Defend a city or defend and move a object from A to B. Why? To add some more value/color to our fantacy when we fight at the battlefield. The commander is cool ;-) but a colorfull city is more ...eh... interesting to defend. Adding some alternative strategi goals would also be fun i think. Alt. 1) Player/team tries to move an object from area A to area B before time runs out. Other player/teams tries to destroy the object. Some balance threatment needs to be done (not possible to attack before a certain time limit... or maybe some different economy startings etc.) Object could be a slow moving vehicle or just the commander. Alt. 2) Defend a city Defender team/player needs to withstand attackers for a certain periode. Forexample: Less than 15 minutes the attackers win. Between 15 and 20 minutes --> tie. If city is not destroyed before 20 minutes the defender wins etc. In practise there need to be a certain % of buildings destroyed (forexample 50%) that determines wether the city/cities are destroyed.
Or have it a bit less arbitrary than a timer? Like say, the attacking force has a finite amount of resources whereas the defender doesn't, or the defender has to be able to build a large evac rocket before the attackers wipe them out. Cities don't work in the context of the current giant robot on robot setting, but could work for a totes converty mod
With the number of people that like building defensive base, I think it's a must. Perhaps it would fit better with an ancient death start or a crashed mothership.
How about a city with a civilian population that works your factories, so you have to maintain the city and keep the people showing up at work (so if a plague is going around your city, factory production drops)