Mutually exclusive tier upgrades

[Degra]

Idea:

• Upgrading one tier 1 upgrade (e.g. Economy Tier 1) unlocks every Tier 2 upgrade, and the same goes for Tier 2 unlocking Tier 3 and upgrading one Tier 3 making the other Tier 3 upgrades "disappear".
  The "upgrade Economy Tier 1 and Offensive Tier 1" buttons for example will simply disappear and be replaced by their Tier 2 versions when you upgrade Utility Tier 1.
  That will make the Tier upgrades mutually exclusive.

Goal:

• Making the entire CC match asymmetric, as opposed to the current situation where only the early-midgame is asymmetric because you focus on 1-2 fields in the Tier section. In the end game both teams end up having (nearly) all tier upgrades.
  Adding actual "choice" to the upgrades, which is currently limited to the Destroyer and Kinetic upgrades.
  As opposed to Kinetic's strict paths of Single T2 -> Single T3, allowing for a path of e.g. Economy T1 -> Utility T2 -> Economy T3.
  Implementing a "tier level balancing" for the tiers, as opposed to the current "tree balancing". Offensive T2 needs to be a legitimate alternative to Econ T2 or Util T2.

New balancing proposal:

Economy Tier 1: (Same as before)

• Increases mining speed by 15%
  Increases miner and chomper hull by 100.
  Unlocks the miner's mineral vent ability.
  Triples the health of the cargo drone.

Economy Tier 2: (Made the chomper phrase easier to read and moved energy transfer to Offensive T2)

• Attempting to chomp an asteroid outside the chomping range pulls it towards the Chomper.
  Chomping cooldown reduced by 50%
  Allows the miner to mine asteroids while moving
  Reduces miner reconstruction time by 90 seconds.

Economy Tier 3: (Moved ship reconstruction to Offensive T2 and added Chomper speed bonus)

• Grants the mass replicator console, which can convert energy to minerals
  Creates a ping when a new asteroid field is formed
  Increased Chomper ship speed by 20%

Utility Tier 1: (Same as before)

• Increases all small ship speed by 15%
  Reduces energy cost of side boost by 50%
  Reduces energy cost and cooldown of Turbo boost by 50%
  Enables the Rear Thruster ability on Wraith, allowing it to boost backwards.

Utility Tier 2: (Nerfing the power console while adding a Subjugator buff)

• Grants all small shields 50 shields
  All minelayer cooldowns reduced by 50%
  Cooldown of all increase/decrease abilities on the power console reduced by 25%
  Subjugator generates 2 additional energy per second

Utility Tier 3: (Same as before)

• Core degeneration speed reduced by 50%
  Increase marine speed by 20%
  Small ship cost reduced by 40%

Offensive Tier 1: (Balances the currently under-used Corvette out, which also suffered the most from 3 vessel energy ups)

• Increases Wraith hull by 50 and Corvette hull by 100.
  EMP now deals 30 damage and and reduces engines to 0.
  Wraith cost reduced by 50%
  Corvette salvos energy consumption reduced from 35 to 25.

Offensive Tier 2: (Received energy transfer from Econ T2, smaller reconstruction time buff from Econ T3 and 25% bonus damage from Offensive T1)

• Doubles the energy provided by power transfer
  Grants the cloaking field ability to the Wraith
  Increases the maximum stack of Plasma Charges from 20 to 40 on the BC
  Grants the Wraith, Corvette, Minelayer and Destroyer the ability to fire light missiles
  Wraith and Corvette damage increased by 25%
  Reconstruction time of Wraith, Corvette and Destroyer reduced by 20%

Offensive Tier 3: (Same as before, with an easier to read Spearhead sentence)

• Upgrades the Engine Boost into the Spearhed Engine ability. Colliding with the enemy BC while using the ability will knock down the enemies inside and disconnect them from the consoles.
  Reduces the cost of all Battlecruiser weapons by 30%
  Doubles the force of the tractor beam and removes the energy cost.

___________________________________________________

That said, I am open to suggestions on how to further refine the balancing of the tier upgrades.

[Red-Rocket]

Idea:

• Upgrading one tier 1 upgrade (e.g. Economy Tier 1) unlocks every Tier 2 upgrade, and the same goes for Tier 2 unlocking Tier 3 and upgrading one Tier 3 making the other Tier 3 upgrades "disappear".
  The "upgrade Economy Tier 1 and Offensive Tier 1" buttons for example will simply disappear and be replaced by their Tier 2 versions when you upgrade Utility Tier 1.
  That will make the Tier upgrades mutually exclusive.

