OpenRA

The sister thread to the explored map thread.

copypasta from my previous comment: I think would be a huge mistake. The large majority of players are playing OpenRA for fun. Crates are fun! Crates are the RNG that lessens the pressure off everybody, signaling that it's a game not meant to take seriously.

Crates already have a spawn delay of one minute (1500 ticks).

abcdefg30 wrote: ↑Crates already have a spawn delay of one minute (1500 ticks).

I should have really said 'early game', that was a poor choice of wording on my part. (If someone wouldn't mind editing that)

Imho in the initial 5 minutes of a 1v1 getting a light tank, ranger or money crate is actually pretty big especially on small maps. A vehicle before WF tech can be a big influence on certain builds.

I don't understand why everyone hates crates. One of the things that make a game interesting is the fact that you can't know who is winning and who is losing. In crateless OpenRA, if you destroyed the MCV and the enemy can't create one, you won. I think it's much more interesting when the MCVless side can still try to look for an MCV crate. There were games where I began by destroying an enemy's MCV straightaway, and yet he got another one from a crate and won.

Maybe it should be possible to modify crates so that this can still happen somehow? Also, even if crates stay, I think that when playing with "explored map", the "restores all shroud" crate should not exist.

I like the crates, yes they are fun and I also like how they reward exploration. That shroud crate is devastating with explored map on but, again, that's all part of the RNG fun times. It was a good move to stop crates from giving players an extra MCV, and since then crates work well. I vote for no change here.

Since I am more focussed on competitive play, I'd say they have to be off by default.
Gives too much randomness to competitive games, which might give 1 player going for crates an unfair advantage

Agree but since competitive games are a MAXIMUM of 1-2% games it is up to the competitive players to turn them off.

Or redesign the rewards, but they'll still be a random factor one doesn't want in the competitive games.

Aaaand the possibility of getting a mcv crate as a lifeline creates the games that are legendary... I had him but... Somehow he got a mcv and crawled back in the game and eventually won,amazing

Don't care. I turn them off each time I play unless someone asks for them to be on.

Otherwise I don't care if they are on or off by default.

Crates keep people from leaving team games after they lose their construction yard. Since most new players play team games, I think it's better to leave them on.

Also, who doesn't like to get a squad of infantry for free?

Well since the current combined yes votes are about equal the no votes, how about an intermediate proposal;

Initial crate spawn delay is increased from 1 minute to 5 minutes?

- Still the possibility of getting an MCV when you loose yours
- Still rewards players actively scouting through out the game
- Stops games being RNgg in the first 5 mins even for casual players

After 5 minutes the RNG of crates no longer has any real influence on games imho but are nice little rewards. Competitive players could still disable them of course.

I prefer just adding more things to crates rather then adjust timers. IE:

TD - add the following to crates.

Nuke crate. (Dare pick up the crate near your MCV?)
Visceroid crate.

RA - add the following to crates.

Chrono tornados.
Nuke crate.
Special units. (IE removed units from the game such as snipers)

We could have an option for Crates and Crazy Crates.

Crates: start 5 min in the game and got the normal rewards
Crazy Crates: start right away and contain things like Nuke, Iron Curtain, Chrono, Special Unit and what ever crazy stuff we can think off.

Also an idea for the money award in general: how about making the amount dependent of the number of passed ticks?

Somthing like this, so that it comes to a maximum at some point.

While not all players are noobs, in many cases, noobs may prefer "troll maps" or just doing silly stuff instead of actually playing. While this option should be available in the form of special maps, allowing anyone to just toggle a "crazy crates" setting and enable it is problematic imho. Crazy stuff, by definition, should not be something that you may stumble upon because someone changed a very easy to change setting. At least that is my opinion.