Rebel tech stealing and hero units

[Darthscharnhorst2]

For one I think the whole notion that the Rebels need to steal tech is a bad gameplay mechanic, especially as it forces the game into "immortal" hero unit mode since certain hero's are needed to make research advances. 

 

1.  The rebels are stealing tech that the empire doesn't use as they have completely different tech trees.  I guess the empire just has a bunch of useless files sitting around for the rebels to take.  This would make more sense if stealing tech allowed the rebels to upgrade their overall firepower etc, as in stealing weapon designs or if it allowed them to build the empire's ships. 

 

2.  Since whole planets are joining the rebellion, why can't they put research teams to work developing their own tech?  Was this "feature" simply added to better distinguish the sides?

 

3.  Since I mentioned hero units, I'm not really sure if the problem is with respawing in general, but it truly makes no sense to have them respawn with their ships etc.  If Solo manages to get the Falcon blown up, the player should pay a consequence greater than a five day down time.  Additionally it would be nice if some of the minor hero's could in fact perish, Akbar with the Homeone, etc. 

 

I could go on but the point is probably mute. 

[Nevets]

Also since the Falcon was so hard to destory in the demo, it seems it will be quite difficult to lose it, if you use it wisely. Since this is the case I don't see why if you keep on using it over and over in every battle it can't be destoryed if you use it too much.

[Teradyn_pff]

Lets keep this thread about the Rebels' method of acquiring technology as the discussion about heroes dying permanently or not is already going on in too many other threads anyway.

 

On that note, I think that the decision to do this is based on keeping the Rebel activities guerrilla in nature and preventing them from seeming too much like an equal and dominate force that is threatening the Empire on even terms.  It was never like that and was never intended to be like that, especially since we are playing in the timeline when the Rebellion was not in full military swing.  I think before the Battle of Yavin, Mon Calimari was not completely Rebel.  They may have sympathized but they did not formally join until afterward.  That is one reason that having the Mon Cal ships and Ackbar in EAW seems so weird because they are out of timeline, but I digress.  The issue is the way that each side is handled, and I personally agree with not having them mirror images of each other with different flags.

[Darthscharnhorst2]

Good points Teradyn.  My issues is not really with the ability of the Rebs to steal tech, but rather that it is their only ability to advance.  Since EAW allows the Reb player to become a dominant force in the galaxy it does follow that they would gain access to tech teams/ship yards etc.  Thus as a gameplay mechanic I would have liked the Rebs to have had a slower rate of tech advances, but with the ability to steal tech from the Empire in order to speed up said advances or add combat bonuses to their units.  I think this approach would still allow for a much different feel when playing either side and reduse the argument for having immortal hero's *the droids*

 

On a side note, I think random and faulty tech steals would add some spice to the current setup as everything the droids come back with shouldn't lead to new ships.  For example, you can send the droids to steal a design on tanks but they have a small chance of returning with a different design or something completely useless.  I don't like how they have a 100% success rate for every mission.  Same goes with smugglers etc.

 

Sometimes things should not go as planned!

[Teradyn_pff]

Well, that would be a big problem as well.  Players would want to be able to affect that chance of success.  The main problem I have is that there is not something you can do as the empire (that I know of) to defend against these tactics.  The only direct thing you can do is to take out a smuggler.

[noian]

I know.

I found it easy to overrun the empire with smugglers. Boba Fett takes too long to reincarnate.

A random sucess chance would be nice.

[Darthscharnhorst2]

Well, that would be a big problem as well.  Players would want to be able to affect that chance of success.  The main problem I have is that there is not something you can do as the empire (that I know of) to defend against these tactics.  The only direct thing you can do is to take out a smuggler.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of a 10-15% chance of Failure.  Overall this is a very small chance of failure, but would add a bit of randomness to the game.  If you want to take it a step further the percentages could  increase and decrease slightly as you move further into empire territory or the Dev's could make it progressively harder to smuggle and steal tech from the same planet, forcing the rebel player to branch out instead of making the same runs.

 

Maybe start the chance of failure off at 5% and cap it at 15%.  By no means would this Nerf the rebels but it would add a bit of flavor and dare I say realism to their methods.  Sure some players might scoff at a failed mission as *losing* is not fun, but succeeding every time is quite a drag as well.

[Teradyn_pff]

Well, yes, but this is something that I can see developers rehashing long into the development process.  The premise of this game is I think trying to do what Rebellion did, but with fun being more important than accuracy or completeness.  Who knows.  They may add all kinds of stuff in later installments if this one is successful enough for them to get funding for it.  But for right now, it is what it is.

 

The problem for modders is that there is not a mission success/failure construct that can be used to create the type of success or failure percentages that you are wanting.