Hi, i was wondering: Will there only be preset Units, or will there be like building kits based on physics (real or artificial). For instance: more armor means more mass -> means slower units but also harder to kill to get it faster better engine -> means more power consumption (translatetet to more energy drain) So will there be something like this or is it just preset units with preset stats. I would like to have an building kit for units like this, though the general unit should be like midlle stats of all, but if i want to build special units i just do like: ok for an scouting fast tank i need: armor down -> faster light weapon only -> faster tweak up engine ->faster radar instead of anti tankmissle flare etc Some games that have kinda this things are: Ascendancy and Alpha Centauri. Only that it was more techtree related. (Think this fits more into general discussion)
Sounds interesting, but to implement all of those would make the game very confusing - there would be all kinds of tech trees and/or menus. It would be also frustrating to identify all the different updates the opposing player has made. Supreme Commander 2 had something like this - not the slowing down by more weapons part though. You could open all kinds of upgrade from a research tree, but it made units unreadable. You could not tell if the units of your enemy had extra damage or health? Could they explode themselves onto your face? You only knew if they had shields as those emit bluish shine. But i really like the idea of upgrades that will have their advantages and disadvantages (in supcom2 you would always get stronger and faster), like the items in Team Fortress 2. Though it should be easily seen, what kind of upgrades the player has chosen; the unit size, amount of weapons and coloration could be good indications. I like it to be something visual.
Me personaly wouldent realy mind a system like this (I tend to just play for fun). But there has been aloot of opposition to any kind of unit "upgrade" system in these forums, mainly becuse you cant easily identify what a unit can do. Even if the upgrades are visable, being able to spot them while mixed in with a couple of hundreds of other units, while in battle, would hardly be easy.
There could be an option to change your preset units before the battle. For example, if you like playing aggressive rushing oriented game, you can swap the fast and the fragile "kit". This of course cannot be changed in the middle of the match.
Dosent realy make a difference unless you get to see what kits the enemy use before the match, its still different upgrades that you cant easily identify when you encounter them.
Even then it's a metagame thing, where you try to beat the opponent before the game even begins. This isn't really a physics thing, so much as an allocation of the DBZ trinity (speed, power, technique). This is a game dev issue, not something that should be given for players to break.
The whole idea of having a hugely customizable unit is kind of confusing for the newbie player. If they decide to implement it, it should be hidden by default and unlock in the menus or something. And even implementing it might be something that will waste development efforts, which I would just prefer if done by modders instead. Also, between doing that in-game, or pre-game, will be the difference between playing Warzone 2100 and Impossible Creatures. The first feels overwhelming, and the latter feels underwhelming.
According to lore the best units have already been figured out, which is why everyone has the same ones. Ergo, putting them together yourself is contradictory to that and therefore will most likely not happen.
Well that argument isent realy valid, there no such thing as a unit thats "the best" in every possible situations. The units figured out are the best in general, but not in every situation.
Just consider that once there was ability to customize your army designs. In past 10000000+ years of war commanders had participated in all possible and some impossible situations. And only the best survived so far. And they got designs that helped them most. And they removed all other design blocks for sake of memory preservation for more important tasks. That's called an evolution. It doesn't necessary result in best possible combination (in most cases it results in good all-rounders), but that's a thing you can't actually turn back, unless you put away your gun and start a long-long research.
Did u ever build your own sapceship in ascendancy, equipt soldiers in ufo aka x-com, customized a car in a racingame, used perks or weaponaddons in a shooter? Dont underastimate gamers even little children understand concepts like: more armor translates to live longer. More weight to decreased highspeed. More power more speed. This dosent mean that my idea is the best or even suited fore the game. Just that i dont let the argument count it may be to complicated for the gamers. If this should be an arcade like game with the complexity of memory then i think i am tricked by uber. ;-)
Let's see. About 10-20 soldiers in X-Com? One car in a racing game, a few weapons in a shooter, etc. The difficulty in different upgrades for units doesn't lie in the concept itself. That is easily understandable. The problem arises when you couple it to the intended size of the rest of the game. We will most likely have hundreds of units on the field, massive battles on several fronts over the surface of a sphere. Fiddling about with the statistics of individual units is imo not something you'll have to do while having to do so much other stuff at the same time. It's a question of scope and overcomplicating things which don't help the primary gameplay. I personally like to know what an unit does when I see it, without having to go through whatever kinds of non-obvious indicators on what has changed, especially when I've to manage so much other stuff too. (Like smashing asteroids in to each other.)
I wonder if they will do a newtonian physics engine like TA, have advanced shell range, trojectory and elevation firing different for every unit. Also maybe armor piercing rounds different projectiles with different effects ect. A nice veterancy system with accuracy, speed, firepower ect. improving as certain types of units get more kills.
How is this any different than having races, as in starcraft. The point of NOT having multiple races with multiple unit pools was to get rid of this. -Stretch
