For Backers Only: Megabot Experiment

That's been like the last 3 pages, people haven't read the thread at all and are just posting in response to the OP.

Mike

Which is sorta sad because I think there are some very good suggestions in here for how to make 'mega-bots' viable without making them "build one and immediately win"

yes build a gantry for it or should i say a big girder box, it needs to be massive and built as a separate building, the fabbers throw up the gantry which then builds the super inside it, when the super is ready it breaks out of the gantry in a spectacular series of explosions and flying gantry pieces.

The more I think about this, the more it makes sense.
Having some kind of factory for mega-units would actually be pretty nice. With the possibility to add more mega-units after release. Why more than one? Because it would allow for specialization of each one instead of having only one that kinda needs to fill multiple roles.

For example one that's incredibly tough, but is only dealing damage at close range.
One that has very long range, but poor defence up close.
One that is a tank that can also swim, and so on.

At least that's how I'd do it. ^^

the resource you spent on it could have gone into a large army so it should, when finished, be as powerful as that army would have been and then some or able to deliver the destructive power of that unbuilt army in a way that they couldn't.
A super won't be an I win cos i got there first, it should be an i win this planet cos i got there first, the other players will have to retreat to safer astral bodies and just blow that planet up as it is a lost cause; if everyone builds the same structures and units nothing is unbalanced unless there is no way to escalate the destruction to counter it.

Fun Fact, that was exactly the Type of thing we had planned for The Basilisk and Goliath in BlackOps: Unleashed but there were just too many limitations in what we could do compared to what we wanted to do(especially with the Basilisk) so it never happened.

Mike

I think they shouldn't replace armies.
Instead post-lategame battles should be consisting of many massive armies with a few super-units in between. You can reach that by creating a synergy between armies (small units) and stuff like the megabot (big units) to make them complement eachother. That way super-units wouldn't necessarily have to cost a fortune, but wouldn't need to be one-man armies either.

The entire point of this discussion is "How to build megabots without completely replacing armies". Making them replace armies is counterproductive.

As was said above me, they have synergize with normal small-unit armies. Not replace them.

o ok, well then i think it a good idea that you have to pilot your super with a commander and when the super gets wrecked the commander spills out in a comical fashion next to the super so only an idiot would send it in alone, it would be the the big gun at the back of the pack and have to fall back if the battle goes badly.

This would also make it more difficult to snipe as it effectively gives the commander an extra layer of protection and we all know that late game the commander needs some snipe protection when that scrub who has stayed to himself mostly on the free for all, turtled at the south pole, decides to send the 200 bombers he's been building all game at your commander, well at least force him bombers to do a second pass.

Early game the commander is quite useful for fending off overly aggressive players with that nifty uber cannon but late game he's just a liability you have to try and hide behind beneath several umbrellas and a mountain of AA; by mounting him in a megabot he'll get a second wind and can be used again on the assault or defense.

Also this introduces a reason why you might need to build sub-commanders so you can pilot more megabots, them being just like your commander except less powerful, bit squishier and only a smaller explosion on death (they aren't walking nukes for you to throw at the enemy).

Also not stated before would be that you don't build the megabot then mount the commander you build the megabot around the commander or subcomander, the construction framework goes up suspending the commander like a hanging puppet or perhaps floating dramatically in grav fields on a slow rotate and lit from below with flood lights and then the framework and assisting fabbers set to work constructing the mega bot body around him; then the dramatic finale of the exploding framework destroyed as the new megabot takes it's first steps or rolls on it's tracks. The upgrade is permanent untill destroyed upon which the commander tumbles out of the wreckage and rights itself.

When I was considering the super tank idea, I was thinking about something like the Bolos from Keith Laumer's Bolo. Each one is a massive artificially-intelligent super tank with anti orbital weaponry and megaton fire power.They could also fly at 500km per hour and drop from high orbit and survive.. It would be difficult to balance such a unit, but it would be cool to see ingame. I would think an ingame super tank unit would probably have limited AA and the have ability to murder individual enemy naval and vehicle units.

Why not simply, make a unit that specializes in destroying mega-bots? It would encourage players not to send it out by its self.

And how would you do that exactly without using special damage types and making sure it wouldn't be overpowered within the normal unit roster, yet viable enough that you would use it for more than just as a counter to a MegaBot?

If i had to guess, make one mega-bot that is good at destroying other mega-bots. So have more than one type of mega-bot.

One could have weapons for anti air and anti megabot.

The other could be anti unit and anti structure.

Could be something like an armor piercing tank? Specialized unit designed to take down larger or heavily armored units(Which wouldn't just be megabots, I would imagine Levelers fit that description as well)

Explain to me how 'armour piercing' works in a game with no armour other than HP.
Explain to me exactly how a MegaBot can be 'good' at destroying other MegaBots while not being overpowered against other units?

Well the game isn't finished. =p

It could just do bonus damage to units flagged as 'armored'. There's a bunch of different ways it could be handled if you put your mind to it. It's just a suggestion.

The point of PA, SupCom and TA is getting away from those kind of arbitrary rules. So how do you do it without those arbitrary rules?

Mike

I don't know if I'd count flagging an obviously heavily-armored unit as armored to be an arbitrary rule.