Assorted Burning Legion Worker Problems

I'm currently doing some mapping on the side, continuing my fifth demon race whenever I have an idea or some time I can't use for anything.

Now, currently, the idea I have for their worker is that they have a worker, the "Devoted" that can summon buildings, repair them at the cost of resources and mana, and summon one Imp each. Imps can build buildings, repair them at the cost of resources, and harvest gold and lumber. Demonic units can also eat Imps to regain health. (No HP regen normally.)

Now, the problem is, I've playtested a bit, and I eventually end up with a whole bunch of Devoted standing around doing nothing, with the Imps doing all the hard work. To me, it seems inefficient to have units just standing arround, but I can't figure out what they should do. I've though of making them channel the summon (They still just stand around and workers are now twice as vunrable) or have a channelable aura that increases Imp movement. (5 Imps at a goldmine? One channels that aura, the others do what?) I've also though about making Devoted individually upgrade into a Lesser Demon than can both build, repair and harvest, but that means the Burning Legion has three types of workers. I was planning to have the Burning Legion be a bit wierd, but I think this is stetching it.

I'd appreaciate your ideas or input.

Maybe reduce their speed by X and force them to follow the imps, the imps would get unsummoned if they leave X range of their master or if their master stops following them.

But then it's either insane micromanagement, or they're still just doing nothing. Maybe "Devoted" should have to 'prepare' resources; as in, take a chunk out of a gold mine and curse it, then leave it on the ground for the imps to carry, or burn a tree so the imp can harvest it.

Or at least allow the Devoted to improve the Imps' working capabilities.

Just use tornado as base for summon.

Maybe the Devoted could be consumed by the building they summon, like Wisps when they build Ancients. Would fit in with their name...?

Imps should not be allowed to build, but allowed to repair. Devoted should not be allowed to repair.

On your "Townhall" you should have an ability to sacrifice a Devoted to regenerate mana to nearby units, or heal them, or even gain some kind of bonus.

As an alternate thing to do with your devoted they should have the ability to Increase the ability of their imp (speed and attack damage) with a channeling ability. This should be something in the order of doubleing the imps meager abilities, to put them on par with the humans in resource gathering (at least), but at a high cost, and also have the low level defense avallible.
This ability could work like an undead gold mine, you have to channel into your town hall with your Devoted to give bonus to Imps in an area, up to 5 Devoted can channel at a time. That would be pretty cool.

That way they can either stand around channeling to increase defense or productivity, or they can be sacrificed and retain their imps as harvesters.

EDIT: @DioD: Thats very useful DioD...

Sounds like a micro nightmare, unless you can streamline the abilities for easier use...

I don't want to use a channeled summon. The problem with that is that then it's really easy to kill the Imp, as you can kill the Devoted or the Imp. I don't think that is a very good weakness, as it makes the Burning Legion very easy to harrass. Besides, it's a bad exploit of the "Devoted-Imp" relationship, as for all practical purposes, it's one worker with twice weakness and no extra flexibility.

Making the Devoted break down resources and have the imps transfer them seems like a fun concept, but would also be nightmare to code. While I could possibly get the actual breakdown and transfer working quickly in GUI, I image the makeshift AI required to make the relationship work to be over my ability.

Now, having the Devoted increase the Imps working abilities is something i've though of. I'd probably go with it, in the form of an aura ("This Imp is being watched by it's master. It will work harder.") but I'd still find that I have a bunch of unused Devoted. I could off course go with an triggered autocast ability that increases the movement speed and carrying cappacity of the Imp.

This actually gives me an intresting idea I'd like your opinion on. How about tiers of speed? First, you have standard Imps. Then, you have Imps watched by a Devoted, and then, a third tier, the Devoted can be upgraded to have spell much like Unholy Frenzy, that increases the speed of the Imps, making them highly effective workers and compensating for the huge cost of most Burning Legion units.

Oh, you're planning for an AI? That does seem kind of hard to get an AI to understand.

I would make something that gives Devoted something useful to do, but not something that the player has to insanely micromanage.

How about "Devoted Rewards". Everytime an Imp gathers X amount of gold/lumber, if there's a Devoted nearby, it gives the Imp a treat, healing it and increasing its workspeed by X%. I think it'd be kind of fun to see a Devoted throwing treats to imps to make them work faster for a bit. That way, you'd need to have Devoted near your imps, and they aren't useless.

Maybe make Devoted able to "attack"; if an Imp is near a Devoted and is attacked, the Devoted shoots a bolt at the attacker.

Currently, I don't have ant intriquite plans for an actual AI, but I still need something that makes the Imps harvest the Cursed Gold and Cursed Lumber if I incline to use that system. I don't think anyone wants to tell every single Imp to pick up every single pice of CG and CL, then tell it to deliver, only to repeat the process when they have better things to do, like fight.

About the attacking, I was planning, but hadn't come very far in the planning, to have the the Imp and Devoted to be able to attack together for enchanted effects of some sort. Like casting buffs on the Imp so it can attack slightly better than being massacered. (Versions of Inner Fire, Bloodlust or even Call To Arms come to mind.)

I'll have a look at what I can do once I fire up the World Editor again. I don't have the map readily avaliable.

How about a Call to Arms for the Imp where they run to the nearest Devoted instead to get converted? Or make the Devoted like the Orc Burrow, where a single Imp can enter (possess) a Devoted for increased attacks.

You cannot not have Repair, and build (so far as I know). Unless their's some thing that makes it work for summoning...?

Man, wish I had something to contribute, but you've basically got the full complement of idea-guys right here. :P