One of the things that bothers me about Empires is that, when you get down to it, vehicle customization is pretty limited. Sure, we can chose weapons, armor, and engines, but most of the time there isn't too much question about what to pick -- and often, there's only going to be one or two items researched in each category. So I propose that vehicles get an additional slot for customization: A 'specials' slot that holds passive upgrades to a vehicle's capabilities. The bonuses provided by this slot would generally be minor, and most of the items in it would be researched as part of an existing research item (since few would be worth researching on their own.) Since there would be specials unlocked in most paths of the research tree, but only limited slots, you would be guaranteed to have many options; and since the effect is relatively minor, you could choose whichever one suits your play style the best. Of course, they take up weight just like anything else (though not so much, with most of them), so you can also ignore them and go for maximum armor / weapons. The number of slots available would vary based on the chassis, of course; some tanks would only have one, while larger ones would tend to have more. The biggest problem would be balancing them, naturally, especially given the number of combinations available. But I think that it would be worth it; giving people more ability to customize their tanks would be a very good thing. Some general examples (although, of course, these are just off the top of my head and might not all be good): Tracking Computer: Increases the rate at which all your homing weapons lock. ECM Tracking Jammer: Increases the time it takes for weapons to lock on to your tank. Advanced Heat Sink: Slightly increases heat dissipation. Chassis Auto-Repair System: Regenerates chassis damage (but not armor damage; you need regen armor for that.) Additional Ammo Bay: Increases ammo capacity for all weapons. Auto-Loading System: Slightly decreases reload time for all weapons. Enhanced Traction: Slightly increases tank speed. Medical Unit: Regenerates passenger health like an APC. In an APC, doubles healing speed. Infantry Supply System: Restores passenger ammo like an APC. In an APC, doubles ammo-supply speed. Onboard Camera System: Acts like a camera built into the tank. Onboard Radar System: Acts like a radar built into the tank. Auto-Eject System: If the vehicle is destroyed, each person inside has a chance of being ejected instead of being killed (but they take some damage in the process.)
tbh, i love this idea. ALL POWER UPGRADES ONTO MY BOOMTANK! 6 standard cannoned BE heavy with no armour and all special slots are damage increase :D
i doubt that this will get implemented because its too awesome. they surely find a reason (too hard to balance, too much work, bla bla bla)
Tanks need a jump module! :D Would be AWESOME for light tanks or jeeps, just load it up by pressing the respecting key and let go for a boost upwards (creates heat and can only jump about the height of built walls). This would make jeeps so much more EXTREME. :D
I agree that more customization can be a good thing. However maybe you don't realize how many of the things you listed are already implemented. Tracking Computer: Increases the rate at which all your homing weapons lock. none, upgraded ML ECM Tracking Jammer: Increases the time it takes for weapons to lock on to your tank. Jammer like Scouts Radar Jammer Advanced Heat Sink: Slightly increases heat dissipation. Engineers coolant skill 10% increase!! Chassis Auto-Repair System: Regenerates chassis damage (but not armor damage; you need regen armor for that.) General skill Regen Healing Additional Ammo Bay: Increases ammo capacity for all weapons. General skill increased ammo Auto-Loading System: Slightly decreases reload time for all weapons.none, Railguns Enhanced Traction: Slightly increases tank speed. Scout skill, vehicle speed increase Medical Unit: Regenerates passenger health like an APC. In an APC, doubles healing speed. Engineer squad captain has a healing benefit Infantry Supply System: Restores passenger ammo like an APC. In an APC, doubles ammo-supply speed. none except for apc Onboard Camera System: Acts like a camera built into the tank. none Onboard Radar System: Acts like a radar built into the tank. none Auto-Eject System: If the vehicle is destroyed, each person inside has a chance of being ejected instead of being killed (but they take some damage in the process.) Push the E button instant tank ejection Make no mistake I am not bashing you just pointing out how many things there already are within the game. Much of it is based on your class, so you cant be an engy and have it all, this expects and demands teamwork.
I like every suggestion except the auto-eject one If your sneaky enough to plop a sticky on an APC and no one noticed I think you deserve the 9 points ;P
Ya, it has, but its still good, and all those "already implimented" things are class specific and dont work on vehicles. And maby when aircraft are added a UAV like the preditor could be added. maby a mini one that could be added to the special weapon slot.
