new intermediate def. building between Stardust and ...ed DDM

I'm not sure why you think "lossless defence" is a desirable thing in ZK.

What about a punisher/guardian/ambusher/toaster equivalent

quote: Players should be allowed to use different, own tactics, like I and Shaman do. Not stereotyped.

I think its safe to say that no RTS does this more than ZK.

On the other hand, what have overpowered defences got to do with this? All overpowered porc does is stagnate games and remove most viable strategies. I find that defending in ZK is comically easy, most players seem to have absolutely no idea how to break interlocking porc.

I dislike middling, average units. Large power and cost jumps are more interesting. Jumping up a power scale has more decision points than if you could achieve a smooth climb. For example the jump from Solar to Fusion to Singu is large. Choosing when the make the jump is important and jumping early is useful. Intermediate energy structures would dilute this choice as it would be natural to steadily climb in size.

If a unit is effectively a doubled version of another unit why have both units? The difference between one and a group of two half-cost units units is not significant enough to justify both units. There are differences, the large unit is better against AoE and the small units respond differently to burst.But the difference is not large enough for the cost of a unit.

For example Ravager, Reaper and Goliath are somewhat similar but each is around 3x more expensive. Groups of three units begin to be significantly different to a single unit. In addition to the large cost gap the units have different strengths; Ravager has speed, Goliath has slow + range and Reaper has better health efficiency than Goliath. Even with these differences it is important that they have a decent cost gap.

Two Gauss turrets cost 800 and half a DDM is 800. There isn't room in the middle for another tough turret. The new turret would have different weapons but its main role would still be "tough turret".

quote: Players should be allowed to use different, own tactics

You're allowed to use whatever tactic you can think of.
However, you'll pay the price if your tactic is bad.
Thinking "my tactic doesn't work, let's change the game rather than change the tactic" will lead you nowhere.

Have a look into the Heavy Tank fac.

Then it would be an expensive Stardust. The purpose of Gauss is the artillery and nuke resistance. If it is attacking light units it cannot be ignored and artillery has a tough time killing it. Gauss should definitely not be as powerful in combat as HLT because then it would be HLT but without its main counter (artillery).

unit penetrating weapon, long beamtime?

Beamtime gauss sounds like something that could be interesting. Wouldnt even have to be long, 500ms with ability to aim while firing (either via sweepfire or being a 15-long burst of 1-frame beams) should be enough.

The downside is aesthetics. I'm not sure a beam can be a gauss.

Shotgun gauss would be a tad too rioty and model requiry.