It's time to talk unit ideas

Discussion in 'Backers Lounge (Read-only)' started by neutrino, September 30, 2013.

  1. moonsilver

    moonsilver Member

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    ok after being redirected to one unit suggestion thread, I have now been redirected to this one. So i'll repost here as well.

    Would it be possible to have command based units. For example vehicles could have a mobile command base unit, which though is larger than other units, like a truck or something. It carries radar, possibly a repair beam.

    It could have a series of small weapons protecting itself, but nothing major. Small lasers and an anti aircraft missile launcher or 2. Would have the ability to build teleporters. It would be 2 or 3 times the size of a normal unit, and be expensive. It would exist to serve a command function, not be a powerhouse.

    Bots could have a field commander, smaller than our avatar, but carries a radar jamming device, no repair beam as that would invalidate the repair bots. It would gain a larger sight radius than most bots, not sure how much for balance purposes, but it would be significant. It would have the ability to reclaim and rebuild wreckage on the field like an engineer. It would again be expensive and larger than a normal bot. Your not meant to have many. It would carry no weapon as it has its engineer beam.

    Navy would get an aircraft carrier command vessal, or a submarine command vessal, I would probalyl prefer submarine command vessal as its more navy and doesn't mix with air. But carrier would also fit. It would have its own sonar, a repair beam and the ability to reclaim sea wrecks and transport many many land units. It would only have weak torpedos as its weapon. Again it would be big and expensive.

    Air could get the flying fortress. a very large air unit that is capable of flying to orbital and to other planets. It can transport many units, has radar jamming capability, no radar of its own. It has t1 style anti air missiles. It can not attack land and carries no bombs. Again big and expensive. I admit the air one is more to do with orbital than air, but asking for the space battleship Yamato might not have worked.

    That's my suggestion.
  2. rancor47

    rancor47 Member

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    I like this.
    timp13 likes this.
  3. GreenBag

    GreenBag Active Member

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    I also like this, wasn't one of the ideas during the kickstarter if you found a metal planet it could be used as a single giant weapon?
  4. dukyduke

    dukyduke Active Member

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  5. Zenotheory

    Zenotheory Member

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    Zombie Bot - Like the Necrons from Warhammer 40k?

    They have a 20-30% chance of reviving themselves around 30-50% health. :)
  6. AfailingHORSE

    AfailingHORSE Member

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    has an AOE satellite that is like a pelter in space that fires straight down ever come up ever?
  7. robber364

    robber364 Member

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    Okay, so what if each of the factions had one or two faction-specific units, much like in AoE II.

    Using AoE as an example, the Teutons had Teutonic knights, and the vikings got a special viking ship. If this concept were implemented here, we could keep the advantages of fewer unit types and simpler balance while having some reason (aside from commander aesthetics) to play one faction specifically. In TA and FA each faction had different doctrines, promoting different play styles. while I agree that completely different unit sets are out of the question, having one or two faction-units could restore some of this diversity.

    Another reason this could be nice is the "super units" dilemma. Many people seem to want some sort of experimental like in FA, but given the scale of the game such a unit doesn't seem to fit. Perhaps instead of a powerful super-unit, these faction specific units could fill a super-specialized role, such as a cloaking bomb-bot. this could open the door to extremely effective, albeit specialized strategies with fewer hard counters, and as a result, similar effectiveness to something like a super-unit. The scale of the game would remain intact, because instead of a super powerful unit you used a super clever one.

    any thoughts?
  8. thechessknight

    thechessknight Member

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    An orbital ship that is basically a portable Stargate. This unit allows you to build the Stargate on your planet and move it to some unsuspecting soles planet. When on the surface you can deploy your army through it.
  9. H4wG

    H4wG New Member

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    T2 orbital assault / dropship:
    Has massive health, but little to no weapons. Can pick up large numbers of units, and launch them at a planet's surface in drop pods. Drop pod impact is similar to a Holkins shell.

