Game play suggestions

[ragingirish]

I figure this area can be where we make suggestions for the game.
I'll start
1. Tanya should not be available to Russia.
2. Allies need an AA mobile unit.
3. Dogs for Allies
4. A10 for Allies give back the Hind to Russia?
5. Where is the thief?
6. Spies to work similar to RA2
5. If Russia gets a free Paratrooper drop what should the Allies get.
6. Gap generators, mobile gap generator, radar jammer, chrono tank, mechanic
7. Can we get rid of the need for silos?

I know most of this will be addressed in future builds. Just wanted to have a suggestion box for myself and others. As the game stands right now in Alpha I love it.

[Slaptoast]

7. Can we get rid of the need for silos?

I never got the tiberium silo mechanic. There is no reason to ever have cash floating, so any decent player will never have to build one. All it does is slightly punish people who are new to the game. I cant believe they kept them even in cnc3, where people would only ever use them like walls when turret pushing because they were the cheapest structure and built fast.

[chrisf]

1) Tanya for allies only

Agreed, but we would need a similar 'elite infantry' for soviet. Suggestions?

2) Allies needs a mobile AA unit

You can use E3, but I agree. Will have to think about this.

3) Dogs for allies

I'm not sure I like this. Currently dogs are one of the distinctive things about the soviet early game.

4) Hind given back to Russia

I'd rather replace the Hind completely, with a second allied attack helicopter. Giving soviet both AFLD and HPAD is undesirable.

5) Thief

We removed it because it's not useful vs good players. If you're stockpiling ore/cash, you're doing it wrong.

6) Spies

We currently have right-click disguise on any unit, which is like RA2, and better for MP than the RA1 behavior. We still need to work out how the infiltration rewards should work.

7) Paradrop equivalent for allies

Any suggestions? Currently we paradrop 3xE1 + 2xE3, which is pretty good for soviet. For allies, we'd want to do something quite different, I think.

GAP/MGG

These are less interesting with fog. If you have a suggestion for how to rework them, I'm listening.

9) Radar Jammer

Removed simply because no-one used it. The code supports it.

10) Chronotank

Maybe. It's pretty broken in Aftermath.

11) Mechanic

Considering giving Engineer the vehicle repair capability, so you build them as part of a normal build order rather than just to be a dick

12) Silos

Maybe.

[TagoMago]

Is it possible to make GPS satellite reveal the entire map only for a while (instead of permanently)?.

[CRYS]

Is it possible to make GPS satellite reveal the entire map only for a while (instead of permanently)?.

Erm and rocket sattelite dead in space? Allied weakness and GPS satellite this is good trump in hand.

[5kable]

1) Tanya for allies only

Agreed, but we would need a similar 'elite infantry' for soviet. Suggestions?

Volkov?

[Pepzi]

3) Dogs for allies

I'm not sure I like this. Currently dogs are one of the distinctive things about the soviet early game.

DONT give it to the allies like in Ra2! Dogs for soviets only! Keep the factions diverse between each other.

10) Chronotank

Maybe. It's pretty broken in Aftermath.

What do you mean? It worked well IMO. Please feature that.

[raminator]

7) Paradrop equivalent for allies

chrono in 2 light tanks

[Slaptoast]

Agreed, but we would need a similar 'elite infantry' for soviet. Suggestions?

Volkov and Chitzkoi (his dog)!

[5kable]

9) Radar Jammer

Removed simply because no-one used it. The code supports it.

Maybe it should be more powerful?
How about increasing the jamming range and/or making it a stealth unit (like the phase transport). It could be available for both factions, but with a different ability. Soviet Jammer has stealth and the Allied one has a longer range?
Perhaps the factions should have a different SHP for their jammer as well.

I can't remember if the Tesla Tank has radar jamming capabilities. If it does, then maybe it should have the ability removed in favour of the above.

[Sleipnir]

The main problem with the radar jammer is that radar itself is relatively useless compared to the original game. With the addition of fog, and large resolutions that let you see the entire map at once, the benefits of radar (and thus, the incentive to jam it) are small.

[Iran]

Even playing in a 800x600 window the radar is quite useless, especially if you "team" your buildings so you can jump to them with alt+[1-0] keyboard shortcut. The gameplay in general would improve if there were bigger maps with more choke points.

[ragingirish]

Maybe the radar jammer could reset the dark shroud and jam the radar. Now that would be useful!

I know the gap generators seem useless now but once the migs and choppers are cost effective it will prevent targeting of allied buildings.

On another note is it me or do tanks seem declawed and nearly useless.

Also the soviets have shock troopers and flame troops and the allies have a medic. Who isn't much help once your peeps are dead. Could we give the allies a sniper or something?

[5kable]

Allied tanks need to be more powerful as they can't really stand up to the heavy armour the Soviets are storming around in.

Maybe the light tank should be given a heavier cannon (90mm - the med tank's weapon). Just increase the price by 5% or something to compensate for the heavier weapon.

The med tank could have a 120mm or 105mm cannon. After all the heavy tank has 2 105mm cannons and it is the Soviets' basic armour.
Again, you could just increase the price by 5%.

Maybe all tanks (except the Mammy, cause that has its tusks) should have a secondary weapon, such as a machine gun, as well.

I'm just throwing ideas around.
I'll have a go at testing out my suggestions in game.

EDIT:
ok, although only tested on AI, the machine gun additions seem to work quite well. However, adding a muzzle flash stops the game from loading (although that could be down to the offset not being configured). The machine gun additions also recoil which looks very odd in game. Not too sure if there's a way around that.
The heavier cannons seem to be balanced against the soviets (I gave the med. tank a 105mm cannon) although it's hard to test against the AI as they don't seem to do a lot.

[Iran]

You should mix infantry with your forces. My own tests show that Soviets are actually underpowered.