[Request/Poll] A Short-list of Recommendations Drawing from Total Annihilation.

I like all of these things, but 1 and 4 are my favorite, and seem to work well together. My problem with the current terrain features are they are not traversable, so they just get in the way. Example: Mountains / hills on the lava planet, cool but why can't my bots walk over them (though preferably slowed) instead of just getting stuck.

We need more varied terrain, but it needs to be traversable. (not all of it, but some of it)

Playing with Samsons was cool though.

There is a strong difference between player-toggled deployment and things like, for example, the fact that the Hammer had to 'roll up its sleeves' before it could fire. Oh and the Annihilator / Domesday Machine's unfolding animations were super badass.

As far as micro goes, the only way a unit would be pre-deployed would be if it were shooting at the ground prior to an engagement. Also this is not on the same level as Warcraft III/Starcraft II-style ability micro.

Experimental units are controversial. I tried to pick things which were popular all round in the past, and which could be adapted to suit PA.

i voted yes to all except "none of the above" and "potato" but now the backlash for not also voting "potato" is kicking in.

@eroticburrito NAOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Its SO LOVELY WAAAAAAAAAA

I met a traveller from fertile field
Who said: Two vast and trunkless potatoes
Lie in the wet ground. Near them in mud seal'd,
Half sunk, a shatter'd french fry lies, whose curl
And wrinkled crisp and crack of cheese gratin
Tell that its peeler well those roasties red
Which yet survive, stamp'd on this mashed mound,
The hand that fried them and the hand that fed.
And on the hot poutine these words appear:
"My name is Potato, hash of browns:
Look on my works, ye Croquettes, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal chip, boundless and bare,
The green growing farms spud every day.

Such is life

That is actually a really bad implementation alternative for this mechanic.

Having shellers stop moving automatically will frustrate the hell out of everyone with people running dox in and out of range. Shellers getting separated from unit groups or slowing them down due to formation behaviour.

Also you now have unit control inconsistencies where selecting a group of units and doing a normal move command to attack everything in the way will cause shellers to not fire.

So you see, there is going to be micro no matter your implementation. Whether it's pressing the button called stop instead of deploy, clicking move order to specific position, or whether it's selecting and issuing separate attack-move orders to shellers while everything else gets move orders.

Don't get me wrong, i would very much love to see this kind of functionality added to the game, i'm just pessimistic about the chances due to the community's hatred for this kind of thing.

@cwarner7264
Yes, but what custard is talking about is not simply an animation. He's talking about shoot or move.

Stopped Sheller = Sheller that can fire (after a couple of seconds deploying animation). So you'd either do a movement command to where you wanted it to fire from, or hit the stop button.

Un-deploying would be instant so that when moved with other units, they don't get left behind.

This would be slightly more micro than they are now, but nothing compared to things in the game right now like bombers, which are infinitely better when micro'd (e.g. bombers vs Dox, unmicro'd bombers just die and do 0 damage).

I'd have to agree that half the community tends to start crying when micro is mentioned, but hopefully Uber could see past that and add fun stuff anyway.

Oh no TA balance was quite bad.

What is the alternative I'm espousing, sorry? I'm not in favour of abilities, or of units shooting at empty ground to deploy.

I'm not arguing for Shellers to stop moving in order to deploy either.
However people should pay attention to what their army is made up of. Mobile artillery is a niche unit, and ideally we are already microing it more than other units in order to knock out long range enemy fortifications.

There's already micro in the kiting of Dox and their running in and out of range. This would at least be more of a strategic 'take up this position and bombard' form of micro, as opposed to that quick skirmish skill-based micro.

#1 and 2# will be awesome.Everyone want see better maps. And wreckage by units (like from TA) can make gameplay a much more interesting.But it should be balanced with PA gamelay...

An RCBM dev thinks specialized units are hard to convey to a player? Wat wat?

#5 Really doesn't have any description about it. It just says that it goes with #1. I really think that units specialised for a type of terrain rather then a role would be hard to convey.

Spiders climb on ceilings and scare me in the shower. Spider bots climb over terrain.

I would love to see height give a range advantage. Should be pretty simple to do, too- change the current 'capsule' range thing into more of a pear shaped thing.