DrugWars Update: Defensive Buildings And You!
DrugWars recently rolled out their v0.6 update, and with this update came a new batch of toys to play with: Defensive structures. But while the game implemented them, and explains what they do, it's hard to understand what to invest in until you've seen them in action...and by then, it may already be too late. Fortunately, as a player with more resources than sense, I've dumped a ton of Drugs, Weapons, Alcohol, and time into the new buildings, and here's what I can report. Let's get into the nitty-gritty of DrugWars Defensive Structures! Going down the list in order, we have...
CAMERAS
Normally when you are attacked, the only information you get is that your opponent is sending their forces in your direction. While it's nice to know someone's about to come knocking on your front door, wouldn't it be better to know some specifics? Well, if you install some security cameras around your compound, you can stop playing "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" and start playing "Do I need to retreat, or can we handle this?".
For every point invested into Cameras, you receive notice of up to 100 individual units' worth of attacker of one specific unit type, in order of unit priority. So if someone sends 50 Super Bouncers and 100 Knifers at you, and you have level 1 Cameras, you'll see 50 Bouncers coming at you. But if you have level 2 or higher, you will see both 50 Super Bouncers and 100 Knifers on the preliminary report.
Usefulness Rating: 1 / 5
Attacks in DrugWars happen relatively quickly -- unless you're attacking someone a long distance from your base using nothing but AH-64 Apaches, battles usually end in under 10 minutes. While it's nice to see what an opponent is sending your way, unless you're someone who spends all day at your computer, it's unlikely that you'll see the incoming attack message in time to do anything about it. Otherwise, Cameras do nothing to deter incoming attackers or bolster your own forces, which means they're probably not your best investment.
One way to improve the cameras, especially for casual players who may only log in to play a few times per week, would be to have them grant a small offensive and/or defensive bonus to defending troops, to simulate the advanced notice they have of an incoming attack, and thus time to either dig in and fortify their position (better defense) or get to more advantageous terrain (better offense). Right now, they're really only useful for hardcore players who spend a lot of time in the game.
DOGS
Who doesn't feel safer with a kennel full of attack dogs on their property? Train them, feed them, and when the enemy comes knocking, send them to tear their ugly little throats out. The downside? It takes a minute for the trainers to unleash them, which means they won't do anything until the start of round two...but whoever runs into them in going to come away with a new appreciation for the phrase, "Nature red in tooth and claw".
Dogs trigger once, at the start of the second round, so the higher their level, the more of them head out to attack. They target a single cluster of attacking units for a small amount of damage that increases as you invest resources into them, and get a small damage boost if the cluster they attack consists of melee attackers (it's easier to defend yourself against a pack of German Shepherds if you're packing heat, after all).
Usefulness Rating: 2 / 5
Dogs are fantastic for high-level players who are fielding a large army, because they're another obstacle an attacker has to overcome before they get their hands on your own ill-gotten gains. Unfortunately, with Dogs not attacking until the start of round two, this makes them almost useless for low-level players or people with very small armies, because savvy players will ensure they send enough troops to wipe you out in one round.
The other downside to Dogs is that they only attack once, then spend the rest of their time chewing up the bodies of whoever they managed to maul in that single attack. At level 1, Dogs will do very little damage (around 5 points to a single cluster). While this is enough to bring down a single Rowdy or a Bouncer, the loss of one troop more or less isn't apt to affect the outcome of combat. Even at level 10, they're only hitting for about 50 damage, so it's safe to assume that you'll more or less kill 1.5 extra enemy units per level of Dogs depending on what units your attacker uses and how much they have invested in training up Protection.
If I was going to suggest an improvement to Dogs, it would be to have them attack once on round 1, and alter their unit priority so they kill Knifers before they are able to use their TastyNasty skill to carve up the defender's high-value troopers; if there are no Knifers in the incoming army, then unit priority proceeds as normal (Rowdy to Bouncer to Big Mama, etc...). Or, if that is too disruptive, have them be a random element: attack on round 1, but randomly pick one group of melee attackers to hit, and if there are no melee attackers, then go after a random group of ranged attackers.
Otherwise, Dogs are an investment best left for players with moderate to high levels of troops, and should be avoided for players with small armies or low-level bases.
Defense Troops
Defense Troops are special forces soldiers kept on scramble alert. In the event of an attack, they muster out to the combat zone, drop into the outskirts of the fracas, and proceed to kick ass and take names until the fighting ceases. Unlike most of the bozos in your army, Defense Troops are highly-trained in the art of covert operations and guerrilla warfare -- the only casualties these teams take are the unfortunate victims who wind up in their crosshairs.
In game terms, Defense Troops deploy at the start of the second round of combat, and like Dogs they concentrate fire on a single cluster of enemy troops. Unlike Dogs, they keep hammering away at the opposing forces until the battle ends, which means they can activate up to five times in a single fight. Hoo-rah, bitches!
Usefulness Rating: 3.5 / 5
Defense Troops, like Dogs, work best for players with large armies because of their second round deployment, but unlike Dogs, they not only stick around for subsequent rounds, they get increasingly more powerful too. Their initial attack power is based on their level, but they get a bonus to that attack power every subsequent round, just like regular Snipers do. Of course, to offset that, they're also much more expensive than Dogs but that investment is worth it. While they're unlikely to turn a potential loss into a victory, they'll make an attacker pay a heavier price for coming at you.
As an example of their per-round increase, level 10 Defense Troops hit a single cluster of opposing troops for 52 damage at the start of round two. Assuming the fight goes the distance, this turns into 80 damage to a single cluster at the start of round six. In contrast, it takes level 16 Dogs to inflict that much damage on a single cluster of opponents, and they only get to do it once, making Defense Troops a much better bang for your buck.
