Xya's Suggestions Suggestion #3 : Infantry Research original thread : http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=9986 In every good RTS you can have improvements for your soldiers , for the smallest units. We should be able to have that in Empires. Pros: * Allow infantry to be more efficient against tanks * New strategies Cons: * Maybe some unbalanced stuff Alternatives: * none Suggestion #4 : Voice Messages original thread : http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=9987 It is sometimes hard for people who does not have a microphone to get the commander to give you a refinery or a barrack in time , we need voice messages in the F menu to tell the commander what building we need. Pros: * Allow faster buildings placement * People without micro can now be heard * Can be binded Cons: * none Alternatives: * Microphone Suggestion #5 : Ramps original thread : http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=10003 The problem of some main bases in this mod is that they cannot be fully walled , we should be able to build ramps that would have the same size as walls and buildable exactly like walls so you can adapt it. We can already use walls as tank traps (it's some kind of ramps since you can pass but not the enemy) in some case so it would just let us use ramps in every maps. Pros: * Allow you to fortify your base and let the tanks get out anyway * Shorter siege if ramps are used for assault Cons: * Might lead to some exploit. Alternatives: * none Suggestion #6 : Sabotaged Radar original thread :http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=10010 For the moment the only things that we can know on the enemies are where their buidlings , tanks and infantry are , But what if we could see how many ressourses they've and what they're researching. A sabotaged radar should be giving information on how much ressourses the enemy have and what they're researching (not what they've researched!). It would give a new job to the scout and make them even more useful. Pros: * Make scouts more useful * More tactical rounds , research things to counter what enemies are researching etc... Cons: * none Alternatives: * none I will update as comments comes. Please take a look at those threads and post comments!
Recycling original thread:http://empiresmodforums.com/showthread.php?t=10021 Suggested changes: -Make a cancel for recycling.Pros: Eliminates dumb mistakes. Cons: Makes commanding easier? Alternatives: Pushing 'recycle' twice cancels it.
Scout Squad Leader Aura original thread:http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=10072 The Scout's squad leader aura is changed to Untargetable by comms, Movement speed +10%. While in range of their squad leader, the squad will move 10% faster and will not be able to be targeted by the enemy commander. Any preexisting comm targets will "fall off" Pros: Buffs the scout. Allows for greater teamwork. Increases scout's usefulness in groups. Allows a counter for commander target spam. Cons: Power level is unknown. It could be overpowered. Sudden speed increase could be confusing to new players. Could be unbalanced with the other squad leader auras. Alternatives: See original thread. Buff other auras as well to compensate.
Reduce the CV's armor a bit. original thread: http://empiresmodforums.com/showthread.php?t=10124 The command vehicle doesn't need this much armor. The main reason he had it was so Arty Strikes wouldn't work, but those were nerfed in the same update. Also, the only time more armor actually does anything is when one team already lost. Pros: Makes games end quicker. Makes the CV more important. Discourages B00mtanking. Cons: Commanding is harder..? Alternatives: Lower resistances.
Combat point denying suicide original thread: here stops people from killing themselves before they can be killed by giving credit upon death to whoever last damaged the suicider, this also grants credit for shooting someone off a cliff and causing them to fall to their death.Pros: -Reduces frustration of being denied a point, making the game more enjoyable. -Gives credit for causing a terrain related death. Cons: -No more tactical promotion point starving though suicide. Alternatives: -Give points based on damage done to enemies.
Passenger Survival original thread: here Upon destruction of a vehicle, the driver is instantly killed (like normal). Any player that was riding in the vehicle (not driving) is automatically ejected from the vehicle and loses 65 HP. (if this HP loss causes death, the destroyer gets the kill) Pros: -Less frequent innocent casualties from riding with bad/unlucky/blind drivers. -Driver still is punished for loss. Cons: -Satisfying 8 player kills are much more uncommon -You still get a penalty of being in the wrong vehicle at the wrong time. Alternatives: -Survivors move very slowly and/or are blinded for a few seconds upon being forced out of a destroyed vehicle. -Make survival a general skill. -Make passenger survival apply to everyone without the use of a skill, but with only a small chance of happening.
Clear and Obvious Load Out Weight original thread: here Weight in the Vehicle Customization GUI starts at 0, rather than the current base weight Pros: -Less confusion over how much equipment can be attached or removed from vehicle Cons: -No more 1337 heavies Alternatives: -Remove base weight entirely..?
Scouts should earn points for sticky-stunning a tank that gets killed. original thread: here When a tank gets killed while it is sticky-stunned by a scout, that scout should earn one point. Pros: -More encouragement and reward for using sticky-stunning. -Encourages teamwork -Points will better reflect contributions. Cons: -None came up Alternatives: -Add a visual effect to stunning so your teammates know the tank is stunned.
