So Hello All ! This Thread is dedicated to gameplay as seen in the gamescom demo of Cantata ( which on day of posting this thread just went up today so if you’re on here and havent seen or tried it yet hit the road ! Its amazing go now !
With that obligatory spiel out of the way some things to address about balance, thematics or other interesting ideas !
A formatting method i’ll try is having changes or ideas listed as Practicals ( easily achieved within the modding and system as so far seen ) and Hypotheticals ( more complex and unsure if possible or workable )
Conscripts : its been said they want to feel more conscript like and cheap. And while easily accessible they’re good all rounder units which is in my opinion good. They’re part of the opening chapter of the game and their familiarity to many along with ease of use is essential ! But things to give conscripts more utility and variety while not having the reign’s grunts become stars of the show
Conscript Practicals
Reducing weight and increasing stack size of Conscripts and decreasing hp and weapon range. This is one i’m not overly keen on as i felt their balance currently allowed for alot of smart tactics but if wanting to really give the image that these folks are meat for the grinder this could be a way to do it ! Though reducing their AP activation cost of these swarm infantry would likely be handy
Lower Exhaustion Tiers : This does cut in somewhat severely to their tutorializing potential but does help reinforce the idea that they’re untrained without overly cutting into nitty gritty statistics. Means they direly need to keep in symbiosis with towers or other transports to be moved around the battlefield efficiently ! Would possible necessitate a higher tier “commander” esque unit at the beginning ( one of the more elite reign infantry aptly titled Ensign perhaps ? )
Conscript Hypotheticals
Capping level ups as they are untrained conscripts after al) at 2 or 3. Helps limits some of the scaling and can prevent , for better or worse, the Sergeant Johnson esque conscripts who can outrun recon rickshaws or hit harder than a Griffin Cannon after hitting level 4. Though there is debatably some reward in order for keeping a single humble conscript alive for that long
giving them a utility ability. Once healing is figured out a heal that can target friendly units possibly with a certain hp threshold to make it represent the conscripts can patch up a vehicle but not so much each other
Another utility idea that could infact help tutorialize supply lines is giving Conscripts ( or the tower transports they come in ) the ability to erect free standing repeaters so they still need to be linked up. To let people string them along to allow for more fluid supply lines. If its the conscripts doing so could even have it consume the conscript
Last utility hypothetical Conscripts being able to “mob up”. Perhaps a build within the tower transport that takes 2-3 conscripts and builds a conscript swarm which is tankier, has ( slightly ) more damage but can’t level up and are too heavy to be loaded into transports now? Giving them abit of versatility and letting you ‘melt down’ injured conscripts to make a more useful unit than a 1hp conscript
Level Ups !
While they were extremely fun and thematic helping give personality to the units as they leveled and the ability to see the level up paths allowing the player to focus on which units to give XP if they choose was brilliant ! They also could unbalance things a small bit… i think an easy and elegant fix without gutting the system is making all bonuses gotten from levels +1 to the associated stat but keeping the current ability gain spread of how many they gain per level. As a level 4 conscript could ( in theory ) if the RNG deities were on their side. Have 10+ attack ( or move etc etc ) if the rolls were all the same and while improbable its not impossible
Cherubim
These Robots were quite fun and quite a challenge to fight at first ! Requiring clever engagements at range to pull them in though - while i’m unsure as to the mechanics of our mechanical friends they felt quite like a direct upgrade combat wise over the builder bot ? Similar movement, same health and heftier damage by default. Unsure if this is by design or what. I’d say to help abit with distinction on them being dedicated combatants ( if thats their intended role )
( these sections will be shorter as i’m unsure if this is all functioning as intended or if they have other roles )
Practicals
abit harder for the machines to put out in number and slightly slower but with more hp ?
Hypotheticals
None available really !
Tower Transports
I personally felt the tower transports were perfect ! Tanky enough that i didn’t feel too worried about deploying them for some cunning manuvers or using them to transport troops into hostile lands but not so durable as to let me use them as mainline battle tank stand ins or get too audacious with their deployment. If they’re too tanky as is HP reduction down to 8 would feel suitable ( the thing does have to survive the transport from orbit after all ! ) though by virtue of being proper tower perhaps a tad more vision or grey vision would be nice
These are my thoughts, ideas and feedback. I’d love to hear what orher people felt about the units and what they’d want to talk about or see more of !
Lets start a discussion !