How do commander upgrades work?

You used to only be able to use the pre-set commanders configured on the website. Now you can pick modules midmatch. And there used to be 5 frames instead of 4.

quote: am I always swapping one module out for another one

No. Every level adds fresh slots, the modules from previous levels are not replaced.

quote: does picking a module at Level One also upgrade my commander to Level Two, unlocking new module slots

More or less, but it kinda works the other way around (it's not adding modules that increases level, it's increasing level that adds module slots).

Here's how it looks ingame. The commander has an upgrade command:


It allows you to pick a batch of modules:


Click the accept button and the commander starts upgrading, draining resources in the usual manner:


At some point he finishes and is now level 2. You can use the "show modules" to see current module set (the batteries is the starting module). You can pick another batch of modules and repeat the process, the modules from each level will stack.


The commander doesn't have a level limit but each level also has an upgrading cost in addition to the cost of individual modules and this ramps up quickly. Many basic modules can be installed up to 8 times (for example one armor module is +600 health, you can install two to get +1200 etc) but eventually you'll run out of modules to choose.

The website interface mostly allows you to give a commander a custom name and use skins. The modules you set there are only used to fill in the slots by default in the ingame menu for convenience, you can still change them.

Btw, I think that the 8 modules restriction is not needed if module cost considered that the effect of most modules on strength is multiplicative rather than additive.

Yes, it is taken into account, but not in the right way. The cost of single module slots increases linearly with level, making the overall cost of all module slots a polynomial of 2nd degree in the number of modules

Overall cost of all module slots = 50(Level-3)(Level-2)+625 = 12.5(Module Slot Nr - 5)(Module Slot Nr - 3)+625 for Level>=4

even though it should be exponential for about half of the available modules and linear for the other half.

There are two ways to consider that. Either you could distingish between two cost types of modules (additive and multiplicative). Or you could already make the following modules unlimited in the current system: Ablative Armor Plates, Autorepair System, Battle Drone, CarRepairer's Nanolathe, Companion Drone, High Density Plating.