Allow spawning in armories if they are within range of a barracks. original thread: here If an armory is very close to a friendly rax, allow it to be used as a spawnpoint as well. Pros: -Discourages camping by spreading out spawns. -Makes armories more useful, and rewards using them. -Makes it harder and more interesting to rush an established, armory-defended rax. -More benefits to having a big established base (as opposed to just one forward rax.) -Would make the base more exciting to have enemies pouring out of lots of different structures. Cons: -Armories are already plenty useful. -Some people feel that enemies spawning from one place is good. -Removes the choice of going into the armory to stock up or not, since you can just spawn in there. -It might be possible to place a hard-to-reach rax with an armory near it for actual spawning. Alternatives: -Extend this to include spawning in the radar as well (with the same rules, only when it's near a rax). This will make the radar a more interesting structure. -Allow spawning in the VF using the same rules -- possibly even starting inside a vehicle you purchase. -Require some physical link between the rax and any other buildings it enables spawning for.
Voice-chat option to attract the comm's attention. original thread: here There should be a voice-chat option that causes a brief beacon to appear on the comm's map (or even the comm view), to help draw their attention to your location. Something like a visual sonar-ping expanding circle from your location, or whatever. Obviously, there should be a timer before you can use it again, to prevent spam. Pros: -Would help players (especially those with no mic) attract the comm's attention for dropping vital buildings. -Would help newbie comms find the player who is calling for them. Cons: -None came up Alternatives: -Allow comm to double-click on a player's name in chat to zoom to them.
Make the alarm when the comm is taking damage more noticeable. original thread: here People often don't notice the comm is under attack. So two things came up: Making it longer and louder, or making it flash on the bottom of the screen in red. The sound could also be given higher priority so other sounds don't play over it. These could be combined. Pros: -Would make it more likely that people would notice the comm is being attacked. -Would help when you're stuck with a comm who has no mic. Cons: -This would make it easier to comm; some people feel comming is too easy. Alternatives: -The comm view could shake when the comm is being attacked, to help alert the comm.
Remove the defusal skill completely, and make it so scout flashnades trigger or remove mines. original thread: here Defusal makes it too easy to ignore mines yourself, yet is terrible at disarming them. This discourages teamwork -- you're encouraged to rush through minefields yourself and not remove them for teammates. The scout also needs more to do, and they already have a tool intended for disabling static defenses. So, remove defusal completely, and give the flash-grenade the ability to set off enemy mines. Pros: -Would make the scout more useful. -Would encourage teamwork to remove grenades for your team. -Would make the defensive game a bit more interesting. -Many feel defusal is OP at the moment; this would fix it. -Would be able to compete with revive for removing mines -- right now, defusal can't. Cons: -None came up for the main suggestion. Alternatives: -Move defusal to the scout, instead of removing it entirely (but some worry that speed + mine-immunity in a vehicle would be OP.) -Make it faster to defuse mines, and make it so defusing one mine automatically defuses any that it would've set off, in a chain (so you can defuse a whole minefield.) -Keep defusal (or move it) but make it so it doesn't protect you when you're in a vehicle.
A remote-option for engineers to recycle their walls. original thread: here Currently, if an engineer wants to remove their walls remotely, they have to switch classes (destroying all their other stuff, too). So, it'd be nice to add a "remotely recycle all my walls" option, just like they have for turrets and sensors. Pros: -Massively more convenient for both placing new walls and for removing them when they're bothering your team. Cons: -None came up for the main suggestion. Alternatives: -Nothing directly related to this.
Make it so refs have no initial cost, but have to pay for themselves by delaying the time until they start producing res -- until they've paid off 100 res, basically ...and, at the same time... Make it so engineers can drop these refs on their own, without comm assistance. original thread: here This is essentially two interlocked suggestions. -First, let refs be dropped without any initial cost, but make it so they have to 'pay for themselves' by waiting until they've burned 100 res before they start giving you res themselves. -Second, let engineers drop these refs without the comm's help These two things are interlocked. Players were reluctant to give the engineer the ability to build things (even refs) if that would waste res. This suggestion would avoid that. While the suggestion might sound confusing, note that the end result is that you still lose 100 res if one of your established refs is destroyed (because it will have to burn that much restarting itself.) The only major changes are that you can still place refs when at 0 res with no income, and that engineers can now place refs without having to wait for the comm. Pros: -Would reduce the annoying waiting when you have a bad or distracted comm. -Would make it harder for comms to utterly fail and ruin the game for everyone else -- a terrible comm who wastes all your initial res can just be voted out and new refs placed. -Would remove one distraction for the more competent comms. -Would encourage engineers to focus on grabbing refs more, since they won't have to wait for the comm's attention. -Avoids the situation where a team is utterly unable to build anything ever again. Cons: -Could slightly speed up the early game by letting you spend initial res on non-ref things. -Eliminates the penalty if a ref is destroyed just after it is produced, which could encourage dropping refs just to annoy the enemy. -Could be potentially confusing when refs don't instantly start producing res. -Removes some early choices when choosing between placing refs and placing other things. Alternatives: -None of note.
