Delayed Commander - Galactic Gate?

The commander (comm) needs to be a powerful unit both to be cool and to survive any puny snipe attempt - the comm should be killable only by a decent snipe.

Since the comm exists from the very beggining, this creates a huge difference of impact on the game - in the beggining it is uber powerful in relation to other units. In SupCom this was quite noticeable with comms roaming, trolling and bullying around in early game without real fear of dying.

The idea I have is the comm not existing in the beggining. We'd have a galactic gate instead (most likely with defensive firepower and a large construction radius) and after some time the comm would teleport into the game. A possible variation to that would be the galactic gate having the possibility of having energy (and/or metal?) spent into it, to speed up the arrival of the comm.

SpringRTS never supported (until I abandoned it) unit spawning nor transformation, so such a mechanic could not be experimented with. The game(mod) for SpringRTS called NOTA is not based on comms but instead "bases" which have large build radius. It is not my favourite mod but the bases mechanic works really nicelly.



I envision great moments of stress (and fun), with one having its gate almost destroyed and the comm arriving just before it crumbles.

The players would now have real snipe possibilities in the early game, so an early rush into a too much unprepared player would now bring the game to victory (assuming the gate is less powerful than a comm). After the comm's arrival, the snipe attempts would have to be ramped up and would accompany the natural growth of the armys' strength.

The comm would arrive into a gamestate where it would no longer be a non-fearing bully. It would add 2 dynamics into the game - 1st stage you'd try to snipe a fixed target; 2nd stage you'd try to snipe a powerful and mobile comm and you'd have a comm to troll around, harassing the enemies and helping the frontline constructions.



I'm just concerned with how to replace the player engagement.
In TA, in most SpringRTS mods and in SupCom the early game is more engaging since we have the comm to control. Removing the comm from the early-early game, the players should have some alternative mechanics to keep them engaged with the game instead of bored. Though, truthfully, practically all other RTSs (ex: Starcraps, Warcraps and C&Cs) have no mechanics to keep players more engaged in the early game and have always done fine to players.

Boring early game until the game escalades into more engaging moments has been a trademark of the RTS family ever since its inception.

>Encouraging early rushes even more than now

I am opposed. Also, how would the galactic gate have gotten there in the first place for the attacking party?

Exactly my thoughts.

But that's not how the Commander works. Its entire purpose is to seed the invasion. If other units could do the job, the Commander would become obsolete.

Early game Supcom had problems because T1 units were pathetic, the Commander had T3 tankiness, and the default laser was FREE. TA shows a more fragile, short range, slow, and appropriately vulnerable Commander that had to pay a steep price for every kill.

I am in favor of the com being there from the start; in supreme commander, 3 turrets would prevent a com rush on the core part of your base. In Planetary Annihilation you can build 12 walls and 6 turrets, and the commander will laugh at you.