Hello, I was just wondering if there is/will be a research element to the game. I have seen several games, similar to this one, that have implemented a R&D system. for example: you may spend "X" amount of metal and energy to allow your units to take less bullet damage... things like that, however there are several successful games out there that do not include a research system. And maybe if you were not planning to implement this system (and it is popular among PA players) this could open your minds to an R&D system. So i was just wondering if you were planning to include something like this, and as for the forum users: what do you guys think about this idea? Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll.
research trees definitely have their place, but i'm not sure PA would benefit at all from it. games that tend to have significantly more restricted / exhaustible resources/economies benefit more from tech trees as you typically choose a sort of strategy or path with the resources you have available. in +/- systems, you'd just need to expand your economy however much more until you could get those techs (and everyone would basically have to do that, so it's not adding much depth).
I want it at least to be like TA. I think in some post it was mentioned there is no research and a link to some Reddit post where dev said it just means "no tech tree like really clicking no research where you research stuff". But if it was like TA where you have different tiers of units... building a better factory with the first engineer then getting a better version that could build better factories. That would be good for the beginning. Research maybe later... I don't think it would hurt. Especially for commanders I think it could be interesting to be able to research stuff for them(or build buildings to unlock stuff for them). And maybe make 1st-Person view and let another player play 1st person play the commander while I command the other units from RTS view lol. (like Savage / Savage 2). Edit: And maybe something like strategical resources (like from Civ) where you need to build something at a resource location to have access it to be able to build a limited amount(more if you have more resources access) of super special units or buildings... could lead to intersting fights at some special locations. And would work a bit like tech tree since you needed to do something to unlock units. - Not like with the Metal and Energy with input and output... so not really a 3rd resource. Also it would limit the amount of weapons / buildings cause the resources wouldn't be unlimited.
If you think about it there is already a type of research system in the game, The metal planets, will have some sort of requirements to operate them, be it controlling an area for a set period or time, or capturing strategic buildings, you could class that as a type of research. However there is a certain old school appeal to me of just having units do one thing, and not being modified in any way. Makes the game feel more like a game of chess, where everyone has the same pieces, but its down to how you use them that determines the winner. The other thing i didn't like about research is that it keeps the toys you want to play with out of your reach until you take the time to learn it, artificially lengthening the game. However I will admit, once you have researched something there is a joy you get when you finally do get to use the thing you where researching.
I like research in games like Sins of a Solar Empire or Civilization, but games like Supreme Commander and Planetary Annihilation do not need research trees. No point to it.
Thanks to all who replied, and i can completely understand how there is a time and game for research systems. However i did not know how the game was operating (and some of us still don't until alpha rolls out) but reading some of your comments, you have very valid points of why it would not be, so thank you for educating me :lol:
