Land Air Sea

[starscape junkie]

Ok, this is half question-half suggestion, its a " suqestion ".

As per the title, what kind of terrain do you plan on incorperating, and what is going to be the no-go areas? The one thing i love about total annihilation is that you can go on 98% of the terrain, and you can build a stratedgy around that. You would be a fool to be on an island and be building your main force of kbots and vehicles without some form of fleet of ships, but a better stratagem would to go porcupine and attack with planes and bombers.(for those who don't know, porcupine is when you surround yourself with massive amounts of defensive weaponry, often 4 or 5 rows deep, and take a more guerilla style approach to attacking(my favorite stratedgy))

I hate the idea that water is some form of boundry that no-one can pass...I could understand if you wanted to make lava or acid pools that you could go through and would cause damage,or not go into, but i really dont like the unreachable terrain concept.

EDIT: i just thought of what was land-sea: age of empires I + II too bad i cant change the poll...

I made a poll so i could see what other people think,
Starscape Junkie

[HunterXI]

I had a thought that one thing you could do is instead of land-air-sea is land-air-space.

maybe something like when you get to a certain level in research, space is opened as a battlefield?

[Gravitron]

The old the more the marrier, or is simple is the best.
Well, IMHO, it's all a matter of personal prefferance, and the only real way of telling which, is by letting the dev think it over and decide for themselves how good and talented they are and if they are able to design and balance it well or not.
We cannot decide that for them, they must try and see for themselves.

[Darth Dallas]

I think if space is used at all, I'd like it implimented as a trasitionary thing (think moving the Aegis around in warp mode to various nodes and if it were a planetary conquest game rather than just a war on one world - if you take a new world, you move your troops and stuff forward, if not, you move to the next friendliest node to regroup/healup).

I also think the focus should remain dealing with ground/air warfare. We've already gotten to zip around space fighting that way, so I think it would be best that if space were in at all, it be at the tactical level...Navigating on the big map, not space fighting at each node like before.

Truthfully I'd love to see a good blend of all three arenas, air space & ground, but I guess we'll have to hold out for when the dev guys can hire more staff

[HunterXI]

[Fire Storm]

Well, I am an Alpha Centauri fan, so I say land-sea-air-space

[Akuma]

Land-Sea-Air is my voice. Although as I think only TA did even decently involve ALL of them. Sea units have always been really sorta more a novelty then an actual thing to use unless the game FORCED you to use them.

Maps need to have a solid use for the naval units as a viable alternative to a huge ground force or as a supplement otherwise people go with the normal huge tank rush. Maps may have naval ACCESS but it simply is a way to say "Hey look..you could use those but..its not going to help you end the battle much."

Air seems decent normally and ground is standard, but possibly setup so that each one compliments the other well. Such as air has a semi limited range but with an aircraft carrier type of ship...hey! Extended range! Or ground forces that can when using a special ability enhance dmg from certain other air or naval units (targetting anyone?)

[X-Fighter]

Land-air-sea-space-subterranean...being able to battle it out underground is rare, but interesting. It also allows you some alternative if your enemy has formed some nasty super-domination airforce that keeps everything above ground stymied.

Also, SSI's StarGeneral was an excellent use of space-air-land-sea combat integration.

[01d55]

Even if you wind up not including it in the final game scenario, land-air-sea combat should be supported by the game engine, assuming you'll be providing tools for user mods.

[Chibi]

Land-Air-Sea-Space-Subterran...

That's the coolest concept I've heard of! The only subterran battle game I've played is... SIM-ANT!

Space is great, you could zoom out to multiple levels, sorta like "MAD: Global Thermonuclear Warfare" does with their sattelite views...

Wait, battlescape's a 2d game like starscape, right? Okay, scratch that.

Hey, with space vehicles, you could use parts of the SScape engine in BScape. You could create space-station-platforms like in GravityWell. Fly around and shoot like in Asteroids... Upgrade your ship like in... starscape! But then you also have to worry about what's going on on the ground, and prepare for Anti-Air assaults, Anti-space assaults, Anti-subterran assaults... Gee, this is getting wild!

[Bobacles]

For land/land, how about "Risk"? Or "Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns"? "Star Trek Armada" comes close, as there's only one plane of space, that everyone can use.

Don't forget "hover". It's a mix of land and sea, fast but not quite as maneuverable as air. It's really well suited for sea or coastal raids, IMO.

There's also "Amphibious", for vehicles that want to scour the ocean floor. It'd make for some interesting underwater missions. Underwater tanks and subs, hehe.

Battlescape in space? Why bother with infantry or tanks, then?

I don't really mind what format is picked, but at least two ways would be nice. This seems like the sort of thing that gets exponentially harder the more you add, because of play balance.

[BullS101]

Land - Air would get my vote, for the simple fact that it would be very difficult to balance the units for land sea and air. I believe that the reason you generally see more games with land-air units is because of the fact that it is easier to balance, easier for the gamer to learn, and in the end, more fun for more people.

Unless you guys can pull off balancing the 3 sets of units well, and make sea units actually usefull (lots of water everywhere, which doesn't seem likely while defending some territory on land), I would definitely go land-air.

[Sorrow]

Ships ar enothing but a novelty and serve no practicle perpouse.

There realy isnt a question about it. ships == waste.

[Fost]

I must say: it's refreshing to hear everyone is thinking in such a pragmatic manner Usually, if you ask someone if they want two features or three, they always say three!

I take everyone's point here: two great features are better than three shoddy ones. It's always important to allow room in your schedule to balance everything out - easier said than done. We've been burned before on pre-Moonpod products by trying to fill every available space in a schedule with 'features' to complete. Hopefully we've learned our lessons

[WaterCooledP4]

Land well duh we need that...sea would be nice, and air raids are fun. but be careful with the air units, like put a limit on how many you can have in the sky at once or that you can build. its no fair if your opponent can build 200 planes and obliterate youre whole base with just those. sea units can be a great addition to a seige of an enemy base because they provide a good platform for artillery that can be put more out of reach of the enemy. i really miss sea units in c anc c generals