Adventurer Kit! A kit for a late-game advanced worker/scout!
HalberdGuard
Member
Adventuring Kit! (scouting, gathering worker)
-Kit costs:
a backpack (1-2 fabric)
a grappling hook (1 iron, 1-3 rope)
and a spyglass (1 wood, 1 glass)
-Crafted at the Workbench, or at the Machine Shop! (after all, the spyglass and grappling hook are fine tools!)
-Consider an action-adventurer or treasure hunter feel, maybe even an Indiana Jones-styled hat for added adorability : D
-Normal health, normal attack, slightly increased speed and vision?
-Can be told to harvest resources or assigned to resourcing tasks manually, but perhaps not building or crafting tasks, theres no adventure there!
-About 150% carrying capacity for raw resources (besides logs, or course), for example, being able to carry 30, 35, or 40 stone, iron, or brimstone! Probably 30, because it occurs to me that 40 is half a stockpile... o_o
-Will attempt to path like a normal Bricktron first, unless he must climb up (up to 6-10 blocks high?) or down to get somewhere, using grappling hook (rather slowly, saftey first!). Can "jump" or climb down from places automatically as well, if his path is blocked.*
And now, the gameplay!
I can imagine this unit being used as a late-game scout or spy, to get a look at enemy positions or approaches from a safe position, as well as a method to steal from resource nodes you may not normally be able to secure! (The most daring adventurer of all may try to steal resources directly from the enemy!!) But watch out, he can still be chased down by a halberdier, or harrassed by an archer! Late in the game, players have already collected all their nearby iron, brimstone, and maybe even their boulders and plants, so this kit allows for a way to more safely and effectively gather from sources farther from the castle! I can also see this unit being great for Capture the Crystal games if you allow the Adventurer to grab those, too, because of their increased speed and climbing! Plus, it fits the treasure hunter theme perfectly!
For simplicity of animation and stuff, you may desire to replace the grappling hook with climbing picks (2 iron?), plus that may allow for him to climb as high as he needs. I chose the grappling hook myself, because that allows for an understandable reason to limit the climbing height, thus allowing the mechanic but hopefully reducing the calculations needed, and because GRAPPLING HOOK! Another animation goody, it would be cool if an idle animation showed him pulling out the spyglass and looking around with it briefly!
So, to conclude, a slightly expensive gathering and scouting unit that can path up and down 6-10 or so block high cliffs, can hold more raw resources, and can transport them a bit faster.
* If you use "climbing down" as a mechanic automatically as long as it is no more than the 6-10 block climbing height, I see it as a way to keep him from automatically using the "jump" ability... in places where he shouldn't. So, the player doesn't have to worry as much about their risk-taking adventurer! It'd also be nice if the adventurer could begin climbing back up in the middle of the animation, in case he finds trouble (a pit of snakes!), but that's encroaching on needlessly-complicated territory.
-Kit costs:
a backpack (1-2 fabric)
a grappling hook (1 iron, 1-3 rope)
and a spyglass (1 wood, 1 glass)
-Crafted at the Workbench, or at the Machine Shop! (after all, the spyglass and grappling hook are fine tools!)
-Consider an action-adventurer or treasure hunter feel, maybe even an Indiana Jones-styled hat for added adorability : D
-Normal health, normal attack, slightly increased speed and vision?
-Can be told to harvest resources or assigned to resourcing tasks manually, but perhaps not building or crafting tasks, theres no adventure there!
-About 150% carrying capacity for raw resources (besides logs, or course), for example, being able to carry 30, 35, or 40 stone, iron, or brimstone! Probably 30, because it occurs to me that 40 is half a stockpile... o_o
-Will attempt to path like a normal Bricktron first, unless he must climb up (up to 6-10 blocks high?) or down to get somewhere, using grappling hook (rather slowly, saftey first!). Can "jump" or climb down from places automatically as well, if his path is blocked.*
And now, the gameplay!
I can imagine this unit being used as a late-game scout or spy, to get a look at enemy positions or approaches from a safe position, as well as a method to steal from resource nodes you may not normally be able to secure! (The most daring adventurer of all may try to steal resources directly from the enemy!!) But watch out, he can still be chased down by a halberdier, or harrassed by an archer! Late in the game, players have already collected all their nearby iron, brimstone, and maybe even their boulders and plants, so this kit allows for a way to more safely and effectively gather from sources farther from the castle! I can also see this unit being great for Capture the Crystal games if you allow the Adventurer to grab those, too, because of their increased speed and climbing! Plus, it fits the treasure hunter theme perfectly!
For simplicity of animation and stuff, you may desire to replace the grappling hook with climbing picks (2 iron?), plus that may allow for him to climb as high as he needs. I chose the grappling hook myself, because that allows for an understandable reason to limit the climbing height, thus allowing the mechanic but hopefully reducing the calculations needed, and because GRAPPLING HOOK! Another animation goody, it would be cool if an idle animation showed him pulling out the spyglass and looking around with it briefly!
So, to conclude, a slightly expensive gathering and scouting unit that can path up and down 6-10 or so block high cliffs, can hold more raw resources, and can transport them a bit faster.
* If you use "climbing down" as a mechanic automatically as long as it is no more than the 6-10 block climbing height, I see it as a way to keep him from automatically using the "jump" ability... in places where he shouldn't. So, the player doesn't have to worry as much about their risk-taking adventurer! It'd also be nice if the adventurer could begin climbing back up in the middle of the animation, in case he finds trouble (a pit of snakes!), but that's encroaching on needlessly-complicated territory.
Comments
The other complication that comes to mind, though, is that such a kit is not military-oriented, as I think someone pointed out in the stream the other day, and thus would be ideally excluded as a choice for Bricktrons during Call to Arms. I do not know enough about the programming you have used to say whether that will be a problem or not... But this whole concept can be rebalanced and rebranded to allow for some combat ability, say at the expense of the extra speed, or perhaps being slightly more expensive? On that note, my original concept allowed the adventurer to have a crossbow expressly for firing the grappling hook, but I scratched it for being TOO expensive...
Maybe allow the adventurer another weapon like... a whip? ; ) Or perhaps a sling or slingshot, that fires stone that the adventurer carries, and thus has a limitation but can still reload relatively easily from boulders or voxels?
In my personal opinion, though, I feel like scouting and gathering are a good resume for this unit, and adding combat ability, especially ranged, would likely be OP.
...Another idea, in case the Adventurer kit was not already expensive and complicated enough, one could add 5 brimstone to the Pack's cost, and visually add a lantern to the pack/belt, further helping distinction, and also allowing the Adventurer to see at night. This could also replace the spyglass and still make sense, although I'd personally be sad to see another use for glass go.
But that would bring the kit cost to:
a backpack, with lantern (1-3 fabric, 5 brimstone)
and a grappling hook (1 iron, 1-3 rope)
Another note about the cost, it is not too expensive, and uses very little iron or brimstone/glass, but encourages the player to invest more time in collecting plants early on if they want the economic boost the unit can contribute. Also, it occurs to me that you can balance the use of this unit pretty well by whether you allow it to be made at the workbench, allowing the player to attempt to "rush" a couple of adventurers for economic use (or spying!), or at the Machine Shop, meaning players will more likely make one or two later on, for scouting or remote resource-grabbing purposes.