Goal:

• Making the entire CC match asymmetric, as opposed to the current situation where only the early-midgame is asymmetric because you focus on 1-2 fields in the Tier section. In the end game both teams end up having (nearly) all tier upgrades.
  Adding actual "choice" to the upgrades, which is currently limited to the Destroyer and Kinetic upgrades.
  As opposed to Kinetic's strict paths of Single T2 -> Single T3, allowing for a path of e.g. Economy T1 -> Utility T2 -> Economy T3.
  Implementing a "tier level balancing" for the tiers, as opposed to the current "tree balancing". Offensive T2 needs to be a legitimate alternative to Econ T2 or Util T2.

New balancing proposal:

Economy Tier 1: (Same as before)

• Increases mining speed by 15%
  Increases miner and chomper hull by 100.
  Unlocks the miner's mineral vent ability.
  Triples the health of the cargo drone.

Economy Tier 2: (Made the chomper phrase easier to read and moved energy transfer to Offensive T2)

• Attempting to chomp an asteroid outside the chomping range pulls it towards the Chomper.
  Chomping cooldown reduced by 50%
  Allows the miner to mine asteroids while moving
  Reduces miner reconstruction time by 90 seconds.

Economy Tier 3: (Moved ship reconstruction to Offensive T2 and added Chomper speed bonus)

• Grants the mass replicator console, which can convert energy to minerals
  Creates a ping when a new asteroid field is formed
  Increased Chomper ship speed by 15%

Utility Tier 1: (Same as before)

• Increases all small ship speed by 15%
  Reduces energy cost of side boost by 50%
  Reduces energy cost and cooldown of Turbo boost by 50%
  Enables the Rear Thruster ability on Wraith, allowing it to boost backwards.

Utility Tier 2: (Nerfing the power console while adding a Subjugator buff)

• Grants all small shields 50 shields
  All minelayer cooldowns reduced by 50%
  Cooldown of all increase/decrease abilities on the power console reduced by 25%
  Subjugator generates 2 additional energy per second

Utility Tier 3: (Same as before)

• Core degeneration speed reduced by 50%
  Increase marine speed by 20%
  Small ship cost reduced by 40%

Offensive Tier 1: (Balances the currently under-used Corvette out, which also suffered the most from 3 vessel energy ups)

• Increases Wraith hull by 50 and Corvette hull by 100.
  EMP now deals 30 damage and and reduces engines to 20%.
  Wraith and Corvette damage increased by 25%
  Wraith cost reduced by 50%
  Corvette salvos energy consumption reduced from 35 to 25.

Offensive Tier 2: (Received energy transfer from Econ T2 and a smaller reconstruction time buff from Econ T3)

• Doubles the energy provided by power transfer
  Grants the cloaking field ability to the Wraith
  Increases the maximum stack of Plasma Charges from 20 to 40 on the BC
  Grants the Wraith, Corvette, Minelayer and Destroyer the ability to fire light missiles
  Reconstruction time of Wraith, Corvette and Destroyer reduced by 20%

Offensive Tier 3: (Same as before)

• Upgrades the Engine Boost into the Spearhed Engine ability. Colliding with the enemy BC while using the ability will knock down the enemies inside and disconnect them from the consoles.
  Reduces the cost of all Battlecruiser weapons by 30%
  Doubles the force of the tractor beam and removes the energy cost.

___________________________________________________

That said, I am open to suggestions on how to further refine the balancing of the tier upgrades.

Nah.

[WhyteDragon]

Nah.

Yah.

It's a good idea. Hell, everybody in the Skype chat thought so.

[Caladbolg]

Aye.

[slapshot]

In the end game both teams end up having (nearly) all tier upgrades.

I don't think this is a problem as far as tiers go, I think it's due to the lack of good upgrade options - if there was something else worth upgrading (past the point where most games end), then this issue wouldn't exist

[Siretu]

This is going to be implemented at least for a while to see how it works out.

