Brainstorming: Purity Level 1

I'd prefer explorers remain non-combat units as much as possible. They have a special role to play that is exceedingly important and there is no need to introduce mission creep into the mix.

 

I really like the following ideas:

• +2/300% strength against aliens when defending: your explorers will tend to at least survive long enough to escape now and goes well with Purity's defensive bonuses.
• Chance to retreat from aliens: Again, it gives Purity to not lose their explorers, which is a strong bonus.
• Applying the immunity to aliens only during expeditions/digs: Lets early Purity players get away with some risky digs done that other players wouldn't but isn't comically exploitable like the permanent immunity
• Bonus sight range: Helps avoid walking the explorer into alien ambushes and gives them a later game use as recon.

 

That's worth thinking about. It would have been nice if Explorers had an upgrade path too, apart from gaining more expedition modules...perhaps like Scouts in Civ V, gaining sight, speed and defense. I still would not want them to ever gain any offensive strength, though.

 

I think the defensive bonus for explorers is best. Keep them at 3 offense (not sure if explorers need any attack!) but make them as strong as soldiers or marines on defense (10 or 16).

• The retreat bonus doesn't help with risky dig sites, making it a very weak ability. It also doesn't help in narrow valleys or if the explorer retreats in the wrong direction.
• Immunity while digging is gamey and clumsy, you'll lose a lot of explorers the turn before digging starts or right afterwards (aliens will probbaly be waiting already). Also, any immunity is abusable somehow.
• Bonus sight range has very limited use for AI factions AFAIK, only human players would profit from this.

A defensive bonus fits Purity well, isn't overly abusable (because the Aliens can still overwhelm you) and can be easily rebalanced later by changing a number.

Sure, we might see some use of explorers + ranged units to clear alien camps, but that's not too bad. Soldiers would still be stronger for this purpose and explorers aren't much cheaper either.

 

+1 vision is good, but on small and standard maps it may come too late to be useful. In one of the let's plays the player had explored almost the entire map way before getting an affinity level. So this is out.

I propose -50% time for expeditions.

 

How about a camouflage ability? I imagine the explorers acting like Old Earth hunters and survivalists - using hides and hunting skills to avoid conflict with the aliens where possible.

What if Purity 1 explorers were invisible to alien units as long as they were undamaged? Aliens wouldn't purposely attack them, but combat would commence if they moved into the explorer's tile. I believe all alien nests have miasma, which minimises empty nest sniping, because surrounding aliens will 'scent their blood' and be able to track them after the explorer raids the nest and is burnt by the miasma.

They don't share their invisibility with other units on the same tile but could still be used as a 'speed bump' to slow aliens attacking a seemingly unprotected colonist, trade unit or artillery. But they could only take one hit in defense before being discovered if they even survived the initial attack.

This also supports the expedition module mechanic of returning to a city to reload, because an injured explorer would prefer to return to friendly territory to heal up before heading back out into the wilderness.

This ability becomes stronger once it is paired up with Harmony level 6 and miasma no longer damages them, but by that time all Harmony military units will probably have little difficulty farming nests if they want to.

 

I would just go With +1 los and movement on exsplorers. that way you can use skill to scout. But you cannot go alone into alien nests and snipe them.
another very useful option is to give them +500%(18 strength) defence bonus vs natives.
a Third option is to give soldiers,rangers and exsplorers +1 los.

 

The camouflage (the AI is literally unaware of their presence and can, and will, bumble into them) sounds too random and uncontrollable. You'd be confident that your dude is safe and secure only for a random alien to path into him. Just seems like a good way to keep losing your aliens anyways and piss off players even more when it happens.

I really prefer the defensive strength or scatter abilities honestly, the former sounds like a very Purity thing to do (standing your ground) while the latter just sounds like good sense to run away when the hills are green with angry chitin.

 

"Withdraw before alien melee attacks" seems like the most neat solution, maybe combined with "take 50% less damage from alien ranged attacks" that way they would last longer without being OP alien killing machines.

 

It also plays well with purity "mounting more guns onto everything that moves" or maybe they mine the area with tons of C4, when attacked? I mean, what would you do all those archeological digs with if not military grade explosives?

 

If you do archaeology with "military grade explosives" you won't end up with many exhibits when its all over. No, an exploration party is small, think of a few eggheads in spacesuits with cross country rovers and RV's - like in the second Jurassic Park film - not a military regiment on the march - and a small party should be able to slip away through masking terrain and get away.

 

I'm pretty sure the exploration teams are a mixture of the eggheads in EVA suits like you said, mixed with some survivalist hunter/spec ops types. Remember, the art/model for the explorer is a dude wearing a trench coat over his EVA suit, a long marksman laser rifle and a drone covered in carapaces for trade/armor/camouflage.

Though, yeah, dynamite archeology doesn't exactly recover very much usable data.

 

But its the hillbi purity way of life!

 

The problem with retreating is it makes those digs hard. (Keep interrupting)

If the explorers had a combat bonus v aliens, that could still fit with 'eggheads' (they have anti-alien 'weaponry') say chemical/sonic equipment and that would fit with purity.

Say +300% str v aliens and +300% str on an expedition site

 

Remember that the bonus has to be useful even after most of the map has been explored, because you can do that pretty quickly on small and standard pangea maps.

 

Then you better fix the Supremacy 1 bonus as well, because it's useless once the map is clear of expeditions.

I think bonus defense strength or immunity during expeditions are good options.

 

Downed satellites create expedition sites. So every time a satellite expires, is destroyed or shot down, you're likely to have a fresh expedition. As do some quests.

 

I'd lean toward +300% bonus defense vs. aliens. Makes their Strength a 9 vs. aliens, which should allow them to live through a couple attacks.

 

That was going to be my suggestion (I was even going to say automatic the first time, or perhaps automatic if you start with full health and decreasing chance as health declines). I could also suggest a survivability version where you don't necessarily retreat but you survive with one health on the first attack (to prevent a lone enemy from killing you).

I also like the suggestion of being immune from attacks when working on an expedition. That's a situational ability that's quite useful but difficult to exploit.

 

+300% would be 12 (3+9)
But that would still be fine. (After all, at that point your soldiers are 16..and can attack)