EMERGENCY
There's no getting around it: when bullets start flying, bodies start dying. Casualties, in gang warfare, are inevitable, but just because your soldiers are willing to die for you doesn't mean they have to. The Emergency building gives you access to a first-response team who will arrive once the dust settles and patch up your boys with pain meds and minor surgery so they can fight another day.
The math for the Emergency works like this: take the level of Emergency, and divide it by 400. Then apply that number as a percentage to every unit type involved in your defense, and resurrect that number of dead units from each group. For instance, if you have a level 5 Emergency, (5 / 400) = 0.0125. If you have 2,000 Rowdies defending your territory, you would multiply the number of Rowdies by 0.0125 to get 25, which means the Emergency will prevent 25 of them from dying. This is then calculated for every other unit type involved in the brawl, so a single Emergency building can save potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of resources' worth of units from having to be replaced.
Usefulness Rating: 5 / 5
The Emergency is useful for everybody. For low-level players, it means your entire army won't get wiped out if someone decides to curb-stomp you. This gives you a modicum of defense remaining, and saves you the time and money required to re-train those units, which you would lose without the Emergency room at your disposal. For high-level players, the benefits of the Emergency increase with the size of your army and thus the scale of conflict. This is a must-buy for gang-bangers of any level. It's also the most expensive option on the menu, but each potential level translates to a massive savings should war come to your front door.
Be advised that the Emergency is a defensive structure only. If you send your boys out to start some shit, they're on their own -- nobody at the local hospital is going to feel an ounce of pity towards the aggressor. The only service the emergency coordinators will provide in that case are body bags.
SECURITY SYSTEM
The Security System is a state-of-the-art, computer-guided, self-targeting weapons array that sends streams of hot lead into your opponents without any of that pesky second-guessing or crisis-of-conscience stuff getting in the way. Just program it to recognize your own forces, then sit back and watch it target and destroy incoming troops with robotic precision. And if those incoming attackers happen to be packing ranged weaponry of their own, then so much the better! The Security System has laser-targeted optics that lets it pick off targets at a distance, giving a damage boost to any hit vs. Ranged units. One install solves it all!
Usefulness Rating: 2 / 5
On paper, the Security System looks phenomenal. In practice, however, it's a colossal waste of money for all but high-level play. Like the Defense Troops, the Security System hits harder on each subsequent attack, but unlike the Defense Troops, it only deploys on even-numbered rounds of combat (it takes time between rounds to re-focus on a new target). This means, at best, your Security System will only pop off three times.
That would be fine if it always targeted Ranged units, where it can dish out its full compliment of damage (around 106 damage to a single Ranged cluster at level 10), but chances are good it will instead target the giant block of Melee units your enemy sent out in front to absorb all that firepower, and because of that, its usefulness comes crashing down to the basement -- around 34 points to a single cluster of non-Ranged attackers at level 10.
To improve the Security System, it needs a means of setting Ranged units as its priority (especially if it gave such priority to the AH-64 Apache or other powerful Ranged fighters). Otherwise, anybody with a sufficiently large force of Bouncers and Big Mamas can make it waste any attacks it gets hitting these units, where its effectiveness is blunted to the point of uselessness. The other option would be to have it work the same way as Defense Troops, and have it fire on every round starting with the second. Otherwise, for just a slight increase in cost comparatively speaking, you can boost your Defense Troops and enjoy that power-boosted attack every round.
HIDDEN MINES
If the "Surprise, Motherf*cker!" Vine became a DrugWars building, it would be Hidden Mines.
What could be safer than laying down an ocean of explosives around your base's perimeter? Security cameras? Don't give me that nonsense. Security cameras don't send geysers of body parts skyward when they sense unauthorized movement. You know what does? Landmines.
They're simple: you put them down and you forget about them until some idiot gets it in his head to invade your territory, and your guys spend the next few minutes power washing his intestines off the walls of your HQ. Or maybe you're weird and you just leave them up there, baking in the sun, a grisly reminder to others of what happens to people who go poking their noses around where they shouldn't.
Like the Dogs, Hidden Mines only go off once, but they do it at the start of combat, right on round one. And unlike every other defensive option, they hit multiple targets. That's right, these are anti-personnel mines like Claymores. Splash damage, anyone...?
Usefulness Rating: 4.5 / 5
Hidden Mines don't do a lot of damage until you get into the double-digit level range, but their main advantage over all the other defensive options is that they always trigger. So even if you've got nothing guarding your buildings, you're guaranteed at least some small sense of satisfaction. Hidden Mines deal a straight 10 points of damage per level you put into them, but they deal that damage to up to 8 separate clusters of enemies. If that's all they did, they'd still be stupid awesome, but it gets better.
Hidden Mines are the only defense mechanism that will flat-out obliterate Hobos. In fact, a single level in Hidden Mines is enough to stop up to 1,000 Hobos from getting all up in your grill. Given your cheapest alternative for accomplishing this is to have 1,000 Rowdies sitting around ready to split some heads (at a total cost of 900,000 Weapons and 400,000 Alcohol and the loss of 500 of them when the Hobo wave comes crashing down), that makes Hidden Mines quite attractive. And even if your base is completely undefended, people looking to pillage resources from it will still suffer a hit to their honor as they go to cart off the loot. And you know what that means. Say it with me:
"Dead Spies, Muthafucka!"
Now that's what I'm talking about.
The Legion of Doom is a gang full of comic book loving weirdos, and we have plenty of openings for active players looking to have some fun. Join us and enjoy the bountiful boost to your resource production you know you deserve...and together, we will crush the Super Friends! BWA HA HA HA HA!!
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