2 PA Expansions - EPIC Space, EPIC One Planet

So, it's a little early for this, but I definitely have PA's next direction in mind. There are a couple of bugs still, a couple of major units and features to add, but for the most part PA is in great shape. So, here's what I see as two great 2015 expansions, maybe $10 each.

First: EPIC Space

EPIC Space will add a whole dimension to space combat. Some possible features:

-Fighter Interceptors, more expensive fighters that can track down and kill units already in orbit transiting between planets.
-Battleships: Ships that are like 3 anchors in one, move, and travel a little faster between planets but slow in orbit. They also have a chargeable anti-capital ship gun.
-Carriers: These travel faster than normal units, are big damage sponges, have limited anti-fighter ability, and mostly just carry strike packages long distances in safety.
-Space Battlezones: When capital ships or interceptors are in transit, they can collide and create a temporary plane of battle. You can position you ships strategically and even build a couple minor defense (mini anchors).
-Mulitple Solar Systems: this would have to be done in a limited way. That is, the design would keep performance issues in mind and limit system size for multiple system maps. I'm thinking 2-4 suns.
-Sun Destroyer: this causes a star to go nova. This either sends a wave which wipes out everything in the system, only to eventually dissipate and allow resettling, or collapses into a black hole which takes all the planets completely with it (minus outlying planets). If you have to orbit a black hole your ships will go very very slowly. If you want, you can transit the nova, but only carriers or quick moving battleship can survive damage caused by the gasses until they dissipate. Maybe you want to risk it to get in there first.
-Star Gates: teleporters for capital ships, these take a very long time to build, since so much gameplay depends on moving ships around.
-Colony Ships: these ships act like spikes that are one-time-use drops onto a planet. They have the effect of a nuke (or commander starting out splash), and come with pre fab 2 bot factories, a teleporter and a couple of turrets. These travel fast too.
-Nukes And Unit Cannons And Annihilasers: they only work in the system in which they're built, so you have to use the capital ships to get around.
-Mothership: takes forever to build, and requires a commander to function. You can build many, but only one works at a time, and makes your comm vulnerable. Basically, power of two battleships together, can carry, has a couple orbit to ground lasers (ssx variety). That sort of thing. Can build nukes at a fixed rate, carries maybe three.
-Space Fight/Attack: Slightly more expensive than fighters, with equal space firepower, but can swoop down to the planet surface and function as halfway between t1 and t2 bombers with t1 air to air ability.
-Space Destroyers: Not as powerful as Battleships, at all, but have slightly better firepower than fighters and are more expensive. So, Battleship cannons would fight other battleship, but destroyers can support and offer better capability against capital ships than fighters.
-T2 orbital factories: How it sounds, with an advanced fab orbital fab. Just to build the big stuff…
-SunSkimmers: Large econ units that are slightly more expensive than jigs, but which produce much more metal. These orbit suns and "collect" econ only on their perigee. Thus, there's a rhythmic availability of econ, but may come in handy if other sources aren't available. Plus, these collect A LOT, so with good storage you should be okay.
-Solar Stations: t2 solar panels basically. The idea here is that you would need a substantial amount of terrestrial economy to build space units, so here you have space units up to the task of making that energy.
-Space Drills: Like the ship from Star Trek 2009, a movable platform that can drill metal from planet cores, thus not needing metal spots. Expensive to build and very vulnerable while drilling.

So that's the gist of it. You're basically adding multiple systems, which limits end game stuff like nukes and lasers, and adds what amounts to a third tier of energy production. That energy production is much more strategic, with sun skimmers and space drills, you have to protect your econ much more dynamically. Space travel becomes more important, so now you have capital ships to help out. Plus, it's easier to lock down planets, so you have options besides ssx to break the shell. This adds a layer of activity to space, so now you have interceptors, space battle zones, star gates and the like, so more is "going on" up there. Carriers and motherships make it so that you could abandon planetary gameplay altogether, your comm will be safer in space.

Now on to expansion #2: EPIC Planet

If the space expansion really increases the scale of the game, the planet expansion really narrows it. The idea here is that this game type will always feature one planet only. I remember PA back in the alpha days before there even were orbital units. I think this should have basic sensor satellites, fighters, and orbital lasers, but not much more. The planets featured will be about as big as the game can handle.

