Hidden Race Selection.

posted on December 8th, 2010, 6:28 am

I think a nice feature would be for you to be able to select your race in the game lobby and have it hidden, this way you wouldnt not be able to say, oh well look at that, my opponent is borg, im going to be dominion and S2 spam, i think it would be better to pick your race and not know what your opponent would be and vice versa.

This could possibly make games more fair, as i just previously stated people would not be able to start formulating their strats before, this could be a toggable ability, for games, so that the people playing could select whether they do or do not want this option, this way those opposed dont have to be influenced but if theyre are people who want it which i believe they're are, they could have this ability.

posted on December 8th, 2010, 6:58 am

That would remove the one benefit of going Random.  Lots of other games actually REWARD a player going random through extra resources or some other thing.

  Flops rewards a Random choice by allowing you a few seconds extra time to start your build knowing what your opponent CAN build.


*Dislike

posted on December 8th, 2010, 7:09 am

Hence it's toggable ability,

True going random will give you that advantage, but I dont use random as an advantage, is there anyone that does? I see it more as a fun way to get a different race

Instead I see it as a benefit to the majority of players, whom don't go random, I mean I know we've all had this situation:

1 ill be feds
2 well then I'll be Klingons
1 Well if your klingons I'll be Dom
2 well if your Dom I'll be roms
1 well if your roms I'll be fed

This would eliminate that as well as encourage people to scout more and additionally prevent players from formulating strats before the game,

In star trek you wouldnt know who was about to attack you or with what ships, I fell it should be the same here

posted on December 8th, 2010, 9:13 am

i would like to support giving random a small boost in res, but then there are risks it could throw balance. The extra money would have to be pretty small.

I dont like the op's idea since i LOVE random, i nearly always use it, people then feel more pressure and have to decide on the spot what to do.

posted on December 8th, 2010, 11:38 am

Giving a boost to random will only make experienced players do even better against less experienced players (which they don't need, because they're experienced already).

The fact that people consider going random to give an advantage in the first few seconds knowing what your opponent can build is one of the main things I don't like about FO.  It relies far too much on these second by second strategies that hard counter everything your opponent is building.  It's more about memorization of counters than strategy.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 12:02 am

That would remove the one benefit of going Random.  Lots of other games actually REWARD a player going random through extra resources or some other thing.

   Flops rewards a Random choice by allowing you a few seconds extra time to start your build knowing what your opponent CAN build.


*Dislike

Random also gives the player using it a disadvantage, for they could get a race they are less familiar with, and can't pre-plan their strategies. Random isn't really useful to throw people off.


I like the selection hiding toggle, but I do not wan to see it come before Fed balance is ironed out. We could end up with triple warpins because one team planned to hide their Fed race and the other couldn't complain.
Maybe if one Fed used warpin, another Fed player couldn't warpin anywhere near that area for a minute, because Starfleet doesn't want all its emergency supporting fleet eggs in one basket.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 1:02 am

Random isn't really useful to throw people off.

It absolutely is.  They have no idea what you are until they scout you.  Thus, they can't count on their initial structure choice to counter you.

Random also gives the player using it a disadvantage, for they could get a race they are less familiar with, and can't pre-plan their strategies.

  That's only for people who SHOULDN'T be going random.  Think "big-Picture".  A person who has learned to excel at all 5 races is at a distinct advantage.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 1:31 am

Well to restate and elaborate on some of my ideas,

I belive that this idea would greatly help 1v1s, this would eliminate the, oh they are going klingons, ill go romulans and spam generix frigates, as they are a general counter, it would have people pick what they want to play as and form stratagies in game, not plan there stratagies before they start,

It would also mean that people wouldnt pick there races based on what theyre opponent is which i belive is generall lame

why should random be an advantage, just because you can play all races or just dont care what race doesnt mean that should give you an advantage on your opponent who maybe can only play one or two races,

I just really feel like this would

1. eliminate trying to stratagize before game, to get an edge on your opponent before you start

2. eliminate picking your race based on what your opponents race is

3. increase the balance of games, as you wouldnt be able to formulate your counter prior to your

4. encourage players to be more resourcefull

and last but not least, this would be toggable, so you dont have to play with it if you dont want it, or you could try it out

posted on December 9th, 2010, 1:38 am

I get it, Ray, but I just think it would discourage people from learning to play multiple races .

posted on December 9th, 2010, 2:05 am

I say remove counters entirely.

Rebalance it so each races various type of ships are more or less equal, with each race having a few 'better' ships at differnt levels, or other bonuses.

Dominion: Bug spam supporting massive battleships
Borg: Steals your stuff, is hard as hell to kill, but is much slower to grow.
Klingon: Fights hard, ships per size do more damage than most other ships of that size, but less able to withstand taking damage
Romulan: Focuses on large warbirds that can take on multiple smaller ships, with smaller vessels to support them. Slow rate of fire for powerful torpedos.
Federation: Overall balanced, no one strong area but no real weakness area either, cruisers are slightly above average.

Then past that, assign SFC style ships class system for the ships, mostly for balance purposes.

Frigate
Destroyer
Light cruiser
Cruiser
Heavy cruiser
Torpedo cruiser
Dreadnought
battleship

And balance it so despite all the differnt ships each race has, they generaly are equal per cost spent.

The more geared for offense, the weaker the defenseve structures, or more expenseve and longer to build (same for starbase upgrades, possibly add a build time)

The more geared for defense, the lower the build time for ships and stuff.

posted on December 9th, 2010, 5:48 am

Tokra, i think your a little off topic in this thread , please see my first post if your not sure what this post is about

On the contrary boggz, i belive it would encourage players to play more races, as the would not choose their races in order to counter their enemy, they would choose it based on the race they want to play

posted on December 9th, 2010, 5:56 am

On the contrary boggz, i belive it would encourage players to play more races, as the would not choose their races in order to counter their enemy, they would choose it based on the race they want to play

I agree 100%

posted on December 9th, 2010, 9:59 pm

Hmm. I don't care I always choose Klingons .
I think FO is balanced well enough so that one race is not really a counter to another one, usually all avatars are useful, you just need to know what to do with them. I don't think it's necessary. And I'm opposed to a ressource advantage for random. The players who choose random are either not familiar with any of the races or with all of them(all but Dominion maybe  ).

posted on December 9th, 2010, 10:43 pm

To further that idea - I think if in FO there are general strategies than can be used against specific races, the best response is to make it so that that is not the case rather than just make race choice invisible.