More Units or More Factions?

This is a cleaner version of the other poll, with less margin for misinterpretation.

Would you prefer fewer factions for a more complete spectrum of units on the one side that remains; do you need two factions no matter how similar; or do you want two factions, each with fewer units, but radical game play differences?

Please keep in mind that it's somewhat unlikely that if we end up with two factions that each of them will have the scope of a faction in TA or SupCom, but might rather be a lot simpler (think SupCom 2 factions).

The poll ends when the Kickstarter funding drive ends. Enjoy. Discuss!

I would go for one faction, for balancing reasons.
this way the team can balance the game way better,
and even they would make a "mistake", making one unit irrelevant/Overpowerd people will not be really able to abuse it, thus the devs have more time to patch these things.

A possibility would be creating 2 identical factions,
with only different artwork.
But I doubt they would do this, unless the art-department would get bored
And I don't know if I would really use each faction in that case.

2 factions would actually not make much sense in games larger than 1v1 Lore-wise.

For above reasons I would suggest against 2 entirely different factions, as it would be too time consuming. Of course, when Uber reaches something like 3 Million, we could look at this again

Two identical factions with different artwork would still mean fewer units, simply because artwork is expensive as well. Also, balancing, animations vs. hitboxes vs. weapon mounts etc might not be 100% identical.

I do agree that this is kind of the middle road.

I prefer maximum choice and equal starting grounds for everyone.

"Make people choose their strategy on the battlefield, not in the game lobby."

1 faction, one of the mainreasons of frustration I've had with RTS is that sometimes you just get this feeling that unit X of that other faction is so totally overpowered/annoying.
While this might not always be the case, sometime it is actually true. Like the first mercy in vanilla that killed a Soulripper T4 for like a percentage of its price. not even 10 t2 air units killing an air t4. In such cases having only one faction at least gives anybody the same means to win the game until the developers are patching the game.

I don't think the devs will make their engine, animations influence fire-rates and such (I hope)

I also don't know how they will implement hitboxes, from the games I modded (C&C generals ZH, which one of the devs worked on , THx), the "hitboxes" were used for pathfinding. damage "hitboxes" was just the distance from the center of the unit.

Okay, path finding will influence balance for a bit...

Also, this work would require only a minimal amount of programming. so if the art department is bored, they could do it

I am a digital artist myself, so I know what it takes. But from my experience, programming always took longer than art creation, so there is that.

But, of course I agree focusing on only one faction is for the better if they are the same anyway.

I think a totally different faction would be very interesting as well, but only when they have something like a 250%+ of a kickstarter funding, and that will also depend on the order of the stretch-goals and that is even speculating, this will be a stretch goal.

All just depends on what all the backers think and the funding.

While I loved the fact that you could pick a favorite side, I'd much rather have one faction as it's far easier to balance. Mods could add as many extra factions as they wanted, and it would make the base game cheaper to produce.

One faction makes sense to me. I usually find the faction I like and stick with it anyway. With one faction it'll make it easier to balance the game and allow them to have more unit variety.

You're looking at a one-year development cycle with a 900k budget. I'd prefer less unit variety and one faction if we got a kick *** engine that handled the scale of the game well.

Personally, I would like to see at least two factions.

But as long as you can mod in multiple other factions, I wouldn't care if there wasn't any factions to begin with.

IMO, Total Annihilation Zero does three radically different factions very well.

Thygrrr, you are still using the wrong nomenclature. There are always 2 or more factions .

Anyway, as I mentioned in the other thread, I am fine with the current approach Uber is taking. One set of units for all factions. However, in the spirit of TA, I would like it if at some point there was simply a massive amount of units available.

In which case it may occur, that one "faction" does not use the exact same units as the other "faction" anymore, even though they have access to the same set of units. Diversity through quantity, instead of arbitrarily making units look different or artificially limit the specific types of units available based on a named "faction".

Ok, so what is the correct nomenclature? Races?

As long as the meaning is easily construed what is wrong with using the word faction? While your definition of the word faction is correct, you also seem to be able to understand the meaning of what is said.

Fascinating poll!

"Sets of units" ;P

Option D: Two factions, shared unit pool with a small number of unique units per faction.

Best of both worlds, everyone wins.

No need "everyone wins"
See the poll, 80% of people: "one faction, twice the unit variety"

My faction ideas:

Red vs Blue vs Green vs Yellow vs Fuchsia vs Black vs White.

It'd actually emphasize the "forgottenness" of the conflict if the machines identified their own kind only with the color IDs, making allegiances as superficial as a coat of paint.

My point is the wording of the poll is biased, and does not cover a good alternative. That 80% of people chose one option doesn't make it the best, it only makes it the best out of the presented options. Alot of people would have chosen A because "OMG, twice the units, why would I want another faction and sacrifice that?", not realising there is an option that lets them have both, because they are not given it.

I'm not especially against one faction (though my preference is to have 2), I just don't like the way these polls are structured.

This is a crowdfunded indie game project. Decisions need to be made, even by us, the fans.

You can't eat your cake and have it at the same time.

Make a new one, that you think covers it best .