WB wrote: they do not RANDOMLY shut off. They have a set amount of Vespene, once all the vespene is mined out the gas shuts down for like a minute, your workers cannot use it. In a minute, the vespene will be back.
People are complaining because now they'l actuallyl have to pay attention to their economy.
Hercanic wrote: Dear WB:
Gameplay is a series of interesting choices. If players would always make the same decision, though, have the AI handle it. Otherwise, the action is a needless chore and does not contribute anything fun to the gameplay.
WB wrote: They already did that. It used to be that you had to manually drill deeper (this was the mechanic at the WWI) when the vespene ran out, they changed it to be automatic.
Dear WB:
I was more refering to workers idling rather than auto-mining when the Refinery goes offline.
Vespene Geysers automatically shutting down strikes me as pointless. I liked the idea behind the tradeoff choice, but if it wasn't working out, the entire mechanic either needs to be revamped or removed, not emasculated into an impotent relic. Personally, I'd like to see the choice stay, but have more impact and tradeoff, so it really is an interesting choice as opposed to a no-brainer chore.
What if worker units could participate in the drilling to increase its completion rate, removing the complication of idle gas workers? What if instead of costing minerals, the drilling caused seismic disturbances that slowed mineral harvesting in nearby regions, creating a choice between mineral and gas harvesting?
Maybe those tremors also ping everyone's map, creating a choice between stealth or gas (maybe the enemy needs a certain building to detect and triangulate these disturbances)? What if those quakes also slowed units in the area, lending a strategic element to drilling? Or, instead of slowing, decreased ranged accuracy like tree doodads or cliffs do?
Or, what if the shaking disabled any nearby defense structures? Combined with the pinging, it'd be a dangerous invitation to have your economy attacked. With stuff like this, the choice isn't just a mineral-to-gas exchange rate, but instead has a number of other risks attached that the player must take into consideration, ones which aren't always applicable in all circumstances, thus leaving it up to the player to determine the most appropriate time and place.
For instance, slowing down mineral harvesting, or reducing its droprate, would not be ideal in your main early-game, but gas-only expansions would have no such disadvantage. Map pinging offers a nontangible disadvantage that would be completely up to player discretion, could even be utilized against the enemy as a bluff, feint or trap. The gas repair mechanic needs more of those intangibles to make it interesting and strategic.
Naturally, every risk needs adequate compensation, so, depending on what is changed, the resulting gas gain would be far more substantial than in the WWI build, where the overall profit was only 200 more gas. The intent is to give the choice more impact, and lend each choice situational advantages and disadvantages so the decision is always interesting. Think of it like high-stakes poker.