Make tanks take more damage from above, especially from RPGs. original thread: here Tanks should take more damage when a gren standing on a higher elevation hits them from above. This should probably not apply to mortars or arty, as that would just be a "free" bonus to them which is not needed (although they could be rebalanced around it if that's wanted.) But for RPGs, it would make maps more interesting, since tanks would have to avoid ambushes from above, and it would give infantry an interesting way to gain an advantage against tanks by exploiting the terrain. The bonus should probably require that the gren actually be standing at a level somewhat above the tank, so they can't just use guiding to get it every time. Pros: -Makes infantry more useful vs. tanks. -Makes terrain and anti-tank combat more interesting. -Allows for more interesting maps by making elevation more important. Cons: -None. Alternatives: -Top damage could be applied to all four sides, or divided among them in some way, possibly in addition to an overall damage bonus. -The bonus for top damage could vary based on the size of the tank. -Top damage could bypass armor entirely.
Show the class of tank-drivers (and possibly passengers) when the comm mass-selects vehicles. original thread: here Currently, if the comm clicks and drags to select a bunch of tanks, they have no way of knowing which ones have engineers in them. This is a big problem, since it's important for the comm to be able to tell at a glance whether there's an engineer in the area so they know if they can drop a building or not. So basically, I feel that there should be a little icon on the comm's selected-unit display, showing which selected vehicles have engineers inside. A little wrench, or whatever. Pros: -Makes it easier for the comm to tell when there's engineers around. Cons: -None. Alternatives: -It could also display other information -- other classes, certain class skills (repair upgrade, revive, defusal), etc.
Improve the comm's unit list. original thread: here The unit list that the comm can pull up (showing all the infantry and vehicles on their team) is a bit clunky and not as useful as it could be. One thing that would be very useful is if there was a button or something next to every big dropdown (vehicles and soldiers, at least) that you could push to select everything of that type. That way comms could easily order every vehicle they have to rush a specific point. Also, while we're on the subject: A 'select nearest engineer' button somewhere (or even just on the main interface) would be very useful. Pros: -Gives the comm an easy way to give orders to their entire team. Cons: -None. Alternatives: -None. Well, attack-defend beacons were mentioned.
Reverse the behavior of attack orders and radar blips. original thread: here Attack orders are overpowered when used as wallhax. I think most people agree that the current way they work isn't good for the game. While this won't fix everything, making them 'blink' and fade in and out the way engineer-sensor detection of enemies does currently would help somewhat. They would still serve their purpose of telling people where to go, without providing quite the perfect wallhax they do currently. Pros: -Reduces the overwhelming power of comm wallhax. -Reduces the overwhelming importance of comm wallhax, so having a comm who forgets to do it isn't quite so horribly fun-ruining. -Makes other forms of sensors and detection more useful. Cons: -None. Alternatives: -Many people would rather see comm wallhax removed entirely. -It isn't really necessary to swap them -- radars could remain blinking the way they are now.
Attach a free ammo crate to every refinery. original thread: here Most comms never drop armories. Most players ignore ref nodes after the beginning of the game, not bothering to defend or fight for them. And many players don't drop ammo crates. If we put free ammo crates next to every ref, this will encourage players to capture and hold them, and will make them hang out near them, resulting in actual interesting fights for refs instead of most of the team ignoring them, as often happens now. It'll give players a selfish reason to like refs and to stay near them, basically. Pros: -Encourages players to focus on refs. -May result in more interesting fights over refs. -Makes it so refs gives infantry a direct, immediate advantage. Cons: -May decrease the importance of armories and engineer-ammo crates. Alternatives: -None.
Allow for map entities the comm can interact with via menu. original thread: here Somewhat like Zombie Master manipulates, if you've played that game. Map-specific things the comm can click on to open a menu in their interface, letting them control parts of the map. Some might be permanently controlled by one team or the other; others might be controlled by whoever has captured a specific point. There could be doors you can open and close, bridges you can extend and retract, map-specific superweapons, traps, and other interesting things... basically, it would give mappers a chance to be creative. Pros: -More interesting maps. -More for the comm to do. -More variety in strategies for the comm. Cons: -Potentially confusing. Alternatives: -None.
