Customizing Armies

[McNewgin]

I was thinking while reading other threads, that some people would love the idea of being able to customize units.

While I was thinking that what if during battle the scoring system would change so that instead of a score the player earns a form of money and is able to upgrade their army, permanently.

They could choose from different armour and weapons combos as well as buy units that would start out unavailable at the start of the game.

B.net would get kind of complimented but I figure that players can only play other players who have upgraded their army around the same amount, for example a player has spent 1 million resources upgrading his army, he only can play other players who have spent within 2000 resources, give or take, from his spendings.

The only problems this would pose is the incredible balance that is offered by Starcraft, but it would still make a fantastic feature in my mind.

[CODEZERO]

or how about you can upgrade it in during a game but when its finished its finished and then you have to remake another one on the next match so your army has to always be built from scratch ?

[InsaneExecutor]

It already has to be built from scratch, with the normal upgrades. Not much would really change.

[nelladivad]

Balancing tech with unit production, scouting, etc.. is part of what makes Starcraft so great. Anyways, what you propose is like inflation, minimum wage goes up but prices go up, so since you'd only play people with the same amount of upgrades there would be no point. Then if you played people with lower upgrades it would be unbalanced and not fun

[blupp74]

Balancing tech with unit production, scouting, etc.. is part of what makes Starcraft so great. Anyways, what you propose is like inflation, minimum wage goes up but prices go up, so since you'd only play people with the same amount of upgrades there would be no point. Then if you played people with lower upgrades it would be unbalanced and not fun

Basically, besides being a bad idea to begin with, it would only mean you have even less people to play with. And the people you COULD play with would have the same benefits as you (more or less).

[Giantfish]

If it was for a regular match, that would be a bad idea.

Now if this was somehow made into part of some ums-multiplayer-campaign, then it would definitely be interesting to play.

[raidmax]

I think its ok, but maybe vs cpu only, because yeah, that would be stupid to only play people your level on b.net.

[Neu(t)ral Damage]

things like this have been suggested in the past, and there have been complaints that they would be too complicated and time-consuming, detracting from the game itself. however, i think it'd be great if players could customize their units beforehand, so that they have a template or templates to choose from prior to starting the game. I think this would emphasize more on speciality and counters.

[golaith404]

It sounds a lot like turning an RTS into an RTS-RPG lol. But i agree that being about to upgrade more then we can now would be a great feature. That may be a good idea if a World of Star Craft game is ever released. And if you think about it, there is probablly a good chance for a world of star craft. I mean look at warcraft 3 then later wow....we can only hope.

~ClinT~

[Neu(t)ral Damage]

It sounds a lot like turning an RTS into an RTS-RPG lol. But i agree that being about to upgrade more then we can now would be a great feature. That may be a good idea if a World of Star Craft game is ever released. And if you think about it, there is probablly a good chance for a world of star craft. I mean look at warcraft 3 then later wow....we can only hope.

~ClinT~
no not like an rpg, more like alpha centauri, but instead of the in-game workshop, have an "out-game" workshop. alpha centauri is a turn-taking strategy game

[IrishDutchman]

Customizing is a nice idea, but not very suitable for online play. Balance problems come to mind.
A nice addition would be aesthetic modification when you aren't playing. Every player would have different coulored units and stuff. Not making any difference in the gameplay, just a fun addition.

[Ghost_Assasain]

I had a game where you could do something similar to this. the name escapes me at the moment.

But what it was that while you were at the 'Barracks' you had certain base templates. From that you could equip a variety of weapons to the base template.. I.e. Long range weapons, Melee wepons, ions etc. Then you could set to build say 10 of these. Next time you went to the barracks you could build the same unit or create another from the template.

Although I don't think permanent upgrades are going to be a good idea. Like others have said before there will be balanceing problem as and the number of opponents you could face online would be reduced. Part of the stratgy is being able to balance unit production with Teching in the beginging and middle of the game, these permanent upgrades would mean that you would no longer have the need for teching as much.

But I would like the idea of being able to equip different weapons and armour to my units. I.e. Terran Marine with a Ghosts Rifle, Ghost with Repeaters or Melee weapons. Although essentially Ghost/Marine/Firebat are the same unit with different weapons and armour.

[Anoiktos]

Dawn of war does this pretty well in a nonoverpowering way; it simply lets you customize your units' color schemes, banners, and badges, giving each army its own unique look while keeping them equal in performance.

[Seal]

Dawn of war does this pretty well in a nonoverpowering way; it simply lets you customize your units' color schemes, banners, and badges, giving each army its own unique look while keeping them equal in performance.

pimp my zerg

[DBCooper]

I'm gonna give my lings hydraulics! You know where I can get some fuzzy dice for my ultralisks?

[100thlurker]

Dow also allows you to "customize" by giving certian units the benefit of upgrading a member of each squad to a different weapon, each with disadvantages and advantages that fit your playstyle.

Prefer stationary, powerfull machine guns? Give your squad some heavy bolters!
Prefer firepower on the go? Get a plasma gun!
Prefer a morale close ranged unit, bestow a flamer!

But, it isn't really customization, rather a versatile squad to fit a certian capacity.
Also, some races don't have such options, being outright specialized to begin with.

[Zenox]

Well customizing units would be helpfull if you could assign diffent troops with different upgrade skills on the battlefield but the problem would be that this takes time, maybe it can work if it would be simple and user friendly but i can imagine it :"assigning grenades to a squad of Marines while giving another groop Ultra piercing shells for an example"....