Experimentals What WOuld You want to see!!!

FAllcrack : good idea an other name is a good idea

just woke up so nothing much to tell... have to get my brain in working order

Cheerio

Question:Experimental's You Would want to see!!!
Answer: None, absolutely zero

(it's behemuth, messed up registration, anyway)

Simple idea regarding experimentals. keep variation/balance.
Make it so you have to pick one of three experimentals before you can build it, and then be stuck with your choice.
The kicker is, they are balanced in a rock paper scissors kind of way. The one who rushes to his experimental will have an advantage because he will have it fielded first. But the thing is, if he fails to end the battle, his opponents will know what kind he picked and pick the one who is a counter to it. Making it a risky move. In play it would potentially make players opt not to build them, because the one who picks first will have to make it count, mess it up and your opponent have an advantage over you. Ofc, it takes time to field one, so you'd hopefully have some time to end it, not just a few minutes. This would keep players who prefer no experimentals happy, since you can keep the focus on army size and composition happy since players might not build them for the above mentioned reasons. Those who wants experimentals will get it, all while being, hopefully balanced.

This actually appeals to me. I've already stated that I'm a rock paper scissors kinda guy and I'm sure someone could mod it in.

The issue I can see with it could be that you would always get screwed by a good player because anyone worth their salt regularly scouts. The lengthy build time would make hiding your experimental unit from the enemy hard. I would simply wait to see what experimental you chose and while you were building it pick the proverbial scissors to your paper. If I scout often, the chances are I could possibly even have one on the battlefield in time to take down your experimental before you could even attack with it.

RPS balance between experimentals isn't how you should look at it. It's naive to think that experimental vs experimental combat is the only combat that occurs.

What about experimental vs army?

Suddenly the RPS becomes more complicated than Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.

Upgrading your commander in to the experimental would be a cool idea, allowing such a unit to be extremely powerful as you can only have 1.

Not at all, i hate rock paper scissor balancing, which is why i always preferred TA's method.
What i suggested were that only the offensive experimentals would be like that. You pick from one out of 3. If you pick first you get the advantage of fielding it first and potentially win the game. But if you mess it up, your opponent would pick the one that counter yours.

What i hope would happen is that players might opt not to even build them in the first place, fearing that it could spark a arms race they could loose if they messed it up.
For it to work, an experimental could not be identified by another player until it saw combat. If it took say 20 mins/30 mins to field one, that would leave the one taking the initiative time to end it. Mess it up, and you just forced your opponent into fielding them too, while you lack efficient counters to them. Essentially forcing a end game scenario.
Say: the unit could be constructed in a gantry without giving hints as to what kind of unit you picked. Now a player who have you scouted knows you're gonna field one. but has no idea which one. He could ether a) chance it and build one. ether one that is the same as yours, one that is weak to yours, or wait and see what kind it is and build the one that counters yours.
It could bring some tension in a game, be it that the gantry was scouted, or that the experimental made its glorious appearance on the front lines out of the blue.

In my mind, you should only have one proper offensive experimental unit, the spearhead of your forces. the one that makes your army win, not the one who does it all by itself. I would hate for it to become experimental spam like in FA or supcom2. hence by suggestion to make them akin to the real world MAD scenario. Some serious thought would have to be put into it before you decide to open that door.

now thats an idea i can get behind, a severely upgraded commander as the only available experimental, so upgraded that he barely looks like a commander anymore.

you only get 1, he's very important so you don't want to lose him, and it provides protection to him in "late" game when he usually becomes a nuclear bomb that you have to hide from the enemy. give as few options to choose from and it could be a really good mechanic

Lets assume that Experimental A counters large armies (ala. conventional units), and Experimental Bs as well. B counters C, and C counters A. We have experimental RPS, with the addition that one is good against something else too.

I will build an army, and Experimental C.

If you use A against my army, I'll use C against it.

If you make a B or a C then I'll just pull my C away and smash things with my army.

I liked the commander upgrades in SupCom, yet it was tedious work to make sure he was upgraded. I like the idea if there was anything with Experimental in it, it would be the upgrade for the commander.

Do we need an excuse to make the commander make a bigger boom on death? Yes! maybe engaging in experimental upgrades can achieve that. I would keep them simple though, such as a Offensive upgrade, defensive or resource producing one. Limiting to only have 1 and no switching.

Heh experimental energy attachment/upgrade that makes one hell of a big boom if he dies. I'm still on edge about experimentals, I like the idea's discussed so far but I worry about there effectiveness.

Oooh.... I like this!

There was a mod for SC:FA that did this quite well.

I played it for a bit but eventually went back to the standard game because I liked it better.

Time efficiency is not important to you?

There are 3 resource types, not two as what most people think.
-mass
-energy
-buildpower

True enough, but I think you mean:
-mass
-energy
-time

Buildpower is the least limiting of the three resources because excess mass can be more readily converted into buildpower than excess buildpower can be converted into mass.