Big crater after the commander go's nuclear (combomb)

Ahh... I see. Take away the 2nd most unique thing about the entire Total Annihilation Sub-genre. Yes. I like that idea.

Oh, no... wait... the other thing; Lothe.

Why? The main point of the commander apart from being your avatar is that he has a lot of build power to get you started, multiple engineers can provide that same build power.

We already broke the base concept of the game by changing away from assassination. So I don't see why engineer starts is so bad.

Clearly you are playing something other than assassination because you don't want to care about the commander in the first place.

Not playing assassination is about making the commander irrelevant compared to units. That's why you play it right?

I see that you're entirely unable to counter Mikes "Team ComBomb" example.

And no, that is not why I'd play Domination game Modes. The Commander is more than "just another unit" in any circumstance.

That is so incredibly short sighted I'm at a loss for words.

Mike

I predict your answer is going to be exactly what I said in a different wording, but why then do you play it?

More shortsighted than playing a mode the game is not designed around? We've already thrown the core concept in the bin so why not just start you off with whatever is equivalent to a commander instead of breaking the commander?

The simple fact is that different game modes have different design needs. If assassination-proof Comms end up nothing more than glorified glory devices, then get rid of them. Explode big or go home.

There are ways to make a Comm loss very damaging in the long term. Currently, it appears that Commanders will produce a fairly large amount of resources. They may also be a critical element of the space race. The hard part is keeping the short term nuclear gain from dominating the game.

I play Domination to feel the cold satisfaction of wiping out every last trace to the Enemy Commanders name... Personally.

There is a glorious catharsis to taking apart not only the Commander, but everything he ever built. I play Domination to Finish the Fight, utterly and completely, showing no mercy... only glee in his Utter Annihilation. Without the Commander there, not only does my opponent not present a worthy challenge, but the Joy of seeing his twisted remains in a smoking ruin is lost to me.

The Commander is an Avatar... a Symbol... and one of the rare few I am able to destroy.

I don't feel Different Victory Conditions for the most part are radically different enough to warrant call them game Modes, if we were talking about the difference between standard gameplay and Rush Survival Gameplay I'd agree.

Assassination and Annihilation are different Victory Conditions, but the core mechanics that dictate how you achieve your goal are largely unchanged, I feel it is shoddy to say say A is a problem, but instead of fixing it, we abandon it and implement B instead.

That's how we got SupCom2 after all, they "fixed" the 'issues' with SupCom1/FA by implementing new mechanics, not by fixing the problem, it's a prime example of a workaround that doesn't actually solve anything.

Mike

A is not a problem though. It's only a problem because you took away something essential to how A works, namely the death = loss downside.

Which represents the most basic tenet of the gameplay which is that the commander is your avatar.

So you throw the most basic thing about the whole game out and you object to making a small change to make up for the new balance of a different game mode? Now that's short sighted.

So what you really want is the ability to continue playing after you've won just to stamp out the remains?

What? Stay focused, we're talking about the implications of removing the commander from Annihilation/Domination Game modes.

Mike

If you want to say it in a single, pithy one sentence summary; yes.

After killing the Commander I sometimes take perverse pleasure in ripping down everything he stood for.

We're actually talking about the reasons for doing so. You claim that combombing is a problem. And you have a point, given that between being a good builder, producing a tiny amount of resources, having a powerful gun, and being a nuclear bomb, being a nuclear bomb is probably most useful.

Normally the nuclear bomb part loses you the game however, nullifying its usefulness. Ergo the problem only exists when that is not true. And so rather than breaking the unit in normal gameplay, just replace it with equivalent units that do not have the problem in this special case.

Which is True in all cases outside of 1v1 games of Annihilation Mode.

What? It's always true in all forms of assassination. And it's always not true in all forms of supremacy/annihilation/domination/whatever.

However that part serves no point since according history of these games, Commander dead, there is nothing to control the army.

What broke FA was when people GAVE everything on death, thus making com bombing have no drawbacks. I just hate it when they ruin the fun and originality of the game and its tactics for casuals. Which is strange because when I was 10 during TA's release I understood the commanders MAD system just fine, and I enjoyed it. Stopped people from trying to run you down with their commander every game because of the draw factor.

The fact stands that the way it was done in FA, removed immersion, and some fun factor from the game. And was implemented for TEAM Commander Death Continues games... There may have been a few overly aggressive players in 1v1 who wanted it too, I cant remember anymore. gotta know when to pull out guys... This is garbage, and should only be a select able option like starting resources and maps.

It would actually be interesting if instead of self destructing or being able to be given, units would simply become neutral or hostile to everything when the commander dies. And continue on only with their last known orders.

And at that point could there be a tech structure made to hack the systems of neutural units and convert them to your control (Maybe a unit like the Necro's in TA, just more automated.)