How to make France more appealing for players

the-zoidberger · Post by **the-zoidberger** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 2:43 pm

epicelite wrote: ↑French spies are able to place explosives! Not as good as Tony's C4 but maybe capable of taking out weaker buildings like power plant and barracks?

That a really interesting idea!

Post by **Murto the Ray** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:49 pm

epicelite wrote: ↑ French spies are able to place explosives! Not as good as Tony's C4 but maybe capable of taking out weaker buildings like power plant and barracks?

Seems like something that belongs with the England faction. Supplementary powers and units shouldn't be too similar as to produce interesting gameplay. I suggest that France should be able to disguise more than just spies or they should be able to create fake units and/or defenses since deception is their theme.

kyrylo · Post by **kyrylo** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:02 pm

Murto the Ray wrote: ↑ I suggest that France should be able to disguise more than just spies or they should be able to create fake units and/or defenses since deception is their theme.

Perhaps, add Snipers back?

Post by **Murto the Ray** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:34 pm

kyrylo wrote: ↑
Murto the Ray wrote: ↑ Snip
Perhaps, add Snipers back?

I like this, it would encourage more armored play as snipers could be used as anti-inf instead of arty!

Gatekeeper · Post by **Gatekeeper** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:25 pm

Murto the Ray wrote: ↑
kyrylo wrote: ↑
Murto the Ray wrote: ↑ Snip
Perhaps, add Snipers back?
I like this, it would encourage more armored play as snipers could be used as anti-inf instead of arty!

This could also double as an anti shocktrooper tactic, making france a good counter to russia.

FiveAces · Post by **FiveAces** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:55 pm

I actually really like the idea of giving France the snipers! Not sure how the devs feel about it, though.

klaas · Post by **klaas** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:05 am

I really liked the sniper unit, and I think its a shame it's gone in the curent release. I think giving it to France is an exellent idea.

Post by **abcdefg30** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:27 pm

I gave it a shot: OpenRA/OpenRA#9747

Novastar · Post by **Novastar** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:25 pm

Fake structures were enhanced and now don't show that they are fake if just one attack was made on them.
github OpenRA #9730

noobmapmaker · Post by **noobmapmaker** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:09 pm

Novastar wrote: ↑Fake structures were enhanced and now don't show that they are fake if just one attack was made on them.
github OpenRA #9730

Well, I think that France then in fact is an interesting Faction for a solid player to play with. Its traits are a bit less straight forward then the others are, but good players probably can be very annoying when they use fake buildings and their bases are hidden in shroud.

klaas · Post by **klaas** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 1:52 pm

noobmapmaker wrote: ↑
Novastar wrote: ↑Fake structures were enhanced and now don't show that they are fake if just one attack was made on them.
github OpenRA #9730
Well, I think that France then in fact is an interesting Faction for a solid player to play with. Its traits are a bit less straight forward then the others are, but good players probably can be very annoying when they use fake buildings and their bases are hidden in shroud.

I don't think fake structures are very appealing, ever, for good players. The problem with fake structures is that when they become usefull, you are allready defending against attacks. A good player knows that games are rarely won while defending, so clearly a special trait that can be usefull in offence will trump defencive ones like fake buildings.

The same is true for walls and silos and loads of base defence: the higher the level of play, the more you'll see people focus on expanding, getting more recourses and offence, and the less players focus on defence.

noobmapmaker · Post by **noobmapmaker** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 4:58 pm

True that, but when playing versus other strong players or in teamgames defending is inevitable.

I agree that a bit more spice is needed. The wording gives me an idea: french harvesters carry +50 ore!

Post by **Murto the Ray** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:50 pm

noobmapmaker wrote: ↑ I agree that a bit more spice is needed. The wording gives me an idea: french harvesters carry +50 ore!

The time taken for the harvester to harvest that bit of ore would immediately make this not worth it and have little to no impact on a game. I think we should stay away from editing any basic mechanics or units when implementing a faction's specializations as those kind of things can change the game drastically.

Perhaps just having an extra tab for fake buildings would be nice so that they don't get in the way of your defense queue.

Also, a naval unit is an avenue that hasn't been explored yet.

FiveAces · Post by **FiveAces** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:29 pm

If snipers prove to be a balance issue as a mass-produced unit, how about having them as a support power?
Helipad as a prerequisite, 4 minute cooldown to deploy a team of 2 snipers onto the battlefield (dropped from a chinook, anywhere on the map)?
That would turn them into more of a strategic element.
I'm not a fan of raw statistical increases as a faction trait, and this would add to the gameplay imo.

Novastar · Post by **Novastar** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:58 pm

Sniper as a support power sound much more reasonable than as a normal unit. Then again, how would that fit into the "theme" of france?