Why upgrades are important

Yeah.. as English is not my native language my posts tend to be misread.. What I ment with the introduction of "Metal" was not the resource itself but the restriction which comes with it. You can only extract soo much metal as the map allows which creates the needed bottleneck in the gameplay to prevent players to begin with the most powerfull units.

The combination of the flow economy and the bottleneck caused by the lack of metal creates a more "fluent" gameplay without giving the player the idea he/she is restricted. Players feel restricted when upgrades are not available or the time it takes for them to research, specialy when one upgrade rules out another!

The flow economy introduced by TA, including the metal and energy resources, is simply more fun and creates a more fluent gameplay. I am glad Neutrino, and Uber, understands that changing the gameplay (like the flow economy) so more players "understand" the gameplay is a negative spiral.

Hi all, newb on here so bear with me.

If I'm understanding the topic correctly, there will be no upgrades in tech level in PA, only a given set of units and a 'specialization' for that unit in a different tech tier. Also a few (less powerful) experimentals.

Does this mean that we will be seeing very powerful bombers at the 1 minute mark, and that the only difference in early and late game is the time in which you can build such a unit? If so, I would really miss the flow from small to large scale that SupCom had and frankly feel we are playing a simplified game. Much like SupCom 2 was a dumbed down - or at least scaled down - version of SupCom 1. In my humble opinion of course.

I feel that SupCom 1 got it right; and that the whole idea of 'you have large armies that are suddenly useless because someone decided to upgrade their factory' is wrong. You could rush T1 units, decide to upgrade to T2 first or do something in between. This added strategical depth to the game. Gradually evolving to more powerful T3 and experimental units was awesome. The system isn't wrong because T3 can crush T1, it's awesome because you can crush lower tech.

There will be two levels of factories, so you won't be able to make larger units from the start.

Will it be kinda like Zero-K where there are kinda shitty light units as well as better armored and armed heavy units that take more buildpower to create? There is a difference between having T1 units get useless when T2 Comes about and T2 being more useful than T1 because the logistics are easier to deal with.

The basic idea (although this might not be 100%) is to have the regular combat stuff be T1, while the T2 factory is mostly filled with specialist units with a special purpose. It's definately part of the design to have no units be obsoleted throughout the game.

Yes, so the basic unit is there, right from the start. You can build the specialized (let's say amphibious) variant of the unit when you get the higher tech factory. This much I understand.

Speculating on the bomber example further. Let's say you can get more powerful bombs from the 'specialized' tech tier, the basic model of the unit would already be there from the start. Or something close to it. This means we won't see the game evolving from small to (really) large scale. And we might end up with a boring middle ground instead. Lacking the sense of development you get going from a T1 Mantis to a T3 Brick or an experimental. This worries me.

And what about certain buildings? Like large artillery and missile launchers? I just don't understand how these can be available right from the start. Will they only be practically unavailable because of cost?

I know I'm looking through my SupCom FA glasses, but I'm honestly interested in how they are going to prevent the game from being less immersive and visually appealing because units will all look the same in scale, while at the same time prevent 'epic' units from appearing too early.

I think that sheer numbers will be one part of growing size, and the other will be special stuff, like orbital platforms and KEWs.

And I suppose that some things will simply be available but unaffordable, yes. That mechanics works pretty well.

If you want to know more about available tech structures and what PA seems to be going for, you should start with this thread;

Do we Need Tech levels?

Yeah it's a long read, but it's an expansive discussion.

Mike

Hey knight, thaks for that.

Yay for no upgrades. Good that we can go TA style with the units and have the units feel more important.