Features:
-Submarines!: We'll expand out naval combat, enrich it. That include a submarine level, and tweaks with torpedoes and which units can go underwater, etc.
-Air Power: The AirBase! A large, long to construct area that has built in defenses and can support a couple of new units. Among these two t2 fighters, one with limited bombing capability, and the other with a high-speed, high-altitude intercept capability. Add a high altitude layer - basically units 'dip' up here on a trajectory. They're only vulnerable at the beginning and end, or perhaps are sensor units that stay up there. You need t2 anti air to reach that high.
-Subterranean Units: Units that can bury themselves, which also dig tunnels which are like slow cheap tele porters. Another unit can collapses or bomb tunnels, or dig them and sapper underneath ground defenses.
-New tanks: a fast one, then a hardened slow one; for offense and defense. The intent is to have tank warfare. You have two larges armies meeting on a battlefield outside bases? You have to micro manage it a little. Automation will help. For instance, fast tanks are smart enough to keep good spacing and dodge around stuff. So you tell them where you want them to do their thing and they'll do it.
-Base Defense features: there will be base templates now. So you can select some fabs and click a wall menu and there are pre made patterns you can lay down. Simple stuff like boxes or stars with properly spaced turrets. Add t2 walls (which are also subterranean).
-Metal linking: You build special relays which link metal towers and multiple their production. This means building a strong and smart defense is more important than spamming metal spots.
-Group Selection: select units, ctrl-1, now pressing 1 will select all those units.

The intent is to make a gameplay that is more narrow and tactical. It's not about a rush to this planet or that, or this area or that. Or getting t2 or nukes first. It's about building a smart and good base, then crafting an army to take out other bases. You can't just spam tanks and then send them all over, you have to get a good balance of the right tanks, and then maneuver them tactically to win battles.

For example the enemies' army is coming. You immediately bury your underground units. You also start a tunnel going at the rear of your forces. Your fire tanks surround your artillery, between two mesas, you send out your bots to spam the middle, sending fast tanks around the sides. You follow up your fast tanks with slow tanks.

They enemy sends normal tanks after your fast, so you withdraw into your approaching slow tanks, which decimate his. Your other side fast tanks flank the enemy's bots which are brawling with yours in the middle, while artillery is raining on the middle, your fast tanks are hitting the enemy's bots and tanks from the side.

He has the number advantage though, and advances with tanks, destroying your bots and fighting off fast tanks. He moves to your artillery. You cause your buried units to emerge, which delays his tanks. You send bots from your rear through the now finished tunnel to his artillery's rear. He has a sapper unit which bombs some of you tunneled bots, but not enough. You take out his artillery, and your fast tanks move in to surround his tanks. Your slow tanks move in for the kill, while your artillery comes in to support. He's finished. Now you have to bring your wall sappers in… Not to mention the high altitude battle and nuke exchange going on...

Nice ideas, but I hope they don't go the DLC route and just expand the armory with maybe custom unit colors, models, projectiles or anything cosmetic only for $$$

The Armoury is for Commander skins only. So um.... ya...

Sun destroyer = MASSIVE LAG!

Good suggestions

Well, I am one who is disappointed about Human Resources being cancelled. 2 expansions - not DLC - but expansions (welcome to the old ways), would be a nice way for them to apply a team to something new while still improving and supporting PA.

Plus, they built this whole game already. It's a lot easier to build upon an exiting template than start over, so the quality should be pretty good.

PLUS, this is all stuff I think we want, but is clearly above and beyond the current gameplay. It would be sort of a new game, but the same game. Hence, an expansion.

Not sure how expansions like that would work without fragmenting the multilayer game.
Maybe a campaign expansion or second race expansion could work well keeping a single multilayer game.

Things can change(expand). So um.... ya...

If it's an expansion you download from the Internet it's DLC.

For reasons many reasons (which I will not list all of here), the word DLC brings along a form of negativity (mainly due to the way many company's have abused DLC). If Uber were to make an addon for PA I suggest that they call it an expansion as that word carries no where near as much negativity.

Trust me. It'll do a world of good avoiding the use of the word DLC for large content addons.

Well yes, I know. I was just correcting him as it is still technically DLC, no matter how it's spun, and that DLC isn't inherently bad. Though I know peeeople like to form these negative connotations around everything because a couple companies/whatever ruin it.

A nuke that spawns a firebase. Gee that's not overpowered at all.

I'm definitely down with expansion packs. I love them, I also like your idea for carriers I imagine a large 1 use navel unit that rides up on the beach and opens at the front spewing units and providing a bit of covering fire for them.

DLC can be an expansion, an expansion can be DLC, an expansion doesn't have to be DLC, DLC doesn't have to be an expansion. If you download it from the internet and it adds onto the end result of a finished game then it is both. If it adds onto the end result of a game and you buy it seperately and particularly in physical or standalone form, then it is an expansion but not DLC. What you are "fetching for" is overrated anyway, I am okay with an expansion be it DLC or not.

I wish that a "fabber" could have a fab tool with an ammo limit. Like, have a charge of 20000 energy, and a build rate of like 300. That way, you could literally build like a teleporter and some flak in just 6 seconds, or a catapult if longrange ground threatens you, or advanced laser defences, but once it runs out it fabricates at normal speed of 30 metal a second.