Just some suggestions and what not I came up with after about 4 hours of mucking around in PA. 1. Aircraft Deaths. Currently they just fall straight to the ground when they die. Realistically, the momentum they are generating should carry their corpse, debris, or explosion forward a little way even after they die. Giving them a nice little crash landing would do wonders as far as making them more likable (in my opinion). 2. The Star System/Galaxy editor. Great idea as it gives players a chance to muck around with differnt ideas and create their own maps but I think that a little more control should be given to the players so that metal deposits are not "randomly" placed in areas that you cannot build on like half in the water or partially under a mountain. Give players the ability to directly place metal deposits, mountains, and similar objects. (I believe this will improve creativity behind the kinds of maps you will see). 3. The commander's accuracy. This one was a little more of a glitch, you may have caught it or it may have not even been brought up. It seems that the commander's accuracy tends to lean a little to the right so if you try and attack a target (in this case it has happened with bots and vehicles with me) you need to target something to the left of what you are aiming for. This proves to be dangerous when you run out of targets and no longer have defenses to fall back to. 4. Army Customization. Allow players to choose if not make their own color scheme's to start. Also, having multiple factions (ie. Core and Arm for Total Annihilation or UEF, Cybran, Aeon, and the Seraphim for Supreme Commander) or unique upgrades (ie. Star Craft 2 campaigns where you could choose one of two unique possible upgrades for each unit) so that not everybody is using the exact same thing would increase the replay value of PA. 5. Commander Movement. Not sure if this has been caught or not but when the commander moves, its body from the waist down seems to jerk left or right randomly even if he is just trying to walk in a straight line. As amusing as it might be for Alpha or Beta, this should be taken care of before the full/complete release. 6. Aircraft movement. If it could happen in Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, then it should at least be considered for PA. Let the aircraft land and take off or give them a "fuel" bar that slowly drains while airborne and thus when it is empty, they would slow down and/or take damage over time until they refuel. This would provide some level or realism so that player don't just chalk it up to "they (the aircraft) are being held up via magic". 7. Corpses. If you are going to give buildings corpses/wreckage that can be reclaimed, give it to units as well. Let us salvage the burning husks of dead tanks, ravaged bots, crashed aircraft, and sunken ships. It feels like a tremendous waste to just have them sort of poof into smoke. At the same time, don't make the remains last forever, rather give them a 2-5 minute period before they "despawn". That will give players at least a chance to gain extra resources and should keep the planets that are being fought on at least somewhat clean. 8. Upgradable Commanders. One of my favorite aspects of Supreme Commander was the fact that I could upgrade said commander. I could give him a teleporter on his torso, a higher powered gun on one arm and an engineering suite on the other. This made him far more versatile and useful. You may want to incorporate the idea of upgrading the commander in PA so that it doesn't simply become an armored VIP (counterstrike reference) later on in the game. 9. Stomper Movement. I don't know if it is just me and/or my computer but the Stomper Advanced Bot seems a little glitchy when it walks, as if it is only stepping forward with its right leg. I have tried looking at it from different angles without success. If it isn't just me, you may want to take a closer look at that unit. 10. Simpler Scroll Method. Please for the love of god take this suggestion into consideration even if you ignore everything else I have written. With what you have created, if would be a miracle if you could allow players to right click and drag to scroll across a planet. While arrow keys are nice, it just feels like a better method could be used. I know I have experienced that in at least one game before and I find it gives a little more precision in moving the map. If you don't intend to use the right click button for anything other than ordering selected units to move or factories to rally, consider using right click to "grab" the map/planet and then allowing the drag to move the screen. 11. Submarines. Haven't tested them again today but I hope you intend to make them submersible. I do wonder about the construction sub though as there does not seem to be a need for it when the ship can build almost (if not) everything the sub can and more. I would suggest either giving it some unique construction options that the ship doesn't have so that the sub is more useful or removing it from the game completely. 12. Trees. Always loved having trees in rts games. Nothing quite felt as good as having them knocked down, burned up, or absorbed/reclaimed. These trees .... they don't do any of that. Make them destroyable so they fall over under the treads of large vehicles. Have them catch flame or get vaporized under the heat of exploding bombs or a nuke. Have them reclaimable as a source of energy. Do something with them but don't just leave them there so that they poke out of your factory or another structure when you are building in a forest or jungle. Also, a little tlc on their appearance so they don't look like they came from minecraft would not hurt. They don't have to be perfect, they just shouldn't be blocky and an eyesore. And lastly (for now) 13. Aesthetics. If this war has been ongoing for some time, I would suggest taking a deep look into the lore behind the game. In Total Annihilation Commanders were rare. There were only a few that actually remained. Because of this they had paint scratches, blemishes, dents, you name it. The same in Supreme Commander 1 and Supreme Commander 1: Forged Alliances. They had been fighting for a thousand years according to the lore if I am not mistaken. Even their newest weapons soon more the marks of use and abuse. I would suggest that Commanders (and perhaps even all units and buildings in PA) take similar textures. Unless this is a brand new war that just started then they should show their age and use. Supreme Commander 2 tried to disregard this with their "hey we have had ten years of peace, let's make everything shiny and polished and flawless". I still laugh at it. Every unit and building in that game is an eye sore. They should not have the pristine look of never having seen battle so soon after a way that lasted so long.
Most if not all of it is on uber's list as far as i know. Except aesthetics. I mean, they can nanolathe buildings into existence. why on earth would anything be dent-y and damaged?
Haha, exactly. All units are NEW and SHINY. 8D They have JUST been built. The commanders are the only units that are persistant and move from system to system. But they are AIs, they would just nano-fix every dent or scratch they get automatically so they stay at a perfect 100% health.
Going with nano-lathing huh? Well, let's let that trigger my "Genuine Curiosity and Challenge round";D If nano-lathing is the reason that all of the units (commanders included) in PA looks all shiny and new, why was it not so with Total Annihilation? The story behind TA was that the Core and Arm were the technological remnants of the extinct human species. A species that had been extinct for between one and ten thousand years if memory of the lore serves me right. Both sides were comprised of AI's and had no organic components and used nano-lathing to build their armies. That said, their commanders and even their units had a war torn, battle weary feel about them. Care to explain why they would seem/feel dent-y and damaged where as PA's units wouldn't? Anyway, bonus points to whoever can explain that to me without resorting to "they are two different games" or something similar as an answer ^_^ Now, I noticed something in-game that I was unsure of in the sense of "could just be me or my comp again" but the attack command of "press a and left/right click" does not seem to work with the Leveler tank produced from the Adv. Vehicle Factory. I actually have to target each specific enemy unit or move them right up next to the enemy before they start attacking on their own. If it isn't just me, that may be something to check on.
That are AI's in TA? Isn't CORE just an AI melted with human minds and ARM are humans who didn't want that but instead upgraded their bodies with machinery? Or something...
Might be but I am pretty sure that the lore states that the the time the game takes place both sides had long since stopped having organic components.
hehe damn ... won't be able to stop wondering that myself now. Time to crack open the ol TA boxes and find out.
