First off I have to awknoledge that I am new to this forum, and what I am about to suggest might already have been discussed. I read the confirmed content thread stickied at the top of the forum, and did not see any mention of this idea. So here goes. From the media I have watched, I get the following impressions of the game. * It is simple in its base design, and complicated in scope. (Huge!) * No research to speak of. (Everything is pretty much known to the IA's playable) * Scalability and the scope of the game is an inherent part of the game. From small units to huge planets. (And perhaps orbital platforms, in the future) * You play as a sort of "von Neumann machine" AI, that replicate and mine. * The graphics remind me of the simplicity of Minecraft, legos, and similar art styles. * There is a real concern on how to make the most of the budget available. Having those things in mind, I propose a stacking system, to streamline the "tech progression" and allow larger scalability of units and bases, while at the same time reuse much of the art design and mechanics of smaller units. Picture this: Smaller units can merge into larger units by combining their assets, giving rise to new abilities. An emergent process, if you will. Baseline CPU's combine to allow more complicated programs. This would be done with both base building and heavier combat mech assembling. So you start off the game with only the ability to build “worker bots”. Those can be combined (sacrificed) into combat bots or used to build basic buildings (Miners, energy collectors, bot assemblies, defenses etc.) You can then upgrade those buildings with more worker bots, adding additional “stacks” on top of the building. Expanding the utility of the building in question, creating tower like structures. And the same could be done with bots, into larger bots and into huge lumbering bots and so on… The gui for this would be dynamic. The more units you have selected the more options are available in the build menu. The bots are smart enough to decide who goes to what on their own, making it a seamless process with little micromanegment. Example1: You have 4 worker bots selected. Combined they can build 2 baseline buildings or a two stack large building. Example2: The same 4 worker bots could combine into 2 combat mechs, or one huge combat mech. This is what I mean by stacking. If done right, it could allow for reusing a lot of graphical assets, as well as some of the mechanics of previous iterations, saving project time and money in the process. While allowing further expansions of the game to build seamlessly on already existing mechanics. That, and it would be damned cool! (main reason for suggesting this hehe). Additional explenation(for clarity)
Sounds cool. Could propably work quite well. Is there any RTS games with this mechanic? I think you are supposed to be a human inside a commander.
I'll be honest, I only got as far as the part about smaller units combining assets when I thought of Voltron and got immediately distracted...
That's not really what they're going for here but I can see the appeal of your idea. You're talking about a single fungible unit type that can be clumped together to make other units. Essentially a 3rd resource.
On one hand it sounds funny, but on the other its the same than just upgrading factories as usual (just different animation or way to start it). Even the units. I really don't see there difference between your idea and just ordering a t2 unit in my factory (the result is the same, just more micromanagement).
What if you could order the construction of that a big assembled unit and all is done automatically? You could have a constant stream of small units getting built and then assembled to bigger units. You could move the units to the front before you assemble them. You could transport them to another planet and assemble them. It's totally different. Also if you have some kind of scalability where the game progress into bigger and bigger units. The assembled units could perhaps disassemble and then turn into bigger units until you got huge spaceships battling above the planet. Maybe that's not what PA aims for but I think it could work.
Okay I feel that I have to defend my idea somewhat here. The main criticism seems to be that of unnecessary complications. I addressed that when I talked about the GUI. What I had in mind would actually be more streamlined and accessible than what is usually done in TA-type games. Let me explain. The idea is that you could select a bunch of units and that the GUI would change depending on the composition of the units selected. Say you select 6 "worker bots", the build options of those worker bots would change to reflect what you currently have selected. In this case 6 worker bots could for example combine into 3 combat mechs. The bots would select who to combine with "on the fly" via smart AI. (Path finding mainly) That’s one example. The other is that of buildings. Say you select 2 worker bots and a mass extractor. The GUI would change to reflect the different options available. In this case upgrade the extractor to level 2, or combine the bots into 1 combat mech. You might imagine selecting a whole base with all its units in this way, seeing all the combinations available. This way you could swiftly combine entire armies from the orbital view. Or perhaps quickly upgrade you main energy producing facility to max. I hope you guys see the potential here. I think it would fit perfectly into the whole multi planetary scene, "Planetary Annihilation" has going. Eliminating much of the micromanegment in the process. I hope that this is a clearer explanation.
It's a totaly different gameplay since you have created a metaresource which is very fragile. It could work, but not within the TA/SupCom world where the whole economics are always based on a SHARED pool of resources which get distributed to where they are needed. Basicly storing those resources in some type of combineable units means loosing the flexibility since all units are bound to some kind of operational radius which is far lower then the distribution range of energy and metal.
I don't know if I remember well, but I think Perimeter was a bit like that. It can work and be fun, but I don't see how it could make the game more scalable. You would have to know perfectly the game to know what's possible.