Your objections don't make any sense. First, the several of the items you used for comparison (scout radar jammer vs. ECM tracking jammer, general skill regen vs. automatic chassis repair, general infantry ammo increase vs. increased vehicle ammo capacity) have no relation to the things I suggested at all. I don't really know what to say for these ones; you are flatly wrong and that's the end of it. Second, several of the remaining items you used for comparison (upgraded ml vs. tracking computer, railguns vs. auto-loading system, APC abilities) are abilities that are entirely linked to one weapon. The point of this suggestion was to increase customization by allowing people to combine benefits with any weapon (although, naturally, the benefits would be limited by weight / cost offsets -- and things like railguns and tracking computers could be boosted even further by the upgrades.) Your objection here is like saying (for instance) that the Scout vehicle speed upgrade is pointless because you can just buy a better engine... customization will, by definition, give players different ways to focus their vehicles, which implies some overlap. You can have auto-loading railguns for very fast attacks, say, or auto-loading nukes for fast nuke blasts (although in that case heat would probably be a crippling issue.) Right now, players tend to just grab the best weapon, with only minor changes to suit the situation... if specials are balanced well, it would be less obvious, since you can upgrade a much wider variety of things via your special slot than you could with your weapon slot. Finally, the comparisons to skills are invalid because most skills already boost existing equipment; that's the point of skills. A scout with speed boost, as I said, has an advantage with a fast engine or a fast chassis; a 'special' slot would give people more options for customizing speed, but wouldn't render any existing options obsolete. (You could stack them all, but with all your research, weight, etc on fast engines and speed-upgrade specials, your tank will be weaker in other respects. Or you could use the tank speed upgrade to offset a slow engine, slightly, making something like biodiesel more useful. And so on.) Of course, class skills don't take up weight or cost, so they'd still be very useful (just like engie 10% heat dissipation isn't rendered obsolete by the existence of advanced coolant and railguns now.) And saying that the auto-eject system is useless because you can just use 'e' is like saying that arty feedback is useless because a good player can figure out where they're hitting by dead reckoning. Yes, this is true, but the point of the upgrade is to supplant the player's abilities. (I do agree that this is the most outlandish one I suggested, though... I don't mean that they're all good, it's just intended as an example of the sort of thing that could be done.) As I said, these things are not in the game at all, not in the way I am suggesting. Likewise, I do not think that anything here infringes on any classes role, no more than (say) the existence of fast engines infringes on scouts, or the existence of advanced coolant infringes on engineers. There are tradeoffs and elements of customization involved that nothing in the game quite matches. I'm not bashing you, either, but I completely reject your objection on every point. I do not think that a single item I suggested is redundant with anything currently in the game, or that anything currently existing would be even slightly reduced in usefulness if these things were implemented. In terms of gameplay and game balance, I see absolutely no meaningful overlap at all.
do not get me started on how awesome that game was (haven't i gone off topic like this 3 times before? :eek: )
If this were implemented, it could justify getting rid of those vehicle-specific class skills. I hate those.
Tracking Computer: This one only effects 3 different weapons, probably would be near tracking in the research tree, so I don't think this is a good idea. Its too limited in its use, either it would be right beside tracking so you would always grab it, or far away from it so you never would. Perhaps if it somehow "helped" your aim with all other weapons (really hard to code with gravity affected shells) or had some sort of "auto wall hack" similar to what the com would give you, I can't see this being all that useful. ECM Tracking Jammer: While it directly offsets the advantage of a tracking computer, I have never been that bothered by tracking missiles anyways. Perhaps if the "auto wall hack" was disabled by this, as well as perhaps hiding you on the radar, then, I could see me using it, maybe. Advanced Heat Sink: Should be renamed advance coolant system, and be put near the advanced coolant engine. Perhaps even remove advanced coolant, and replace it with this, so it could be coupled with any engine. By time you get advanced coolant you probably already have an engine anyways, so this will add much more depth to the game. It could even have a pro/con setup... +4 cooling -10% speed or something. Chassis Auto-Repair System: bio-chassis? Additional Ammo Bay: good stuff Auto-Loading System: between shells? clips? both? None the less I like anything thats an all round improvement is good. Enhanced Traction: Or... "Enhanced Differential" (Someone may argue with my naming) Instead of generically increasing the speed, how bout we upgrade the connection between the engine and the drive shaft. Less heat produced while the engine is running hard, more torque, and a slight speed boost. Would go near gas turbine I think. Medical Unit: Probably belongs in biology, on a standard tank, I think it should probably be 1/2 the heal rate, in a jeep/afv it should heal at the apc rate, and in a APC maybe not quite double, maybe 150%? Infantry Supply System: Same as above, tanks 1/2 refill rate, jeep/afv same as apc rate, apc 150% Onboard Camera System:Totally love this, should come standard on the CV Onboard Radar System: Same as above... I mean I has a bloody dish on it, why don't it do something? Auto-Eject System: This idea is acceptable, but I'm nether for, nor against it. <Semi sarcastic/serous idea>Or or or or, instead of an auto-eject system an "improved driver/passenger safety system" with front side and rear air bags to protect the vehicle occupants in the case of a crash, or heavy shelling. Allows the players to exist the vehicle shell as they wish. (after shell "vaporises" players are auto ejected)</semi>
