Suggestion concerning fun vs. balance

[warren]

The game looks great, but I would like to see lots of fun ways of interacting with particles. Although it is important to balance the gameplay, and each weapon needs code, and art, the success of the game may depend on how many fun things there are. My primary issue with CW3 is the small selection of weapons. If there were a few redundant weapons that were rarely useful, but did weird things, the game would be better.

The terp is an excellent example though. It is pointless, but pure fun. It gives the user the usually pointless power to artistically redraw the map. Having the terp in the units bar makes the game way better even if it is never used.

This is probably the reason people are asking for ship customization. There is no likely useful strategic benefit, but acts as another toy to work out the mechanics of. Workable alternatives could include performance tuning sliders, large attachable modules (side mount or on top), individual ship upgrades.

The tech tree is one of the reasons CW3 is better than CW1. A more complicated method of getting tech means more fun. Workable alternatives could include limited range boost buildings, mutually exclusive techs, techs that are rarely strategically useful but do weird things.

Strip mining is a great idea. I hope it does not make it into the final game. Unlike most things seen so far, most mechanics allow the user and mapmaker to increase complexity. Every new ship can be placed in many locations, multiplying the number of possible worlds. Every new weapon type multiplies the number of possible strategies. Every new enemy type multiplies the number of possible maps that play differently. Strip mining reduces the effective number of possible maps, and damages the artistic integrity of the map.

I hope some form of the energy network from CW1 makes it in instead of just beacons like in CW2. Although the effective difference is small, building a network is much more fun than claiming territory.

PS: bog and mire are not good names for allied territory stuff.