Prism Towers :D

    Tesla coils are already in so...


    Of course C&C wasn't the reason we have Tesla in IC2 but I can't help but imagine. I always thought we need more defensive structures in IC2 and I liked the more strategic usage of Prism towers. And of course it would require a little more thought to impliment.


    What are Prism towers?
    For those who aren't aware, Prism Towers are an interesting form of active defense used in C&C games. Tesla coils are the simpler soviet point defenses wherein anything coming into range of it will be zapped repeatedly with electricity until dead. Prism towers are somewhat weaker than tesla coils on their own, but they have the wonderful ability to 'daisy chain' through each other. So instead of simply being attacked by one tower, the target is simultaneously attacked by several towers instantly, as long as they're within range of each other, multiplying the power of the attack. This gives big bonuses to players who keep all the prism towers defending their base within range of each other.


    How would they be implemented in IC2?
    I'm guessing that scripting them wouldn't be too hard, using euclidean math to determine the distance between them to see whether they would chain. Attacks could be a standard light beam. They'd of course need to be wired for power. Maybe they would be half as powerful as Tesla initially, at 2/3 the power requirements. But that would of course be negated by the ability to chain attacks through multiple towers yielding greater defensive strength of your perimeter. They would have to be scripted to sync up, since a tower that has chained it's attack into another tower in the network can't itself attack again until it recharges. This might require some sort of priority targeting system so the tower with the closest hostile would be the one to get the combined attack from the group, or it would only chain to another tower if it didn't have a hostile within range of itself.


    The biggest problem right now is that Tesla is already extremely powerful, cheap to build and easy to implement. I was always a fan of good planning with higher complexity systems yielding greater results though. :3 Maybe this system could be 'smarter', able to be set to target certain things and exclude the player?


    What do yall think? I love using IC2 for base defenses, and I miss the forcefield immensely. :P Maybe... a suppression field generator to prevent spawning of monsters in an area...

    your suggestion in current form include raycasting in massive AOE for hurge amount of blocks and or registry for every tower in world with hurge amount of calculations and TE updates.


    personally dont want to see anything like this in vanilla mod, too easy to ruin game by spamming this "towers"

    Quote from RawCode

    words n' stuff


    Well I have little to no knowledge of scripting, so others would have to figure out how to get it to work but I can tell you that prism towers don’t have AOE or block damage. (if I understand you correctly) Individually, their range would only be slightly further than Tesla.


    If I remember correctly, in the game the maximum power was achieved with a four-tower chain shot. After that, no real benefits would be gained other than widening its influence. Shots per second would never increase unless you had multiple isolated chains. Hrm... maybe color them with paint like wires. And if you mean the damage attained would ruin the game… I believe currently the tesla blocks can kill a player in one shot? So…


    And I can see this not being made a part of IC2 vanilla. Maybe someone would take it up as a sub-mod to spice base defense up a bit. :3 Anyway, it’s an idea.

    Please hold all "Weapon" suggestions till industrium conflict drops.


    As far as this goes, I don't think laser point defense is in the works, if it is I will be very suprised.

    Alblaka says:

    "People using their intellect in attempts to discuss other people into the ground could be considered less intellectual then people using their intellect for something beneficial :3"

    Quote from DrSNAFU


    Of course C&C wasn't the reason we have Tesla in IC2 but I can't help but imagine.


    Don't be so sure about that... Alb has been making mods for Red Alert 2 before, and if you check the HAYO part of the :Tesla Coil: s wiki page, if it is even there, it says "... Based on technology used by the soviets in the second altered-realm world war...".
    LuLz, right?

    Age: 16. Favourite school subject: Physics/Chemistry.


    The IC2 forums could really use a lot more of [REDACTED], [DATA EXPUNGED] and ████████.


    I'm in a so called "after-school". It's freaking fantastic and nowhere near as boring as normal school!

    industrium conflict, geh? Then wouldn't this be the perfect time to be offering sugestions regarding such 'conflict' related gizmos? :) And it may be quite possible that this isn't currently in the works, but it doesn't mean I can't offer up the idea.


    Ohhh yeah I missed that part in the tesla description. It seemed like the concept of IC-powered emplacements was lightly explored before being set aside in favor of other things. The force-field bubble for instance. Tesla is really the only thing left over from these ventures and it's the next logical step really. Having all that power at your disposal, why not go full-on mad science with it?


    I'm just throwin science at the wall to see what sticks. :)