Ideas for units

You reminded me that I would like for Sonar to be active/passive... and work 'sortof' like real sonar.

I too would like this.

An active/passive mode would be awesome. Active radars and sonars detect everything around them, passive ones detect active radars and sonars.

Though this means that if your passive detector can see an active; you've already been spotted. Which almost makes passive detection a moot point.

Would it be sensible to have passive detection work out to twice the range of the active radar/sonar? So that my radar has a range of 100, and I can detect all your stuff within 100 units from it. But your passive radars can detect my active out to a distance of 200 units.

If I was to back one single unit idea, I think it would have to be transports. And this is important, I'm not talking the Air Atlas From TA which could carry a single unit. I'm talking more like the galaxy drop ships in Planetside.

I'm talking about a unit that can unload a dozen units at once to bring a real tangible amount of firepower to the battlefield quickly. I'm talking about a unit that has a fair amount of health so it isn't easily killed, and is kind of a big deal if it is killed both because it is expensive, and also because you are potentially losing all the units inside it as well which should be a big deal.

If it can't carry a bunch of units at once, and unload them in a reasonable period of time when it arrives, than it's just not worth building.

I've posted this elsewhere, but it belongs here in this thread:

Here's a wacky suggestion I would like to see added to the list: Missile launchers that build structures.

Hear me out...

Imagine something along the lines of a tactical/strategic missile launcher where you give it a build order for a particular structure, then a location where it would go. The launcher then constructs and launches a missile that lands where you selected. Instead of blowing up, the missile plants itself in the ground and the outer shell falls apart to reveal a mass extractor, point defense, etc. in its place.

For larger structures like factories, the missile could plant itself in the ground, have the outer shell fall off, and reveal a nano tower in the center of where the factory should be. The nano tower then constructs the building, and as it does so, it is slowly assimilated into the factory as it builds.

Of course, it should be susceptible to missile defense systems just as tactical/strategic missiles are in SupCom:FA.

It would be an insanely fun and useful way to quickly erect forward firebases and new bases. Hell, if the missiles could travel from a planet to a moon/asteroid/other planet, it would be a fantastic way to quickly terraform new worlds.

Maybe make the cost of a structure "launched" via missile cost a decent amount more than one built by an engineer? You'd pay an extra cost for the convenience and quickness of building through this method. The reason to use this would be to do things quickly without waiting for an engineer to arrive, or possibly to build structures where an engineer could not reach due to being cut off by the enemy.

Brainstorming pages are fun. Sometimes they even contain useful ideas.

One concept I would very much like to see again is Radar Jamming. In TA this felt a bit like an afterthought, it wasn't implemented well and was not often used in serious games.

But Imagine just how much more useful radar jamming can be when you have an entire solar system to hide things in.

Another concept I'm dearly in love with is the idea of orbital structures. So many ideas I could go on about there. However on the other hand, as I start brainstorming on orbital units I realize I really don't want this to overshadow other things like Moon and Asteroid bases which to me are even more interesting. I think the idea I'm most in love with here is the idea of Spy Satellites. I mean why wouldn't you?

Spy Satellites
reveals the map of the planet below.

Hunter Killer Satellites
moves, shoots, and kills other satellites.

Weapon Platforms
Lasers, Rail Guns, Missiles, etc. Stuff to shoot down at the planet below.

Orbital Factories, Orbital Constructors, Orbital Solar Power, Orbital Nuclear Power...

And then there's the moon and asteroid bases. I am totally in love with this idea. I am looking forward to seeing massive moon based cannons shelling your enemies from space. Also the video of a cannon launching units from the moon down to the planet is inspiring. I very much want to see more of that. Practical easy convenient ways to get more units from one place to another is really important. Logistics aren't much fun.

And asteroids of course. This makes me think of resource management. Resources should be finite. Maybe once they are exhausted you still get a slow trickle of resources from them, but for practical purposes, resources should be finite. Asteroids themselves, have a limited amount of resources on them. Once those are burned up, there is no further use for the asteroid beyond just sticking rockets on it and bombarding your enemy with it.

Given the history of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, this would be a very shocking change to see actually happen.

Lots of interesting stuff here. This exercise will get easier as we release more information about the game and everyone is on the same page about the basics of the game.

Well you do have a point actually, the classic resource in TA/SC is just metal / energy and both are infinite. And maybe they should be, on planets.

What if they are not on asteroids? Maybe asteroids have richer metal deposits, but have limited amounts?

What about adding additional resources? Maybe oil could become a thing in PA as a limited resource on planets to help quickly boost the economy up into geothermal and fusion which would again be unlimited?

It's just some thoughts.

Here's my take on air repair pads from another thread:

Transports. Heavily armored transports. Ok, very heavily armored transports

Not just air transports (those are a must). But I would love to see a heavily armored ground transport as well. Something you would use to get your ground units past a heavily fortified chokepoint, for example. Of course it would be large and slow moving and give your opponent time to prepare as it rolls forward. Probably would not have any actual weapons itself, just really, really heavy armor so it could take a beating.

And, if we actually get so lucky as to have navy in the game...navy transports! That's one thing that's been missing in both TA and SupCom. I think it would be epic to play through a scenario where you use navy transports loaded with scores of ground troops to invade an opponent's shores.

I guess the common theme I have with these transports, as opposed to the ones we had in TA and SupCom, is less trying to be sneaky with them, more trying to use them for brute force invasions. The usefulness of transports in TA/SupCom depended in large part on being sneaky and getting a successful drop behind enemy lines so as to surprise them. Which is fun. But, I would like to see a new breed of transports that are bigger, move slower and are easier to spot, but are harder to take out. Let's make invasions awesome again!

