Integration of SACU and Lore - Make players earn their ACU

[Hawkei]

Hi,

I'd have to say that I really like what you are doing with GW. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in action.

I had an idea about SACU's. I don't know that it would be even possible, but I thought I might create a thread for discussing this.

1. Have Noobs initiated into GW by earning their ACU. They need to do serveral tours of duty, with their Avatar piloting an SACU. The player controlled SACU would gate onto a planet, which has a quantum gate, and be required to defend the gate against incoming scripted enemies. Like the survival missions. Once the cadet has sucessfully defended several Quantum gates they will be eligible for active duty piloting an ACU. On agressive missions.

2. Higher ranking ACU pilots should have SACU's assigned to them. Which are player controlled, but are themselves persistent characters within GW. They can only gate in those SACU's assigned to them. If an SACU dies, it cannot be replaced until futher units are allocated. In the Meta-game. If a player knows that their SACU's are a finite resource, they will need to treat them carefully.

3. Another kind of mission could be generated, where a Quantum Gate equipped planet is under attack from enemies. In this mission, Cadets piloting SACU's will be eligible to participate in the mission, alongside any ACU pilots who can be scrambled to meet the incoming threat. The cadet piloting the SACU will enter via the Quantum Gate base, in the middile of the map. While friendly and enemy ACU's will gate in at each of the standard starting positions. Victory conditions center around destroying the Quantum gate, in the middle of the map. The quantum gate position has the disadvantage of minimal resources, but it does have the defenders advantage with prebuilt defenses... Upgrading the Quantum Gate defenses could be an aspect of the meta-game.

4. Have persistent ACU and SACU veterancy. As command units are now more valuable in the metagame, players who manage to score veterancy, and yet survive, should be rewarded with their veterancy carrying over into future games. This should apply to SACU's and ACU's.

I understand if this is a little beyond what is able to be implemented. However, I'd see this as a way for GW to incorporate some of the other game styles. Like survival maps and scripted missions. They could be played against AI - with the AI adoptiong units of one of the opposing factions... To simulate a raid on the gate. There are some less compeditive players, who may even find this a fun way of getting involved in GW.

[FunkOff]

I like the general notion of your idea: Players could earn their ACU through completion of non PvP missions. The only question is how would be implement this?

[Hawkei]

I like the general notion of your idea: Players could earn their ACU through completion of non PvP missions. The only question is how would be implement this?

For the gate defence, I would imagine special (or existing maps) with a scripted scenario would be required. With a variety of different maps and titlesets for each of the factions. They would all have similar scripting and starting units. With the well known survival format. The initial base would consist of allied units: Quantum Gate, Pgens, and base defences. With scripted streams of AI units assaulting the gate.

Scripting could be expanded to incorportate multi-players, and these SACU missions could even have some tutorial function. As the difficulty increases, players need to do more with less... The gameplay impact is that it provides more variety, serves as a training tool, and preps players before they join the co-op ACU missions. It acts to limit rank ammatures (noobs) from joining the ACU missions... It also underpins the inherent value of the ACU. As something that needs to be earnt.

The game is entierly scriptable, with a new map, and game mode. It is the implementation into GW that would be tricky.

[Nombringer]

the PvE would be nice for new players, I think you could probably make it so you only have to go through them once though, not every time you die. I like the idea of having to earn your ACU as well ( did zep mention something similar at some point?)

[FireMessiah]

1. I like the sound of tutorial missions in SCU's, before a player is "rewarded" with a full ACU ready for the entire GW.

2. that sounds great, like maybe a higher ranked player has a SCU spawn after a set amount of time, or doing something ingame to activate that set power/advantage.
I suppose intime, an ACU, through higher ranks, could create a little "team" of customisable SCU, all fully nameable, and with stat records.
Create your own "Elite SCU Squad" to keep alive and brag about

or maybe im just dreaming about what is possible ><

[RoLa]

We could develop/modify a shooter or an existing engine so you can control a sacu or any other unit. Because of the 500ms delay it would be more like WoT. Perhaps a lot less responsive.

[Hawkei]

1. I like the sound of tutorial missions in SCU's, before a player is "rewarded" with a full ACU ready for the entire GW.

2. that sounds great, like maybe a higher ranked player has a SCU spawn after a set amount of time, or doing something ingame to activate that set power/advantage.
I suppose intime, an ACU, through higher ranks, could create a little "team" of customisable SCU, all fully nameable, and with stat records.
Create your own "Elite SCU Squad" to keep alive and brag about

or maybe im just dreaming about what is possible ><

I like where you're going there. Though we need to be careful to preserve the playability of the game, and not make things to IMBA.

Having persistent upgrades, or automatically spawning SCU's is a game changer. As according to the Supreme Commander Lore, there is an inherent limitation that only unupgraded ACU's can be gated onto a planet without a recieving gate. SCU's come with T3 and can only enter via the Quantum Gate. The analogy is consistent with Star Trek beaming, where beaming onto a planet is more difficult than beaming to a recieving pad. The ACU's purpose is to create a beach-head.



I would propose that veterancy be preserved, but, upgrades only last for the duration of the mission. The veterancy would give some benefit (esp. rewarding agressive ACU work) but not throw the game entierly into a Tech Spam dynamic.

SCU's, by contrast with regular FA, would be cheaper (perhaps an energy only cost?) but finite in number. They would still need the Quantum Gate, so this would actually bring the QG forward in the build que. To get those SCU's on planet. I would recommend the gate in process be fixed time, and the QG be made non-assistable.

There would also need to be some mechanism for determining SCU population cap, and SCU names into the game. As well as reporting SCU casualties and veterancy in the game results.

***

In thinking about how to implement this. The GW Server would need to download a mission mod data file, to each of the players, which would contain this information. If the mod data file can be updated before each mission it would work sucessfully. The SCU unit cap would be a bit harder to implement, and what happens if the QG is stopped and the SCU dies?

Perhaps there should be a summon SCU button appear, for each SCU, in the UI. Which when exhausted is removed from the interface. Like the ping icons used in the FA campaigns. Pre-requisite would be the construction of a QG.

[johnie102]

What is possible (but very time-intensive to make) would be a system where a custom lua script is generated for every game. This script would contain spawn times for the different SCU's and stuff. This way each game could be different. Again this will be quite some effort to make.

What is easilier (is this a word?) done is creating a game script that spawns an SCU instead of an ACU.

[Hawkei]

What is possible (but very time-intensive to make) would be a system where a custom lua script is generated for every game. This script would contain spawn times for the different SCU's and stuff. This way each game could be different. Again this will be quite some effort to make.

What is easilier (is this a word?) done is creating a game script that spawns an SCU instead of an ACU.

...Or, you would need an LUA script which picks up data from a text file. Which was downloaded into the mod directory by the Galactic War Match-maker. But yea. Essentially, we are talking about a mod, which produces different in-game outcomes. Essentially porting the meta-game aspects into the match.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it is within the scope or budget, and if not, I'd understand. I just thought it would be a cool idea.