Buy stuff cheaper

noobmapmaker · Post by **noobmapmaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:42 am

This idea probably wont be implemented, but it may be fun to ponder about. In real life when you buy stuff way in advance and/or in large quantities you will receive a reduction in price.

We could do this for OpenRA too. If you build stuff while pressing the ALT key you will get reduction on the prices. I don't know the exact rates, but it comes down to "the more of the same, and the more stuff you queue up using the ALT-key at once", the crazier the sale will be.

The catch: you'll have to pay in advance and you can't cancel your order

klaas · Post by **klaas** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:13 am

I prefer people building armies with multiple unit types, instead of just a single discounted type.

noobmapmaker · Post by **noobmapmaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:41 am

People still can! This is a gamble for the buyer as the money instantly vaporizes and the building queue cannot be deleted untill units are produced.

The buyer can go for a bigger discoubt by buying more of the same (e.g.: ALT + 20 rifles), but his army will be more one sided.
The buyer can go for a bigger discount by buying diverse but alot in advance (e.g.: ALT + 3 rifle, 2 rockets, 4 flamethrower, 3 dogs, 3 more rifle)

In both cases the player must pay ahead (or maybe not?). And in both cases the player cannot stop the building of these units (or maybe they should be able, but the money is lost?)

We would have to come up with a mathematical function that takes into account the total amount of units produced in one ALT-press-session and the amount of the same units. The outcome of the function should be a discount % that rangez in between 0 and... 50%?

Doomsday · Post by **Doomsday** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:17 am

klaas wrote: ↑I prefer people building armies with multiple unit types, instead of just a single discounted type.

I totally agree with this.

Actually in Rise of Nations, every unit you build increases cost of next unit of same type. So in our case Rifleman cost would be like 100, 102, 104, 106, 108... I'm leaning towards this type of system if I had to choose between to bulk price reduction and it's opposite.

Build price reduction is a trap because single / double unit armies are easy to counter. But then again, this is not really the case in our game because of different production queues. Imagine someone spamming nothing but mobile flak and tesla troopers for OP bulk savings.

noobmapmaker wrote: ↑The catch: you'll have to pay in advance and you can't cancel your order

This is a second trap. Occasionally you get crazy value out of your bulk savings and other times you get get outplayed and can't switch production to only unit that would help counter enemy push.

tl;dr: Unique and cool idea but in my opinion it creates more problems than it offers.

MustaphaTR · Post by **MustaphaTR** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:43 am

Buying units in bulks and cheaper is a system special to D2K (starport) and should stay (it needs to be added first

) at there imo.

noobmapmaker · Post by **noobmapmaker** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:56 am

Doomsday wrote: ↑ This is a second trap. Occasionally you get crazy value out of your bulk savings and other times you get get outplayed and can't switch production to only unit that would help counter enemy push.

Valid couterargument for sure. This idea could be adding a diceroll with only 1s and 6s on the dice, which is not particularly fun.

A well balanced mathmetical function could help making it OP though.