Dev Diary: Building on the World MapIn Silence of the Siren you're not limited to taking over the existing buildings on the map. There are a few useful structures that your commanders can construct to defend your territory, boost your income or surprise your enemies.
The Rules
Any commander can use their movement points once per round to construct something. The objects cost some resources and usually take a short while to activate, but if you so desire, you can spend a little bit extra to power them up immediately.
There are also special points on each map, building zones, that allow you to construct these structures with a big discount.
If one of your structures isn't needed anymore, you can always take it down. You will even reclaim some of the materials that were used to build it.
Some of your commanders will learn the Builder skill. It allows them to construct more powerful versions of the buildings and gives some nice discounts for various actions on the map, including upgrading your mines!
The StructuresFirst, let's list them all, then we'll have a closer look at three examples!
Mining probes,
Automatic turrets,
Outposts,
Drone dogs,
Cybersnares, traps that catch enemy commanders - available to commanders with maxed-out Builder skill.
Drone Dogs are small stationary bots that extend the visibility in the fog of war. It's always nice to leave one behind when returning from an expedition to see if somebody is following in your steps. :)
Outposts let you leave guards at your chosen location - and provide a few special perks.
Most importantly, if you have a gateway-type building in your base, you can send troops to your outposts directly!
Also, when some enemy units want to join you during negotiations, but there's no space in your army, no problem! The nearest outpost can accept the recruits instead!
Then, on the economy side of things, there are Mining Probes. Here, we're talking about a classic risk/reward mechanic. A probe will mine some resources each round, until somebody pays it a visit and empties it. Do you need the resources right now? Oh, somebody else left an unguarded mining probe nearby! And so on. :)
While we still have some work ahead especially when it comes to game balance, you should now have a pretty good idea about the options your commanders have at hand when they're out in the wild.
Which one did you find most interesting? Have you tried any of these in the demo? Let us know in the discussion!
The Rules
Any commander can use their movement points once per round to construct something. The objects cost some resources and usually take a short while to activate, but if you so desire, you can spend a little bit extra to power them up immediately.
There are also special points on each map, building zones, that allow you to construct these structures with a big discount.
If one of your structures isn't needed anymore, you can always take it down. You will even reclaim some of the materials that were used to build it.
Some of your commanders will learn the Builder skill. It allows them to construct more powerful versions of the buildings and gives some nice discounts for various actions on the map, including upgrading your mines!
The StructuresFirst, let's list them all, then we'll have a closer look at three examples!
Mining probes,
Automatic turrets,
Outposts,
Drone dogs,
Cybersnares, traps that catch enemy commanders - available to commanders with maxed-out Builder skill.
Drone Dogs are small stationary bots that extend the visibility in the fog of war. It's always nice to leave one behind when returning from an expedition to see if somebody is following in your steps. :)
Outposts let you leave guards at your chosen location - and provide a few special perks.
Most importantly, if you have a gateway-type building in your base, you can send troops to your outposts directly!
Also, when some enemy units want to join you during negotiations, but there's no space in your army, no problem! The nearest outpost can accept the recruits instead!
Then, on the economy side of things, there are Mining Probes. Here, we're talking about a classic risk/reward mechanic. A probe will mine some resources each round, until somebody pays it a visit and empties it. Do you need the resources right now? Oh, somebody else left an unguarded mining probe nearby! And so on. :)
While we still have some work ahead especially when it comes to game balance, you should now have a pretty good idea about the options your commanders have at hand when they're out in the wild.
Which one did you find most interesting? Have you tried any of these in the demo? Let us know in the discussion!
