[Philosophy] Large Variety of Units

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but missiles also did somewhere in the order of tripple damage to aircraft in TA.

That being said the concept of accuracies and projectile effects (flak being explode at target height) rather than restricted fire zones determining unit vs unit effectiveness really adds to the more simulation type feel as well as fuzzies up hard counters.

I do agree, Being that this is basically a TA successor, I am assuming (hoping) that they follow in the spirit of this and create a generous variety of units and structures.

On the other hand, I realize this is a Kickstarter, and currently they seem to be aiming for a game in the 20$ range too. So we might need to prepare ourselves for the harsh reality that it's probably not going to be the 150 unit list that we saw in TA at release. I'm just hoping it's more than the two dozen that is typical for a RTS game.

Given what this is, me personally, I'm hoping for at least 50 units in the game, and I'll be secretly crossing my fingers for a much bigger number. If it ends up being the typical 24 unit or less game like a ordinary market RTS than I'm going to be sorely disappointed.

Part of this will be based on how many different weapon types they want to implement. If they have both energy and projectile weapons on each unit type, and some different examples of each type of weapon, then it would make sense to have 3~4 units per type, and per tier, which would be roughly 18~24 offensive units for vehicle/kbot/air.

Would be reasonable to think we could have two defensive towers per tier, so that'd be another 4 units. Add another 6 units for the two tiers of construction facility for each unit type, and we're around 28~34.

Do we want multiple tiers of resource gathering structures? Do we want constructable walls and other types of obstructions? Do we want resource storage containers? Do we want constructable barriers that gather and store resources? :lol:

Do we want units that can perform air and ground roles at 100%/0%, 75%/25%, 50%/50%, 25%/75%, 0%/100% levels of efficiency, and with each weapon type? That would certainly add a lot of units, but would the different units be worth the time and effort to create and balance them?

Having variety is nice, don't get me wrong, but we have to figure out where to draw the line, because it's very easy to end up with a lot of choices that end up being redundant in the grander scheme of things.

Its amazing that I still know every units role in the list you provided after not playing TA for a better part of 7 years and yet I still struggle naming UEF tech 1 Land units even whilst playing on and off for the last 2

Hold on, this might not be the fairest comparison, did the names in TA have additional descriptors like the SupCom names do?

Mike

Yup. Though they were pretty much short and limited to stuff like "Amphibious Tank" or "Gunship"

I think the important thing is not to have a large variety just for the sake of it. If there is variety it must be purposeful. It may not make sense to have a bunch of different units that are similar with subtle overlapping roles. If there are differences, I would say make those differences simple and distinct. Have a couple of each type of unit that are notably different in order to apply encourage unique tactical styles of play.

Let's say for example, at each tier of units, you could have a "light" and a "heavy" version of each unit. The light units would move faster but have less hp, the heavier units would move slower but have more hp. You could still have two different types of tier 1 tanks, for example. But their tactical applications would be substantially different.

If we want to get really crazy, what about having two different factories to build those different lines of light and heavy units?

Big ships should be proper factories in themselves. Floating buildings, as they are in real life. They should be able to build turrets on themselves - with the caveat that of course they have limited room; so you can either have that REALLY BIG gun that makes the ship really worthwhile as an attack unit, or sacrifice some of that big firepower in order to have more general abilities, or even become more of a support unit.

Big ship should REALLY be factories - having a buildmenu of hovercraft, aircraft, subs etc.

Big ships should be able to have all of these abilities - but what balances them is the fact that you have to spend micro time selecting the functions you want them to have, and depending on the functions and substructures you give them, they can be disabled or put out of commission by these substructures being destroyed.

Just throwing that out there. It might be complicated to implement, but rewarding I think...

This works based on weapon type, and was seen in TA. In the Tier 1 kbots we have the Peewee/AK vs. the Hammer/Thud, and with vehicles the Flash/Instigator vs. the Stumpy/Raider representing the "light" and "heavy" weapon units for that tier.

While certainly interesting, I don't think most people want to have adding micro to a game which is strictly anti-micro. This would probably be a better candidate for a mod focused around naval combat than in the baseline game.

This. +1 for you sir. I cannnot support you in any other way, but THIS. No rock-paper-scissor Starcraft Thing.