2 Things to change for expansion

[RicoMyer]

My friends all agree the biggest 2 things you could change to make us like the game much more would be:

 

1. More differences between the races. One different unit and a couple minor upgrades per side does not make for changing strategies much when you are playing a different race. Perhaps we are just spoiled after playing Starcraft so long but having fewer, more diverse units would make the game much much more interesting.

 

2. Please put a Starcraft type Attack button in the game! It would be such a simple thing to program in. Sure it makes less sense in this type of game vs Starcraft to send your troops to one corner of the map while they attack bad guys without having to manually stop them, but would make the game so much easier to play sometimes!

 

My friends are avid game players all in our late 20's early 30's and we have other smaller improvements we'd like to see, but these are top priority. I just HOPE an actual developer actually reads these posts.

[Compa_Mighty]

Sorry it's very unlikely

[Rogue15]

I want the jedi to have a 'shield' thing, except for it to increase your troopers 'morale' which would mean they get a firerate increase, the Jedi could be like a general and the trooper's morale would go up cause they're fighting alongside a Jedi/Sith knight and they'd want to do their best!!! that would be SO awesome!!!!!!!

 

as for civ specific units...that would ssssooorrrta make the game 'unbalanced'...unless there's a way to counter the unit....

[Chessack]

Well, I for one would not favor either suggestion. I like having a vast array of units to choose from for every civilization. I think if they changed it to be half as many units, but each unit was way different, I would get bored -- each civ would become too one-dimensional. I like having lots of options with every civ. I assume they'll be smart enough to keep it that way.

 

As for needing an attack button... no, for two important reasons.

 

1. This is the AOE engine. They're not going to change the basic engine in an X-pack. If you don't like the basic interface, you need to play a different game. This is analogous to saying you like Doom, but wish they'd make it something other than a first-person shooter. Lots of non-first-person-shooter games are there for you to play -- there's no reason to change Doom. Similarly here, the AoE interface is what they deliberately, consciously, purposely chose to use here. I don't expect, or want them to change it.

 

2. It would slow down command and control of your units. Don't want your units to attack? Don't click on something when the red "attack this" X is on it. I really don't see what you'd gain by having it require an additional button press. Does it really occur all that frequently, that you want to move your units, without atacking, directly into the space occupied by an enemy unit? I've never needed to do that, in all my hours of playing AoE, AoK, and GB. Your post did not make clear to me any advantages to the attack button, and there are none I can see at all. It'd make unit control harder, not easier.

 

Finally, a note on it making "the game so much easier to play." Making it easier will not necessarily make it better. In fact having to click an attack button before you make an attack would make it harder. And even if it did somehow make it easier, I still wouldn't favore it. I'm used to the interface the way it is. The known interface was considered an advantage of the AoK engine, which is why they went with that in the first place. I can't imagine them, now, in an X-pack, throwing that away.

[vI_Crab_Iv]

You must not of played Starcraft

 

The attack button works like this...selected units will move to the place where you clicked with the attack command. If any of the units sees any enemy unit, they stop, destroy the unit, then move on. It was very useful in Starcraft b/c of the design error of only being able to select 12 units at a time. So if you sent 12 ppl to an enemy base, and then moved back to your base to select the next 12, it would suck if they first group got ambushed. You totally misunderstood what he was saying.

 

Second, he wasnt suggesting a total revamp of units, which would not happen. You could add more race-specific units at other production sites besides fortress, easy.

Maybe for TF not have food as a required resource, but make them more dependent on ore or nova or a bunch of carbon for units? It doesnt make sense that a robot would need food. Same for all workers that are robots. Although, you have to balance that with game play. It would make food not as valuable. My suggestion, if you aren't going to keep it the same, is to replace naboo, empire, and rebel workers. Make the empire workers slaves of some sort, and naboo workers human volunteers. I am not sure about rebs now. Make TF not require food. Increase slow carbon collection rate to 30 or 35%. Make workers cost 75 carbon, and troopers 85 carbon. Make gren troopers 100 carbon, 40 nova, etc. Basically take the food cost, add about 20% to it, and make it carbon cost. Also make the TF need ore for mech units or whatever so its not just carbon. However the game has already been made and they probably kept it the way it was for a reason.

 

[RicoMyer]

Clearly some people mis-understood what I posted here...

 

1. I realize it is too late to drastically change the game and make the races really unique. And yes it can be done with enough play testing even though each race is completely different. Starcraft did it perfectly. However, there are little things the devs could do to make the races more unique than a piddly little 5% bonuses; perhaps indroducing more unique units on top of the existing ones?

 

2. For those that never played Starcraft/Warcraft, an Attack button is a button which sends your units to one location on the map, and if they see an enemy along the way they will attack that enemy until the enemy is dead, then keep going. Currently in GB/AoE/AoK there is only the "Move" command. When you right click to move troops to a location, they will blindly ignore bad guys along the way until they get to the destination, thereby getting pounded along the way. You have to manually stop them before they will attack. Annoying! You can fake an attack button type behavior by using Patrol, but your units annoyingly come back after reaching their destination. You can also guard one unit, but if that one unit dies, all the others stop.

[chrisw_30]

I would like to see different looking jedi and sith with perhaps a forcepower(choke)

[Chessack]

Originally posted by RicoMyer

 

2. For those that never played Starcraft/Warcraft, an Attack button is a button which sends your units to one location on the map, and if they see an enemy along the way they will attack that enemy until the enemy is dead, then keep going. Currently in GB/AoE/AoK there is only the "Move" command. When you right click to move troops to a location, they will blindly ignore bad guys along the way until they get to the destination, thereby getting pounded along the way. You have to manually stop them before they will attack. Annoying!

 

I do not find it annoying. It's part of the price you pay for being able to nicely, easily, micromanage your forces. You can remedy this in several ways.

 

1. Don't hae your units move all the way across the map in a single click. Move them in increments. That's what I do.

 

2. Have one unit do the "moving. Tell the other units to "guard" it. If you do that, and any enemy unit comes in their site, the guarding units will attack the enemy. They might not attack until its dead -- rather, they will attack until its out of range. But this will have it do sort of what you want.

 

Ultimately, though, I stand by the first point I made in response, way back up in the thread: this is the AoK engine. They might ads civs or something, but they are not going to change the basic engine in an X-pac. It'd require a whole entire new game for that.

[RicoMyer]

I realize the basic functionality in the game is emotionally sacred and probably not going to be changed, but if you think about it, the only difference in AI between Patrol and an Attack button is that the units stop once they get to the destination. A couple lines of code, tops! Plus, does anybody actually USE the Patrol button? I say, replace 'em! I've played AoE, AoK, Starcraft and games like it for a while now and frankly that is one of those "gee whiz" buttons what few ever use.