GTB idea thread

I want to be able to have a guy kicking a soccer/football down the road leading my attack… or maybe bagpipes!

Infantry with short range msl like atgm or rpg would be nice

I agree with more variety, and here’s some ideas (not sure if said or not) I got:

“generic” slots in addition to specific slots:
in heavier designs, allow some slots to hold any type of components as extras (so all or most of the basic components would still be there and people can customize more with an extra loader, extra engine and the like)

heavier/lighter weapons for infantry:
as is, all infantry get are rifles and other lighter weapons, the closest to a LMG is assault rifle. What if there are some expensive and heavy weapons, maybe with longer range (b/t normal weapons and snipers) and better firepower for defensive infantry and heavy hitters (things like LMG or RPG are nice, maybe gattling laser like Fallout?), on the other end of the spectrum, how about very light weapons (like pistols) for fast “rusher” infantry?

different “hulls” for infantry:
basically things like Heavy Infantry (expensive, heavy, more slots), Elite Infantry (expensive, light, more augs), Recruits (cheap, slightly heavier, fewer augs), Regulars, things like that

:slight_smile: I like the idea of the infantry with varied hulls, and attack vs attack as mentioned above would be interesting as well. I wonder if it would be possible to consider a defender vs defender? How to implement that? Say 1 map, a blue and red army. Attack is red, Blue is defender, Top part of map has red attacking to exit right side, blue is defending. Bottom part of map Blue is attacking, red is defending, again left to right. Like map 3 in the campaign, but with attacking and defending units for each side (color).

Just some ideas, though i’m not sure the last are workable in the game, but it just seemed interesting.

-Teal

You can mod the game to enable any of the existing weapons to be used by inventory.

I just attacked with swarms of infantry using Turbolaunch Missiles. 3400 a unit to deploy and they instakill any turret or infantry unit they see. Interestingly I still nearly lost the map - they can’t shoot turrets behind them and the AI did an excellent job of dropping MG turrets to shoot them from behind.

it’s one thing to use it on my own…

another to have balanced and available to everyone and be expecting to see it on the other side online

(yes I already modded in infantry based rocket launcher and LMG for myself)

EDIT: another idea, seeing this is the idea thread…

can you add a way to preview online maps before downloading? I seem to remember having that before…

or is there a way and I’m just missing it?

I don’t really have an idea for units specifically, EXCEPT…
Medium tanks (I think), should come with a secondary weapon slot that can only equip weapons found on light tanks, that’ll go hand in hand with their primary.
Heavy tanks (In m opinion) should come with both a secondary and a tertiary weapon, the secondary weapon being able to equip a weapon from medium tanks and lighter, and the tertiary weapon only being able to be a weapon found on light tanks.

On to my non-unit specific ideas.

Perhaps there should be just an open field for combat! Just the CPU, and the player sending units at once another to combat one another until the either side’s resources are exhausted. WW 1 was about attrition, after all. Perhaps there should be victory points distributed by amount of kills, or unit’s time spent on the field.
Perhaps there should be a two sided attack and defense map. Where the enemy has towers, and you have towers, and both you and your enemy have the capability to attack, and whoever scores the most victory points, wins.

how about a bit more firing arc for the infantry?

IRL a squad should usually have people watching both flanks if not the back as well… Also right now infantry aren’t worth much as far as damage dealing goes

Apologies if this has already been raised (or is even already possible and I just haven’t figured it out).

Is it possible to set a “road sign” to make all forces make a particular choice of direction until further notice? I know you can tell units which way to turn, but it would be very handy to be able to tell everyone to turn left at the next “T” until further notice.

Some random and not-so-random things on my wishlist. I’ve tried to divide ideas up into sections for clarity.

METAGAME

  • A toggle to overlay / hide the defensive placement matrix would be very helpful for both sides. For a defender, it would allow you to plan your next move while you’re building up resources. For an attacker, it would allow you to spot potential weak points in a defence and plan your route accordingly.

TURRET DESIGNS

  • Greater variety would really be appreciated. Some options have already been mentioned in this thread; I’d like to add minethrowers (could come in both anti-armour & anti infantry variants), long range, slow firing artillery, stasis fields (or some way to slow down traffic), a magnet that picks up dog tags of fallen soldiers, an engineering support unit that makes turrets quicker to deploy… I’m sure there are plenty more variants, but you get the idea :slight_smile:

ATTACKING DESIGNS

  • Not really much to add to what’s already been said. APCs are interesting, especially with the short shelf life of infantry units. I also fully support the RPG infantry idea.

