No faction diversity .. but what about some stats diversity

Sorry guys, this might have been posted at least 10 times before, but I just felt like posting something

Anyway, since there will be only one faction, what about having the possibillity to customise certain statistics of your army/commander at the start of the game.
That would be strategic right?

Imagine I can see my starting planet/locations.
Perhaps I need to attack something fast so I go for some additional firepower at start.
Could be fun to optimize your start according to your strategy.

In FA your start is always the same .... BORING
Err .. ok there is one choice ... shall I go air/land/sea first.
But there is no diversity beyond that.

But now you could have some interesting customisation at the start of the game that can really help you or make you have a lousy start.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

So you want hidden modifiers instead of visually different units?

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Does not have to be hidden for me .. I like the diversity.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Without using a different unit (like the many different commanders) the only way to diversify is to apply alterations to stats, aka hidden modifiers. This is bad as a person should be able to know that a unit is capable of just by looking at it.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Nope.

There are many threads in which we've already beat this to the ground.

The Whole point of having one big unit pool is there there will be many plays to play out the game, not to mention how differnet setups/maps play out, in FA you don't play the same way on a 5km map that you do on 20km map do you?

Mike

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

They havent said no to different factions. Just to more then one unit pool.

The reason for "We will only have one unit pool" is that it will result in less work and a finished game earlier. Nothing else.

They might still add different factions that uses different bonuses (for example one faction having some small air bonuses and one having some build bonuses).

They might also not add any factions or different factions with only story and visual differences.

Im just saying that its not set in stone yet.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

To expand on what was said earlier, since PA will have one unit pool, that means there will be a large number of units to choose from. As a result, a player won't be able to build every single unit early in the game, but instead will have to focus on a subset of units that best fits their initial strategy.

This is similar to a game like Starcraft, where the early game strategy is dictated by the race you choose. If you want to do fast, early raiding, you can choose to build light, cheap "zerg-like" units. If you want your early attacks to have more impact, you can choose heavier, sturdier "protoss-like" units.

The beauty of having one faction, though, is that you can switch up your strategies, especially in the lategame when you have the economic base to do so. This is a lot more realistic as well. The US military isn't limited to just tanks or just marines. They can switch between either, or use both, or use something completely different.

Also of note is that since the conflicts occur on different planets, a player may wish to use different strategies depending on their situation. So they may decide to have faster, cheaper armies on a planet where they need to establish a position quickly, and slower, heavier armies on another planet where they are preparing for a strong push.

The point of this is that there doesn't need to be any sort of change in unit stats. There are already enough units to cover the roles that you need. There's also the added advantage that the units are more visually identifiable than if they just had stat modifiers. You also aren't stuck with a single playstyle due to your choice of stat customization.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

I still like the Rise of Nations/Age of Empire model.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Well perhaps it is possible to start your game with a commander that has
- some bigger gun.
- light AA
- some sort of shield
- think of something.

The idea is that all players know who chooses what.
You will see it at the loading screen or something, or you might be able to pick some upgrade when you get to pick your landing zone.

The idea is that all players know exactly which upgrade everybody has.
It adds to an strategic start.

If I can choose for a position that is hard to attack from land, I might want to have some early AA to prevent some bomber rush killing my engineers.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Why couldn't you just place more emphasis on plonking down certain defences or building a type of unit, if that's the kind of diversity you're looking for?

I mean- if you want to be a 'better air' player, you build more planes.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

well age of empire... didnt they had some slight differences, but I get what you mean.

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

Well, the idea was all about the starting strategy.
Stats (faction diversity) you have before building anything.
Commiting to something before you start.
Perhaps it will be countered, perhaps its gold.
Preventing the very limited amount of starting options throught choosing for some commander or whatever upgrade.

But then again, if there is only one faction with many possibillities it might just be possible to achieve this with faction diversity ?!

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

This is sounding very RPG like, crossing into the realm of Supreme commander 2's research tree but perhaps with a lock out and more general unlocks...
While I have no problem with this it is nice to know what your opposition is doing, and short of making visually diverse units this becomes harder / tackier to do. Which falls into the more work category :roll:

Re: No faction diversity .. but what about some stats divers

That is a huge reason why it isn't liked, if you ability to win a game is pre-determined based on the selected "diversities' selected by yourself and your opponent(s) then why both playing the game at all?

At least with the Open system PA seems to be aiming for if something isn't working you always have the option of changing it up right then and there, possibly using your brain and skill to turn a loss into a win.

Mike