/suggestion is based upon a storage center for seeds and plants. This storage center, or Granary, is a building you start with that is constantly required to develop/upgrade in order to be able to store/hoard seeds and plants for both lower ranked players and higher ranked players. If you are a higher ranked player with a large amount of acres, you would be required to constantly upgrade your Granary to the point that you wouldn't lose seeds and plants on an overall daily basis.
Secondly, along with this type development, a new unit can be built/developed that would have a sole purpose of destroying Granaries or knocking them down a few levels. It could be a LET type unit that you need a crapload of to take down a Granary a single level and could not kill/strip any other units, or it could be an INN unit that has a sole purpose of taking the granaries down. Either way, it would be a potentially expensive unit so that in the beginning of the round it wouldn't have much effect, but later in the round it could be utilized as a weapon and as an extra flak type unit that provides a bonus to your attacks.
There's the overall idea, now here are the possible ramifications of implementing it.
Effect on the beginning of the round:
When you start, you have a Granary that can store seeds and plants up to a certain level. Depending on your land amount and acre distribution, you can utilize this starting level Granary only to a certain point. After this certain point, you are required to upgrade it in order to fully store seeds and plants that you would gain over time. This would act as a development/upgrade and would essentially further elongate the flak-wars portion of the round and would slow down the fast-movers and keep the player-base on a more even level. Here is where the idea would first be shot-down by you readers, saying "WHY PUNISH US FOR BEING GOOD!?!?" Simple solution, the first few upgrades of the Granaries would be the most effective and would sustain seed and plant storage to a high enough level to co-incide with an acre count equivalent to 3k maybe? (This could be discussed/changed to work efficiently) They would be short developments so that you are not too inconvenienced by it but long enough to make it so that you have to plan your development strategy accordingly.
(There is probably a whole lot more it would do to the beginning, but this is what I've thought of thus-far)
Effect post-beginning:
The Granaries could have multiple benefits to the game. They could act as a buffer on incomings where they take "x" amount of damage, or they could have no defensive capabilities at all, this can be discussed. Their main attribute however, comes in the form of a building/development that has no limits on its size and needs to be constantly upgraded throughout the round in order to store seeds and plants. For those who are active, you wouldnt need to upgrade so much because you can plant when its sunny and keep your seed and plant storage to a manageable level. For those of you who have a crapload of acres and want to be seed/plant-whores, you would need to pay the price by upgrading your Granary to the point where you have enough storage. The price for these upgrades after the initial upgrades, would be in comparison to the purchasing price of acres or it would co-incide with your amount of land.
This would have multiple effects on the strategy of game-play. In addition, it would keep bot-bashing down because grass and flower acres produce a crapload of seeds and you would need to upgrade your Granary to support seed production from a crappy acre distribution. It would make players more inclined to be more intelligent about their acre distribution and attack choices. A new unit would be introduced that could either act as additional LET flak or additional INN flak, and so on.
I know it would most likely be very complicated to institute, but I think it would be something that would have a very interesting effect on game play. A veteran player's strategies would have to be re-worked but their core strengths and knowledge about the game would still be relevant.
This is an idea that popped into my head and I figured I would throw it out there to see what you all think.
Thanks for reading
(Writing this just swallowed up a half-hour here at work!!! Hoooray!!!)
