When I got into RTS as a kid I didn't care, or even know, about the complexities of gameplay balance. What I liked was the immersion, the feeling of commanding an army or a settlement. A big part of this was the 'cool stuff you can do', non-gameplay interaction or background elements unrelated to gameplay. Clicking on units in Warcraft 2 until they get pissed off, clicking on critters until they explode, shooting civilians in Red Alert, hunting elephants in Age of Empires. Honestly I think this is the main draw for casual players. So here's some suggestions for COOL STUFF. Things that gamers tell each other followed by "you need to get this game." Humans as critters. This was suggested earlier, still a great idea. Tribal people would work well with the ruins of their cities as backdrops. Puts a more relatable, human face on the game. Bonus points if you can reclaim their bodies for a tiny amount of resources! (Blood iron?) Also helps modders since you don't have to make your own models or repurpose robots for everything. Nanolathes could be more awesome. Right now they're just this generic, lime green...spray, like some kind of fancy 3D printer. Not awesome! In my opinion they should be reimagined as NANOSWARMS, which devour mass and reassemble it into mechanisms of war. Instead of this 50s-B-movie looking green goop maybe it could use some kind of shimmering translucency effect, with a sick crackling, sizzling sound when you reclaim metal (and delightful screams when reclaiming human blood iron! ) Commander POV. Lets everyone indulge their dream of stomping around in a giant killbot. Shouldn't be that hard to do. Maybe even a POV of any unit? That was very popular in Dungeon Keeper! Realistic looking black holes and other exotic astronomical objects. I'm fairly sure this has never really been modeled in a game outside Celestia and Space Engine - another thing to make people go 'wow, I need to play this'. Anything else?
One more before bed: Imaginative units. TA and Supcom have more units than any other RTS, but ironically have less unit variety. I would like to see robots of all possible shapes and uses in this game. Snake-bots. Centipedes. Crab-bots. Monowheels. Buzzsaws, wrecking balls and other melee weapons. Rolling sphere-bots. Submersible Squidbots that can walk on their tentacles. Ornithopters and insectile flyers. A giant steel-threshing combine harvester.
Cool ideas. I think the devs naturally try to make units imaginative, while adhering to a set style. --> agreed with the 'nanolathes' btw, I'm not a fan of the green mist that is at work now (it's probably just temporary anyway [I hope]). lol in-fact, I thought it was paint the very first time I saw it. _____________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------- The main reason I found your thread is because of the astronomy/astrophysics attached to it. I HIGHLY suggest that the appropriate astrophysical "creatures," if you will, are implemented in the game! At the very least, multiple-star systems. They're bloody common in the Universe, and would be really cool to see. I'm talking your typical main sequence stars through to supergiant and dwarf stars. -->this could even pose new gameplay challenges, but I wont go into that or else I'd ramble with cool ideas. However, I'll say one bit: Look at a nebula...HUGE clouds of resources- however, dangerous. Some radiation protection technology would be at play. So they could be end-game resource pools!
I am confused. Unless you're so baffled at the ridiculousness of a POV cam that you're convinced it's trolling. I would say it's completely unnecessary- however, being able to zoom right into your units is great (as the devs have said you can do already, I think).
I do like the Ideas, the most importand i think tho is unit varity.. Making nearly every Unit Unique(still having 2 Tiers on Units...)
