Would we ever see any new types of military added to the game? The existing military units are great and well-known, but would there ever be a new type of unit added with specialty attack potential to widen the games horizons a bit?

example:
Destroyers- a naval unit that can do specialized bombardment attacks that would destroy military and acres.(think beach head invasion) When sent on normal attack it would go against your opponents turrets, destroyers and jets.

I am just curious i have no idea how hard it would be to add a new unit to the game.

a naval unit would make sense i guess, since we have ground units, jets and turrets.

unless of course in 2025 all water dried up :P

Ive seen other games have tons of units, and Ill be like wtf!? theres too many flippin units to learn about! youll also have to protect yourself with, and youll really never adequately have enough in all categories

I think the simplicity of having 4 units is best.

While I think another unit would be possible, LittleItaly is right.

i would like a support unit, like a carrier for lower oil usage or something like that

carriers could be cool

but ya, it's a lot of additional complexity to add additional units.

it needs to be balanced in terms of...
- attacking strengths/weaknesses
- public/private market interaction
- production model
- networth per unit
- expenses + food eaten
- other special powers
- more stuff I'm likely forgetting

it would be worthwhile to discuss as part of other major changes to how attacking works, but I don't think we can just drop a boat in :p

yes, LI has very good point there... that's the primary concern... we looked at a game a bit ago that had

4 varieties of spies, 4 varieties of troops, 3 varieties of jets, 4 varieties of tanks, 3 varieties of turrets, 4 varieties of boats, and possibly some varieties of artillery, though i'm not sure if i'm remembering correctly

and then there were potential tech/buffs for each type

it was fluffing complicated and ridiculous



Earth's *MAIN* strength is that it is SIMPLE yet leads to COMPLEX BEHAVIOURS

I've thought of this option before, but never posted it as I felt that people would just get upset because it would add more complexity to this simple game.

For example: One could have to buy "shore batteries" to prevent "amphibious invasions/operations"

Having a Naval component would be a nice option though.

I would think that it would increase the enjoyment level of the game if you had to consider those things in a war.

how about unsheathing the invisible troop carriers that use up all of our oil =/

O.O

without Infantry? I know this is supposed to be based in 2025... but wtf dude...

i'd support a simple naval unit

Aircraft Carriers. They must be built like a building but require no land. They should take many turns to complete (reduced by CS somewhat). They give a slight boost to attacking (either military strength or land gained) and the number of them you can have should be limited by total land.

watertowers: troops has 1 att and 1 def but tank has 4 and 4.

iovan: for what use we would build aircraft carrier?

Star Destroyer == 3000/1000 att/def

uses 5000 troops/turn industrial production to create 1

?

hah

Seriously? Did you not read what I wrote? Basically I described a special unit that functions more as a boost to military power (like actual aircraft carriers) instead of adding another strictly combat unit.

Also lol@star destroyer

Just to spur discussion...

What about a "mega" unit? In particular, one that takes many, many turns to produce, and maybe gives a bonus to your country, rather than another unit to attack or defend with.

Let's say for the sake of the discussion, it takes 50 turns to produce, utilizing 5000 IC's, at 100% production. The unit cannot be purchased, nor sold, on the private market.

Like missiles, the amount of these units you're able to have is directly related to your acreage. Call it one per 5,000 acres. Perhaps the Communist government bonus would include a higher capacity for these units.

It's unlikely that non-Commie Indy countries will be able to produce this unit, since it would take so much damn time, and/or eat away at the few IC's one would have for spy production. This would assist C/I players by both giving them an exclusive commodity, as well as thinning out the military market by an unknown amount, which would increase revenues, and allow the average player a better chance at doing as well as another average player following a "better" strategy.

You may have to adjust MBR's in some way, however, as the increase in their profits may be too imbalanced, but I really don't know how competitive they are already. Perhaps they also need a small boost, and this would cover them as well?

As for what the unit does, maybe just a percentage-based boost on military strength? Say, 5% to attack and defense, or maybe just defense? I didn't think that part out as much as the rest of this suggestion.

I think the most simple and probably idea is a medic unit.

lowers losses and increase military strength.

say on a 1k GS against a target that has 600 troops and you send 2000 medics along.... losses should be VERY minimal on both your troops and your medics.

add in synergy with medical tech, a new spy op to KILL medics.

medics should also help lower losses when defending.

medics eat the same amount of bushels as troops, but will cost more money in expenses.

i expect medics to sell in PM (mono no tech) as 200$ each. and requires 10 ICs @ 100% to make 1.




this would definitely give the warmongers something to play with, while netters would have to balance.

hmmm interesting thoughts!

i'm still of the same mindset as qz -- the simplicity of the game coupled with the ability to derive more advanced gameplay using those simple concepts is very important.

I like this but Carriers should not boosts attacks. It should only reduce oil consumptions. But I guess it would only hurt oil in the market.

There's no need of Medics. We have medical technology.
It boosts the healing of units. Troops have nano bots that auto heals with this technology. lol

Maybe we could make tanks able to go into siege mode....

And then you could make 3 races, Terran, Protoss and Zerg.. err, I swear i've heard this somewhere before ;).

+1 for GE :D

On a serious note though, alien races might be cool.. Just give them the same unit values with different names? Or is that too utopia/futuristic.

I like the idea of booster units. Adding new units would be well and good, and down the road could be pretty entertaining, but for the time being some additional boost to the currently existing units is probably the best place to start.

I like the idea of carriers boosting attack strength, because that's generally in line with how it would work in the real world. If nothing else, it would be cool if carriers could shorten the time jets/troops are out on PS, but I would also like to see an offensive/defensive bonus structure in place for owning them. You could also get into defensive/offensive mode with carriers, allowing them to boost offense or defense at the player's choosing.

I also like the idea of medics (again, real world), but the amount sent would need to be limited by the amount of total units sent in my opinion so that we don't end up having folks be able to GS with virtually no losses....that just skews the attacking component too much in favor of the attacker, I think.