Do you think we need female units and commanders in the game

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

This, so much.

If Pawz gets feminine commanders, then I demand my Rainbow Dash commanders! Why shut out the Brony community?

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Fine by me!

Look, a combo!




... this looks cool too.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

ahahaha never once in all the years I have played TA or SupCom did it ever occur to me about gender. The idea of female robots wasn't foreign to me in any way but I don't know, I guess I wasn't worried about it because the commander was in my view for brief periods at best.

I don't know what to say honestly they are war machines not the other kind of ...machines..

PA forum has all the best discussions xD

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

As said, they are machines and are genderless.

But:
Having a heavier & thicker frame on a robot (generally seen as masculine features) wouldent be about muscle power. Its about stability and armor plating (must have functionality on a tool of war basicly).

Thinner frame (Kinda a female feature) = less stability (unless its also much shorter, but then it will have less stability becuse of decreased weight instead) and less armor plating (Duh).

They could justify a thinner frame using more speed, but we have allredy been told that there will be NO speed difference between commanders.

Having a thin frame as fast and durable as a thick frame is just weird (It should be faster and less durable, right?). You can compare it to seeing a normal car and a tank moving at the same speed and having the same durability.

I wouldn't mind some more feminine looking units (why not), but i would suggest experimenting on making heavier female features (since it would be weird having a thick frame moving at the same speed as a thin frame with the same armor/hp) atleast on the commanders.

(How these features would look i dont realy know, for me feminine features is a smaller frame and curves, and some of those curves just dont fit on robots without making it sexist).

Normal non commander units will have speed and durability differences so theres much more room there for the "smaller/thinner frame" feminine feature.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

There are more tradeoffs than just armor/speed tho. For example you could have less armor but a much larger weapon. Or a lighter chassis with stealth features. Or less weaponry but a more advanced sensor suite. Perhaps a larger power plant to feed your economy.

Basically, if you've got a limited amount of mass you can bring into the battlefield, there's only so much you'd want to spend on heavy armor. I'd love to see what creative things can be made. Skimp on chassis armor and bring a shield instead? Who knows

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Point well made.

I think we will need more info on the commander customizability before we can argue for real about that option (for or against).

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I don't think anyone is saying that we can't have feminine curves on some of the commanders. Is just that nobody (except pawz) thinks you should break the aesthetic and lore just to add arbitrary gender roles. The Progenitor is feminine enough.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

:| Remember how outraged people were with the Cybranasaurus Rex in Supcom 2? I wonder where those people are now.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Agh! Supressed memories! :shock:

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

This thread would be fantastic if I were in school for psychology. Anyway, it's worth noting that including game elements to ensure that something like 51% of the population isn't excluded is rather different than pandering to a very small sub-culture.

There can be femininity in a design without being outright "LAWLROBOBOOBS". It seems that few folks here are car people, so I'll cite some examples of designs which invoke more masculine or feminine features:








There are some of these cars that are "more" and "less" masculine/feminine...and at least one was designed completely by women, for women. Some women don't like any of these, some might like one or two, and their reasons could be complicated, or as simple as them not being practical. Car companies do very much target specific demographics in their designs, just compare the "old" new bug and the "new" new bug. In which direction do you think they went for the facelift?



They went masculine by adding more "hard lines" to the design, because the re-introduction of the VW bug didn't sell well with men. The point being that you don't design the mecha to look like a woman to attract or appease the female players. You design them with specific thematic elements, and also steal from the car industry like crazy, because those folks already have it down to an art. Want to get even more blatant?




So my vote would be "no" to woman-shaped robots, and "yes" to designs with fewer hard edges and more flowing visual style.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I think the fairly blocky style of robots is part of the PA aesthetic though, as a uniformity amongst the units

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Fair enough point and I have nothing against form following function like that. Like garatgh stated however we will probably need more information on commander differences, people already went ballistic over the concept of commanders with differentiated gameplay elements :/

I think you nailed it on the head with that, very well thought out!

I agree, and I think the aesthetic should come before pandering to any particular demigraphic, in fact I don't think any demographic should be pandered to at all. I don't think a lot of people arguing for feminine features are nessesarily arguing for this however. As long as feminine traits are implimented in the way chronoblip suggests then elements could be kept within the aesthetic that PA is aiming for. Which to me is more or less the direction PA are heading in anyway when I look at the existing commanders. The Alpha vs the Progenitor for instance.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Keep in mind we've seen what, a tank,a mech or 2 and a couple rough commanders. The 'aesthetic' isn't set in stone, and I believe they're more focused on clean lines and visibility than blocky shapes.

Chronoblip gets it though - there are design concepts that evoke a masculine or feminine feel to them.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

A commander with an organic aesthetic is fine with me.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

instead of boxed shapes they could have curved armor? that would actually make sense, considering deflection.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I just wanted to pop in and say how much I appreciate both sides of this argument having civil discourse when the word 'female' is brought up. I've seen some needlessly sexist comments in other game forums that have completely ruined the community for a game for me.

And as for me, I say 'no' to female transformers, and 'yes' to varying sizes and legs/hips:shoulders ratios. Blocky and flowing are both good aesthetics.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Honestly though, this is not a big deal. All units are asexual because they're aren't alive. Is the computer or phone you're using a male or female? No. Is monitor male or female? No. Some devices you use might have more curves than others. Seriously though, this should not be an issue. This has never been an issue before in ANY other RTS, and I don't think anyone has really cared until the OP brought it up.

EDIT: A separate thread about units aesthetics should be made, as the title doesn't really seem to apply to the discussion anymore.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Well, perhaps. I interpreted the thread title more as a 'do we need feminine units and commanders in the game', since male/female in the biological sense obviously doesn't apply.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Funny thing, women tend to go for bigger cars if it isnt unlogical to have one ( economy), because of the feeling of savety.

So if you try to make the game be appealing to women. It is more about what it gives back feeling and emotion wise. Though massive multiplayer with social aspects might be a good start.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I want to see Uber Entertainment implement a commander that panders to my profound fetishes.

That would be fu©king awesome.