Unit Designs

@kalherine
uber is in absolute no obligation to keep the game exactly like its spiritual predeccesors
and you would be very arrogant to think you could dictate them to do so
i didn´t back the game to be the next TA or FA or TAFA ...
i backed it solely for its coreconcept of largescale massive army RTS aspect those games happen to share but that gets its own new twist with multiple battlefields
if i want to have a TA like game i go play TA ... if i want a supcomstylegame i go play supcom

Oh pay attention man! We're not asking for TA-style or SupCom style, we're asking for units that look interesting. The reason I brought up SupCom is because it's an excellent example of how to make something common into something and "visually quotable". What I mean by that is, when you say "units in SupCom" people think "Oh wow remember the Fatboy? That thing looked SO AWESOME! It was like a battleship on tank treads!" or "Hey remember the Brick? Those looked really cool! It was like an angry wall on legs that shot at you".

PA doesn't really have that.

Read that in a British accent or else I'll sound like a surfer/hippie.

Yes, I did just coin a new term.

@Geers

what does having cool unit design anything to do with being faithful with your spiritual predeccesors?

Having a unique aesthetic! FORGET THE PREDECESSORS! It's just an example! Nothing else!

Also the @ feature doesn't work, so you might want to quote people.

Katherine is kinda half crazy and not a learned English speaker so you shouldn't take (anything) he says too seriously.

also the @ doesn't notify so there's no point using it if it's to speak to that person.

*Says someone isn't a learned English speaker*
*Says "sais"*

woops. just disqualified myself from that title as well in one fell swoop.

ok but that wasn´t what i talked about with kalherine ...
and imho PA HAS a unique äesthetic

@tatsujb

i rather try to ignore how people tick and speak with everyone equaly respectful (no 100% guaranty) ... and i hope others to try the same even if they may consider me f.e. stubborn ... general rule don´t take anyone too serious ...

Well you did just use the @ thing even though we just told you it doesn't work.

IMO the units appearance are fine and suit the game lore, the theme set out in the kickstarter, and the games spiritual granddaddy (TA). These are robots fighting autonomously after the people that built them to fight all died, like it or not the modern tank is an example of function over form, not unlike all units in the UEF, images of which the the OP omitted from their post so not to contradict their point. There is no reason why robots/artificial consciousnesses would deviate radically from the sort of functional units they have currently, besides which some of the units look not at all like modern vehicles/planes, ie hornets, these look more like flying wings to me (not something in any arsenal that I know of (anymore), not to mention all bots etc...

edit; Yeah the fat-boy did look cool but I suspect the thing that made is standout was in fact its immense size (and experimental-ness something PA is avoiding (as yet)) imagine it the size of an ant (what-ever its called this time tank) suddenly the fat boy isn't so interesting anymore.

It doesn't contradict my point, I didn't post any UEF units because they generally have the same issue as PA. They're just not good examples of interesting unit design. If someone asked you to show them a cool clock would you show them a sundial or a 3D holographic display with a radio link to an atomic clock?

Don't give me "it makes sense in the lore", because there's plenty of stuff in the game that doesn't make sense. That's not a good enough reason to have generic designs.

@Geers

how bout this one then ... initial low limited budged ... better unit designs may come later down the pipe as we saw recently but are still low priority

it is still good to use just to show who am i talking to when not using quotes

Read the OP again:

And why not use quotes?

obvious answers:
we don´t know, SOON tm, Mods

for when there is nothing intresting to quote or me wanting to avoid quotespam in my posts ..
it´s also a bit annoying getting quoted/a notification and then actualy not being talked to

So edit out the people you don't want to quote.

I kind of like the US military and USSR style units that we had in TA and would love the same style in PA. With nukes, strategic nukes, radar, sonar, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, big artillery, TA felt like it was Cold War inspired. A lot of other PA players love the same style instead of the bright pew pew lasers in SupCom.

Just look at these beauties! (US military looking)




These look a little more like Soviet planes:

The problem is more 'interesting' designs probably wont fit very well with the aesthetic the game has always been going for, cybran-esque for instance is definitely not possible without breaking away from the present look, same again for aeon-esque units, these would also likely mean more polys again something to avoid I would imagine. Anyhow, generally bar one or two units like the Brick the only units with any real style in supcom were the experimental units, and mainly because they were bigger, had a higher poly count and had more inveseted into them because they were designed to be the only real interesting units in the game. Personally I find tank like tanks not to be all that boring, better that than some eight legged spider dragon monstrosity thing that is not quite completely unlike a tank....

Doesn't really fit in. I don't think Earth countries as we know them would be relevant several thousands of years into the future.

Obviously you didn't pay a lot of attention:












Stop making me repeat myself. I'm not asking for cybran-esque, or aeon-esque, or TA-esque, or SupCom-esque. I'm just saying the units as they are now are not very unique and could be MORE INTERESTING. That's all! These are just EXAMPLES! IGNORE THEM FOR EVERYTHING ELSE!

You don't have to change the general aesthetic of the game, just change the models for the units. Don't get me wrong, some of them are pretty good. I like the Avenger, that's pretty cool:



I really like the look of it, it's visually quotable. But the land units are just dull. More asymmetry! More moving parts! More not-just-like-every-near-future-sci fi-ever!

It fits in more with the art style. If you look at the fighters and bombers, they're already in the style I mentioned above. Supcom style wouldn't really work...unless it looks like UEF (which is in the similar style of the ARM)

Read the rest of my post.