Commanders and what we know so far.

Speed and health are fairly basic attributes and if they are too dramatic to change I don't know what constitutes a minor enough change. Cloaking is much more important.

With this said I am fairly happy with the system. It at least won't break the game but could be a bit too much work for little reward.

googlefrog, Abilities don't necessarily have to be dealing with stat adjustments, possibly the Passives Neutrino mentioned while the 'Active' abilities, so things like secondary weapons(the Delta's wing pods seem indicative of this) not to mention the overall number of abilities total;

Which means there can't even be 100 unique Commanders, its likely that some of the 1K and up backers might even copy a "stock" commander just because they like the loadout.

Just because some combinations might be unique at launch doesn't mean they will stay unique.

Actually, I've been thinking, and even if there are only 5/5 abilities, the fact is that they can be represented differently on different commanders, so while a Theta might smash the ground to do AOE damage around it, the Delta might shoot grenades out of it's shoulders, same end result, different effects.

Mike

Most of the opposition to the commander differences seems to be born from misunderstanding the facts and not from valid opinions (Since they get their facts wrong their input is about something untrue and therefore no longer valid in this case).

Do note that i wrote "most", not all. So dont bite my head off if your one of those guys that isent misunderstanding, but simply dont like it.

Neutrino, If you filter away the misunderstandings i belive the overall feedback to be more positive then negative.

I'm sure that super-hardcore players will just use the basic commander for a level playing field anyway, so as long as that option is there i'm not sure what the fuss is about here =S

No X, Fox Only, Final Destination!?

think this thread needs more info after this lovely livestream. They did after all answer questions about the commanders and upcoming commanders.

I'll work on that tonight when I get home for sure.

EDIT: Also, Mods/Admins maybe we should move this over to the General Discussion subforum so everyone can be informed?

Mike

I am just amused that I could copy/paste comments from months back and, aside from changing names and some minor details, they'd still apply. :lol:

I know exactly what you mean, it's like people latch on to the first thing that creates an imbalance and thinks "Oh gosh, there is no way those PROFESSIONAL RTS DESIGNERS WILL HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS!!!!11!!!one!!", at least now we have way more info to stand behind.

Mike

I know, I know, I don't design RTS's for a living and this isn't my game, but I still don't like the idea of different abilities for commanders. My view of a commander, at least, is mainly a support unit that builds bases. It has a basic attack for defense, but it shouldn't need fancy missile launchers/combat-grade lasers and tanky armor, because it's not a frontline unit. It builds the combat units, but isn't one itself. My understanding of the game was that there was ONE FACTION ONLY(add booming reverb in your head.) That simplicity, which just lets you focus on the actual strategy as opposed to your faction (or commander ability) strength, is what drew me in. When I was reading the first page, something just felt wrong, like, I don't know, this seemed more like a MOBA or DoTA with Warcraft 3 style heroes (commanders.) I know there isn't going to be levels and skills and such, but something just feels inherently wrong with customizable skills in this game. That beautiful, simple, symmetry of one faction, no differences, just strategy, was a major selling point for me. Just my opinion, mind, I know it's not my game or my job, I'm just here to smash asteroids. It just seems like it'd be less fun throwing that asteroid if there was some form of asymmetry, however slight.

crazycryodude, I think, like many before you, are vastly over estimating what these abilities may or may not do. Break it down for me, do you have a problem with the Commanders being different, or what the abilities will do?

Honestly, the idea that Abilities=Commander as front line unit is kinda drastic no?

Yes, in small scale an ability might make a commander more effective, but we've talking like single digit number of basic units, once armies start getting thrown around, the commander(who doesn't upgrade btw) won't be able to deal with those single-handedly.

Mike

The original Commander had a d-gun that killed things dead. Despite that, it was not something that was recklessly risked on the front line.

Why do you hate d-guns?

PLS make every commander availeble to everyone! just make visual differences for bakers/preorders!

...........Did you even read the first post? Overall the only thing unique about the backer/custom commanders is the visuals already.

Mike

If EVERY commander was avalible to everyone, there would be over 100 choices, and whats the point of having it for just you and 5 friends?

The Custom Commanders will never be made avalible to everyone. The point of them being is so that only 6 people in total will have the ability to use such commanders.

If you want commanders that other people dont have, start begging for key codes from people who did order customer commanders...

Otherwise, gtfo.

Back off, you're blowing up over nothing, he's obviously under the mis-understanding that commanders like the Alpha and Progenitor are actually unique ASIDE from visuals, which isn't the case. He also SPECIFICALLY mentioned the Backer and Pre-Order Commanders and said nothing about the Custom Commanders.

Mike

Well I didn't read about who could use the custom commanders but as someone who payed like 1000$ and gets his own awesome custom commander and names it after himself I would like for everyone to be able to play it. If more people play it they see my awesomeness and my awesome commander
Just a though

So sad I don't have a money tree :cry:

Yellow

I do apologize for blowing up like that, But something just clicked in my head.

I heard, that if you make a mod for PA, and for someone else to use it/see it, they would need it to.

Does that mean that all Commanders are automatically updated/downloaded, so that the game has them client-side? Or are the Commanders only on the Server?

The Sim is only run on the server, everything you see on your screen is stored locally.

So just mods for SupCom/FA. Everyone needs to have it unless it's something like a UI mod.

It's plausible that the server can distribute a mod to anyone wanting to play on it, but you'd prolly have to go about hosting that yourself.

Mike

okay, i realise the gameplay impact of commander ability combinations is low, but if its anything at all, its a tactical decision with an inherant gameplay impact, and i dont like the idea that some people will have tactical options available that others wont.

the only way that abilities can be fully resresented by "the commanders available to all players" (lets call them public commanders), is if everyone also has access to THE SAME COMBINATIONS.

also correct me if im wrong, but no one has said that every ability combination, will be represented by a commander. so technically each ability only has to appear once in the public commander list to be "fully represented".

to me, the only fair option is to make a public version of every custom commander. i.e. a dupe/reskin.

honestly i have no idea if thats implied anywhere already, every time i read/hear an explanation it seems totaly ambiguous or contradictory to me.

forgive me if im repeating anything thats already been said, i havent read all 14 pages of this thread.


tl;dr - private, custom commanders should have public counterparts/reskins.