First off, I really like where this game is going. I’ve bought it and played through 80% of the campaign by now. I love the setting and aesthethics, as well as the customization included. Yet I think that this game still offers lots of unused potential.
Right now, the only real tactical component in choosing your units and towers is the rock-paper-scissors-like system of infantry, shielded and armored units. While this works rather nice, I think the game could really profit from some of the elements that other TDs have developed during the last years. The game’s got some tactical depth, but lastly it all boils down to laser or ballistics. Here’s a couple of suggestions to change this:
New weapon type: Electromagnetic Cannon
Pros: +150% damage against shields, Stuns Enemy for short time upon dealing internal damage (~0.8s)
Cons: -60% damage against armor, slow fire rate, rather expensive, less reach than traditional cannons
Notes: A more specialized version of the normal ballistic cannon. It also stuns units that have lost their shield and/or armor and stops them dead in their tracks, making it efficient as a mid- to late-area defense. Weak against groups of enemies. Units can use the weapon to reduce the damage output from enemy towers.
New weapon type: Heat Laser
Pros: +100% damage against armor, Sets Enemy on fire for a variable amount of time upon dealing damage to Internal or Armor (~5s)
Cons: -50% damage against shields, shorter reach, very expensive
Notes: Excellent choice for entrance or mid areas, deals damage over time. Must be used sparingly (high cost). Shields are immune to DoT effect.
New weapon type: Shock Wave
Pros: +50 damage against infantry, attacks hit every unit in range, units are slowed down temporarily (~5-30% for 3s)
Cons: no damage against towers, very low range, low rate of fire, low damage output, effect gets weaker over distance
Notes: Deals little to no damage, but can hurt infantry. Main purpose is to slow down groups of enemies, so that AoE weapons can get a nice shot on them.
New weapon type: Artillery
Pros: +100% damage against shields, superior damage output, area of effect damage on impact (highest damage in center of explosion)
Cons: -50% damage against armor, can’t fire at close targets, extremely low rate of fire, low precision
New weapon type: Gatling
Pros: +100% damage against shields, superior rate of fire, high ammo capacity
Cons:-50% damage against armor, extremely slow reload and long spin-up time
Notes: This weapon tears unprotected units apart. Extremely useful against slow Mechs and infantry. Unreliable for constant streams of enemies due to long reload.
New shield type: Regenerative Energy Shield
Pros: Shield starts regenerating if unit doesn’t take damage for a small amount of time
Cons: Lower shield point value compared to conventional shielding aggregates
Notes: Good against scattered defense layouts.
New shield type: Reactive Energy Shield
Pros: If shield is destroyed, creates a large EMP that heavily drains shields of all nearby units and towers.
Cons: If poorly placed/deployed, may also drain shields of your own units.
Notes: As a unit, best deploy in a group of unshielded troops. As a tower, place it at strategic locations with no nearby shielded towers.
New armor type: Reflective Armor Plating
Pros: Throws some bullets back at Enemy, returning part of the damage.
Cons: Lower armor point value compared to conventional armor plating.
Notes: Good equipment for „glass cannon“-type units: They will die more quickly, but deal out more damage in the meantime.
New armor type: Carbon Armor Plating
Pros: Extremely light-weight
Cons: A bit less protection than conventional plating, very expensive
Notes: A good plating for rushing units, or ones that you send to take down specific targets in the distance. Not really an option for tower construction (or does the weight play a role in how the construction time is calculated?)
New augmentation type: Stealth Unit
Pros: Hides the unit or tower from the enemy. Cloak is broken as soon as the equipped unit either opens fire or gets seen by an enemy unit. Towers are revealed permanently, Units will cloak again if conditions are met.
Cons: Rather expensive
New Hull type: Decoy Truck
Pros: Looks similar to supply truck, extremely cheap, good health
Cons: No means of attacking
Notes: Other than supply trucks, there do not require supplies to be summoned. You can either send them alone to trick your enemy into constructing more stuff than he’d need, or mix-and-match them with your real supply trucks to distract the enemy.
New Hull type: Tower of Tactical Bragging
Pros: Utility Tower; boosts your money for every unit your towers kill in its range
Cons: No Firepower, rather expensive
Notes: Can boost your income if placed in key locations.
All in all, I really think some slow, stun, area of effect, damage over time etc towers would do the game good and increase the tactical depth. As well as some special shields and armors with unique capabilities and weaknesses.
Thanks for reading, any kind of feedback is appreciated!
I imagined it more as a base where soldiers are busy radio-transmitting every single kill their colleagues made on the field to their commanders in a bragging, gloryfying manner, so that they’d receive more supplies, but your version would be solid as well 