On Bunkers

[thekirkunited]

So, I've lost my land twice now and I can personally attest that it sucks. Taking days or weeks to build something and then losing it in a trice is not a satisfying experience. Especially since I had a bunker on hand which was supposed to prevent this.

But the food rotted away. Woe is me.

Basically I'm posting to suggest a change in the functionality of the bunker. Allow it to store 1 food indefinitely so that you don't lose your land because of the food rotting away. Most players aren't going to have the diligence to check frequently enough to prevent this occurrence and shouldn't be punished for having lives.

Having to tech all the way to refrigeration is a bit of a ludicrous requirement to get this building to function effectively. As it stands a bunker seems to be a waste of space and resources.

I'm a pretty stubborn person so I'll keep playing and try to make something of the second piece of trash land that has been foisted off on me but this is one way in which you could lose players fast.

[iuewen]

The beauty of AID packages, is that they allow you to recover almost immediately. You are now on a sand tile - Spam some Greenhouses, swap to LF industry to allieviate the pollution, and either Ramul food or throw some trades up - it is worth it.

There aren't any buildings that can be blown up, that can't be replaced almost immediately with some creativity. Land exchanges suck (I know, I did it to you, I'm such an asshole) but it isn't the end of the world.

Just wait until DDDs start going off, or you lose a monument you wasted 50 resources on. Wait until Godzilla is implemented in BM 2.0 and he ravages your land. Until a Red Horseman shows up, and someone blows the whole world up with ICBMs. Just wait

[iuewen]

I can't really sugarcoat it here, either - there are a lot of different strategies to run in Battle Mines. If you choose to roll as a heavy builder, and can't shake off the massive amount of abuse that you are going to receive whilst having a fully upgraded tile, then you probably need to pursue a different strat. If you can't figure out how to rapidly recover from defeat, you're gonna have a bad time.

AID packages, my friend.

[inanimatej]

I'm a perfect example of a bi-polar Battle Miner. I can build and build forever, then someone takes my tile cause I forgot to harvest my one food with my bunker, only to get land exchanged and can't steal it right back because the food got taken. So I take my new Coal tile and light everyone on fire. Repeatedly. And brutally.

[inanimatej]

Incidentally, making Bunkers act as a low-tech Refrigerator would probably make that building OP as all hell, and I can't see rast ever making that change. Generally, I would either accept and embrace the change like some do, or simply check in more frequently if possible; this game isn't meant to be played weekly. Twice-daily is what I do, and things seem to be paced just fine for me.

Speaking of Red, guess who's on the way?

[thekirkunited]

Being able to hang on to a single piece of food doesn't seem OP to me, but then I suppose I'm still existing at the lower threshold of the game where food is traded for resources in bulk. Not to lower the black market timer.

[inanimatej]

It is, because it virtually guarantees that you're immune to land exchange as long as you have one. What that means is that everyone has a bunker, and the cost of land exchange is effectively doubled, meaning the mechanic is basically useless as the mechanic's cost is already prohibitively high.

[thekirkunited]

Makes sense I suppose. Perhaps we could get a timer for food then? At least that way you'd know how much time you have before you have to load the bunker again as it were.

[inanimatej]

It's just a random chance that food rots away, so it's basically impossible to time. I believe it's linked to the weather change, so if it's been a while since the weather cycle advanced, you probably might have to harvest an extra food.

[thekirkunited]

Interesting. That prompts another question: When food rots, does it go all at once or one at a time? I.E. if rot occurs and I'm currently holding 3 food do I lose it all at once or is it an incremental thing?

I would expect that it would all go at once lending no benefit to uprooting multiple fields but the manual isn't clear on the issue and I haven't had occasion to experiment with it.

[inanimatej]

Each one has a percentage chance to rot individually. I've had 3 rot at once, I've had 1, I've had none go for cycles.

[Rasteroid]

Food has a 1 in 4 chance of rotting every 6 hours (randomly spaced intervals). At least one food will rot, and multiple foods may rot, but if you have more than 1 food it will not all rot at once (ie. it will leave you with at least 1).

So theoretically, the minimum duration more than one inv food would last you is six hours, but in practice it has a very low chance of not lasting at least 12 hours. When I'm "anticipating" land exchange, I try to keep 1 or 2 food in my inv if I can.

[amonx]

What if bunkers could work as a refrigerator ONLY when you have the right tech for it? Or would that still be too op?

[Rasteroid]

There's a little something from the old BM that we haven't brought back yet, Seats of Power.

The communist SoP was the "reinforced bunker", which acted like a bunker but could take two hits in combat and didn't need food to work.

Another idea I was toying with is this: If your bunker is adjacent to a unit of crops, then your people will eat the crops if there's no food in your inventory.

Didn't implement yet because prolly too OP.