Army Customization Idea

I absolutely love the ability to customize my character/car/army/whatever, in video games. It's one of a game's main selling points for me. It's just so much fun knowing that it's yours and your personal imprint is on it. That's why I think that in StarCraft 2, they should ditch the old method of having a random color chosen for you for your army. Instead, they should make the game more personal. What if you could customize your SC2 army to be whatever race you choose, what colors/camo patterns you want; plus, have the ability to make your own logo for your army. I think that would be the best idea! It's more and more becoming a trend in video games, like in Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Dawn of War, just to name a few. So why not put this in StarCraft 2? I'm not talking about being able to level up and unlock new things, just simply having the ability to personalize your own army. I think that would be a great selling point, and add a new level of personalization and fun to an already-great game. What do you guys think about this?

 

Re: Army Custimization Idea

Good idea. Don't think logo and camo would work, but choosing your own main color would be nice. In B-net, you should be able to choose a favorite color from a list. If the other player(s) have different fav. colors, you get to have the one you liekz.
If two or more have the same fav. color, a dice is rolled, not too complicated IMO.

 

Re: Army Custimization Idea

Straight from one of the Q & A's, players will get to choose from 12-18 colors in custom maps as well as multiplayer games - so your choose a color idea is already being implemented.

As far as logos and patterns, I don't think so. For this type of RTS game where so much is on-screen, it'll just get too complicated.

 

Re: Army Custimization Idea

Choosing only a color isn't very much "in-depth customization"...but it's a start.

 

Re: Army Custimization Idea

@Ninerman. Wow, missed that. And it's just what I felt a need for.

 

Re: Army Custimization Idea

Yeah, I hope they have cooler-looking colors this time around.

 

This brings up specific unit customization which I stumbled upon in brainstorming for my game (I might post it on these forums eventually-it's called Red Planet: Rising Storm, and in preperation for the future, the sequel will be Red Planet: To Wage a War): Complete unit build customization. Basically, there are a few basic concept units, such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Technical Infantry, Vehicle, Aircraft, and Ground Mech (like Goliath). Then each blueprint can be modified with certain aspects, such as main/heavy weapon, sidearm/light weapon, armor type (heavier to lighter), etc. Your own designs can be saved for use in later games, deleted from your "Army Customization Panel" in main lobby/game lobby, edited on the fly during a game, or whenever. After games, these blueprints can be looked at by other players, and your design could be widely used-with your username stamped on it! I think this would bring a lot more customization (along with load time and programming -.-) to the game, and I think would be a brilliant way to take unit construction in a whole new direction.

*If this has been done before, I have not noticed it.

 

It sounds like something that would be great for UMS maps and custom games. But it would not work for Starcraft II campaigns or multiplayer games - customizable units would be impossible to balance well.

 

Not really. Better weapons simply cost more, better armor is heavier which means slower speeds/higher cost, chassis have base costs depending on the level and size of said chassis, blatantly a heavy infantry will cost more than lighter infantry, and technical infantry would cost the most... ofc, in my game, its basically humans vs humans, so I guess starcraft would have problems with balancing the races... but im sure Blizzard would be able to do it-I just see it as a lot of programming and loading time.

 

Well yeah in your human vs. human game it'd be easier, but do you honestly think that with customizable units on top of three unique races Blizzard would be able to get the same sort of balance out of Starcraft II that they did in the original Starcraft? Even if hypothetically they could, it would take an incredible amount of work and delay the game significantly. I'd bet a lot of money that Blizzard won't even consider the idea.

 

I would make the same bet. It was just an idea i thought would be very... important in the macro part of the game.

 

I think it would be nice if we could choose two colors for ourselves like you can in the Homeworld and MechCommander posibl even allow the uploading of custom logos ut those wouldn't be visible on half of the units.

 

Unit-wise, I agree with the logo - not gonna work. However, a logo to go with your B-net profile would be nice. Dice-rolling for colors sounds just fine.

 

2 colors like in Homeworld and Homeworld 2 would be great! I always thought that was an amazing idea each time i went to start a custom game.

 

I totally agree with having two colors. It makes units look much more interesting and plus, you don't have to worry about someone taking a color you wanted to have. Also logos could just be on buildings or on large units such as BC's or MS's.

 

If this is to be done in a game, there would have to be major balancing work on behalf of the developing team to prevent players from abusing this. Players could simply make a sick ass army that's totally indestructible. But I think you mean "Race Customization" not "Army Customization." If that's the case, then that would be totally awesome. If players could create their own race, then they would be able to pick different roles for units, after also designing the units themselves. They could even make a "background" to tell a story about their race. Then, they could take their race online and play against other people with completely insane races. It would be very, very hard, though, on behalf of the dev team to make it so everyone's race is perfectly level...like making minimum and maximum numbers of different types of units...even so, this would be a near impossible game to make.

 

Wow, JRC, this is a great idea. I love customization in games, and this would make SC2 so awesome.

And yes, it would be sick to create your very own race.

 

It is an intresting idea, but i hate customable armies...
Either the system is too boring (like +5hp/+1dmg)
or totally unbalanced...
And it would also destroy the idea of developing new ideas, tactics, BO etc.

 

i think customizable abilities, damage, and defense could potentially make balancing tricky, requiring a system for adjustments - like a certain % increase in attack would lower defense by a corresponding %. the more that is customizable the harder to balance the changes, like if you allowed changes to attack, defense, speed, defense type, attack type, attack rate, turn speed, etc. also, it would be rather absurd to allow changes that, for instance, made a zealot the equivalent of an archon with different artwork and a smaller collision size. although that would make for some sweet zealots...or zerglings that matched ultralisks...OH YEA!

the only realistic unit attribute customizations i can think of are attack, defense, and speed, so there would have to be a relation defined between the 3 so that when one was changed, it would affect the other two to keep the unit balanced. the amount of effect that changing one attribute has on the other two would have to be balanced with patches, similar to current balancing issues.

for instance, increasing attack by 8% could either decrease armor by 8%, or the decrease could be split between speed and armor (4% and 4% or 3% and 5%; maybe the devision could be decided by the player), or speed could be decreased by 8%. again..i think it's possible...but i bet it would require sooo much testing to get the adjustment system functioning in a balanced manner.
*edit*
this would be like the one water elemental hero in DOTC..forget his name..the one that could swap between agility, intelligence, and strength - so the balancing would be similar to the system for that hero.

also, i guess there could be purchasing upgrades for separate units or groups of units, much like the individual battalion upgrades in BFME2, and that would require balancing between how good the upgrade was and it's cost.
maybe instead of buying an upgrade at your engineering building or w/e, you instead research an upgrade for free but must pay to apply it to a unit/group of units. thoughts? i think this might be more an annoyance than an improvement..because you have to keep buying and buying and clicking and clicking.

2 cents..
*end edit*

given that this was working right..and that's really hoping..i think i'd like it..not sure yet.


as to pampering the looks of your race...
unless it only affected the players units (which wouldn't be much fun) customizable 'camo' for units would require a small texture upload (and download by all players who wish to see it), same with custom flags, just like custom spays in CS. given the right file format, that wouldn't be such a big deal. this wouldn't even require any serious (if any at all) changes to the game engine, as custom textures can already be added to custom Warcraft III maps at a larger scale than what i think is being suggested here.

if you can't tell already, i'd love to see this sort of thing implemented!

anyway, there's my pitch. or rant. whatever.

 

I have another point: It would totally destroy lore...