Soldiers variations

[sokkur]

I know I should have posted this in the suggestion thread but I felt this would be a little more than a simple suggestion.

According to the game design document there is no mention of Soldier variations within the same type and rank. I have only played alpha 4 and I did see slight variations within units in the same type and rank. The variations were in form of shield variations at the basic rank and armor, helmets and shield variations at the elite rank, but I saw no stat changes following those variations. In reality soldiers of the same type in the same rank where not exactly the same wealth. My suggestion is to add slight stat change with those variations to represent the slight wealth differences within a rank. Lets take an example: Take two newly recruited soldiers of the same type one would be above average in wealth and the other would be below average in wealth. The richer soldier would have slightly higher quality armor then the poorer solider and therefore be slightly stronger. As they get promoted the wealth gap between them would not change and at the elite rank the richer soldier would still be richer and stronger than the poorer soldier. Same with super units (I know they have only one rank and I am not going to change that).

[Kimball]

Hi sokkur, you bring up some interesting points.

There is a decent amount of visual variation, but you won't notice much of it from the standard game zoom level. Helmets, unit textures, shields, and weaponry all vary for most units.

As far as statistical variation, that's a little bit more difficult. The only way to explain this difficulty is to explain actors and simulation templates. An actor represents a visual entity - a collection of models, textures, and animations. A simulation template is what makes an actor come to life, assigning obstruction values (so you can't walk through a building), attack stats, armor stats, walking/running speed, what buildings a unit is allowed to train, etc.

All of the variation exists in the actors. Since simulation files are tied to actors, varying both would require a complete reworking of the engine's interpretation of units. There is currently nothing in the sim files that allows for statistical variation.

All things considered, would this have a significant impact on gameplay? Would it perhaps irritate players, knowing that if they train two identical units, one might be weaker than the other?

[sokkur]

All things considered, would this have a significant impact on gameplay? Would it perhaps irritate players, knowing that if they train two identical units, one might be weaker than the other?

I think it would make some players (especially those pros) try to let a wealthy-born soldier survive and therefore it would require some extra unit manipulating (and a little more remembering when you have the camera zoomed out and need to act fast) assuming it would have a benefit.

Edited December 9, 2012 by sokkur

[sokkur]

It also makes you get more attached to your soldiers which I like the most:)

[sokkur]

If you have something on your mind about this idea please post it as I would really like to have this implemented into the game. I have been looking for a game that does this for several years or since I played Overlord, which is one of my all time favorite games.

I would gladly donate a reasonable amount.

[Enrique]

IMHO, I don't want to train a batch of 10 soldiers and click one by one to see which one came out richer and which one poorer. It's too much time consuming. You have a nice variety of units in each faction. Better units (better armor, "richer" troops) cost more resources. Furthermore, citizen-soldiers that can rank-up it's an awesome feature that I think it works really great without micromanagement, and it's fair for every unit trained. If they rank up, you'll get more attached those your troops. Just make a test some elite units against some non-ranked units to see how valuable they are without the "random trained buff" thing.

[sokkur]

IMHO, I don't want to train a batch of 10 soldiers and click one by one to see which one came out richer and which one poorer. It's too much time consuming. You have a nice variety of units in each faction. Better units (better armor, "richer" troops) cost more resources. Furthermore, citizen-soldiers that can rank-up it's an awesome feature that I think it works really great without micromanagement, and it's fair for every unit trained. If they rank up, you'll get more attached those your troops. Just make a test some elite units against some non-ranked units to see how valuable they are without the "random trained buff" thing.

But the whole reason I made this thread was that I thought 3 ranks didn't add enough variety. Also you don't have to click on every recruited soldier to see if they are rich or poor. it would be enough to zoom in at your newly recruited soldiers and you would notice pretty easily which ware rich and which ware poor. One final note, those bonuses wouldn't by great most of the time and you wouldn't need to give this attention to play well. As I said before this would be for the pros and whose who wanted to get attached to their soldiers.

[Kimball]

Being able to make units easily distinguishable visually is a lot easier said than done. And I really don't think the Art Dept. is up for redoing every single unit texture in the game. That being said, I don't think the units (from a stats standpoint) need more variety than they already have. Should we have to train children first and allow them to grow up before they can become soldiers? Do we have to remember to feed our army every day too? We don't want the player to have to worry about things that are too "micro.'

[quantumstate]

The game has a 300 unit population limit. Even top starcraft players are going to struggle with that much micro, we already have unit ranks so I think it is not worthwhile.