New units coming at the end of the month
It now seems almost certain that the new feature that GPG has been so tight-lipped about is going to be a downloadable unit pack. There has been quite a bit of speculation in this forum thread about what these new units might be. Forum-goers have suggested possibilities that seem quite unlikely such as new experimentals, as well as more realistic ideas like a T2 submarine.
The one new unit that we currently know about for sure is a T2 fighter/bomber. While there are plenty of obvious tactical possibilities for such a multi-function unit, I remain cautious in deciding that it will be a good addition. GPG must tread a thin line between such a unit being overpowered and utterly useless.
Total Annihilation (TA) players will remember the problems with the stealth fighter from that game. Basically, because it was so fast and had radar stealth, the ability of the unit to hit ground targets was severely overpowered. A sizable number of these fighters could kill any ground target in one pass, taking almost no casualties in many situations. On the other hand, however, SupCom has shields, and if the fighter/bomber does not do enough damage to ground targets, it will be rendered all but useless in attacking ground targets.
I am hoping for the best on this one, however. Any addition that potentially opens up new tactical options is a welcome one in my book.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Woot, I predicted this way back in June. Color me very happy that new official units are coming out before the expansion. A tech 2 fighter/bomber though, eh? That seems like it could very easily be either overpowered or so weak it doesn’t deserve being used (like amphibious tanks). I would’ve preferred more T3 units myself, but I guess those are coming in the expansion.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
If the Seraphim are getting a t3 bomber in the expansion then one of the other sides getting a t2 bomber is hardly going to be game breaking. If we’ve learnt anything from Supreme Commander so far anyway is that it tends to suffer from different balance issues. TA was always perhaps overly aggressive and didn’t have enough teching. SC isn’t aggressive enough and there’s too much teching.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:05 am
As for my personal opinion, I think that lowering the unit diversity across the tech levels is not a good idea. In the extreme case it could lead to the situation, when units from the next tech level replace almost all units from the previous tech level because of the nearly same functionality. That will definitely make the game more plain and simple.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:44 am
id like to see a LONG range tatical missle… with high damage…. (and a defense to go with it)
not to mention ive seen it as a modded unit on the forums a seige shield nice BIG shield needs like 10K energy to run it… but can be taken down with T3 arty and firebases takeing around 2 min to recharge and come online again (also it didnt recharge after being damaged) and planes few under it
and a T3 mobile missile launcher (that cybran SABS cant intercept)
thats about all my wishes i think