Barathor
Emperor
- Joined
- May 7, 2011
- Messages
- 1,202
I was thinking of the second expansion again yesterday. I'll just refer to it as Falling Sky because I love the title, haha.
Now, that we have our hands on Rising Tide and its expanded naval unit types, I think it works out even better to upgrade naval units into some type of air unit (should they even be called starships? They could perhaps traverse the orbital layer and some types could bombard from there, like the Rocktopus does, but you're not traveling across the galaxy or anything. Though, anti-orbital strikes would need to be updated too).
Much like the later game land vehicles gain the ability to hover and threaten the seas, naval units can turn into huge flying ships. (Perhaps, with the use of floatstone, they're able to fly around like a helicopter or flying saucer... as in, they don't have to keep moving.)
This way, the stakes get raised later in the game and many units become a threat throughout the map.
The naval types also work out well to "Starship" flavored ships. In the Starships game, you can mix and match the different attributes or even have it all eventually, but for the sake of creating different unit classes, we'll specialize them.
Melee Ship: Patrol boat units eventually can turn into heavily armored ships that utilize photon cannons for devastating up-close damage (melee attacks).
Ranged Ship: Gunboat units eventually turn into a more lightly armored ships that utilize lasers and maybe even torpedoes.
Carrier Ship: Carriers turn into Carrier ships and continue to launch swarms of Tacjets.
Ambush Ship: Submarines turn into Cloaked ships which utilize the technology to ambush enemies.
Also, much like the Autosled's perk is the ability to have an earlier hover unit, the Aquilon is like getting an earlier carrier ship.
Just a thought; it definitely needs a lot of polish. I just wanted to throw it out here while the gears may be turning at Firaxis as the top guys start thinking about the next expansion.
- - - - - -
Now, that we have our hands on Rising Tide and its expanded naval unit types, I think it works out even better to upgrade naval units into some type of air unit (should they even be called starships? They could perhaps traverse the orbital layer and some types could bombard from there, like the Rocktopus does, but you're not traveling across the galaxy or anything. Though, anti-orbital strikes would need to be updated too).
Much like the later game land vehicles gain the ability to hover and threaten the seas, naval units can turn into huge flying ships. (Perhaps, with the use of floatstone, they're able to fly around like a helicopter or flying saucer... as in, they don't have to keep moving.)
This way, the stakes get raised later in the game and many units become a threat throughout the map.
The naval types also work out well to "Starship" flavored ships. In the Starships game, you can mix and match the different attributes or even have it all eventually, but for the sake of creating different unit classes, we'll specialize them.
Melee Ship: Patrol boat units eventually can turn into heavily armored ships that utilize photon cannons for devastating up-close damage (melee attacks).
Ranged Ship: Gunboat units eventually turn into a more lightly armored ships that utilize lasers and maybe even torpedoes.
Carrier Ship: Carriers turn into Carrier ships and continue to launch swarms of Tacjets.
Ambush Ship: Submarines turn into Cloaked ships which utilize the technology to ambush enemies.
Also, much like the Autosled's perk is the ability to have an earlier hover unit, the Aquilon is like getting an earlier carrier ship.
Just a thought; it definitely needs a lot of polish. I just wanted to throw it out here while the gears may be turning at Firaxis as the top guys start thinking about the next expansion.
- - - - - -
Spoiler :
Side Note:
This is what got me started on the idea above...
Firaxis, please implement a unit ability which grants "unblocked" line of sight. It's a bit awkward that the giant, flying Aquilon follows the rules of sight that land units use. Example: an adjacent forest below it blocks its view, but fly over a hill and suddenly you can see over things.
Currently, the Aquilon belongs to the domain Hover. Maybe a new domain should be implemented that's not hover or air (like tacjets).
Things like this don't have to be taken too far. Sure, there are giant units like the ANGEL, Xeno Titan, and Golem. But, they don't need this unblocked vision. Though, with something like a flying ship up in the air, it just feels strange not to have it.
This is what got me started on the idea above...
Firaxis, please implement a unit ability which grants "unblocked" line of sight. It's a bit awkward that the giant, flying Aquilon follows the rules of sight that land units use. Example: an adjacent forest below it blocks its view, but fly over a hill and suddenly you can see over things.
Currently, the Aquilon belongs to the domain Hover. Maybe a new domain should be implemented that's not hover or air (like tacjets).
Things like this don't have to be taken too far. Sure, there are giant units like the ANGEL, Xeno Titan, and Golem. But, they don't need this unblocked vision. Though, with something like a flying ship up in the air, it just feels strange not to have it.