Unit Customization

I don't know about the rest of the community but I would sure love to have unit customization. Either by researched upgrades that just apply to your units to keep them up to date with current tech, or by actual unit customization. For unit customization hopefully we can at least customize the weapon load-out with hard points maybe. I am looking forward to some unit customization such as in the game Warzone 2100, currently a free open source game that I have been playing for years. In Warzone you can choose a chassis, the propulsion, weapons or utilities, and other objects. Anyways what do you think about unit customization? Also what about commander customization?

commander upgrades: yes please.
unit upgrades: no need.

Not in PA.

It would be nice to see a new WZ2100-type game though. I know the original is free now, and being "developed" by amateur programmers, but it hasn't aged very well.

It would make unit identification and countering harder, wich is not what we want.

I'm a total sucker for customization, but I could see it dragging PA down. I cast my vote, but I say we leave this one up to Uber and playtesting to decide.

I agree we need another game like Warzone2100 and PA will not be it because its going to be more like TA & FA. Even if we don't get the kind of customization that I love, we can just make all units easily identifiable otherwise it just gets boring like SC2. They throw a unit at you and you throw a counter, yawn. I don't want everything to be prebuilt because then it just becomes the same units and same strategies in the end. It is always inevitable that the same strategies/builds will appear and be abused unless you can throw a wrench in it with customization or some other method we will find out eventually.

It's like every poll is asking "Should the game be needlessly complex? Y/N" or "Should we add this thing which introduces tons of needless micro and bogs down the whole experience? Y/N"

Uber has enough on their plate right now.

Cosmetic customization with a unit painter could be interesting, but other than that I do not think this game should go with a Warzone 2100 style unit cutomization.

I agree it could drag it down but only if its over the top customization if it was simple say just weapon customization then it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It would add some more depth to strategy because you will not know whats coming at you till it fires. With the standard method if you see a mech shooting lasers, then you know that same mech in all games will do the same thing and you know how to counter it someway. If you have some customization, at least weapons/utilities then you have to recognize whats being fired at you and act appropriately to counter it.

Standard: With the standard method if you see a mech shooting lasers, then you know that same mech in all games will do the same thing and you know how to counter it someway.

Weapon Customization: Mech comes at you with lasers and flak gun. Later on a mech comes at you and you think oh here comes laser mechs, then suddenly it fires cannons at you instead and has SAM as its AA weapon instead of AOE flak guns.

I know most people don't like customization, I don't understand why unless its in F2P games because customization in F2P usually sucks and ruins the game.

It doesn't have to be needlessly complex, but I am sure everyone knows that game developers in the RTS genre have really been dumbing things down to make them more accessible to people who can't handle complex games or complex thinking. Both SC2 and C&C4 were dumbed down versions of their previous games. SC1 had more units than in SC2, sure there will be more expansions but still. C&C4 I don't even need to speak about this game, its a monstrosity and slaughtered the series by dumbing RTS down, they removed base building. Base building was even removed in Dawn of War 2 compared to the first game. Anyways I have to get back to work so I will be back later hopefully we can keep this thread mature.

My main issue is that it is hard to match graphics and layout with a flexable custimization system. It works well if all units are similar in layout and size (like the mechs in Metal Fatigue or most everything in Warzone 2100). If the size/shape of units varies greatly then you need different options for each, which add more work for the devs (reducing the number of units as each is more complex). It also makes balance harder.

Removing micro doesn't mean dumbing down, not by a long shot. When you're overseeing thousands of units, adding in an upgrade system that affects them individually (even if it affects an entire type of unit) is going to bog things down. This isn't a -craft game, individual units are not the focus.

I'd like support for this in the engine, but I dont care for it in the game.

(aka, I'd like to do this in mods)

I like unit customization as an idea but I'm concerned that a game like PA might lose the fast-paced blow-everything-up-now game style if it were included. Would be really nice if it was doable with mods.

I think cosmetic customization could be cool, even if it's nothing more than a custom selectable teamcolor (oh god uber please do this, 5 team color options is soooo boring)

I agree at least support it in the engine, even if it isn't on release hopefully the developers can make it a goal for post launch. And for other posts on this page if you didn't completely ready my posts i mentioned that the customization doesn't need to be extreme it can be just weapons for units. I also agree that we should have some customization on team colors there are too many games out there that have the maximum colors set to the maximum number of players in a match.

At some point in the future, once the fundamentals of a grand scale, well organized RTS have been nailed down, then eventually someone will add in a modular unit design system, and it will be very cool.

However, PA is not that game. RTS games need to grow a few sizes before unit customization will have serious strategic import, when different players might formulate entirely different armies and battle doctrine.

This is totally infeasible for PA, however. The emphasis should be to create a focused, consistent, diverse and strategic game experience.

PA should take the angle that, when you up the scale of the game, suddenly there is a different sort of customization. Rather than having customized units made from preset modules or parts, we have preset units, and can make customized armies. Rather than creating a unit which has an anti-air gun, you include a fixed-design unit which has such a weapon into the composition of your force.

no i think the pseudo upgrade with tech level of buildings is enough for the mass units, every else would be somekind of tech tree and thats a no go too.

I was going to post this in its own thread, but I just noticed this one.
tl;dr - I am in favor of overly complex unit customization, but with options available for those players that wish to speed through the process - such as default unit designs.

I don't know how much work this would take. What about the idea of making certain customisations to your available army before the game commences? Having a single pool of units from which a faux-faction will be made has already been discussed. What about having a simple form of changing some weapons, or armour levels on certain units that will give your army a certain (though still "balanced") focus? Say I like stealth tactics, and rely a lot on early scouting, I could shed a little armour from my "Flash" tank which makes it go a little faster but is less durable. Or to save on resources I could create a slightly lighter version of a Bulldog which has less armour and a lower calibre cannon? Similar to table-top war games how you have an 100 point army, and you choose how you spend the points, or not even, simply allow to add or remove some small statistic from a unit to favour one's play-style.

This ought not make too many problems for balance, because PA is mostly balanced by cost/time, and the sheer number of units reduces small changes like this. I think this dynamic would be easy to implement (it just means the physics system is scripted and unit/weapons details are stored somewhere, much like Homeworld 2). Moreover this would add a personal and interesting dynamic which would expand game play options a lot!