it sort of depends how far into the game it is. If you can churn out destroyers quickly enough it could be game over very quickly. however after a while the support/science ships can be very effective (if you manage to get their research done).

i like boping!
rushing or hold out for the megabattleships
none of this medium sised ship combat.  end it quick or draw it out

Ok here is my suggestion:


I think it's obvious that atm every game which is set on human vs human tend to be one sided and boring cos of too low variety in tactics you can choose even though you have avatars and stuff..
MP games are generally fought out by hords of smaller ships and the high variety of availabkle ships and technologies is left out completely cos of inefficiency.

Problems I have with FleetOps 3.0 pr:

- Special weapons are some kind of unspectacular especially the ones from the big ships. They don't really benefit my empire (whatever) especially in contrast to hords of small ships the enemiy os throwing into my base ( exception: Dominion Bombardement).

- Small sized ships have a too high value in game as they deside wether you will loose or win the game

Example: Dominion vs Federation

Dominion will mass build bugs as all other stuff is too expensive and lasts too long to build/research
Federation's option is to also mass on Sabres and simultaniously trying to build a Star Fleet Command.
All other strategies will result in a loose...so if you deside to go on e.g. Defiants your Dominion friend will overrun you with 10 fleets of bugs when you have just build 3 defiants.

And this is some kind of boring because I don't have much of a choice as using the same strategy as my opponent does. I will never in game have the possibility to bring my Dominion opponent to change his strategy which is a very important matter for a fun strategy game with depth.


- Big ships are not worth to be built, it's all about throwing hords of ships into enemie's base.

- Dont get me wrong because I love huge maps...but with such a unit management those are too huge.

- Gameplay is too slow. In addition there is no warp which makes the whole thing much more slower. It can really be frustrating.

- I'd like to zoom out more just to get a better overview in battle. I have massive problems to handle all ships on the current settings.




My solution:


I thought of two main changes which could balance the whole gameplay drastically and bring the game to a permanent flow of increaseing evolution.

1. I call it "Elastic Unit Limit" :

The game is separated into 3 phases. First is the rush and build up phase, second the research and fleet build up phase with smaller assaults on enemie's expansions or weak points of main base, third phase is the heavy assault and battle phase.

To guarantee that the phase 3 is not dominated by ships from phase 1 I though about a unit limit which supports the evolution of the tech tree and suppresses the mass build of small sized ships in late game.
Static limits would be strange and would erase much fun and freedom out of the game.
But an elastic limit would give you the ability still going on to build small sized ships but for a econimicall y inefficient manner.

Taking Federation as example: You can build a specific amount of each ship class up to...say 10 sabres and 5 additional destroyers. If you build then more sabers the cot of each ship will increase significantly and beyond the costs of a cruisers costs. Which will let you then bring you to build cruisers or search for bigger ship classes. And through that also will research the corresponding special weapons to optimize your fleet strength.

The max class amount coud be easily balanced race specific.


2. Binding in AOE damage:

In FO there is less to no Area Of Effect (AOE) damage. Even though that would be one way to get rid of hords of bugs and stuff your opponent built up in a very short time.
Generally I believe that a good game is marked by the race-to-race-relationship...means that each unit of a race as a counter unit in all other races. For those small sized ships that assault in bulks, artillery with AOE damage would give a player the ability to resist against an overrun. For long time fun and replayablility overruns are fun killers N°1 in RTS games (my opinion). Those small ships should just play a role for rush tactics (possible on small maps only) and as back up in late game.


Ahh...yes... Special weapons like Ultritium Burst (The one from stock Armada 2) and Rhienn Phaser Refit are also AOE like weapons which in addition bring a real eye candy into the game. Though the bigger the ship the more effective a special weapon should be. E.g. the Sovy...c'm on. What use do I have out of its special weapon? All ships are so slow and shot from the sky before the could have ever retreated.



My 2 cents. Hope it helps.

I'm also very glad there is no warp. I just mentioned that as enhancing effect on the general game speed which is very slow in contrast to other RTS games. It wasn't ment to be some sort of offence. Just what I was feeling when I played it as long time Armada 2 player.