Thoughts on Unlocks

I've been looking over the unlocks, thinking about what gameplay purpose they serve, and I think it could be best summed up as: Advanced Bells and Whistles.

They're not supposed to be essential, and in theory, as I understand it, a player with fully unlocked technologies and commander modules shouldn't have any advantages over a player with none. And I think that having some factories and units tied into the XP system is counterproductive to that purpose.

Why do the Heavy Tank, Airplane, and Jumpjet factories require unlocking? If it's because they're harder to use effectively, making a player play without them isn't going to teach them how to use them. And when the player unlocks the Heavy Tank factory, why does he have to separately unlock the Panther and Goliath?

It makes some sense that the Athena-built striders require unlocking, as they're only a factor late in the game and even then only on larger maps. But why is the Athena itself an unlockable unit? If the Goliath, Reef, and Krow are unlockable, why not the Sumo? Why is something as crucial to airplane strategies as the Licho bomber unlocked separately from the Airplane Plant?

If we want some things locked up to prevent a new player being confused by complexity, then we need ways to unlock them that don't require the newbie to "earn" the right to use them by spending their hard-won XP. XP-based unlocks should be rewards, not just removing training wheels.

For example, I'm currently working on a Naval Tutorial, that is designed to teach the player the basics of how to use naval units (which are far more confusing than the differences between Airplanes [locked] and Gunships [unlocked]). What if the Shipyard was locked for new players until they had completed the tutorial (it's going to be pretty short, <10 minutes)? Maybe even have it be over-ridable ("Are you sure you want to unlock the Shipyard without completing the Naval Tutorial?")? And similar for anything else where we're trying to avoid confusing complexity: Build a tutorial, so that the player gets the opportunity to learn how to deal with them.

It just seems like XP-based unlocks should be limited to commander upgrades, and the "Heavy Striders". But basic functionality (like the Athena, or factory-built units) shouldn't be linked to it.

--Dave

They're not meaningless, they're part of the "newbie experience", and unlocking just another factory isn't a very positive experience. And I've had more than 20 multiplayer games, and still haven't unlocked all the factories (because I've been trying to get Commander modules as well). Commander upgrades are fun ways to use those XP, factories and units aren't.

--Dave

Objections:

1) If XP is a reward, using it to unlock factories feels like a gyp.

2) If factories are equal, except for their suitability for certain maps or strategies, then locking them up for newbies is depriving them of the ability to be competitive on those maps or to exercise those strategies.

3) If factories are balanced, then having some units from those factories locked means they are gimped until unlocked.

There are 3000-4500 xp worth of units (depending on on where you want to draw the line) that are part of the basic gameplay that are not available to a genuine newbie. That is a minimum of 30 hours of play before the newbie has all of the units available to him, and more likely 60+, and for that time he is gimped, crippled, inadequate. That does not make a welcoming newbie experience.

When you have hundreds of hours of experience in this game, you can't see it the way that a newbie sees it. That's not an attack, simply a statement of fact.

--Dave

Okay, I don't want to turn this into a tit-for-tat, but if you draw the line at the Doomsday Machine, it takes 4250 xp to unlock all basic units and factories. Even if you leave out all non-factory buildings, it's over 3000.

--Dave

I just want to be clear, I think yes, unlocks could definitely use an improvement, but getting all the necessary units is not hard and does not take very long. Commander modules and upgrades are completely superfluous. As are things like Advanced Radar tower, Metal Storage, etc. which have uses in the aforementioned ffa or silly games.

Let me turn this around: Is there any particular reason why certain factories and units require XP to unlock?

--Dave

The unlocks system is the result of a variety of forces applied by several people. It reaches equilibrium when everyone feels that arguing or changing the current system is pointless.

I think most of the system is unneeded and detrimental so I can't argue for it. But think I know the variety of reasons given.

I think this summarises some of the forces..

Saktoth: "League of Legends" Players should never run out of things to unlock (don't ask me why). He was going to add more silly FFA stuff to unlock but so far has half added 1 unit.

Licho: "Farmville" Players should become addicted to unlocks which keeps them playing.

KingRaptor: "???" I have no idea what KR is trying to do with the system. He seems to do random stuff.

GoogleFrog: "1990s" fewer unlocks and speed. I sway between attempting to logically organise the system and using everyone else's lack of logic to make as few things locked as possible. Also unlocks should occur quickly.

Skasi: He doesn't do much but occasionally he'll lock stuff he doesn't think noobs should have.

I also think players exist that will see a unlockables system and completely disregard a game but noone else seems to think this.

There are a few types of locked units, often they have different reasons:

• Factories
• Cheap buildings
• Random smattering of cheap units
• Porcy expensive stuff (DDM to Nuke cost)
• The cheaper mechs (Bantha, Jugg)
• Super expensive endgame buildings and Mechs

Factories are locked based on Licho's assertion that new players are commonly overwhelmed by choice and don't know what to do. The hard to use factories are supposed to be locked. This aim was destroyed by KingRaptor iirc when he decided completely new players need to be able to play any kind of map in 1v1 from their first game. So now Spiders and Gunships are unlocked even though they are far easier to mess up with than Cloakybots.

The "noob trap" buildings such as Storage, Pylons and Adv Radar are locked. The general idea with this and locked factories is to give people and idea of what to build. Both these things could be replaced with good tutorials.

I don't really know why the random smattering of units such as Scythe and Panther are locked. This was mostly implemented by Saktoth and KingRaptor with the rational that these units are duplicates within their factories. That assertion is clearly false as people use these units. This bit makes the least sense.

Porcy expensive stuff is more reasonably locked as new players often make the most expensive turrets as defence etc... and this probably doesn't affect normal teamgames as a teammate will have the unlock. Although I think the old OP Krow was somewhat due to an expensive Screamer lock so this stuff can potentially break games.

Mechs and Super Expensive Stuff is locked because often the fact that it is locked does not matter. Although when it does matter the game becomes really really broken. In FFA unlocks should definitely be disabled. But the stupidly expensive stuff can be required in a teamgame, it is rare but the game would be ruined if one side had access and one didn't. I had Utukki ragequit a teamgame because we had reached the Bantha point and he didn't have access to them.

Yeah when nano coms are gon HLT's becoming rarity. Normally high cost units are built by noobs only, but planes should be unlocked by default, since they are best aa, or at least suppose to be.

Fighters are not the best aa there is. Their strenght is that they can cover the whole map but they are not supposed to be better at killing air than aa is.

It wouldn't have to be the end of flat balance (and flat balance is kind of a fraud when it comes to starting Tank Lab) - every lab has raiders and antiswarmers. You just make the artillery and special units researched. The stealth-melees and assaults and crawling stunners in the cloakybot lab could be unlocked through research just like the rest of the labs.