So, I'm just wondering, who else doesn't want that sort of thing? I see these sort of things on a scale, first you have realism, robots stomping around blowing up other robots is realistic (enough for the setting), then you have asteroids being thrown at planets, which is awesome. Then you have planets being moved around launching missiles that implode suns and firing shells the size of skyscrapers across the galaxy, which is going so far that it becomes a bit silly and, for me anyway, detracts from the game. Basically, what I'm hoping for is that the super units in the style of those that exist in SupCom 1 & 2 won't make it into PA, and that the most awesome weapon in the game will be an asteroid with a lot of engines strapped to it.
I don't understand your guys' problem. Do you really want a mech marine-sized bot to be one of the biggest land units in the largest scale RTS to this day? The experimental units from supcom imo are actually just about the size and power I can imagine working well in PA, because they will not be overly powerful or actually "game ending" and after all they can always be wiped by annihilating the planet they are on. As for real "game enders", we obviously get one and we all want it. So imo, it's all good.
I'm not nearly as concerned with giant robot types of super units, or really any form of super unit in this game. Speaking as someone who hates 'game ending' units with passion, that may surprise people. First allow me to explain. I hate 'game ender' units only so far as there should never be a situation that the mere existence of a certain unit means that I lose the game. Asteroids I do not feel operate in this fashion, as they can be seen coming, and there are multiple planets available to me, they can also only be used once. Therefore, while asteroids will end many games, I equally expect that some games will see several Asteroids used without decisive result. Now here is why super units are no longer of 'game ending' potential. Different planets. I assume that any massive death robot would not be able to be transported off the planet it was built on. With this restriction, super units no longer become unbalanced. They may offer massive dominance on a single world, but they would not win the game for you. If you manage to land and build one on an enemy world . . . well, fair enough. Also, TA did have an Experimental, it was called a Krogoth. Oddly enough, it wasn't a game ender either, probably because it's power-to-cost ratio wasn't very good. I really don't care if there are small-scale experimentals, but I don't really want them either. I guess I'm neutral for the above reasons.
People disliked SupCom experimentals because they made other units obsolete. No unit should make another obsolete; I think we can have super units that don't make regular units obsolete.
Thing is, I love Super Stompy Robot Experimentals... they're a goal to aim towards, they can impact the battlefield etc. I believe they should be balanced though, to prevent them being insta-win vehicles, but I do believe they should be present.
But they didn't, they were the only appropriate counter to AABs. Which still ate them for breakfast in sufficient numbers.
beyond a certain threshold making additional AABs for anyone but UEF was a waste of resources, that's what obsolete means that threshold was generally a function of economic and technologic development, once games went experimental they rarely reverted to T3 AAB. There were a couple reasons for this, a big one was that experimentals were extremely powerful and gained veterancy easily. Another one was that experimentals were easily the fastest way to spend large amounts of wreckage reclaim, so once experimental levels of mass started getting tossed around experimental level expediture became a necessity. The speed of resource drain is important because SupCom is an inflationary economy where resources lose value the longer they go unused. UEF was the only exception because they have no direct fire experimental and their AAB is pretty good.
You calling brickspam obsolete? You must be talking pre-FA times then. In fact, every direct fire experimental would probably get stomped by their mass in bricks (I did not do the maths on this, so don't call me out on it). The main benefit of the experimental is veterancy, spammability and something you can dunk your leftover resources into. The real game-enders aren't the direct fire experimentals anyway though, I would love to see a bunch of those in PA. Stuff like the Yolona Oss or the Paragon is what you may consider "uncounterable", even though of course quite a few matches have proven to get to a stage where each side would have several game enders spamming huge barrages of fire at each other. But even those I think would not be bad in PA due to them still being meh compared to the REAL elephant in the game that is the asteroid.
It's funny because none of mobile experimentals mentioned so far are game enders or even remotely overpowered Experimental units add a different strategic layer ( always a good thing ) to supcom and hopefully PA in that being able to decimate key units or structures can greatly impact the flow of battle Exactly like how sniping a generator farm can net you an economic victory by being able to temporarily outproduce your opponent, being able to take out key experimentals on an assault may turn the tide of battle, open up for a counter push, or similar situations, all of which are not possible with the "run of the mill" units That is because TA/Supcom/PA live from an enormous spam of units, in which individual units are basically worth nothing. Without experimentals there is a huge lack of tactics and strategy that is missing ( essentially reducing endgame unit strategies to how can mixmatch units better and how takes out unit blobs better ) tl;dr Experimentals / Super units are a good thing. They are like hero units in other RTS's
I believe that given the scale and scope of possible production in PA, that armies far vaster are going to be present in PA just due to the sheer amount of resources present. Personally, i loved experimentals in both supcom, FA and supcom 2. THey provided a decent counter to unit spam, added a layer of strategery (yes i know thats not a word), and gave the game a resonable but powerful method of ending stalemates. I think as long as certain ridiculous units (like the aoen resource gen/ cybran bomb bouncer [supcom2]) are left out, the game will balance out well. I think some of you are forgetting that their are no plans for more than 1 faction, in which case all t3/experimental units would be directly counter-able by an equal number of the same unit in the opposing army. Obviously 10 exp vs 10 exp would be boring as all hell, but if the units had specific counters (gunships for most supcom and fa units) and either ground or air (for supcom 2 despite it being a horrible game). Finally i would like to point out that most of the experimentals did not directly counter other units, they were simply extremely powerful single entities (in a game of over 2000+ units aren't single powerhouses good to prevent 1000 bots vs 1000 bots?) that required correctly balanced armies of equal value to bring down.
