The build point reserve system limits the way bp (build points) are regenerated. Each team now gets two build point pools, one is the usable bp pool that builders can access directly for building anytime, the other is the reserve bp pool which can’t be accessed directly and which does not regenerate.
When a buildable is destroyed by someone/something not on the same team, bp from the reserve bp pool gradually regenerates the lost bp into the usable bp pool. However, once the reserve bp pool reaches 0, the usable bp pool can no longer be regenerated. When the usable bp pool is no longer regenerating, any buildable on that team still can be deconstructed so that its bp can be reused to build anything else.
Two new game cvars were created for setting the reserve bp on both teams:
- g_humanBuildPointsReserve
- g_alienBuildPointsReserve
The reserve bp system can be used for low bp, mid bp, and high bp game plays. This system does not require any form of sudden death (although sudden death can still be used with it), provides a much more natural non-abrupt flow to the game than sudden death, makes killing any buildable from the start of the game more meaningful, and increases the importance of building smart instead of spamming buildables.
The reserve bp system is planned to be available in the Swirl game mode but not the Vanilla (1.1 vanilla game play) Game mode, as the resulting building and attack strategies would be very different from what is accustomed for 1.1 vanilla game play.
The reserve bp system is now being tested on the [color=#33CC33]test[/color][color=#00E6E6]7341[/color] server. For the current tests we have the usable bp on both teams set to 250 and the reserve bp on both teams set to 200. With these settings up to 450 bp total can be used on each team over an entire match, however only up to 250 bp on each team can be used simultaneously at any moment.
Currently, with the the HUD, builders can observe their own team’s reserve bp pool from the bottom right hand corner near the usable bp display. The usable bp is displayed in the same HUD elements classical bp has used traditionally in Tremulous. For humans, the reserve bp is displayed in the area of the HUD used for ammo clips. For aliens the reserve bp is displayed in the same HUD element as the usable bp, but distinguished by being between curly braces. We may improve upon how the reserve bp as well as the usable bp is displayed in the HUD.
