Hi I haven't been following the game's development in depth, so I am unsure whether or not the following has been discussed/answered. If it has, I apologize in advance. In both TA and SupCom, commanders did not scale very well into late game situations. Usually at around the Tech3/Experimental mark, commanders became far more of a liability than a help. Sure the build speed is great, but commanders were so weak they could often be taken out extremely easily and with just a few units. I see this as a problem because it encourages many cheese tactics, such as rushing strategic bombers or crashing a czar into their commander rather than actually playing the game and making an army. It wasn't so much a good strategy as it was a set of "easy win" out-of-the-box solutions. Some of them were easy to counter, but usually required in-depth knowledge of how the 'strategy' worked first. I know commanders are supposed to be somewhat weak, but at times it got completely ridiculous, especially when people would respond to this weakness by leaving their commander underwater, or never letting him leave shield domes etc. It was a silly solution to a silly problem. Since PA doesn't have shields, this seems like it could be far more of a problem than it was in SupCom, where shields would at least mitigate a portion of the damage. I welcome legitimate discussion/criticism on this issue.
Re: Commander Discussion and Questions This has been discussed without pause, and there still isn't a clear line between what everyone wants, I think. Upgrades are a definite no go, but one thing that might even the playing field is the Uber cannon, just like overcharge did in FA. And, something that I think hasn't been considered much, is that sending your commander off to another planet or asteroid immediately gives him temporary safety. How this will play out remains to be seen, but I think it's safe to say that the commander is going to stay relevant in the game, and not just be a unit that you have to hide all the time.
There is no research trees/unit tiers//upgrades. Well, there are Two Tiers, but they are not Tiers of power and price, but of specialization. Tier one are basic units, Tier two are specialized, but neither are significantly more powerful.
Without a solid game ender like Commander Death, the game could too easilly enter an endless stalemate situation. That said, playing a two hour game only to loose to a moments distraction is kind of annoying. Having to chase a single unit around in space, even though you destroyed every other unit fifteen minutes ago, would also be annoying.
the commander remaining significant on the battlefield through out the game should be something that's looked at alpha would be the time to post about this though
It gotta be tested first, kiptin. Comm safety is a balance issue that has to be directly addressed by the Commander. One single unit can not hold against a legion of enemies. It just isn't possible. The d-gun is great for blowing up enemies before they can do damage(sadly nerfed with Supcom). Basically anything with equal or shorter range than a d-gun is toast. Other defense tools can help to mitigate or avoid damage entirely, such as the cloak from TA, or perhaps a shield ability like in Supcom. The Comm role should help reflect its biggest strengths- traditionally they are the tool to seed planetary conquest. They will naturally avoid intense battles and untimely deaths by flying away to seed other worlds.
Commander should be the strongest unit in the beginning that helps you build up your base. Later it should be a liability since the entire point of the classic game is to murder the enemy commander. Think of the commander as a queen that turns into a king throughout a game of chess.
I agree, I think that was sort of the idea in FA too, strong early game, but as it is phased out by more powerful units, it becomes a liability. I expect it will be the same case in PA too.
The Big Problem with SupCom/FA was the large jumps in power between tiers so you end up in T3 where almost any single T3 units has more DPS, and only a couple of any T3 unit has more HP, so ACUs needed upgrades to not fall behind, Overcharge is okay when there's one or 2 T3 units, but becomes less 'useful' the more T3 units are because it can only be fired every 5 seconds. If PA has a flatter power curve(or at least keeps the same average power to cost ratio between tiers) that won't be as big of a problem. Mike
I don't know where you guys get the idea that lategame commanders weren't useful. With some veterancy and upgrades that thing could kick all sorts of *** all the way up until the end. A single unit will never defeat a good army but it could sure make a dent even against t3 bots and to a limited degree experimentals. Especially true for aeon which ironically starts out the weakest but that shield just makes you virtually invincible.
PA has neither veterency nor upgrades, and the commander seemed pretty fragile in the latest livestream.
Exactly. I started my previous thread about the Commander being viable in the lategame for those exact two reasons. If there are no upgrades and no veterancy bonuses, then your Commander becomes a liability once you are out of the "Commander HP and Gun prevents T1 Rushes"-phase. Once you are past that, your Com won't get better, and just becomes a soft and squishy target. I am only adding to this because while that is the logical assumption, there may be more that Uber plans to do. Such as more expensive commander abilities. Like a Tier 2 Uber-cannon that consumes way more mass, or "5000 HP" shield that costs Metal. We simply don't know yet, but if we extrapolate from how TA and SupCom handled Coms, then the commander becomes your liability instead of a strength by early-mid-game.
