Can't be that hard to make it not get--dug.

It would be easy for them to be impervious to diggers.

Exactly.

Digging for treasure deep underground is always fun for the whole family

Ah, this is going to be like Motherload all over again!

Ehh, a little, but I would think there would only be a few artifacts per map; so you would probably just have an unit's AI set to go to it while you focus on the main objective.

Maybe they could be hidden and in a randomized underground location? You would just happen to stumble upon them while digging.

Maybe there could be a "hot or cold" detector device that gives you a reading as to how close you are to anything worth over 500 gold or whatever.
It would be kind of like gem collection in Sonic Adventure 2. But then again, that was the worst mode in a mediocre game. Maybe it would work better in CC though.

Metal detector style, you mean?

Unless there was a good AI script to auto-detect stuff like that dig properly, it'll be too much micromangement on top of what we'd already have to deal with combat wise.

Kinda, the device would tell you how close you are to it, but not the direction.

Like the hot/cold game.
One person is looking for an object others have hidden, while they describe how close they are to finding it, in a metaphor describing their closeness as being their heat. When they're completely off they're 'frozen', when it's under their nose they're 'on fire', etc.

The device's reading could be one of several glow particles, icy blue if you're farther than maximum reading strength, but as you get closer, it transitions hues until its a fiery orange.

But with the destructibility of everything in CC, there wouldn't really be any obstacles you would have to navigate around to make you loose track.
So that might just make the whole thing seem to be just a bother rather than a challenge. It's like telling a bird to get to a certain part of a hedge maze.


It could be implemented into a mission/s without needing ability for AI to find something in this way.
But if you did want the AI to have to find something this way, it would be a matter of trilateration to make them predict a point based on several readings. Their predicted point could be as accurate as their perceived readings, or as inaccurate as the scripter would like.


And I'm not saying this should be added to general gameplay, but it could be a mission, or a few missions, or its own gamemode, with multiplayer variants. The random undetectable artifacts you just happen to find while digging could be added to general gameplay though.

Well, you could still triangulate the direction using the hot/cold. That's just how directional-finders work.

That's how the iPhone's GPS works.

But either way, it seems like artifacts are a good idea to have as secrets.

Actually triangulating is finding a point based on the angle rather than a proximity.
And the device as I've described it reads proximity without angle.

So the AI would trilaterate to predict the point, like I said.

Azukki, I don't understand what is so hard for you to understand about what I said, but I am glad you at least read the wikipedia article on it. Bravo on being a WP scholar

If you have a device that gives you relative information on the source of a signal, you can triangulate using signal strength. You have three plotted points on a graph. These points are representations of absolute location, and relative received signal strength. Its easy enough to use those points to locate the source.

This is what he means, azukki.


I sprayed 3 colors, cold warm and hot, and was able to estimate where the object would be.

Daww, thanks MLC.

Like gold, it'd be interesting to have other type of special resources that might require a special tools to harvest. In return for more complex methods of harvesting, it would also provide much more cash than usually gold does. To make it even more interesting, make the resource harmful/hazardous for actor interaction and make the resource appear as small pockets underground. Deep underground.

To harvest this resource, you would first dig to it and then toss/deploy a specific collector unit/extractor tool which would add the contents of the resource pocked to your funds.

Sort of like underground deadly tiberium that requires special equipment to handle/harvest.

I might be able to make something interesting through normal content creation...
Something a bit more elaborate than money generators. We've got Lua afterall now.