As it stands right now, the benefits are:
Indar - 10% Reduction of cost for items purchased with Infantry resources.
Esamir - 10% Reduction of cost for vehicles purchased with Mechanized resources.
Amerish - 10% Reduction of cost for aircraft purchased with Aerospace resources.
After Malorn has given us a verbal glimpse at the upcoming resource system, one thing caught my attention. He mentioned that his idea for benefits is most likely resource discounts. What I would like to point out is: while it's all good and meaningful in theory, it does not provide enough incentive for a typical shoot-shit-jack.
From a psychological standpoint, discounts are viewed as "defensive benefit". What I mean is discounts allow for owner to withstand higher attrition. But that is a "defensive benifit", since it provides players' with "more of the same tool" as opposed "more tools".
Let's just remember how ^this^ game did it:
Ishundar - Vehicle Shield Recharge in the proximity of all bases (AMP Station Benefit)
Cyssor - 5% Vehicle Armor Buff
Searhus - Reduced Spawn Timer
Oshur - Vehicle Repairs on all Rearm Stations
Esamir+Amerish >
Ceryshen+Forseral > Access to enemy Vehicles based on which pair you've locked
Hossin+Solsar >
As you can see benefits here (which are really all base benefits, minus Cyssor), feel less ephemeral, since they provide visible and, more importantly, - tangible bonuses. To a degree where it's even tactile, like the Oshur benefit.
I want to make one thing clear, right away, both discounts and "tangible benfits" provide the same level of advantage, BUT, since the game must always be viewed as a game, overwhelming majority of players in which are zerg, one should not forget what zerg sees in these benefits. The implications are - if you give 50% vehicle discount for Tech Plant ownership, it will not feel as vital as the same Tech Plant giving access to MBTs.
To simplify:
-- Discounts are a bad idea for benefits, because micromanagement is zerg's weakpoint. You give a player a sweet, and he's gonna take this sweet, even if you say that he can have two the day after tomorrow. And Discounts are sweets, not cars, since the value of a tool is rather low already, and it will be especially low if you can pull two of it in a row (the new system's feature). --
Instead,
there should be some benfit that provides "extra tools", rather than increases the attrition. Benefits like:
- Facility Spawn Time reduction (making it so you spawn on facilities faster, than you do on AMSes, zerg will notice that straight away)
- Or that very 5% Vehicle Armor Increase
- Or Scout Radar working on an unoccupied vehicles (in light of the latest patch)
The zerg should be given what it would feel powerful with. Giving it something that requires any sort of management is a bad idea, because that's the prerogative of tactics/strategy-aware players.
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