Ground combat is 1 dimensional. Can we get a megabot already?

numptyscrub my reason for wanting megabots is not because I need a broken unit crutch. It's more that I want a unit I can hold it's own, a unit that has intimidation factor. If i have a megabot that is = to 5 tanks in cost those 5 tanks are more versatile. I can split them up into 2 groups, they have 5 weapons and when 1 dies I still have 4 of them. For the megabot it might have only 3 weapons, but more health than the 5 tanks. I can't split it up, but it's an intimidating unit and great for distracting an enemy from the real danger elsewhere. It enhances strategy to have the option and there are tactical reasons to want 1 over the other for any given situation.

My reply to this is...If you want a Megabot so badly, make your own, and mod one in

Once theres New Custom Unit support that is XD

I really don't know what to say outside of the usual "we're working on expanding the unit roster." But, it is still happening and chances are new units are coming sooner than you may think!

bad choice of words... ('cause people expect the introduction of new units at all times, so just wait for the "Patch with megabot in the next five minutes, according to Brad" threads to pop up....)

Yeah just to be clear we aren't working on a megabot.

What we are doing is working on adding a bunch of new units and unit roles to fill out the roster. Don't expect a bunch of one-off whacky units though.

Good. I for one would hate it if you added robotic versions of the Animaniacs as T2 units.

Thanks for the reply Uber staff! I feel honored to have you in my thread Can you give us any details on some of the new unit roles (if not the units themselves) we can expect?

I know megabots have been discussed a thousand times, but the thinking behind them really worries me. My problem with the concept isn't really about the size of the unit or any of its stats, but about the way combat works at a more fundamental level. Units in this game continue to have the same dps during a battle regardless of how much hp they have left. However, armies do not get this advantage. As your army suffers losses, it becomes less effective at fighting. The longer you stick around to fight it out, the less damage you will be doing and the faster your army will be destroyed (as the number of targets for the enemy to shoot at decreases). Large armies also suffer another weakness that megabots don't have to deal with, which is that only the front few rows can shoot at any time. This leads to some situations where it can be better to split an army up and attack at more than one point to maximize the army's dps, while accepting the increased risk of using smaller armies that can be more easily killed.

If you think of an army as a single megabot that can be divided and even injured, you can see how it is much more interesting than a megabot that operates at full power until destroyed. Someone brought up using megabots as support units with low health, but I don't see any reason why you can't just use a group of long range artillery or other specialized units with the same strengths and weaknesses. What we really need is more unit diversity and advanced units that focus more on specialization and less on cost and power, but that's still (hopefully) coming.

The only real situation where I could see a megabot adding some interesting gameplay is if it can be built in the orbital launcher and sent on a one-way mission to crack a heavily fortified base on another planet, clearing the way for an invasion. It would need to be shot down by antinukes in order to prevent it being used as a commander snipe, but I can see this working if it is useful in a special situation but isn't otherwise cost effective.

TA never had a problem when the Core was the only team with the megabot Krogoth...So why will PA have a problem???
Please explain? I think you never even played TA before.

So you must really hate the T2 Leviathan then eh? With it's HP x9 higher than the Bluebottle and 3x the DPS. Shame it's already in the game....

I started playing TA shortly after it came out, and I still do sometimes. With that said, I'm not sure why the only people allowed to discuss PA are the ones that played TA. Luckily for me, I do get permission to discuss PA because I am a card-carrying member of the Total Annihilation club.

The krogoth is an awesome, ridiculous unit meant to make people cackle like a madman with the power they control. It's not usually the cost effective way to do anything, except when the map gets so filled with wreckage that armies have trouble moving. I do love the krogoth, but experimental units in TA and SupCom were really just there because the game couldn't handle the equivalent number of normal units at the same time.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the leviathan. For that matter, I don't really like most of PA's advanced units because they seem to just be bigger versions of basic units. One of the things that impressed me most about the original plan for PA was the idea that basic units should be cheap general purpose fighting units while advanced units would be cheap specialized units. There is no reason or need for advanced units to be much more expensive than basic ones. Our advanced units can be things like artillery, sniper bots, hovercraft, etc. that can all be just as easy to kill as basic units but are incredibly useful in the right situation. I'm still hoping that the coming balance tweaks and new units can bring the game more in line with that vision.

Every one needs to chill.
And do you guys think Uber is full of retards??? They ******* made TA and SupCom ffs. They know what they are doing and have more understanding about RTS than 99% of the Starcraft "balance" idiots here.

Quick one-liner from me.

Regardless of the benefits and drawbacks of a "megabot" unit, adding it will not make the ground combat any more or less one-dimensional (if it even is). That's not how dimensions work (width vs. depth, etc).

I disagree. More unit roles will add diversity, and certainly a megabot does not fit the same role as an Ant. Either way more unit roles are needed, weather or not that takes the form of a megabot.

This very much depends upon the type of megabot. The general thing that most people think of when they hear the word "megabot" is something like the TA krogoth. It is a big stompy robot, designed to go in, absorb vast quantities of enemy fire, and blow up everything in it's path.

That is also the job of a large blob of ants. It takes damage, trundles into bases, and blows stuff up. It isn't a stealthy sniper, or a fragile artillery unit. It is a straight forwards assault unit.

The conventional megabot, is just an ant on steroids. A lot of steroids to be sure, and with fancy animations, weapons and modelling, but it is a difference in scale only. If you want more roles, you should think of instead things like artillery, scouts, sappers, amphibious landing craft, EMP missiles and the suchlike. Any of these things could also have it's scale and cost turned up to eleven, and made into an experimental as well, but this demonstrates that we need the roles first, and the steroids second (if at all, for now).

Just a dumb little my 2 cents but, I feel rather disappointed a game that the developers of which couldn't stop claiming would be "epic" will not include mountain striding death bringers.

HOW ARE ASTEROIDS NOT EPIC?

No doubt both are epic. Some people just have different things come to mind when the word is used I guess. As mentioned before, I think everyone just wants a form of attack that resonates with them and there are a million ways to skin that cat.

Why do they have to use your definition of 'Epic'? Why can't they use their Definition?

Mike