Just had another idea:

A Naval unit that can freeze surrounding water. The ability could snare surface naval units, stun submerged naval units, and allow ground units/structures to build upon the new terrain.

On that note, how about an experimental that can freeze all the water on a planet? Ice-Nine anyone?

I can see satellites allowing full view of the planet below them up to the curvature of the planet. This makes sneak attacks difficult when surprise is impossible.

So what I propose is a satellite denial weapon. Simply put a flak style device you detonate which causes an area to be filled with too much debris for a satellite to orbit for a time. It will mean both sides are temporarily unable to field satellites but it will keep information warfare valid in late game and keeps satellite weapons from being able to just hover over a base and fire/spy with impunity.

Knickles, freezing water and using it as land = EPIC!

Radar jamming is actually a lot more useful than you think in TA. First off, a lot of the better players used the minimap to target units with long range units/buildings/artillery (like the guardian or B.B.) without having sight on it. Secondly, it really helps vs the targeting facility. I still see it used every once in a while. Unfortunately, it's rarely used to launch a surprise attack on anything but the biggest of maps. It's usually just used to lower the damage from artillery late game, or keep the other team guessing how big your base is.

Anyway, I'd love to see a building that, if the planet was completely taken over, could hide the entire thing from view (not just radar), until someone got close to it. Imagine your surprise if you saw a planet pop up right in from of your face.

A few unit ideas:

-A unit that can convert wreckage into mines for unsuspecting reclaimers/passerby army.
-Normal submarines (well, maybe reinforced with something) that could fly if taken to a gas giant.
-A unit that can disguise itself as natural features, like trees (very big ones I guess? ).
-Acoustic robots that can damage all close nearby units through sound.
-A unit that can pick enemy units up (if it gets right up to them) and toss it at it's allies.
-Units that can stealth (not radar stealth, real stealth, esp the commander) at a large energy cost.
-Unit that resurrects dead units (regardless of original owner).
-Planes that can create tornadoes through rapid flying in circles (more planes, the faster it appears and the stronger it would be).
-Units that can build/tear down mountains (terraforming )

And more of course.....


-Neo

I love this concept. You could expand it to a "suicide bomb on legs" with the ability to hide under wreckage. You can even let it burrow and it becomes the game's standard 'mine'. Speaking of which...

Nuclear mines.

"I...I don't understand, it looked like such a great landing spot!" :cry:

:twisted:

Now wait a minute... if the concept of mines is covered by a walking bomb that burrows, nuclear mines could be covered by a giant version of said walking bomb. Imagine seeing a thing like that running towards your base :lol:

Nukes on legs!

Alright, this might be the dumbest unit idea of all time:
A transport that picks up your units, just to drop them on the enemy like bombs.

Well, this is probably a more efficient way to do it, I really like this idea.

If I may, I'd like to contribute something constructive as well, from the long range department.

Missile Warfare

• Long Range Tactical Missiles (range scale similar to Forged Alliance)
• Tactical Missile Defense
• Nuclear Missiles & Defense
• Mini Nukes - a fraction of the cost and damage
• Virus 'Nukes' - they capture the units they hit
• Stun 'Nukes' - they stun the units they hit for a certain time (low cost alternative)

Artillery Warfare

• Big Bertha Cannons (reasonably priced very long range artillery that is not quite a game ender yet)
• Rapid Fire or Spread Fire Artillery (medium long range, low damage)
• Plasma Batteries (TA Punisher / Guardian style)
• Walls that block direct fire but allow mortar and artillery fire to get through

Naval Warfare

• land-based Torpedo and Depth Charge turrets
• water based laser and rocket turrets
• construction boats
• construction subs!
• underwater-to-land weapons (sub-based or structure-based tactical missiles)
• Hovercraft!

Turrets

• Annihilator turret - long range instagib blue laser goodness!
• Auto-repair & Auto-capturing Turrets
• Light, Medium and Heavy Turret variants of each weapon type (Laser, Kinetic, Plasma, Rocket, Torpedo, ...)

Maybe vehicles could be replaced by hovercraft completely. That way bots have water as their natural barrier and hovercraft have hills as their barrier. The rest can be up to map design. Or vehicle factories could have a handful of hovercraft in them and the bot one could then have a few spiders.

As for units, weaponised capture can be interesting (but hard to balance).

Some sort of slowing or stunning mechanic. Slow damage would slow down unit function (speed, reload time, turn rate, construction rate etc..) whereas stunning would act like emp in TA. If I were making a game from scratch I would merge the two mechanics, do TA style emp but make partially emped units slowed. Of course emp damage would be much lower.

Early game it would be interesting to have two classes of raiders. One would have an inaccurate weapon with high damage for economic raiding while the other would have the conventional accurate weapon. It's job would be to defend against the econ-raider or to escort it on attacks.

Armed constructors. They shouldn't all be armed, maybe it can even be a late tech thing.

I want a few more options when attacking between planets. Inter-planetary artillery that can be built on planets, moons or asteroids.

I hope not, at least not for engineers, because its useful if you can deny your enemy access to the sea with a few subs.

I want carpet bombers, and the option to place a rectangle where they have to drop their bombs. They should hit on their first run but do less damage to one target than different bomber types. I want artillery to be more precise when they shoot at a place within LOS. I second naval transports (huge amphibious assaults FTW).

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