[Red-Rocket]

exclusive tier upgrades?...i kinda wanted both a mass replicator and spearhead boost lol.

cant we just cherry pick out upgrades and....make them their own upgrades? because they would be cool in their own right! instead of having to choose one or the other...
1) can lead to imbalances (i can already see it being a problem)
#1 tier is probably the best since every action is simply changing very broad numbers, not actually adding abilities (major ones at least) so it fits with whatever strategy your going quite easily
#2 tier is bad, since the only reason to get econ is for chompers (and mining while moving seems great, but only if your down in kerm), utility if your going subjucators or minelayers (though admittedly the 50 sheilds makes utilities case a bit better) and i bet everyone will go with combat since double power transfer, more damage AND faster reconstruction for mainline ships, the wraith and corvette, (everyone uses wraiths a lot more then minelayers or chompers) oh and cloaking and firing missiles (though situational, they are bonuses to an already fleshed out combat tier 2). i bet most people will go combat tier 2 since the advantages are more widespread the others are more situational.
#3 tier.....ok the decision will be between combat and utility, the ONLY reason anyone would go for econ is because of mass replicator (hardly anyone uses it) and chomper speed (only 20%) and nobody really notices the feild pings anyways, these 2 additions are WAY situational, and the chomper speed can easily be overlooked since i dunno, actually moving the BC with the chomper? even if your going chomper, its hard to make a case at all for econ. utility tier 3 is quite useful if you get it early, because hey! 40% small ship reduction, nice, and marine speed increase by 20% is pretty helpful, but who cares about core degeneration? nobody really goes above 120% core output anyways, ide rather it be taking -50% stability hits when hit by a yamato or saber missiles. and combat....oh combat! i think everyone will go for combat since it has such USEFUL late game applications, reduction in battlecruiser weapons by 30% totally allows you to fight longer and helps play the power game (which is what late game is, a power game) and spearhead, which can be a death sentence if used right, because it works so well, and if the enemy has a weapons drone, that drone is off the console until somebody actually resets it. Oh and tractor beam is pretty gimmicky but combat tier 3 totally makes it worth investing.
Either tier 3 will be a rushed utility tier 3 or combat, i really dont see anyone going economy.

[Degra]

This was balanced with Scaling Upgrades in mind. Because both will be implemented at the same time.

That makes the economy tiers far more important than you give them justification for.

Economy T3 and T2 work amazing if you're paying attention to the pings and you're chomping the pings as they come up. 20% speed bonus extends the safe zone around the BC quite a bit in which you can chomp things while making it back to the BC, if attacked.

Your complaint about Offensive T2, well we need to see how it works out.
Nearly nobody uses missiles.
Cloak has great potential but hardly anyone uses it. If people change their playstyle on Wraiths, yeah Offensive T2 will become stronger.
If you get Offensive T1+T2, then you won't have the speed bonus from Utility. 15% speed bonus can make a HUGE difference on Wraith vs Miner mechanics. Same for Wraith vs Wraith mechanics, if you manage to dodge the EMPs you will outrun your opponent easily. Offensive makes you a strong solo Wraith but you cannot run from situations you're outnumbered from.

Utility T2: You forgot to mention the 25% bonus on power console. Don't forget how useful it is in an emergency situation, or generally in a BC combat.
Going for Offensive makes you stronger on the fields but in a BC battle you will take more hull damage before you can shield tank.

Economy T2: As mentioned, economy will become more important as the Upgrades are scaling and chompers can deliver insane amounts of minerals in a short time. Miners can follow kerm asteroids they are mining. Economy T2 is essentially for those that have humans as miners/chompers. If you don't, yeah you only have the reconstruction time.

[zakhennahr]

Honestly, since no one really uses missiles unless you're way ahead, offensive tier 2 should (also or instead of, whichever) have a respawning missile on each attack ship. The corvette gets the anti-ss missile respawning every 60 seconds, the wraith gets the 5 red one spawning every 45 seconds, and the destroyer gets two of the 10 yellow 20 red ones spawning on it every 60 seconds.

This could be implemented like the repair station are, using charges (up to 1 on each, 2 on the desys). Then you can load up to 6 missiles in the bay if you want to spend extra money on that.

[WhyteDragon]

Honestly, since no one really uses missiles unless you're way ahead, offensive tier 2 should (also or instead of, whichever) have a respawning missile on each attack ship. The corvette gets the anti-ss missile respawning every 60 seconds, the wraith gets the 5 red one spawning every 45 seconds, and the destroyer gets two of the 10 yellow 20 red ones spawning on it every 60 seconds.

This could be implemented like the repair station are, using charges (up to 1 on each, 2 on the desys). Then you can load up to 6 missiles in the bay if you want to spend extra money on that.

... man, that honestly made me start thinking--

What if putting a missile in a missile bay and launching it didn't consume the missile, and that reloading the bays simply changed the missile type?
... weird idea.

Missiles on small ships, especially the cheaper ones, can actually be a pretty big deal. The only issue is that using the inventory is absurdly unwieldy. The moment that's fixed, it would become an incredibly good upgrade.