Some of you may remember [Sid Meyers’s] Alpha centaury, perhaps the best of the civilization family of games (when adjusted for “inflation”), and the feature it had that allowed you to design your own units from predetermined modules under certain balance rules… I was wondering… is it theoretically possible to have something similar in Zero-k? It seems to be partially included already with the commanders so perhaps it would be possible to allow each player to construct a couple of “special” units and would allow for the unlock system (if so desired) to move from unlocking units to unlocking unit components to experiment with. Think of the many lulz it would bring…and the strategic flexibility Do you think this idea is possible and/or deserves further consideration?
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Well, the number of commanders per player was cut down because it was eating up so much something-or-other. If this were to be done then it would probably require the player to sacrifice some commander slots at least.
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intresting idea, not possible to balance in zk. [color=grey] have you played warzone 2100? you can customize everything/unit and get a personal build selection. research single components over time etc. engine, weapon, chassis,... as it was released from eidos entertainment into liberty under GPL, you can get it here: http://wz2100.net/[/color]
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I played warzone. Great hard but fun. I got halfway though and then my saves bugged out. Very frustrating about how buggy that game is.
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I hardly use more than 2 of the commanders in any case, and 2 customized units would be enough mojjj: it would be a challenge but i doubt balancing it would be impossible, I mainly wanted to know if it was possible to implement before going into the details, the rules built into such a system would make it balance itself to an extent. So if anyone is interested in the full concept I can have the wall-o-text up by tonight
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Is it possible to implement? Yes. Would it go with the design goals? Would it be easy to balance? Would it bring any new gameplay? Would anyone even bother to code it? (Probably) not.
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You could also let players design units ingame, then it doesn't clutter up the script. All possible combinations will have to be loaded though, as far as I know I've heard something about being able to remove "parts" from units. Since this thing wouldn't need to support morphing, a single unit can be given dozens of different weapons and all but one or two could be disabled. That would save loading time, etc.
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We have TOO MANY UNITS. Sure, it makes the gameplay interesting, but it is very hard to balance. We need a proper balance guide before we can even consider this. Else we would get OP/UP coms back - multiplied! http://neon-k.neonstorm.bplaced.net/ -> The game, basics -> 4 factories (in the table)    ChanServ: Is that what you want?
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SinKitty: Basically yes, the cost formula might have been different but the basic idea is there. I can see why many would think the game is currently not ready for something like this, and at this point I do not have the energy to argue against it, but there seems to be hope, perhaps in a couple or so years, things will change.
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IMHO it will help balance alot. If you restrict the weapon sets for units, it would all make sense. For example, I'd personally give scorcherer's platform a laser (cuz imho it would work better), and I doubt it will break balance. Instead it will spice up 1v1 alot, as it will no longer be glaives vs glaives, but rather glaives with HMG vs glaives with lazzors etc.
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This thing in general makes balance more complicated, but would also crowdsource the job of finding what combinations are stronger. Unfortunately, many people prefer a balanced game to one that has all units stronger by uneven amounts. Regarding warzone, I think I might not be seen in zk for a bit...
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This could lead to bland units. As in if you can put weapons anywhere they can no longer be balanced by other disadvantages of the units. There would probably be a best unit or a small set of best units with little differentiation.
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    GoogleFrogThat is the goal! Choose a chassis, choose a weapon (maybe armor or jump-module too) and get 100-1000 of different units from a few balanced chassis. Possible chassis: Spider, veh, bot, ship, amph-bot, plane, gunship, ... only 5-8 - no need for 2 spider chassis or 2 vehicles And the cost is modified by the equipments cost (as described in the link of my earlier post)
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