    T2 Assault bot:
    Imo current t2 bots are a little boring, they're just better versions of the t1 bots. Would be cool to see a big bot (commander size) that has good amount of health and some kind of fully auto cannon (basically a 40k dreadnought).

    Also, there needs to be a bot with a jetpack.
  10. ace902902

    ace902902 Active Member

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    faction specialized units are what we are trying to avoid here. everyone has the same army, so it is fair. even the different commanders are just different skins and skeletons. same physics, weapon and capabilities.
  11. lizard771

    lizard771 Well-Known Member

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    Boom. You got it! "You want it, I want it...we alllllll want it."
  12. robber364

    robber364 Member

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    and yet there is a certain amount of depth that is lost when you give everyone everything. syndrome said it best, "when everyone is super, no one is." and it wouldn't be unfair, because everyone gets access to these faction weapons. this just gives you a reason to play that faction other than aesthetics.

    this idea is to accomplish two things:
    • get people invested in the factions
    • provide a potential battlefield effectiveness of a "super unit" by specialized strategy rather than brute force
    I outlined how they could do this in the above post, and will happily cover it in greater depth, but I will ask that you actually consider it rather than repeating how "everyone gets the same units." having one extra unit per faction is very different than having a different set of units, and would require minimal artwork and departure from the game as it is now, while potentially adding a ton of depth.

    EDIT - on second thought, it is very likely that there is no code in the game for restricting units to certain factions, and as such it may be more difficult to implement than just adding units. still, I think the value it could add to the game play outweighs the cost.
    Last edited: March 3, 2014
  13. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Well currently the factions are straight off of TVTropes, so it's kinda hard to be excited about them.

    And besides, the community will be quick to make unit skin packs for the different factions, as to make them look and feel different, whilst remaining the same.
    stuart98 likes this.
  14. moonsilver

    moonsilver Member

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    How about making the special unit a feature of the commander you choose? Rather than an entire faction.
  15. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Well that would actually be the commander.
  16. moonsilver

    moonsilver Member

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    Sorry I meant, like if u choose the tank commander, u get a special tank unit. If u choose the tiny johnny five commander, u get a minibot unit. etc.
  17. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    I knew it!

    Well it would be good for a mod, as that is what the game is trying to avoid doing.

    As the premise is that everyone uses the same units as they are the best.

    Having unique units kinda destroys the point of that.
  18. moonsilver

    moonsilver Member

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    Alright, so, they want to do down the line of all armies are the same. Fair enough, was one old game that did something similar. Can't remember its name.

    But you had three factions, before u say it had three separate factions therefore u didn't have access to all units, this is how they did it.
    Three factions were pagan, Holy, alchemist.

    If you build a tier 1 pagan building, u could not build a tier 1 holy building, but u could build tier 1 alchemist building. You needed a Tier 1 pagan building to get the tier 2 pagan buildings, if u went tier 2 pagan buildings, u could not have tier 2 alchemist, or tier 1 and 2 holy.
    If u wanted tier 3 pagan building / units, u had to be a pure pagan.

    Showing my age there, bet none of u have an inkling what that game was.

    We have something in PA, like vehicles and air and bots. What if air land and vehicles and navy had like a special unit, but once you build it, your stuck with that unit or units. So in a way everyone would have the same army, but by making choices, the armies would be more diverse in the mid to late game. Be identical in the early game, so everyone has a fair beginning.

    So like build vehicle factory first, u get special vehicle, but then u can't build special air unit or special navy unit or special bot unit.
  19. alantoner

    alantoner New Member

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    Cloaked spy unit: a weak unit capable of sneaking into an enemy encampment and spying on them with out being seen.

    Hacker bot: Weak, lightly shielded unit capable of controlling a swath of enemy units for a short period of time.
  20. BooberSmack

    BooberSmack Member

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    The ''wall'' shield, lots of energy, unable to shoot threw, but useful for critical buildings from raids

    Attached Files:

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