Thoughts and ideas for improvements to ToS:WS

[Intruder]

I thought that it might be nice to have a sticky post for all of us to suggest things that we might like to see added to WS. It might be helpful to list these things here for future updates to ToS:WS.

Things that I would like to see or hear the devs thoughts on are...

1.) The ability to pick specific Titans when playing random battles. If I want to play a random battle with one particular Heavy Titan, I would like to be able to pick that Titan.

2.) Allow for the saving of Team stats. I understand that there is probably a reason behind not allowing saves outside of combat, but in this game there is too much at stake. Having to quit and build a new team because of one wrong choice or one bad battle is a bit harsh. I know you can save in battle, but please put this option in for those of us who want to save our progress. For those who don't want to, they have to option not to save. Options are allways good. Please, I am begging for this one!!!

3.) Give weapons ranges and damage in the HQs Titan purchasing list. It would make things much better to know the ranges and capabilities of your weapons on a particular Titan before buying it. It is a big hassle to exit to factory and then check on the stats and then go back to HQ. If you can see the armor, speed and vitals of the Titan in the HQ, why not the weapons stats?

That is all I can think of right now. Thanks for making one unbelievable great game.

[McWizard]

2) goto /data/squads and make a backup of your squad. Then copy it in, when you want to restore. Keeps you out of trouble

[Peter Why]

I agree with the point about choosing titans in random battles. It'd be good to choose the entire teams (with the program only offering titans that fitted into the team's maximum weight) .. then the program would choose appropriate jocks.

[Intruder]

Originally posted by McWizard
2) goto /data/squads and make a backup of your squad. Then copy it in, when you want to restore. Keeps you out of trouble

Yea, I have been doing that . But it still should be in the game as a feature. Look back on many different games throughout the last few years that came out with a poor save systems (exp. AvP, Mafia, etc) The first thing asked for and fixed was a save system that offered the players the choice. If one can do it via copying and pasting the files then I don't see why it shouldn't be implemented in the UI.

[LarkinVB]

Originally posted by Intruder
I thought that it might be nice to have a sticky post for all of us to suggest things that we might like to see added to WS. It might be helpful to list these things here for future updates to ToS:WS.

Things that I would like to see or hear the devs thoughts on are...

1.) The ability to pick specific Titans when playing random battles. If I want to play a random battle with one particular Heavy Titan, I would like to be able to pick that Titan.

2.) Allow for the saving of Team stats. I understand that there is probably a reason behind not allowing saves outside of combat, but in this game there is too much at stake. Having to quit and build a new team because of one wrong choice or one bad battle is a bit harsh. I know you can save in battle, but please put this option in for those of us who want to save our progress. For those who don't want to, they have to option not to save. Options are allways good. Please, I am begging for this one!!!

3.) Give weapons ranges and damage in the HQs Titan purchasing list. It would make things much better to know the ranges and capabilities of your weapons on a particular Titan before buying it. It is a big hassle to exit to factory and then check on the stats and then go back to HQ. If you can see the armor, speed and vitals of the Titan in the HQ, why not the weapons stats?

That is all I can think of right now. Thanks for making one unbelievable great game.

1. Ok.
2. You have the chance to retrieve your team at reasonable cost with the HQ. You can make a backup of data/squads. You even can flee the battle going to the borders. Allowing to save team stats would be adding an official cheat. I really don't like the idea.
3. Ok.

Come on, 2 out of 3 ain't bad

[Intruder]

Way to be Larkin!!! Though I still don't agree with you about the save issue. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on that one. Is there anything else that is crawling around your mind about potential upgrades?

[LarkinVB]

Originally posted by Intruder
Yea, I have been doing that . But it still should be in the game as a feature. Look back on many different games throughout the last few years that came out with a poor save systems (exp. AvP, Mafia, etc) The first thing asked for and fixed was a save system that offered the players the choice. If one can do it via copying and pasting the files then I don't see why it shouldn't be implemented in the UI.

I don't think the save system is poor by any means. If you play a vital battle which you might loose you can save during combat and reload at a point were your team had a better chance. There is even autosave. So why don't you save at the start of a battle ?
Our system does allow enough flexibility but tries to discourage cheating. With this system you can replay the battle but you can't just enter it, have a look, quit and play a different one.

One of the great strength of TOS IMHO is that squad development and success are no easy gain. You have to do something for it and there are dangers. No, not the save system, the chance of failure.

[Intruder]

I get what you are saying Larkin, however here is what brought me to my idea. I had 3 Recon mechs, 1 with Guass, 1 w/Plasma, and 1 w/LRMs. We were set against a Heavy with 2 Guass, and 2 Plasmas I think. He had mega armor. Since this was the 2nd or so battle my group was in, they were not the best shots. Before I could even penetrate his armor anywhere he waxed us all. I was not running at him, instead I was using my longrange weapons as best I could while running and getting high ground as he came closer. There was just no way. So, my entire squad was devestated. After 3 jock, 3 mechs, and repairs, there wasn't enough money left to revive. So I had to restart. I personally can deal with this kind of system, though I don't like it. But, for those who bought this and don't frequent the forums and know your reasoning, they may get frustated and quit before realizing the greatness that is ToS. I understand why you did it as you did though.

[LarkinVB]

You had two different choices :

1. Save the game at start. See you will fail. Reload the game. Turn around at start position and flee the battle.

2. Quit the game. Enter the HQ and retrieve the team at minimal cost.

Do you get the point ? There ARE options beyond wrecking the team and stop playing the game out of frustration .

