Commanders role on the Battle field

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by canadiancommander, December 12, 2013.

  1. canadiancommander

    canadiancommander Member

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    I think he should be like this
    [​IMG]


    But currently he is more like this
    [​IMG]

    I feel the commander is currently underpowered in the late game. He is far to fragile compared to the weapons on the field. As such, most of the time I find him patrolling under an anti-nuke and umbrella. As far as I'm concerned the commander should be a risk reward unit that you can use to pull your self out of a deficit or push your self to victory.

    -What do you think the commanders role on the battle field is?
  2. peewee1000

    peewee1000 Member

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    That image gave me a good laugh. :D Yes, I think d-gun and maybe other buffs would be good later on when game is less about 1vs1 on one small planet.
  3. quigibo

    quigibo Member

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    Do note that the different commanders will have different abilities when the game releases. So currently the commander is unable to utilize his full ability.

    However I kinda disagree. I know that different people use their commanders in drastically different ways (the purpose of the abilities) and the way that I like to use him is to walk around in empty territory making labs to make more units and just have him walk around doing constant base management. I don't like him on the "battlefield" at all.
  4. sirlansalot

    sirlansalot New Member

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    my only wish for him, would be able to build T2 stuff once you get an advanced fab down of some kind. He really falls off big time in usefulness once you get T2 rolling. Ya he can assist on things, but he is usually slower then most units and is better suited to being assisted rather then the assistee.
    SlackerNet likes this.
  5. canadiancommander

    canadiancommander Member

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    you don't get frustrated when the commander is weaker than a handful of t2 units?
  6. Ash3000k

    Ash3000k Member

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    I know I do, I think if we could upgrade the commander over time this would sort out that issue,
  7. canadiancommander

    canadiancommander Member

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    exactly ! ...supcom 2... I mean PA is almost hear
  8. Ash3000k

    Ash3000k Member

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    Maybe it will be in PA DLC after the actual release, with some experimental's! (I would love that!!)
  9. Teod

    Teod Well-Known Member

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    The commander actually should be weak lategame. But he is a bit too weak right now.
    brianpurkiss likes this.
  10. canadiancommander

    canadiancommander Member

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    Why should the commander be weak late game exactly? He is the most important unit in the game shouldn't he have a more active role in the battle? or at least a supporting role?
  11. OathAlliance

    OathAlliance Well-Known Member

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    He technically is the quickest building unit in the game. However, commanders aren't supposed "front line fighters". His role in the beginning is to act as the initial builder and then as the "Commander". If he could do everything then what would be the point of anything else?

    Build your base, protect your Com. He's not an all powerful warlord mech thing of doom.
    Quitch, brianpurkiss and drz1 like this.
  12. Teod

    Teod Well-Known Member

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    He is good at supporting - he is most efficient builder. But in the battle he should be used to deal with early rushes and small harassing runs. Not more than that. He should be the unit you need to protect, not the unit you use to attack.
    Quitch, brianpurkiss and SlackerNet like this.
  13. insaneundead17x

    insaneundead17x New Member

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    I can easily agree with Teod, he is YOU on the field after all. Having him wield WMD's would be fun but not then would make him cancel EVERYTHING else out. Granted I can't argue too much since I'm still a newb but no commander should ever be in the fight unless it's a suicidal run....then he's just last shot nuke
  14. BulletMagnet

    BulletMagnet Post Master General

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    In a real war, where will you find the people in charge; the decision makers, the strategists, the generals?

    You don't find them on the front line.

    The commander is there to command. It's not a shock trooper. It's not there to crack skulls.

    What the commander does is build stuff to do all the messy skull cracking for it.


    The reason why PA lacks commander upgrades is because they're a terrible, horrifyingly bad, idea. Why?

    Because it gives the player the choice of;
    1. Build a base and kickstart an economy, or
    2. POOR ALL YOU EFFORT INTO RUSHING AN OVERPOWERED KILLING MACHINE.
    It's logical what choice people make. If you played SupCom2 online, you would have experienced this.

    Because it's so lopsided, it's not a choice at all. Your choice is; "forgo everything and upgrade your commander, or die to someone who does."

    You might like to counter that argument with "well make the upgrades expensive, so they can't be rushed."

    That's fair enough, until you realise that instead of splurging on expensive upgrades, you could just build more tanks while your opponent saves all they have in order to upgrade. That's also a false choice; "ignore upgrades, build tanks, or die to someone who does."

    Then there's the question of "could you just make the upgrades affordable, but not terribly strong?"

    If the upgrades aren't very strong, then what's the point of having them?
  15. Gunman006

    Gunman006 Member

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    I'd rather have a endgame command bunker expensive as the orbital factory in which I could store my commander, that could survice 2-3 nukes and air snipes. Would be cool if the bunker had a escape pod like the evil geniuses has in cartoons so if my base is getting destroyed, lots of nukes incoming or asteroid smashing down I could escape the planet with a evil laugh :D
  16. Gerfand

    Gerfand Active Member

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    the Commander is not a unit that you can lose, for example, in FA evey one use they Commaders very agressive, but some Cybran decides to make Tele-Laser, and then every one make PD at hey sides, if a SML(Nuke) is detected, they run under a SMD(anti-Nuke)...
    they are very balance for me now, but the Air, for example is not...
    the thing is that other thing are OP:
    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/...uild-hornets-or-lose.54226/page-5#post-831117
  17. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    If you ever watch ZaphodX, he has great success in team games of using 3 commanders to 'circlejerk' across the battlefield.
    brianpurkiss likes this.
  18. cptconundrum

    cptconundrum Post Master General

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    There will be no commander upgrades. The closest thing I think we could get would be more like TA, where the commander had a very powerful weapon but it required a lot of energy to use. If the uber cannon was made to be more powerful, but take a lot more power to fire, then this only really becomes a viable weapon later on in the game when you have a lot of energy income and storage. The commander would still become more vulnerable as time goes on due to his armor not increasing, but it would allow him to more naturally shift from front-line weapon to a liability hiding in your base.
  19. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Yeah TA had the D-Gun that was a insta kill weapon.

    Still the TA commander couldn't take a punch.
  20. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    I very much disagree.

    The Commander is fairly well balanced for early game. If you buff him further, then he'll be a mega machine that is unstoppable for the first 10 minutes of the game. If you watch any ZaphodX's recent videos, you'll see how powerful 2 or 3 Commanders can be.

    If the Commander gets buffed, the forums will be full of people complaining about getting comm rushed.

    The Commander's role late game is NOT to be in combat late game. You're supposed to protect the comm, not charge the comm headlong into combat.

    The Commander is the most efficient construction unit in the game. Use that to your advantage and have it constantly building and/or assisting a factory.
    Grimseff, Quitch, carcinoma and 2 others like this.

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