I have to admit, I can't for the life of me remember what they were called in SupCom1, but I really enjoyed the flexibility offered by game type mutators/rulesets. I had a bit of a search around and couldn't find this mentioned anywhere. SupCom1 offered a few of these, the most basic one being dual resources allowing you to avoid the pain of economy control and just churn out a load of units to attack each other with. It completed changed the nature of the game. So I guess my questions are these: a) Do we know if these are something that will be included in PA? b) If so, what types are we expecting at this time? c) And also, what mutators would backers like to see?
They were called mods, and they'll be making a strong return in PA. Most of them will be community made, so what would you like to see?
I could see this being fun for something like skirmish and casual multiplayer. Ex. no nukes, no t2, super economy, Thermonuclear warfare (timer counting down to a point where no more units can be built but nuclear weapons become extremely cheap), etc. etc.
The part that I really enjoyed (and probably why the OP called them mutators after the Unreal Tournament or Quake game that tried a similar concept) is that many mods could be activated independent of each other, so you could do that Phantom gameplay mod, with the 2x economy mod, with the Black ops unit mod. Which was due to the hooking style of the scripts, and the way that units were composed instead of replaced.
Most simplistic mods work very well as 'mutator' style mods. You can do phantom + blackops + 2x eco already I believe It's just that with the power that proper moddability gives you, comes more complexity in configuration, so mod authors may have to just make sure their mod 'plays well' with others. RTS is a bit unique in that changing several units has an impact on all the other units, so generally if you've got a unit pack, you've designed those units to mesh well with the base game, rather than to mesh with another unit pack.
I'd definitely like to see a bit of official work on "mutator" mods. Offer a "mutator only" API to do minimal changes (just simple ones like manipulating available unit types, stats on a general basis, etc) and then have Uber run servers with a "Mutator of the Week" applied.
If you get a bunch of small mutators that affected a subset (but not too small a subset) of units, you could have a gametype where every X minutes, the previous mutator turns off and a new, random one turns on.
I expect to see a bacon mod the first day after release. If they don't implement it themselves. As for the other mods, I would like to see a bacon mod. Wait I already said that.. I guess I won't be too picky when it comes to mods
I would be delighted to see a Capture (or Bring Home) The Bacon gametype, with an associated bacon-carrier unit.
I think you guys are aiming rather low with "mutators." A mutator could modify almost any of the game's variables, such as a complete reworking of unit properties, costs, ranges, damages, everything. You can easily end up with a completely different game just by changing these numbers. PA might even offer a data viewer, and combine that functionality with an editor allowing for the easy creation of mutators. Naturally, make the default data fixed so players cannot accidentally overwrite their defaults and break their installation. Text files for unit data are easily the most important gameplay asset, and they are also the easiest to modify and distribute to create a quite different gameplay experience. This actually raises the interesting possibility of having mutators instead of a "public test realm" PTR server. Uber might be offering many "test mutators" of many kinds from subtle to significant simultaneously, just to see what happens. Based on the games played using the test mutators, Uber would gather data about possible balance or game changes in parallel. They could also gather data from player-created mutators, basically for free- only costs the time needed to understand the effects of the changes. The cost of figuring out the changes and deploying them are absorbed by the player base. If players are making mods including new assets, then it's no longer a mutator, but the same rules apply. If a unit works well, Uber can work with the concept created by a player that is demonstrated as working well, and use the idea to add to PA. Uber would not need to pull a Blizzard and make up nonsense, possibly making art assets without a clear idea what they're for yet, and then trying to make them fit by any means necessary.
Yes! But instead of a dedicated bacon transport, have the commander heft it over his shoulder and strut about like a proud rooster while carrying it.
