Land Units

[Kuth]

Defcon's engine doesn't support land units... at all.

Feisably one way to do this is to change navy units into ground units, but then we have the problem with buildings... offshore rigs/parked marine units?

the problem with simply introducing land units is that there needs to be some kind of anti-land defense then. SAMs can attack aircraft, and navy units cannot attack structures on thier own. Ergo, there is balance.

[Tribalbob]

if you play on map size 200%, there's plent of room for land units.

the idea I had (which I readily admit doesn't ADD anything to gameplay, just sort of twists the style of existing gameplay) was this.

Add 1 "Barracks" Building.

Barracks building contains 3 Unit types.
*Infantry
*Spec-Ops
*Transport Helicopter

The infantry would behave in a manner similiar to a fighter. you could deploy it yourself to scout out nearby territory, or it would auto-deploy to combat land based threats in its area.

The Spec-Ops would be the land based threat. they're a land based unit that can disable a radar tower or bunker for ~5 minutes. doing so would destroy the spec-ops though. they're a sort of temporary nuke, but much harder to intercept.

The transport chopper is sort of like a bomber, carrying the spec-ops team. It can be used to get them across a continent quickly, or across the ocean (because that's quite a swim). For gameplay reasons it wouldn't be able to deploy them directly onto the targetted building, just in the general area. that way a well placed barracks have at least a decent chance to catch the SO before they reach their target. None of the land based units would have any effect on cities or populations.

As I said, it doesn't really IMPROVE gameplay. it just switched up the style a bit. gives players a new tactical realm to be concerned with.

are you going to waste a barracks to make sure your early-warning system in the bering strait doesn't go down, or will you save them to keep your defense in the population centers up? can you time it right to knock down the enemy bunker so your nukes can slide through unhindered? will you waste all your infantry on scouting, or reseve them for defense?

[zach]

No, Tribalbob, that's not what I meant.

What you're asking is changing the very core of Defcon to something more everyday-RTS-game ~ In this, I share Kuth's view: it is a bad idea

~

What I was talking about is really nothing more than what people have already done; map/graphics/text mods. Simple as that.

[Rosti]

I for one am intrigued by this idea for a different setting for the Defcon engine - any solution would have to be ingenius (thus earmarking it for greatness anyway!) and offer a different pace to this most fantastic game. I hearby add my stamp of approval to the "Defcon, only, sort of with ground combat and big bombs, rather than, say a full globe and nukes". Am I right in saying that your idea would be to represent a small combat arena in this potential mod, rather than a full globe, Zanzer?

<EDIT BEGINS!> Sudden thought occured - how far can we warp air vehicles? I know road based "navy" os the simpler possibility and would be nifty with air support, is there any mileage in popping a variant of planes in as "infantry"? Able to traverse away from the roads, slower, weaker (etc). I have no idea how feasible it is to alter such things, I'm just kicking it out there.

[zach]

... No, not really. All I'm thinking actually are cosmetic changes, without touching the gameplay in other ways than the map.

I like Defcon's gameplay exactly how it is. Thus, I'd much rather see a cosmetic mod keeping the essence of Defcon than a full-blown unit-mod, tearing apart the idea of Defcon as a whole.

Perhaps I should make a simple 'Land Unit' mod according to me, sort of to show what I'm talking about?

[denzil]

zanzer, we'll do it after you have done the tool suite and i've helped Avatar with Ghosthack, what do you reckon?

Sort the roads and whatnot out? See if we can make a simple cosmetic mod, just as a test really to see if it is possible, am pretty sure it is to some extent

[zach]

I'm up for it