Campaign Feedback - Shieldbots and Caretaker

Sadly, the Felons didn't get to see any notable use until late in the battle. I mostly stuck to using Outlaws to protect my Convicts from harassment by raiders, while my Convicts built Stardust and Stingers to block off the valleys from enemy harassment (and Caretakers to repair the defenses, and provide areas to fall back for repairs), and that's in addition to deforesting the map for resources (along with the usual routine of building mexes, wind turbines, and energy pylons).

At the start of the match, I sent my commander to the ridge that's close to the enemy base (the one at the center-northwest portion of the map, with a single mex), and built an observation post there consisting of radar, a Stardust and Stinger, and a Caretaker. That way, I would have a better time claiming about 2/3rds of the mexes on the map without much hassle. As for the commander's safety, thankfully, I wasn't worried all that much, since I had outfitted mine with a Rocket Launcher plus 2 Advanced Targeting Systems for fending off enemy skirmishers, and a Lightning Rifle for taking care of any riots or assaults that came near.

Anyways, by the time I was ready to use Felons, it was to protect my Rogues in battle as they bombarded the enemy forces from afar. (I was building 6 Rogues for every Felon.) I ended up finishing the mission, along with all bonus objectives, with less than 15 minutes on the clock.

Personally, I think Altaris, along with its mission objective of reclaiming alot of rocks to make up for a mex disadvantage, would be a better mission to introduce the Shieldbot Factory, along with the basic Convict, Bandit, Rogue, and Outlaw, as while Altaris was useful for teaching new players the importance of reclaiming, it, sadly, doesn't showcase the Felon's strengths well, which would be better served if introduced alongside the Thug in a later mission.

To really showcase the Felon's capabilities, it would need to be paired alongside shielded units like the Thug or Convict, which, in turn, could do things that the Felons couldn't do as well (if at all). Perhaps the mission could focus on a mixed force of Felons, Thugs, and Convicts, where the Convicts must race against time to finish building some important half-built objects like Pylons, Reactors, or Defenses in order to stave off attacks from much larger and more powerful forces of enemy units, while the Thugs must break through enemy defenses that block the Convicts' path, and Felons must protect the Convicts and Thugs from ambushes by enemy raiders. (Imagine playing the "StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void" mission "Sky Shield", where the player must race against time to keep an orbotal station from crashing into a planet, by plowing through enemy defenses, and repairing key structures.)

I've yet to play Ogurlo, but if it hasn't been done already, perhaps the mission where you must face off against the fearsome Dante could be tweaked, so that it focuses more on the Racketeer's usefulness in various ways? At the same time, perhaps the utility of shields won't be as important as the utility of Racketeers, so perhaps we could instead focus on using Vandals to protect our Racketeers from enemy bombers? In this modified mission, the enemy is building Dantes and bombers to send towards your base from behind a heavily fortified position of Desolators. Use the Vandals to fend off enemy aircraft, Racketeers to disarm the Dantes and Desolators long enough for your units to finish them off for good.

Finally, we could close the shieldbot campaign with a mission that focuses on the utility of Snitches and Aegis/Aspis, with the player having to use Aegis/Aspis to weather bombardment from enemy artillery, possibly including a Big Bertha cannon, until an allied superweapon is finished. Meanwhile, waves of enemies are poised to invade, so it's up to the player to use Snitches to weaken the waves of enemy units enough for your meager defensive line to finish off whatever stragglers might remain. (I'd imagine that this could feel alot like the "StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty" missions "Zero Hour" and "All In".)

In this mission, Caretakers are needed in order to heal up some badly-damaged heavy units (possibly Striders like the Dante) before they could be put back into service against the enemy's heavily-fortified base, as well as speed up the construction of more Striders that are being produced from an allied Strider Hub, showcasing the Caretaker's role in both healing damaged units and speeding up production.

The situation at Yeta, where you need to bring a Cerberus online to open up a hole in the enemy's defensive line, is an almost perfect mission to introduce and represent these highly useful base structures. Only this time, instead of needing to use Caretakers to finish production of a Cerberus, and build Pylons to hook it up to your ally's Fusion Reactors, you would start out with an already-built Cerberus or 2, but need to build Geothermal Generators, along with Pylons, to quickly provide it/them with enough power to bring it/them online.

Here, the Commander had just picked up an artifact, though in doing so, he reactivated a potent defense grid that's keeping him from escaping back to his remote base on the other side of the map. Even worse, a Detriment is closing in on his position. The objective here is to build up a fighting force away from the Commander's position, and use numerous Corneas and Irises to sneak that fighting force past the more potent Desolator defense systems to destroy the less heavily-defended pylons and reactors that power them, along with the blockades that keep the Commander from escaping. Once the blockades are cleared, the Commander needs to get back to base ASAP, as the Detriment is still coming for him.