Today we had a long and in-depth IRC discussion. Here are the results that I want to specifically highlight. If I forgot something, someone who was there should definitely remind me!
1) In response to the dretch hiding endgame, if the RC or OM is down, the respective team will show up regardless of motion. This code has already been comitted by ds.
2) Repairing human structures will no longer cost money. Courtesy of Viech.
3) gimhael suggested Alien regen will no longer be a static value determined by location. Instead, alien regen will start at a given value and decrease via some reasonable function over time as long as the alien is off creep. This is a potential idea to help check alien mobility. Technically, it will also have the side effect of making it difficult for aliens to win a game if their OM is down. Granger is to be excluded from this because we can think of granger as "having creep inside" <-- Just on explanation. I'm sure kharnov can come up with another if he wants.
4) Toy with the idea that both Repeaters and Drills will provide power. This seems redundant, but repeaters have the obvious advantage of not killing your mining rate if you build one outside a power range but within a drill mine range. Uncertain what to do about drill power overlaps. Allow them since drill penalizes building them too close? Since there is no longer a local BP pool, overlapping powerzones should no longer pose an issue.
5) For the tutorial interactive mode, a new mascot, hesitantly named "Grangy" by Tim, will offer commentary and advice as a player completes the task assigned in the tutorial. The idea is to give the players a physical form for them to concentrate all their rage and anguish because our tasks will require too much skill to complete.