MAP EDITOR

  • It seems to me that it’s a lot easier to create an unbalanced map than a balanced one. Running multiple replays from both sides seems to be the best way to balance maps at the moment, but that’s time consuming to say the least (especially when you’re only adding a turret hardpoint or two, or tweaking the supply ratio). It’s probably a really big ask, but is there any way to add a subroutine that scans your map and automatically balances the supply ratio and difficulty settings? I’m not even sure if that’s possible, but I fear that when the game goes fully live the challenge browser could be full of too-easy or completely impossible challenges.
  • More props please! I’d love to see burnt-out buildings and vehicles, massive shell craters, hedges, bridges, roadsigns, water features, etc, etc. Also, a quicker way to place props would be great - maybe an option to autofill squares with a given prop type or types chosen by the map designer? Or an option to border every route with barbed wire / dragon’s teeth automatically?

CHALLENGES

  • My last suggestion involves challenges. As far as I can make out, when you post a challenge from the defensive side there’s no way to save your turret designs with the map. If I’m wrong, could someone tell me how to do this? And if I’m not, I’m curious why this feature isn’t in the game.

Cheers!

I agree, I’d like to add more, but it’s an expensive business because a 3D artist has to model and render everything, and I’m no 3D artist, so I have to hire one. Hopefully at some point…

It’s technically impossible to save out a defensive playback, which is why you don’t save designs either (to avoid creating an even more complex matrix of game styles and modes). Playback doesn’t work as defender because you have no guarantee when a defensive slot becomes vacant due to the previous turret being destroyed. In theory there could be a game mode where defense picks from scenario units, I just feared it may over-complicate things.

Hey Cliff, thanks for the quick reply. I figured that was the reason why defensive designs weren’t saved with maps - it would obviously be impossible to create a ‘scripted’ defence in the same way an attacker can. But I’m firmly in favour of allowing a defensive challenger to include their turret designs with maps. I don’t think it would overcomplicate things, and it would allow people to post offensive and defensive challenges on an even playing field.

If you’re worried about clarity, could it be possible to sort the challenges by whether they’re posted as an attack or a defence, if there was enough support for it?

I definitely agree it should be in there eventually, especially because I like the idea of it being themed in some way, with consistent colors for defending units etc, plus I’d like eventually to support challenges with built-in-mods, which auto-download new units etc.

:slight_smile: Sounds like a lot of wonderful ideas in store for down the road. :slight_smile:

I really like this title. Very nice game, alot of fun!

-Teal

What i really want to see is improved customization.Remember in GSB we had those tab’s and descriptions for modules?In GTB its a complete mess,so a redesign would be great.Also some better flame effects and groundshaking:D.Great Game!!!Thank you.

I much prefer the layout of customisation within this game than I did in Gratuitous Space Battles. It seems much simpler, and much more common-sense, to have a slot for each type, rather than the relative free-for-all of GSB, which led to ships without engines (which personally I found to be an exploit, and against the spirit of the game).
Each to their own, but I certainly prefer it this way!

I’d love to see a head to head map where both sides are charging across a field and meeting each other in the middle. Could be a two-way attack where both players’ objective is to get to the other side, or simply a GSB style skirmish in which all the units are placed beforehand and the winner is the one with the last men standing.

That is, unless that’s already one of the later levels :s

I’m just going to link this thread and say “huge tanks and multiple turrets”

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=7205

Weapon icons could be made more clear. For instance the bolt action rifle icon is a little ballistic rifle with an I in the corner, the shotgun is a II, the sniper is a III, the smg is a IV, and the assault rifle is a V (if I remember correctly). If you don’t look at the stats, you might end up making the assumption that the SMG is flat out better than the Bolt Action because it appears to be in a higher tier. This works for armor, shields, engines, etc; but not weapons.

I’d suggest something like instead of having the roman numerals, the bolt action icon could have a single bullet, the shotgun have a shell casing with a few pellets in front of it, the sniper have a crosshair, SMG have 4 little stubby-looking bullets, and the Assault Rifle have 3 big pointy mean-looking bullets. Something similar could be done for vehicle-based weapons.

Edit for the short on time or reading impaired: Instead of this,

I think the weapon icons should be like this

  1. Double gun slots!

The heavy mech and heavy tanks could have 1 armour + 1 gun + 1 multislot and in the multi slot you can have another armour or a gun. There are double barrelled guns already in the game and even tanks today have more than one weapon system. So I think 2 guns to offset the 2 armour slots would be great.

  1. Also I don’t think this is in the game already, but because of the infantry and mech firing arcs being smaller perhaps they should get a damage bonus, for example 1.5x for mechs and 2.0x for attacking infantry (but not defenders)

  2. smaller icons for equipment and augs, more space for the stats/info pages at the bottom.

  3. double click-able icons to automatically add to the 1st empty slot. (instead of drag)