So lately I have seen some videos on Youtube and also some forum posts suggesting that we should have unlockable vehicles in Halo Wars 2. While I respect other peoples ideas and opinions I think this is a terrible idea, an idea so terrible I feel it would ruin the game for me and many other fans. I really hope this topic gets some traction because I think it is important the developers see this, so please read on and if you have anything to add or critique please JUST DO IT!
Reasons Why Unlockable Units is a Bad Idea
1: It didn’t work for other games. There was a series (not gonna name it because I’m not sure if that’s against forum rules) that was the pinnacle of RTS games for quite some time, it in it’s last installment among many other mistakes decided to implement the idea of unlockable units. The concept was that as you completed matches you ranked up and as you ranked up you unlocked whatever units required whatever rank. This was bad because if you were new to the game or didn’t have time to play alot, you couldn’t use the higher tiered units, so for instance say in Halo Wars 1 you need to be the rank of lieutenant to use scorpions (and don’t say "I didn’t even use those, it’s just an example) if you were a sergeant and your opponent was a general, well you didn’t have a good day. Another example, lets say you in Halo 5 are the rank of Gold 3, say the game now wont let you use any REQs in Warzone above level 4 because your not a high enough rank (Gold 3 vs say Platinum 4) that’s not very fun now is it.
2: Traditional RTSs don’t have them (From my experience)
Part of what makes RTS games so strategic is the fact that in order to get an advantage over your opponent you can destroy certain unit producing structures (like a barracks to stop your enemy from building infantry) With unlockable units I think the tacticul value of destroying production strutures could be diminished if they had any of the unlockable units available through the main firebase/hub/building factory (however they choose to set up your central structure).
3: Unlock Trees in Session
In other RTS games I play (Including HW1) you needed to build up in tec level to get better units, this was done by building new buildings (some games you couldn’t get an air pad until you had a radar building), or you would have to upgrade pre-existing buildings (IE Temple from HW1)
This is why I think unlockable units is a bad idea please respond with your thoughts and hopefully this is seen by the developers.
i think this i a moot conversation. RTS’s are about the balance, and units that some players could not work up to would throw the balance big time.
The closest they would even consider to this is unit skins and cosmetic changes to abilities. For example at level 7 you can unlock purple Spartans and warthogs with funny horns. or maybe a new Leader character once you get really high up that doesn’t have any more to it than any of the others but is a badge of honor, an example being if you couldn’t play as the Brute Leader until you beat the game on legendary in the first game.
anything outside of that sort of thing would be game breaking, and they have got to know that.
I dislike the idea of unlockable units but perhaps we could have a unlockable leader? I disliked the fact that there was a small amount of leaders to choose from when playing the first Halo Wars. I want there to be more selection, cosmetics maybe? but i feel like a reward system should be implemented like, for your performance you should get an x amount of credits or such. I feel like that was a small problem for me as they was nothing to earn in the first game except to progress thru your rank. And then it could sometimes be a problem. If people see they are against a general or something they would immediately quit…
I feel like if it was something small like when playing as the arbiter you can chooose different skin or the spartans having different armor that would be fine but anything more and its gonna cause problems cause you couldnt have anything above level 1 being better cause that wouldnt be fair if you had to start later on in the games life cycle i mean imagine starting halo 3 and being stuck with the ar until level 30… that would ruin your fun it would mean you would just get owned constantly…no fun
i doubt that unlock able vehicles will work like your scorpion example. I would be fine with unlock able units in a way that is fare and balanced. I doubt they are dumb enough to make a way off balance unit progession system after all the hype they are putting into this. I expect this game to be solid though i don’t believe it will match the first halo wars. personal id love to see the same elements of halo wars with larger maps/players/units etc. but i doubt it they wana do it their way. I’m sure they will do a good job
Unlock-able units killed C&C, a famous RTS genre(4), It makes sense to make a campaign that works slowly to incorporate a more complex strategy and ease people into it, not forcing newbies to face off with just marines and warthogs.
A game that does something like this is Call to Arms, a modern-day version of the widely popular Men of War RTS series on PC. Needless to say, not many people play the game because of it. People at the highest level have astronomically better units than those that are beginners, and beginners get kicked out of games because they have so few units. If this happens, no one will play HW2 multiplayer.