To the devs: Need more order options and grouping commands

[rderveloy]

First off, let me say that this game is looking very solid and I commend the developers for all their hard work. This promises to be a very fun game!

 

That being said, there are a few things that need to be added in regards to the available attack and movement orders as key features are missing in this game. Most of these issues are standard-issue in many other RTS games. I don't know if the developers have time to get this finished before the game launces, but I hope they can conisder getting these in as soon as possible.

 

1) There needs to be a universal "search and destroy" command for all units. This is a given. It sucks having overwhelming numbers only to search and search just to hunt down that last remaining enemy unit. Currently, I believe only TIE fighters have this ability. In nearly all other RTS games, this is a standard issue command. If the TIE fighters have a special ability, it should be something else that takes advantage of their agility or numbers. Sure, the other team can just retreat, but it's nice having the ability to hunt down that last unit before he gets away.

 

2)There needs to be a "force attack" or "self destruct" command for all units. By, "force attack" I'm not talking about an attack dealing with "the force" just a way for you to shoot and destroy your own units. This one is important. Since reinforcements are grouped in units, there will be times in which a heavily damaged or depleted unit needs to go away just so you can call in reinforcements. This will probably have the biggest effect in space battles where reinforcements are plentiful, but you can't replace that 1 ship that's drifting away heavily damaged until the enemy AI destroys it.

 

3)Similarly, there should be a forced move command for tanks and other land vehicles. You should be able to tell a tank or other large vehicle to run over enemy units without firing at them. Ahhh... brings back memories of C&C Red Alert and mammoth tanks. Come to think of it, it could be useful for ramming space stations or other slow capital ships in space.

 

4)For land battles, there needs to be a "regroup" command or something similar that re-organizes and reassigns vehicles and troops from units that have taken heavy losses to other existing units. For example, a unit of troops have taken 2 looses while another unit only has 2 troops left. Even though, one unit only has 2 troops left, it's holding back badly-needed reinforcements. The player selects these two units and presses the regroup command causing the two units to merge into one fully stocked unit thus freeing up the population limit to allow more reinforcements to be called in.

Yes, I know, I've already talked about a forced attack command, but this game needs both. Forced attack is useful for heavily damaged troops vehicles or ships, regroup is just for re-organizing. You wouldn’t want to kill off 2 fully healed up tanks when you can just regroup them. You'd still want the forced attack command in case there aren't any units with empty spots in them for the depleated units to merge into.

 

5) Last but not least, players should be able to assign units to multiple groups. For example, lets say your troops and tanks are in groups 1 and 2 respectfully. You should be able to assign both your troops and tanks to group 3 without loosing their initial assignment. This way you can quickly select all your units while still maintaining the capability to re-assign targets to your tanks and troops to quickly take advantage of the enemy units' weaknesses.

 

Thanks for your time.