[Intruder]

Yea, but if you flee the battle, don't all of your Jock go MIA? I thought if you retreat that this would happen.

[LarkinVB]

MIA is when you did not finish a battle with your squad and enter the HQ. Thats when you can retrieve them for a price. If you exit the combat area with all titans or some and the others eject or are dead the battle is finished and what was left from your squad will show up in HQ.

[Intruder]

JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT!!!! All this time I thought that retreating was a MIA sentence. Okay, now that that is settled, I withdraw my statement about the save system. Such a thought was based on false preconceptions. Now if say 2 out of three successfully retreat, and 1 ejects does the ejects Jock go MIA or not? What about an unsuccessful ejection?

[LarkinVB]

Ejected jocks are safe. Failing the eject skill does result in jock damage. He might be killed. If not he's safe too.

[Thorgrim]

Originally posted by Intruder
I get what you are saying Larkin, however here is what brought me to my idea. I had 3 Recon mechs, 1 with Guass, 1 w/Plasma, and 1 w/LRMs. We were set against a Heavy with 2 Guass, and 2 Plasmas I think. He had mega armor. Since this was the 2nd or so battle my group was in, they were not the best shots. Before I could even penetrate his armor anywhere he waxed us all. I was not running at him, instead I was using my longrange weapons as best I could while running and getting high ground as he came closer. There was just no way. So, my entire squad was devestated. After 3 jock, 3 mechs, and repairs, there wasn't enough money left to revive. So I had to restart. I personally can deal with this kind of system, though I don't like it. But, for those who bought this and don't frequent the forums and know your reasoning, they may get frustated and quit before realizing the greatness that is ToS. I understand why you did it as you did though.

You can set the AI team's parameters. Facing a heavy with a 3 recon rookie team might not be the wisest choice

[Voidhawk]

Good suggestions!

I already had a couple of suggestions before WS came out, but Matrix and VB beat me to the punch by implementing them. Curses! Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something to suggest sooner or later.

Enemy vehicles and infantry would be cool to spice up campaign-style missions, but that sounds like something more suited for a sequel or expansion.

Nudge nudge wink wink.

[Thorgrim]

Originally posted by Intruder
1.) The ability to pick specific Titans when playing random battles. If I want to play a random battle with one particular Heavy Titan, I would like to be able to pick that Titan.

2.) Allow for the saving of Team stats. I understand that there is probably a reason behind not allowing saves outside of combat, but in this game there is too much at stake. Having to quit and build a new team because of one wrong choice or one bad battle is a bit harsh. I know you can save in battle, but please put this option in for those of us who want to save our progress. For those who don't want to, they have to option not to save. Options are allways good. Please, I am begging for this one!!!

3.) Give weapons ranges and damage in the HQs Titan purchasing list. It would make things much better to know the ranges and capabilities of your weapons on a particular Titan before buying it. It is a big hassle to exit to factory and then check on the stats and then go back to HQ. If you can see the armor, speed and vitals of the Titan in the HQ, why not the weapons stats?

1) I asked that a LONG time ago, but Larkin never budged Until now it seems.
Anyways, I always got around it by using my special squad (I wanted it mainly to test the database). Since there's no money problems involved, I buy the titan I want to test/play with and take it to the battlefield. Then I sell it and buy another one.

2) This is a little off your point, but the hq and factory modules update the file whenever there are changes. So you can save outside of battle. What you can't have is 2 seperate files for the same squad, one for battle and one for the other modules - that's where the saves and autosave enter. Other than that, there's the backup trick that has already been addressed. Works fine IMO. My saves folder is full of backups from when I was testing the campaigns

3) You can't see the stats for the equipment in the hq You can see the equipment installed, but not the stats. Same as the weapons. This might seem handy now, but in a few more games you'll know the stats by heart, and it'll probably look like it's only getting in the way by then BTW, titans in the hq's factory database may be sorted by range - not what you're asking for here, but it's a pointer to the type of titan you're looking at/for.

[Intruder]

This might seem handy now, but in a few more games you'll know the stats by heart

It seems handy now, and it will seem handy when it is implemented.

Enemy vehicles and infantry would be cool to spice up campaign-style missions, but that sounds like something more suited for a sequel or expansion

I too would love to see these added. Thought Titans are the main focus, such addititons would be great.

[Rebel Yell]

Just say no to vehicles!

Man should make war on 2 legs.

IMHO, if vehicles are less capable than mechs (sorry, not sure I can ever call them anything else), then they are just targets, if vehicles are just as capable, then, if they were cheaper to build, there would be no mechs, or if they cost more, there would be no vehicles.

So, a simplistic case, but I really like a good dose of believablility in my wargame.

[tarendelcymir]

I really don't forsee ToS ever using vehicles or infantry. It's been discussed many times, and it always comes down to the fact that it would take away from the focus of the game, which is titans.

[rosary]

I was checking the encyclopedia of Intergalactic History. Page 231
History of the Warring Suns. The reason for Titan-AT was logistics and support. The military had to send out squads that could completely fend for themselves for very long periods of time.
These squads could not rely on support from the core worlds.

So rather than build huge armies that it may or may not be able to control, they created smaller Titan-AT squads that had tremendous firepower. Sort of like an Army of One. And they really meant it. This way they only had to trust one guy. And they didn't have to worry about building fleets of millions of ships.

Titans aren't there to police. They are there to break and kill. Some I've heard even reveled in this. A Tesla Bolt in the right spot at the right time is worth its weight in duodecimites.