ACU Rework

[MrQuackers]

Ongoing, will clean up and change later.

As we all know some commander upgrade combinations can be overpowered at times. The gun upgrade meta exists. There is also a general lack of variety in my opinion, Black Ops ACU mod addresses this but is unbalanced and has issues beyond overly scoped.

So I suggest the following rework to both simplify and expand on this with the while staying relatively true to the original system

One key change is that only the ACU or SACUs can build experimental with one of the T4 engineering upgrades. SACUs should also be limited per match. Another dynamic to play around, effectively an extension of assassination snipe aspect, but without fully crippling.

--
A, B, C, etc denotes upgrade line, keeping previous features. Faction denotes limitation

• Left Arm - Weapon Focused Arm

1. [A] T2 Main Gun Upgrade
   (Changes; ~33% more E and is required to use normal overcharge)

• 1[B] Aeon) T2 Aeons other main gun
  (Aeon gets two upgrades equal halves of the existing speed and range, earlier first, but more expensive overall)

• 1[B] Seraph) T3 Seraphs other main gun

• 1[B] Cybran) T4 Microwave accelerator

• T3 ish gun upgrades for UEF and Aeon

2. [A] T1 Air Combatant
   (2 T1 stationary aa guns mounted)

• 2[B] T2 Air Combatant
  Allows overcharge against only air units and power draw affects range and splash instead of damage + 1 T2 stationary aa guns mounted

• 2[C] T3 Air Combatant
  Adds 2 high fire rate high velocity weapons with ~2x sam range. Adds minor damage scaling to air OC. Provides a directional shield that can only really stop air attacks.

3. [A] T1.5 Naval Combatant
   Adds 2 torpedo launchers, one high alpha longer range but very low dps and one short range high dps.

• 3[B] T 2.5 Naval Combatant
  Increases torpedo damage and range. Adds long range torpedo defense. Can build mines. Increases speed only under water.

• 3[C] T 3.5 Naval Combatant
  Increases torpedo damage and range. Increases torpedo defense range. Gets mid range submersed only launch SAM and mid range cruise missile. Allows building static T3 shield on water. Further increases speed only under water.

4. Support Options???
   Seraphim Restoration field
   Aeon Chrono

_

• Right Arm - Utility/Support Focused Arm

1. Engineering Arm T2/T3/T4
   (Provides the build power upgrades tech used to at an increased rate. Slightly increases build range per tier. A new tier.)

2. Electronic Package Suite
   All increase vision, radar, and omni range as you go.
   Cybran T1.5 stealth T3 cloaking
   UEF T1.5 Jamming T2.5 auto reclaim drones
   Seraphim 1km T1.5 scry 5km T3 scry
   Aeon?

3. Mobility
   T2 Cybran Leg speed
   T2 UEF Jump jet
   T2 Aeon Short Teleport
   T2 Seraphim Hover
   T3 Teleport

4. Weapon
   Seraphim T2 & T3 Splash Artillery
   Cybran T2 & T3 Sniper
   Aeon T2 & T3 Shotgun/Flamethrower
   UEF T2 & T3 Power Shovel (Quick garrison able structures & Short range high dps weapon)

_

• Back - Core Module

1. Firebase tech- Combat Engineering T2/3/4
   (Provides more health and some regen, unlocks techs)

2. Eco tech- Civil Engineering T2/3/4
   (Replaces RAS and adjusted to fit tier efficency, unlocks techs)

3. Defense
   T2 & T3 Aeon/Seraphim Shield
   T2 & T3 Cybran/UEF Nano
   Cybran/UEF T2 TMD T3 Mobile SMD
   T1.5/T2.5 Aeon/Seraphim Illusions/Fake 1 shot Units

4. Tactical Weapon
   T2 Tactical Missile
   T3 Seraphim T3 MIRV (Like Cybran mml but harder to shoot down and flys higher and further)
   T3 UEF Billy Nuke
   Aeon?
   Cybran?

Sprinkle in some factional diversity into the generics I made up.

[Jip]

Sounds a lot like the ACUs of Blackops

[Matches]

I vote No to all of this and Yes to FAF being really dang great the way it is....Modded games are a thing for a reason.

[MrQuackers]

@jip Yeah I had realized that as I went along writing it. Hence why I stopped filing it out completely.

I absolutely draw inspiration from black ops acus, but I see no reason not to cut a lot of this out. So please address points individually. BO ACU suffers from being 'word salad' where its not immediately clear what upgrades you would take for a clear style of gameplay. Almost all of the upgrades have several actual impacts that are not at all concentrated in one sector. They also allow for some severely op combinations and generally break the traditional ACU scaling FAF intends.

I suppose I should explain some of the reasoning behind some of it.

Why?

• Gun cost increase?
  Generally tends to dominate all other acu upgrades in the meta currently.

• Later gun options for other factions?
  Allows for some limited play into the experimental phase, something UEF and to a lesser degree aeon are not capable of. Seraphim can do so because of the immense hp, regen, and damage output it is capable of plus having T3 mobile shields. Cybran is incredibly squishy/risky but can somewhat have an impact with the use of cloaking as a defensive option staying out of omni range long enough.

• Air combatant?
  Aggressive T2 air is one of the strongest aspects, and there is generally no strong counter to ASF spam. Making the single most important unit capable of making itself a counter, as it does on land increases counter play options and extends ACU risk reward factor.

• Naval Combatant
  ACU is largely irrelevant in naval maps with the exception of drops or some limited support of Cybran com in low tier low quantity naval engagements on small maps. Largely defensive because of the speed and risk in current form. Making the single most important unit capable of making itself a counter, as it does on land increases counter play options and extends ACU risk reward factor.

• Commander Engineering Arm
  Allows for a tanky engineer that is very mass bp efficent, while allowing more utility in other options over being locked into tech itself. Tech being less relevant as the game progresses and non ACU buy in cost is less relevant.

• Support
  Having a support choice that is near combat oriented allows for the player to play a more unit centric offensive style that does not rely entirely on absorbing damage with acu and microing OC.

• Electronic Package
  Adds variety in options and generally makes sensors a potential worth while upgrade all game, unlike as is current. UEF drones are a meme in 99% of cases so something a bit stronger with more utility that comes later may be good.

• Mobility
  Currently ACUs are completely inflexible in their ability to impact larger maps without having complete air control. A more limited option to increase potential impact over direct potential is good game design.

• Weapon
  One I am less sure of. Essentially more focused on stand off or AOE options that reward the aggressive playstyle gun already does, while allowing more counter against getting blocked.

• Tech
  Eco tech makes a more passive commander use more viable early on, extending existing eco versus aggression concept. Fire base tech is to give the player efficient tech access to allow a creeping style game play
  Tech and TML are on the same mount option on account of how blatantly over power com TML can be, reducing the potential build power rate and allowing more time for a counter against something mobile is a good thing.

• Defense
  Mostly to provide some variety and make cybran acu not dog shit.

• Tactical Weapon
  Again to give the other factions some form of impact in extreme standoff or high risk infiltration options.

I explained the T4 and SACU limitations in the original post.