Hello, this post will explain what the difference between a good and bad mechanic is. Tyrantis123 here with a ton of examples and experience of over 120 different tittles including galactic civilization II, Starcraft II, Civilization V, Xcom enemy unknown, Rome total war, Empire total war, napoleon total war, Sim City 4, most of the stronghold series, All Monte Cristos games, Supreme commander 2, many tycoon games, capitalism, most of the Sims series, Fallout New Vegas, and many others that I don't feel like mentioning. I do both digital downloads and disc copies to those tittles that I think deserves my money.
Just look at my bedroom floor
Alright, so I may have spent way to much money on these things, but seriously, I think its about time we as a community to discuss what mechanics you have seen that are amazing, to hopefully give the development team a good idea of what people like.
Now now, lets get one thing strait, that this can be about any amazing mechanics from any game even if you don't believe it will work for this game. By telling everybody why you liked this part of the game it will help devs make sure that the target they are trying to hit will appeal to us gamers.
What you should be looking for in a good mechanic>
-A mechanic must function as flawlessly and effectively as possible (Since this is rts, I think this should take priority once the mechanics are made)
-A good mechanic helps you to get closer to victory and has advantages in specific situations (multiple victory conditions makes this task easier)
-Most good mechanics must have alternatives in case one method of using it is not possible (otherwise people get stuck in the game and nobody likes being trapped)
-it helps to show a mechanic visually (why do you think the health bars became so popular in all game types?)
First things first, lets go back in time to the most remember able mechanics I just love to talk about.
1. Star Wars: Empire at War -- The first thing that comes to mind is this amazing mechanic found in the space battles of Star Wars Empire at War where larger sized ships had multiple health bars for each part of the ship that has a function. This allows players to focus fire on a section of bigger scale ships giving fighters a distinct advantage over star destroyers. Each time you destroy a segment of a ship, you slow it down, cripple its fire power or shields and ultimately cripple super weapons or hanger bays that spawns fighters. Easily on my top ten list of best space game mechanic I have ever played.
-This mechanic was in a RTS game and can be calculated instantaneously
-This mechanic helps you increase your odds of winning a space battle and destroying the enemy defenses of a planet, making battle torn ships more vulnerable to destruction overtime.
-This mechanic gave you many many options and flexibility as whether you want to reduce firepower, speed, or crippling a ship so bad that it can no longer attack really helps speed up gameplay (this means that just because you have a imperial star destroyer, does not mean you are not vulnerable or weak, as bomber squads are cheap effective means of getting rid of this dangerous ship)
-All weak points are displayed visually when you mouse over the ship, and gives you further info when you mouse over a specific target point like the name and function if you hold it there for a while.
-This mechanic can be modified to weaken ships that are combat worn, that way its possible to take out a dread lords ship by having weapons that bypasses shields and do damage to specific ship components.
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I will add more of these good mechanics in updates, since it takes time and effort to explain why these mechanics are so great
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