Where the hell did that come from? I thought GPG was pretty much out of business?
Of note;
Mass Extractor Veterancy – Securing and protecting mass deposits is now vital to mid-term and long-term gameplay. Base unit cost and base Mass output has been reduced to half of the previous values. Mass Extractors will slowly increase in effectiveness as they accumulate veterancy until at 18 minutes they double their effectiveness.
This sounds to slightly weaken mass conversion tactics (not that I favour that massively) in the mid to late game, and will benefit early expansion tactics instead. Not sure if it favours early rushes or not, as you'll be generating less mass from your startign position, but will have more spare from the initial build queue...
Comments
I love the early rush! I'm still terrible at the late game. An interesting change now if they'd only make shield take far less damage from Artillery.
How gloriously unexpected... This might actually stop the midgame stall my current favoured tactics suffer from.
I had a bit of a play around with it;
1) AI notably more aggressive/effective on Normal
2) Initial build queue is going to have to change... you have more mass to play with, but I think it can easily be pushed into an early attack (though it will be tougher to recover from, as your 4 mass points will be throwing out less)
3) Mid-late game, if you have mass points that have been held early you do get a lot of mass. Less requirement for an energy farm/mass conversion. I tried it on Rigs (as a 4v4) and if felt more viable to run Navy en masse (I normally find it tricky on that map, as you have limited mass points and space)
Definitely a good change to the balance of the game...
Nuking mass extractors suddenly becomes a worthy pass time.
Certainly nuking the starting location is a valid past-time, and resetting those 4 extractors.
I can see griefing mass-points being a valid tactic...re-setting their collection power back down to 0.6 (starting level) every 5-8 minutes could really cripple a player.