A discussion of 1. Upgrades, 2. Veteran Units, 3. Aura Units & 4. Self-Destruct Upgrades sounds neat, though I think it makes the game emphasize a bit more on resource management. Games like Starcraft focused heavily on resource management. Games like Myth and Myth II by Bungie, focused exclusively on combat. What I like about Red Conquest is that although it does require resource management, it has a strong focus on combat strategies. I think offering upgrades would shift the focus of the game too much. Also, if there were many types if combat units (flying/land/water), then I could see an additional point to combat units in that it would help emphasize a particular playstyle, but I'm not totally confident that it would work well in Red Conquest, considering it has less unit types but maintains its game complexity by drawing the focus on combat strategies versus mere resource management. However, because this game is so combat driven, implementing the kill system might be a good idea. Say, for every two kills, the unit gains a level, and for every level, the unit gains 5% to both armor and damage (or just a 5% boost to damage) or something like that. This might help emphasize combat strategies and draw some focus on unit preservation, which is vital to pve resource management and may allow for more diverse strategies in pvp. Without the incentive to preserve units, multiplayer currently finds it a little less than useful to have repair units when you could be increasing your firepower with more combat units while maintaining a queue of ready to launch units in all your builders. In paving the way to a new suggestion, let me say that I know the battleship/destroyer units boost the power of nearby vessels while carriers boost the power of fighters, according to the descriptions. Also Red has its idiosyncratic regenerate ability, whereas Blue has the monitor unit and the ability to emphasize its healing by giving you control of your healing in the MV unit. The following suggestion could either be added to the current line up or could be the eccentricity of a new color faction, like it could be as aspect of the Green army. But what I was thinking is that the game could have aura units, that is, units whose sole purpose is to provide a damage and/or defense bonus to the nearby units, those that fall within its small aura. These aura units could be weak and unable to carry any fighters, with the weakness of scout units that were also hampered in mobility speed. The aura units would give a non-stacking aura to the surrounding friendly units (and this could include benefiting even team members in muliplayer for an added level of depth). To give an example, the aura could have the purpose of giving local, surrounding units something like a 10-15% boost in damage output (or some tested, reasonable boost). Of the three ideas, unit upgrades, kill leveling, and aura units for a particular faction (or perhaps added to all factions, though I kinda like the present red/blue line-ups as they are), I think if I had to choose the best feature I'd pick adding aura units (with an aura that also benefits multiplayer team members). Also, I'd give these specialized units to Green. Aura units would be great because they preserve the spirit of the game, one that emphasizes physical presence, unit size, combat strategies, and bumping into other units to shape the combat field and change advantages. Also it would not suffer from the faults of adding upgrades nor the overkill hazards of adding veteran leveling, plus it would feel like a unique element that fit with the style of the game (and its emphasis on position and combat). Leveling up on units may be a great feature or an ugly feature to add. And so maybe it's best to avoid this idea or maybe, I don't know, it would work really well. Though if it were included, there obviously should be a way for the enemy to see which units have gained levels. However, I could see it potentially adding a layer of depth, unfortunately, along with an unfortunate layer of unbalanced overkill. RacingGun adds a strong criticism, enough to make everyone reconsider this suggestion when he says, I think this is a strong enough contention to keep this idea from being incorporated. I think aura units would be great; leveling veteran units I don't think would work; and I'm not that excited about the unit upgrading sorry - it's too easy to hit the unit cap and at that point you'd just deterministically pour all your remaining points into upgrades. There aren't enough unit types to make upgrades actually add depth to the game, and I don't think it fits with the style of the game (it shifts the emphasis from clean combat strategies, to desperate resource management). What do you guys think of aura units (with the sole purpose of boosting up the abilities of local units with a non-stacking aura)? - they are sorta like "upgrade" units that require a physical presence and are vulnerable to being destroyed. I hope everyone has a good day and happy holidays - haha P.S. Though not necessary, it would be neat bonus if you could see kill count for your own units, just for fun, like suggested (though this could also be time consuming to add to the game, a low priority, and might be kinda useless since I'm not sure I'd even use it since you can sorta keep track of which units are making most of the kills yourself), Also, on another note, it may or may not be a good idea to add a self-destruct feature to units (though I think it would definitely shift the play style a little). At the beginning, you could always build a bunch of builder units and quickly make a big army, and as your army maxes out, you could self-destruct some builder units to regain the unit spaces back. As it currently is, I usually keep my builders few, so I can build up a large amount of fighters. And if I do need to expand, and I have too many builders, then I send a forge on a suicidal mission into enemy depths. However, a self-destruct feature would save time, though of all the ideas I've encountered or considered, I really only wholeheartedly like the aura unit idea ;x (I obviously don't know what plans the dev has for the Green faction and I don't want to suggest something totally out of the picture, but I'll say that it would be cool if Green was sorta like Blue, but swap the monitor for the aura unit.)
