Ideas for units

Can't really agree with this, though it would be awesome if they kept the TA mechanic where constructors can reclaim enemy units (weak, but sometimes useful).

I don't want to be able to reclaim opposing units because it makes the raiding game a bit weak when you can spam constructors and defeat scouts. I don't mean all constructors should be armed, there could be one or two with a weak gun which just gives it a bit of survivability when exposed. Of course the cost of it would be balanced with the gun in mind. It's not a major feature, just an idea for how to diversify constructors if there are a few different types.

As for reclaiming units in general I think it works well if units turn into nanoframes when reclaimed. This gives you the resources from the unit slowly and prevents the strangeness that occurs if reclaim 'damages' health.

There was never that problem in SupCom, just because you are reclaiming an enemy(which takes time) doesn't mean they aren't shooting at you or just moving out of range(engineers can't move while reclaiming) so it kinda balances out.

Mike

That is a very... cool idea. Although, I don't think it should work against subs, they can sail beneath ice. Ah, what it could do is force subs to surface through the ice in order to launch air attack munitions; if you froze your shore line out far enough, then it would force subs to come out of hiding, and be vulnerable to air and land attack by non-specialized subsurface weapons.

On the opposite end, to reach a sub under ice, you have to blow the ice away with munitions from above, before you can attack the sub below. Munitions should probably be able to find such holes and use them so they don't need a direct path, otherwise you would spend all your time putting holes in ice, and never catching the sub.

Lastly, I think all surface ships should count as ice breakers.

I just realized, the ice boat could be used to create ice paths across water for ground units to walk across.

Definitely have to have something like that, but if you fill orbit with debri it would also deny orbit to you. There is already an anti-satellite weapon in real life, and I think it's the same as a anti-ICBM weapon; everyone should watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsPKYDcfw4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6G ... re=related

What about carpet bombers where all of the bombs are laser guided, so they don't miss, but they can be shot down by point defense?

Personally, I would prefer artillery to be highly accurate at all ranges, with the additional ability to depress the gun low enough for direct fire against enemy units. That's something normally missing from game artillery, if I'm not mistaken.

Two more ideas which would make the game more interesting.

First is anti artillery similar to the CIWS or the experimental microwave weapon. Without shields, a Bertha style weapon can cause significant damage which can't be prevented easily. As long as it's suitably expensive to build and run as a counter to artillery and doesn't cover too much area it will give the defender time to counter. As long as the anti artillery isn't 100% effective it won't nullify the long range weapons either.

Second is more of a pie in the sky idea. In the kickstarter video it shows an asteroid being pushed into an orbit to collide with the planet. As it gets close the planet fires missiles up to shoot the asteroid and manage to break it up, instead breaking it into pieces which impact anyways. I've read that using nukes to blow apart an incoming asteroid would be useless as they don't vaporize much material and even blown apart the chunks retain the same kinetic energy as the whole.

Instead given that's it's the future, use antimatter weapons to vaporize chunks out of the asteroids and hopefully stop it entirely. On the attackers side I would like to see the ability to add rotation to an asteroid once it's set on an impact orbit. The amount of rotational engines you add to the asteroid could determine it's yield and allow the attacker to decide whether they want to destroy a base or crack a planet.

Well sure, I did also include hunter killer satellites as an idea as well, which would naturally kill spy satellites.

Of course, you can also just go low tech and go for a orbital minefield to ruin all orbital everything (note, mines should attack ALL units, not just the enemy). Or you can launch targeted missiles from the ground, or whatever. There should be some options there for sure.

How about a Decoy Commander?

Not something like the Support Commanders in SupCom. A Decoy Commander shouldn't be tough or actually useful in combat. They just look like the commander, maybe have the build capabilities of a T1 engineer, and have the characteristic that an opponent couldn't distinguish it from a real commander. (This would be a late tier unit of course, and would probably also be pricey so as to prevent spamming them...maybe even restrict it so you can never have more than 1 Decoy Commander built at a time.)

I know that RUSE effectively made decoys but in RUSE you could've sent a fake wave of tanks to distract your enemy on a certain line and so on.

I can't let that walking bomb thing go. There are so many uses for such a simple unit. It could even counter KEW's.

Here let me illustrate.

Introducing the M.P.A.E.D. (Multipurpose Ambulating Explosive Device)

Why don't you turn SCU into decoy commanders? Give them the capabilities of SCU's like in Supcom:FA but have them look like the ACU to the enemy, that way they would fill an extra niche on top of the one they tried to fill in FA and werent completely succesfull at. (Hardened build power and reclaim/repair, plus support abilities -> a late game ACU).

The decoy commander SCU sounds like a good idea, as well as suicide bot. The latter really completes the circle of death, with bombs from sea, air, and land.

Should battery buildings should explode like large bombs when destroyed?

Normal nukes can actually work against asteroids, but they have to be used to either break one into small enough chunks to vaporize in the planet's atmosphere, or give enough of a push to throw the orbit off from an impact into a flyby.

Like you suggest, I too hope there is antimatter stage, because, in real life, it allows for pocket nukes, as well as normal size nukes with far greater energy density; like you're thinking, it might allow for bombs big enough to outright vaporize asteroids, which would make for an amazing game element.

Well...I didn't really like the niche SCUs were trying to fill in SupCom and I think the game is better off without them

But from a philosophical perspective, I think the point of a decoy should be to not have much usefulness outside of simply being a decoy. It should be a unit you build for the singular purpose of trying to fool the enemy or divert their attention. It kind of loses that flavor if you make it a unit that you send up to the front lines in the late game.

Worm
General purpose spy/hacking unit. Looks like a robot snake. Bores into enemy datacores with its diamond-edged teeth/drill. Amphibious (swims). Can spread various viruses, subject to balance and dev time considerations.

1) Trojan - lets you see everything that unit sees, like a Zerg Parasite.
2) Sabotage - shuts down a power plant, radar, artillery gun etc, perhaps also units. For added fun the radar could still work but give false warnings.
3) Berserk - the unit attacks everything around it.
4) Subversion - Instantly capture enemy units. Sacrifices the worm.

Unit launcher
This may have been mentioned, but it would be interesting if Big Bertha style cannons could launch small units.

Gravity guns that can pull of push units. See ZK Newton (there might even be videos, I should make some). People sometimes use terraformed ramps and Newtons to launch crawling bombs or high HP units across the map. I would like to see that done on a planet.

This is a bit hard to balance so even engine support for weapons that deal impulse would be nice so someone can experiment with this in a mod.

http://youtu.be/5EdgPPkSBmo

Some of these TA units a pretty innovative, especially the last one.

OH GOD THE NUMBER OF EXPLOSIONS

"Spawn" Cluster Cannister Launcher. Like a artillery installation, except launches a rocket over the enemy position, which then spilts and rains down multiple bomblets which cause small damage but over a large area.

"Graviton" Radar Lensing Device. Causes the enemies radar to warp. The radar ping of a single enemy unit is corrected if there is direct LOS.

"Sprite" Directed Energy Lightning Generator. Shoots down enemy missiles and rockets. Long reload after each shot, so its useful for turtles but not the end all defence.

"Alpha" Firebase. A central tower with a high energy laser assisted by 4x Small guns on individual pivots

The flower planting bot is a must have

I agree, the idea of walking bombs is fairly attractive. You know these actually existed in TA, but I think they were done badly and were largely ineffective.

The reason was simple, they couldn't hide. Units always saw them, and just blew them up before they could get into range to do any damage. If mines could burrow and hide like spider mines in Starcraft, than I think that would be an interesting game element.

Could also create a need for a specialized mine sweeper unit that can detect and remove them safely.