Different unit designs

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Disalign, March 8, 2015.

?

Would you like to see this idea implemented into the game?

  1. Yes! A thousand times yes!

    32.7%
  2. Yeah, I think its a good idea c:

    16.4%
  3. If you can make these few changes.. (post in comments, of course!)

    1.8%
  4. Hmm.. I'm on the edge about this one.

    10.9%
  5. ...No thanks, this game doesn't really need this.

    29.1%
  6. No no a thousand times no. I hate customization!

    9.1%
  1. Disalign

    Disalign Member

    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    13
    Hello all, I'm Disalign, also known as Theterrarian, and as this is one of my first posts on this forum I have decided to make it something hopefully positive and thought provoking.

    What I am talking about is an idea for PA, a suggestion of some sorts, and I'm putting it in the general discussion simply because I don't know where else to put it.

    Now, confusion paragraph situations aside, I move on to my actual suggestion: Custom-Ish unit designs. What I mean, of course, is different pre-made unit designs for the same unit (that can be toggled in the armory) to differentiate what everyone sees for those units. Of course, this doesn't change the unit icons or how they act, just what they look like.

    For instance, maybe you're a tank player. You love tanks. You love using tanks simply because they're FREAKING TANKS (I mean who doesn't like a tank. They're tanks.) And because of this, you usually don't use bots, simply because you prefer the feel of tanks. Well, what if you could change your bot units into more hover-tank like units?

    Or what if you're a bot player. You just love those cute little bots and their noises. Love the look of bots jogging out into battle. Well, what if you could change your tanks into big clunky legged units like a Scorpion or a Spider?

    Or possibly, you're not into the whole super high tech thing, and you would rather have low tech rustic looking robots. Well, you could do that to! Instead of lasers, your dox could shoot machine gun-like bullets. Instead of big jet planes, you could have blimps and more rustic looking fighters.

    Of course, this would all be held under a new tab in the armory, possibly even in pre-made sets for players to easily pick the theme they like, or customize their units one by one.

    I believe every commander deserves to model their units to their liking. What do YOU think about this idea?
  2. ace902902

    ace902902 Active Member

    Messages:
    548
    Likes Received:
    212
    to quote another post or several thousand. "this will mess with WYSIWYG"
  3. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

    Messages:
    12,074
    Likes Received:
    16,221
    sounds like a fun idea, but I think there are more pressing issues that need to be fixed first, like wreckages, a minimap, bigger maps, control of terrain height in the system editor, re-balancing of existing units to be more different gameplay wise, a new unit or two etc pp. So many things that probably will yield more "fun" compared to different unit looks.
    Not saying different unit looks are bad, but there are more important things,.

    that means it is good to implement it so people finally realize WYSIWYG is just a stupid acronym and not a religion. :p
  4. killerkiwijuice

    killerkiwijuice Post Master General

    Messages:
    3,879
    Likes Received:
    3,597
    Not really needed at all, and would be a complete waste of time imo since there's far more important things to be done.

    We might as well have different factions.
    bengeocth, Remy561 and Zaphys like this.
  5. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

    Messages:
    4,226
    Likes Received:
    4,324
    If I had a dollar for everytime WYSIWYG was miss-applied or said to be violated when it's not :rolleyes:

    This doesn't violate WYSIWYG at all, unless you make a different unit look identical to an existing one. Multiple units that act the same but look different are fine. It's when multiple units act different but look the same that WYSIWYG is violated. It's the same as why the custom commanders don't violate WYSIWYG.
    Zaphys, igncom1 and stuart98 like this.
  6. Disalign

    Disalign Member

    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    13
    If the OP may add a bit of insight on their own idea, I wasn't saying this should be priority at all, or done now. I'm just saying its a feature that I personally would like to see included at one point in time when the game is more finished and polished c:
    cdrkf likes this.
  7. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

    Messages:
    4,857
    Likes Received:
    1,823
    neat idea but too time and resourceheavy for only a visual change ...
  8. superouman

    superouman Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,007
    Likes Received:
    1,139
    Amphibious Dox and combat fabber (i learned that some weeks ago) are totally against the wysiwyg paradigm, it's not even written in the unit description. We already have double standards about this so we can add whatever unit we wish now.
  9. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

    Messages:
    4,226
    Likes Received:
    4,324
    No, they aren't against WYSIWYG. Every Combat Fabber is identical. Every Dox is identical. There are no upgrades or bonuses that ever make one Dox or Combat Fabber different from the others. Lack of indication of what a unit does might be bad design/UI, but it's a different thing to the WYSIWYG paradigm, which is about consistency of units.
    cdrkf, stuart98, MrTBSC and 1 other person like this.
  10. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

    Messages:
    4,857
    Likes Received:
    1,823
    wysiwyg is all about a unit being used once will be like this always through a match ... meaning it will look always the same ... it will do always the same ..
  11. Disalign

    Disalign Member

    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    13
    See, I thought this suggestion would completely ignore WYSIQYG simply because the strategic icons aren't changing at all, only the visual look of the unit. Nobody looks at an ant to identify the fact that its an ant, just at the icon, but its nice to take a look at the actual ants as they roll across terrain :p
    lapsedpacifist likes this.
  12. killerkiwijuice

    killerkiwijuice Post Master General

    Messages:
    3,879
    Likes Received:
    3,597
    But since this would require a lot more models they should just make more factions.

    There's one faction because it takes way too much time to make 100+ other models for just one other faction.
  13. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

    Messages:
    12,902
    Likes Received:
    5,385
    THANNNNK YOUUUUUUUUUU [​IMG]
    cdrkf likes this.
  14. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

    Messages:
    4,226
    Likes Received:
    4,324
    See my above two posts; WYSIWYG isn't a concern for this idea.
    Last edited: March 9, 2015
    cdrkf likes this.
  15. lapsedpacifist

    lapsedpacifist Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,068
    Likes Received:
    877
    While I agree this idea is too time intensive for Uber to work on any time in the next decade, making a whole new faction is obviously a lot more work than just a load of new unit models. I imagine balancing the factions would be the most time intensive part for the devs.

    If any modders want to make a steam punk texture pack with blimp planes and hot air balloon orbital and everything with tiny chimneys I will happily pay you money for it though. Just so you know.
    Zaphys, cdrkf and jonasmod like this.
  16. Disalign

    Disalign Member

    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    13
    This idea turned into factions. OP just sitting here like "I just wanted texture packs .-."
  17. Remy561

    Remy561 Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,016
    Likes Received:
    641
    Maybe later this could be added when Uber has included all most wanted features. First I'd like to see a better Galactic War, full server release, some terrain/planet generation improvements etc. ;)
  18. nick2k

    nick2k Active Member

    Messages:
    288
    Likes Received:
    211
    I would like this to be a thing.
  19. perfectdark

    perfectdark Active Member

    Messages:
    378
    Likes Received:
    170
    Ridiculous idea.

    You want to create a new faction and let someone select 'retro looking units' or 'hi-tech units' then fine. Anything else is madness.
  20. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,961
    Likes Received:
    3,132
    Modded texture packs (Model packs) would be too legit to think about quit.....ing.

Share This Page