Was talking about a few things PA with some mates and we digressed onto those capturable NPC buildings in Generals, like the repair bays and the supply depots and we wondered if PA might have any in it? Staying mainly to ones you would find in a scenario that fits PA if they were included E.G. a radar/vision radius booster, repair bay of sorts or a small metal extractor station. It could so fit in with the lore, the battle has been raging for thousands of years surely someone would have sent out scouts to distant planets to start a foot hold somewhere, and after being ambushed and mostly destroyed maybe one of their buildings might have survived unnoticed and the battles moved away and now players are swinging back to that particular system. Im not saying have x amount on every planet but make them a rare find and also have them like generals you can take and hold or destroy it to prevent your enemy from having its advantage. Ive been in quite a few games where the generals npc buildings have made a staggering impact on the outcome. But i think this could be an interesting feature or have it a toggle-able option in game generation "Random buildings on/off"
Supreme Commander had this as well; they implemented it simply as "civilians", and the structures (that did anything) were identical to the ones you could build. There was a toggle in the game options that turned them on or off, and if on, whether they were neutral or hostile (applicable to defensive structures).
Having Neutrals makes games....different, i think it should depend what the NPC buildings do, i would suggest they just generate Income, they shouldnt be able to make Super Units.... or maybe they spawn sth. like creeps.... oh wait false game(or not? MOBA game mode?) Another Idea would be Diplomatic Systems with Neutrals like in Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends; i totally enjoyed the game, and imo its outstanding, unfortunatly not many known it and therefore nobody played it. EDIT: the Idea of Repair bays i dislike... the Buildings may be good places to force Fights, but you really dont wan't to fight an army wich is repaired all time, it will be like super hard to capture...
Civ Repair bays are generally balanced by either single unit repair, or being a global repair. If you want the first C&C with proper Civilian Tech Structures then you want Red Alert 2. Tiberian Sun did have some, but you usually had to mess about in the rules to make them usable outside of Campaign.
Alot of good points there mate. I agree with what your saying about not being able to make supers or high tech stuff. As for the repair bays i like the way generals did it, just one unit at a time so there was a massive conga line of units waiting for it, makes for a big target for artillery While having neutrals as a faction would be awesome (perhaps a fantastic mod), i thought it would be less work and less "distraction" (from a creation and implementation side of things) if it was an abandoned building surrounded by rubble just waiting to be reactivated. I get your point about how neutral buildings can change a game, that was also a downfall of some generals custom maps, when they were plentiful people often focused on them, hence why i thought make them rare enough to capture if you find it but if your enemy has camped it with all kinda defense its not a major disadvantage.
why capturing something you can destroy? <---joke ^^ seriously; i think it's a good idea i thought of it too.
