Having watched a number of recorded matches and game streams, and even from my own experience, I think the opening game is too slow. It's too close to Total Annihilation without taking into account the ways SUPCOM and SUPCOM 2 improved it. In Total Annihilation you'd open much the same way you do in PA, building up some resources, getting an initial factory and then working on construction units with maybe a scout or two. SUPCOM allowed you to, and indeed expected that you would, build a factory first. SUPCOM 2 starts you with two engineers alongside your commander so you can start expanding immediately and quickly. I think PA needs a better opening game than it has right now. Nothing too radical, but until you have a factory up you're not really doing anything or witnessing variations in gameplay, everyone kicks off with metal, energy, two or three more metal and then a factory. There are a number of ways to tackle this: Change factory pricing to allow a factory to go up first Increase the default energy and metal storage limits to allow a factory to go up first Decrease unit costs Increase the income of the commander Provide the player with resource buildings to start Start the player with some fabbers Time limited income boost at the start First factory is free Of these I don't like 1, 3, 5 and 6. 1 has too much impact on the rest of the game, as does 3, and I don't think 5 is practical considering the variations on spawn possibilities. 6 runs into the problem of which fabber? In SUPCOM 2 it didn't matter, an engineer was an engineer, but in PA it does matter so I don't think this works. I think 2 is a simple way to solve the issue, by giving a player enough metal and energy in storage it allows them to get a factory first while then moving to address their economy. It might need to be too high though and result in making storage worthless. 4 seems like a simple way of getting the game going faster without disrupting the overall balance of units overly much. However, can it be made high enough to allow faster openings without providing the commander free build power? 7 feels clumsy, it would allow an opening factory and thus a better opening game, but it's unintuitive and would need to be specifically taught or have a big and obvious clock on the screen. 8 isn't referring to starting with a factory, but rather than you're not charged for the first one you build. Again though, this is unintuitive and how do you make it obvious to the player? I'm not sure what the answer is, but I want something that isn't me spending the opening minute or two going through the motions. There's no variation in play until a factory appears, and then different players can start on their various build orders, there's the potential for quick raiding or rapid expansion, and most importantly you can start scouting which is when the true divergence of play occurs. PA needs to get to the point where the player is making meaningful decisions faster and right now I don't think anything happens between choosing spawn and placing the first factory.
I like 2 the most. I think it might be reasonable to just have an "overloaded" energy/metal storage at the start, so it wont effect the storage balance.
I don't like this, I can't work that fast. I want to play the game too without being penalised for not having faster reflexes. No no no no.....
I cant see how you need faster reflexes just for that. It will only remove the 2 minutes of doing pretty much the same stuff every game. We are not talking about reducing all buildtimes by half or the like. (thinking about it: a 3x speed mode would btw be pretty funny, I hope that will be easily configurable)
Then just up the game speed rather then by having the game it's self actually play differently because you cant wait 5 minutes in a 30 minute game. That and I am sure there will be a quick start option like in supcom.
If you build your factory at 20 seconds instead of 2 minutes, in what way does the former scenario require you to play faster than the latter? Why have the first five minutes if they're the same every time? Just get rid of them. Uh, that actually would require you to play faster. I certainly don't want that. SUPCOM let you build a factory first without quick start, so you've chosen a terrible example.
ANd you can build a factory first in PA. Seriously, my point stands, increase the game speed or play with a quick start.
As your entire point is based on game speed, perhaps you might want to actually explain your point, or just concede it. Not if you want to win you won't.
You don't need to change the game, when we will be able to adjust the game speed and even the possibility of a quick start option. So your proposal of changing the games start is pointless with these options.
As your entire point is based on game speed, perhaps you might want to actually explain your point, or just concede it.
You say having a factory earlier makes the game too fast for you to manage, but have failed to explain why this is, so let's agree that's nonsense. That aside, why would you keep the current setting alongside this so-called quick-start? Between deployment and building your first factory, what decisions are you making? I don't believe any meaningful decision making is occurring, so why have this period of the game?
I mean that changing the game to follow a factory first mechanic is essentially a quickstart, so I don't understand the difference when it comes to actually being able to factory first and building like 4 economy buildings first over 2 mins. After-all that is the tedium you wan to skip, so why not just have a button to have everyone start with just that? Altering the games balance to make sure that players can, and will, go factory first doesn't give less skilled players enough time to prepare themselves, on what they want to do, and where to go. I am speaking mostly for my self, but also partially for players who cannot handle constant action form the word go when a 2-3 minute prep time from building economic buildings would be more then sufficient when compared to delaying everyone's game by sitting in the spawn screen. Exactly why I want the quick start, so that players such as yourselves can skip the so called tedium of playing the first few minutes of a game.