I think leveling would get rid of reds fast building advantage. If the units you make always help the other team, theres no advantage if quickly built expenable units.
As I haven't played multiplayer against humans, I don't really know which faction is stronger yet, but I wasn't aware that Red is significantly better than Blue. Infact, the MV for Blue is pretty amazing and properly managed Monitors are devastating, but it all comes down to micromanagement then. On a side note: all of this talk about strategy and ideas really makes me want to start playing Starcraft again... if only my internet wasn't so garbage
John and I have been having discussions about differentiating veteran units from newly made units, and we think that we've come up with a solution that will give you more strategic options without breaking the current balance of the game. It won't be available in this update because we need to playtest it thoroughly, though.
Hey, just out of curiousity. Are therer more units coming for Red ? I just ask b/c i compared blue units side by side and they have soo many more units. Just wondering. great job you guys.
Ok victor, its all good. You guys already have a perfect game. Anything extra is just icing on the cake
Sorry for making my last post so long, since I imagine that detracts people from reading it....but I was itching to know if anyone liked the idea of aura units? That is, units that are weak, slow, and can't hold fighters, but they offer a damage/defense/or regeneration bonus to surrounding units within their aura. Seems like a good alternative to unit upgrades because it offers a boost to your units but with the vulnerability of having a physical presence. The aura could also affect your teammate's units in multiplayer (regardless of your teammate's faction), and the aura could be shown by making local units glow a little bit with a halo (kinda like the aura the paladins use in diablo 2).
well...they do already have fighters for that so i dont know if they'd include a unit like that. Some sniper for red would be nice though. Is it just me that dislikes the harvester for red? it looks out of place like those guy from pac-man. While the other guys have an insect feel to them....err hope i didnt insult anyone
It's a good idea - it would add extra level of strategy, and it seems to fit with the style/feel of the game. The Greens should have a couple of other new units as well, maybe some super-fast moving battleships which do less damage, or maybe a kamikaze unit?
I find the idea interesting and it has potential, but to play devil's advocate let me voice my one concern. To maximize the effect of aura, you typically want to cram all of your units together in as tight a space as possible. This often results in making one of each aura unit (or at least one of each useful aura unit), maxing out your population cap with your best fighter unit, then sending them into battle in a big clump of units. As the effect of the aura is increased with each unit under its effect, this also tends to lead to slower gameplay as anyone with aura units will want to maximize their advantage (number of units under the auras influence) before attacking. Anyways, its not a bad idea, but I just want to voice my concerns.
That's not my point, my point is a unit that offers "upgrades" to surrounding units. Because normal upgrades can't be taken away by the enemy, but aura units would have to be protected since they can be destroyed, and you can lose your boost. Could be part of the Green faction. In reply to your sniper request, I find the Monitor to be nice as a Blue exclusive. I like how each side has pros and cons....I wouldn't like each side to lose its particular eccentricity... Red seems more biological while Blue seems more technical..
Ah for some reason whever i heard upgrades i thought of the lil bars on the right side since i was thinking fighters in my head Racing gun brings a good point in regards to this. Yea maybe not so much another "sniper" but it just seems like blue can do so much more. I'd like another red unit that has its own ability that blue doesnt have. Something that adds another layer to red
When I think about this, it doesn't play itself out as a problem in my mind. Let's say the aura unit was only a single type of unit, and let's say the Green faction was nearly identical to Blue but the Monitor (long range sniper) was swapped for the aura providing unit. I could imagine the aura unit being weak, unable to carry it's own fighters, and very expensive in terms of unit count. It could cost about 8-12 unit spots. Whoever plays this particular faction would work well teaming up with someone else that produces many units quickly, so Red and this hypothetical Green with aura units could do well teaming up. Also, you can't merely bundle up units around an aura unit because that would cause the enemy to have an advantage in that they can focus their attacks on the closer side of the bundle. While your units in the back may be getting a boost from the aura, they're too far away to fire on the enemy. A faction with auras could potentially move toward more precautious gameplay style, but I think they would actually be more aggressive than the current Blue. Blue has a huge advantage in retreating a little bit once in a while and moving in slowly due to their long-range Monitors. And since you were a proponent for straight-up unit upgrades, why do you oppose (or are playing devil's advocate against) aura units in particular? They're like "upgrades" that need to be protected because they can be destroyed. Also, don't you think adding straight-up upgrades (like you previously suggested) would actually make for a much slower game?---since the focus of the game would shift from combat strategies to resource management and maxing out upgrades. However, in either case, if someone sat back and tried to just stock up his army, they are always vulnerable to red's ability to launch an strong, early attack.
Totaly a good idea, but I still disagree. It's totally imbalancing the whole game... The better player will have even better units, so the weak player has no chance to recover etc.
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=732775 I submitted the v1.0.1 update, check out that thread for the list of what we've changed in the app. Whenever apple approves it, I'll let you guys know right away!
