AOTS: Today and forward.
Some humble .02 cents
AshesoftheSingularity Forums
Thank you devs for everything you have done with this game so far. It is really starting to become fun to play and this is still PRE beta! Pretty awesome. Now with that said, I know (and really hope) that the game will become unimaginably better. And with that I will put a couple of my .02 cents out for ideas of possible game development. A lot of these ideas and suggestions would probably more suit the single player wars and campaign, but I think some of them would really benefit multi-player and probably team based multi-player even more.
- Power generators: I was one with others in voicing a desire to toggle victory points off, and Frogboy stated that that would be done. However, it does bring up the point of what the generators and turinium would be used for. One idea would be to bring back a rebalanced power resource back. With the generators giving a small base boost plus a continuous trickle. I am sure others have even better ideas.
- Logistics: I am not talking about the logistical structures that are soon to be removed( I think I read that?). I am talking about using turinium and/or power as ammunition that is finite but that can be regenerated and/or produced, stored and transferred and/or carried. It could also be used to either power/enhance global abilities and/or special abilities. I am thinking that this would not be something necessary to win, but something that would be balanced enough to offer another way of winning or at least defending to turn an almost seemingly loss into a possible victory.
- Special Abilities: I really liked how the devs displayed special abilities for the t3 units. I think it would be good to have a global auto-cast toggle as well as an individual one if the global one is off. There would definitely be situations where I would like to use my t3 special ability over other situations prior. I know some players don't want to be burdened by this at all hence the global auto-cast toggle. And there are some situations or some meta-units that I don't want to be bothered with having to manually use them, hence the individual toggle. I hope that there is also a way to train/tell the AI to better use the special abilities how and when we would most likely want it to.
- Defensive Structures: The devs strengthened up the smarty launcher, I like that. One of my favorite things about SupCom FA was how strong the defenses were. I would like to suggest making some pretty powerful defenses and stationary weapons. I know you guys mentioned there would be no massive arty, and that’s fine. But I think we should have the ability( or choose to have the ability) to be able to deny a limited amount of specific areas, unless the opposing team is willing to risk massive attrition to capture them. Though, one rule of any defensive structure should be that if the turinium generator is not captured in the area your building the structure, you need to have a certain number of the energizer units, depending on type of structure. The energizers would loose their power over time and have to go to a generator or seed to re-charge thereby having to facilitate a logistics train until the power generator of that territory is captured, another way of looking at #2 above.
5. Research: One of my favorite subjects and things to do in a game. Sometimes just sitting and looking at an elaborate tech tree wondering what to research first. I like some of the changes and glimpses of what might be so far. But what I think would be really cool are:
i) Predominant path: Researching what ever this path would be, would yield bonuses for that subject plus open up unique research. For example Attack path, would yield a higher damage rate on most weapons, and would have a unique researches for weapons, such as armor piercing and accuracy, etc. Choosing one path wouldn't prevent you from being able to research other paths, but you could only do so after you either finished your chosen path, steal or capture your opponents tech (you should be able to capture tech from husks left over on the battlefield as spoils of war), or you quit your original path and choose another. In the case of the latter, there would be a cool down period, to make that option difficult to exploit.
ii) Unit upgrades: Secondary weapons and passive abilities for all tier units(maybe t3 has enough? Never enough for me). For example, extended line of sight for scouts. Or a targeting bonus for a meta unit with the t2 anti air or an anti-missile or rocket ability, etc. I think that this could really help effect the importance of how differently composed meta-units behave and are used.
iii) Researching prototypes: We already have the Nemesis t2 sniper. Whether or not the devs choose to add more, I think it would be awesome to be able to capture Substrate/Post-human tech and not only make their units but better yet, be able to research and make new mixed and/or new ability prototype units.
Anyways I have seen some other really good ideas and suggestions and I am sure there will be a lot more to come in this field.
6. Future expansions: There are 2 aspects of a cool direction this game could evolve into. One could be the galactic space aspect: As orbital weapons and abilities are used more and more to conquer planets to turn into turinium, space originating strategies are formed. First from satellite/moon based fighter and corvette attack/assault craft and later from full fledged intergalactic fleets, planetary invasion forces and star bases. Being able to do both space and planetary warfare would indeed be epic.
The other aspect would be the faction aspect: Post-humans are individual, but not the Substrate, right? Because the Substrate are united they start putting the hurt to the individual Post-humans(divide and conquer). So a couple of united Post-human factions are born…this in turn divides the Substrate into those that want to outright exterminate the Post-humans and those that simply want to curtail their appetite for turinium. I think the devs mentioned something about a third faction as well, and this might be a catalyst for uniting one of the Post-human factions with one of the Substrate factions, etc. All the while still being able to play as an individual Post-human or other with more and more prototypes and research being made available for R&D. Wow, crazy. Thanks for letting me become a founder!
! Let's try to be civil and have a good discussion..
