Experimentals and Commander Upgrades

Hey everyone,

I just started playing the PA beta today. I'm coming from a history with SupCom and FA, and I am glad to be playing a game that quickly feels so familiar.

My questions, though, are:

1. Are there experimental units a la SupCom?

2. Can you upgrade your commander a la SupCom?

3. Are there keyboard shortcuts for building stuff? (e.g. in SupCom, pressing B and then E brought up a mex build icon)

Thanks!

1. no
2. no
3. yes, check the options of PA for simple mappings or check the thread "hotbuild" in the mod forums for the rotating style of the FA mod that has the same name.

Didn't they say at one point they didn't want to put in research/commander upgrades/experimentals?

Yes they did but commanders will have abilities.

Mhm! I'm interested to see what those abilities will be.

Same here along with all the missing units/buildings

The delta supposedly has shoulder mounted rockets in those massive shoulders of his.

I think some t3 is a must for this game....

Na, then people would just complain that commanders lose their bite.

More like t3, t4, t5, and t∞.

T3 is orbital

I suppose, it just feels less T3 and more T2-extended.

Orbital has the same setup as the rest of the factory types, some Satellite types have Basic and Advanced Variants, but once you look at the costs involved with Orbital units, it's clear they're in a league of thier own.

Mike

Again, that doesn't much stop them from feeling less like a new tier and just more options that open up with T2.

For example, T2 is essentially an upgraded version of T1. Orbital is like a new game entirely. I would almost consider it a... "OT1", or "Orbital Tier 1" rather than a T3 of the ground/air/naval forces.

Do a search before posting. Been talked about before.

No experimental, no commander upgrades.

Uber (nor I) do not want game ending single units. Good strategic gameplay comes through a properly composed army, not building a single bad *** unit.

Commander upgrades also won't be in the game. You're supposed to protect your Commander, not send him into the fray.

Single giant units are a bald-faced gimmick, especially when they have ridiculous abilities.

There is absolutely no need to have "progression" of units in a strategy game, like you would have in an RPG. Commanders, and all other units, have fixed capabilities because that makes them known quantities for players to predict the outcomes of confrontations. There is no need for scaling of unit properties; use quantity instead.

Furthermore, there is no need for supermassive experimentals. Use a large army of small units. They can be split, you can customize an army with a wide variety of unit types, and if the enemy has an army you can attack it piecemeal instead of wasting troops attacking a monolithic single unit with a preposterous amount of HP.

I will say, however, that the gameplay role of game-ender super-unit actually is strategically significant, even if it is almost never used. A single ridiculously powerful Krogoth-type unit which is incredibly inefficient to actually build actually affects the game even when it is not constructed by encouraging players to constantly engage and scout. Leaving your enemy alone for 10 minutes might make you lose because they gambled that you wouldn't attack for 10 minutes and built one.

So there actually is a justification for having exactly one "experimental" unit, provided it is actually quite a terrible unit for cost. But having a full-fledged T3 is just stupid. Put all the unit roster slots you would have put into T3 into more types of basic and advanced units instead. Players will actually be able to use those without having silly amounts of canceling larger unit stats, cost scaling, and arbitrary economy scaling just to compensate.

This is a strategy game, not some bullshit Skinner-box RPG where players level up and fight scaled-strength monsters in a never-ending game of pointless inflationary economics.

@ledarsi @brianpurkiss I dunno what you guys are talking about. in what does a haley-mounted asteroid or planet differ from a big unit? in what does a nuke? in what does a unit cannon? in what does a orbital gun associated with an adv satellite and garded by a flock of orbital fighters?

you say big units are bad because they can end the game in one fell swoop. I don't see many units and 'units' in the current game that are incapable of doing just that.

God forbid experimentals. This was one of the most idiotic ideas ever introduced by SupCom.
Just keep it in line with Total Annihilation - standard units + perhaps a Krogoth. No shitty spam of UFOs and other mega-garbage.

the game will have a EXP, but more like a Kroghot than, GC, MK, Mega, FatBoy...
I saw in a Early alpha video from ZaphodX:
/watch?v=CJoyXizasas&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLcQSLpMnWi126rjJTX6W3RDuNa_i6WND6

I think a better wording would be it might get them in some addition after release. I don't think such units are planned for release.