Love the new Ranking/Award system

[Blackdutchie]

There's roaches, aegis, racketeer, merl, dreamweaver. All these (combined if neccesary) should be able to break standoffs. Roach+aegis could wtfrape large standing armies, merls can bust porc, aegis+cons can bust terraform, aegis+cons can terraform ramps up to places.

EDIT: Woops, merl is an unlock. Racketeer replaces merl then. Same principle only you need some units to do the actual killing while porc is stunned.

[Pxtl]

There's roaches, aegis, racketeer, merl, dreamweaver. All these (combined if neccesary) should be able to break standoffs. Roach+aegis could wtfrape large standing armies, merls can bust porc, aegis+cons can bust terraform, aegis+cons can terraform ramps up to places.

I don't mean that, I mean playing on maps like Folsom Dam or Ternion. Terraforming isn't exactly a good solution on that scale.

[Blackdutchie]

Folsom dam would be broken by racketeers i'd think. Low surface area and all.

[Google_Frog]

The aim is to have starting factories that are not noob traps. Gunships and air are very hard to do right as is jumpjets and to a lesser extent spiders. After 5 games you should be able to unlock both air factories an after about 10 all factories should be unlocked, unless you want to spend on commander or silly 2k cost defence first.

I'm just stating the logic behind it, if you want to argue against unit unlocks talk to Licho.

I dislike how it takes about 90 games to unlock all the units. This means that you cannot play a full FFA for a while.

[Johannes]

Wow, that sounds awful. :/
Is there some way to hack the unlocks or something... Not much fun to play crippled for so long, or even if I'd play that much, a lot of my opponents who I'd like to play against would be fucked like that which is in many ways even more annoying.

[CarRepairer]

Yes, there's a modoption to ignore the upgrade system and everyone gets everything, but it's default unchecked.

Googlefrog: You said "to a lesser extent" when referring to spider factories. Perhaps it's not so bad of a noob trap that it should just be available without unlock?

[Pxtl]

Why not allow gunships as a newb lab? Gunships are simple for the player to grasp and there aren't any horribly tricky units in the gunship lab, and gunships would mean that newb games wouldn't be completely bereft of air units. Gunships would also mean that there is *no* terrain a newb can't handle, instead of being locked out of gameplay options. Starting gunship is a risky beginning, of course, but I think it's an option that even newbies need to have.

Every other lab has limitations - spiders can't go underwater. Hovers can't climb vertical terrain. Having one "no limits" lab would be a good feature, I think. Land, sea, air.

[Godde]

I dislike how it takes about 90 games to unlock all the units. This means that you cannot play a full FFA for a while.

Even longer for me. My high elo makes it a pain to reach higher levels. People in 1v1 get more experience even if I win. Going against a good player with a jumping recon commander that can easily beat my line commander even in a straight out fight don't feel that appealing.
The reason I haven't made a new account for ZK is that it would take long time before my elo would reach the levels they are now, I would propably unbalance the teams and I like the challange.

[Wombat]

unlock damn airplanes -__-

[SirArtturi]

Labs shouldn't be covered by the XP system in the first place. In other words: Strategical elements of the game should be available for all and all beyond that, lets say "rpg" elements be available for individuals by choice.

You could develop the commander upgrade system even further: Get rid of experimental units and make them as commander upgradeables; Bantha commander yay!

[Wombat]

would rather like to see more units being available due morph and experience only (both ingame and lobby one)

for example, raider could morph into golly after getting X exp, and it wouldnt be possible to make him in any lab. just exp and morph.