Suggestion to VG: Avoid clone wars

[Heron]

Just read through the Unit Portrait thread and someone stated about Clone Wars got stuck in my minds.

To the average RTS player, clone wars are an inevitable byproduct of any kind of unit spam, and it can make things look repetitive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieva...#Battle_system

In Medieval II: Total War, they introduced an system where all the units have variations cosmetically to avoid such a problem, like height, design on shields, etc.

I will advocate this system if possible to the game. Different markings, like numbers on the tank, special paint jobs to indicate veteran status, even equipment on the infantry, like the shielding, etc.

Another more radical approach could be how the tanks used by some factions can be varied cosmetically, like how perhaps the Allied light tanks can include a few model variants that function the same, but have different looks. This does make things more complex to code, but you do get different equipment that does the same job through the course of the war, cosmetic or otherwise, and such variety can add life to a battlefield IMO.

EDIT: Here's a repost to the reply I gave in the factions idea in Generals 2.

How's this for a compromise between the subfactions idea and the countries idea? I had this idea in my avoid clone wars thread, but it wouldn't do harm to repeat here again.

Instead of having specific countries like China and USA, we will have a Pan-China bloc, and a Western bloc, then GLA.

Then, for all 3 blocs, the countries play style comes in. What this does is to assign a RA1 style value adjustment to your units, such as an increase in armor, an increase in speed, an increase in attack speed, etc. This is however reflected on the unit designs and models. You have, for example, the M1 Abrams for the US, the Challenger 2 for the UK and the Leopard 2 for the Germans in MBT design. They share the same cannon, yet have different properties here and there to differentiate them enough. Use that to help with the differentiating. For infantry, like training a special force, use the relevant naming convention for them, like SEAL for the US, SAS for the British.

Of course, there will be unique units inserted in here and there to showcase the specialties of the faction, like how US could be about Air Superiority, and has more jet options to choose from, like the F15 and the F22 can be chosen from, but it involves tradeoffs so one chooses his aircraft based on his style of play and can mix it up as well. The Germans could be all about the tanks, and how they introduce tank destroyers, stronger mobile artillery, and stuff. The British brings with it a good mix of infantry, espionage and showcases a more combined arms approach to the battle, requiring a mix of armor and infantry to win the day.

It probably requires rendering work on the level of ZH, KW and perhaps even more, but such faction diversity means that you have the visual impact of not playing the same side even if they are of the same coalition.

EDIT2:

An suggestion by AGM, as he pointed out I have overlooked upgrades, and I agree with him, so any sort of customization and additional rendering cannot, and should not affect how one can visually see an upgrade, like the railguns in C&C3.