Since it's my first post, I'll take this opportunity to say that I love the game! I bought it off the website the minute I realized that the demo had me more hooked than Warcraft 3, X-Com, and Star Control 2 combined.

Anyways, on to the (official) point of the post: a couple of commands that would be nice to see in Massive Assault.

First would be a "fire" command for the Carrier. I know that carriers have no guns, but instead of having the Carrier itself fire, it would have all remaining airplanes go out and attack that target. For example:

A fully-loaded carrier has several targets within range, one of which is a Firestorm at 2 health. One plane was moved there that turn, and a second is selected individually and sent to bomb a target of its own (as is done now). Then, instead of doing the same for the other Bombers, the player simply selects the Carrier and orders it to attack the Firestorm. This automatically launches the two remaining Bombers and has them bomb the Firestorm, sinking it in four less clicks.


The second suggestion would be about the key that selects the next unused unit ("N", I believe). In X-Com, there is a command to select the next unit and remove the current one from the list, so that a unit that you want merely to sit there will do so without bothering you, and that ability would be a nice addition. This would be especially nice for Guard Towers that are nowhere near the fighting. For example:

A player is hitting the "next unused unit" key to cycle through unused units in a pitched battle. However, it keeps selecting an LAV sitting in a rearward capital guarding the Bombers stationed there. So, because he wants the LAV to sit there and keep the Bombers safe, he tells the game to ignore it so that he can concentrate on the Tanks and Heavy Bots on the embattled front.


*Note: The examples are for clarification because I often don't realize when I'm making NO sense whatsoever.

1) added a feature request for fire command

2) I think that we'd better fix the 'n' key and guard towers issue

Cool! I'm glad that I could find a way to try and help.

Not just for carriers, but implementing a way for all remaining bombers from a capital to attack a single target would be nice as well.

Also, while now there is a reminder system in place that will go "This unit has not fired" could there also be a system that says "This unit has not moved"?
I often forget to move certain units that I crucially needed to move half way through my recruitment phase, and just keep hitting rewind a lot till I get there, undoing all my recruitments.

I agree, I've forgotten to move units before, and I don't see any easy way to tell whether I have moved a unit without clicking them all one by one, or trying to trace tracks.

In fact, some way to tell whether a unit has moved or not would be handy. The reminder would be essential.

Use the "N" key to cycle through all the units that haven't moved or fired yet. That'll cue you in to all the units you're looking for (unless you plan to reposition a unit that's already fired).

Right, but still sometimes we're just plain forgetful.

And since a reminder for "hasn't fired" is already in there it would make sense for a "hasn't moved" reminder to also be in place.
Although I will have to try that N thing from now on.

This is my first post here as well. I bought the game a couple of days ago and can't stop playing. Massive Assault reminds me of the playability of the old, old games in the days of 8bit graphics but with stunning scenery (that's a compliment, btw). It must have been hard not to include submarines, paradrops, and the myriad of other specialist units. The game is great as is. Finally a game that knows when to stop adding bits and pieces. Well done!

I like Artanis's suggestions. Perhaps a 'G' key for units on guard, then the unit becomes automatically active if it can be attacked next turn (same as the shift key).

I would also like to be able to control the set-up of the World Wars before they start. To be able to specify how many secret allies for each side would be a good way to change the difficulty level.
Also changing the number of different city classes, placed randomly, before the game starts.

Thanks again for a great game!

The game is great, but I do feel that the world wars are starting to become abit standard after playing so many games, a few more options at the start would be good such as
guerilla strengths
turns for reinforcements (maybe only getting it every othe turn)
Number of SA's to reveal on Turn 1

And As I'm One of the developers of the Clan War I'd also be interested in ways of making one side have an advantage either thru extra SAs or extra starting credits etc..

Altho all this should be put into low priority when compared to creating new maps, I'm sure lots of people would be happy to help test new maps for balance issues.

I think a map editor would do the community wonders.

Take a look at http://massiveassault.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=273

This isn't a first person shooter, where maps are by far easier to build, and its easy to have world editors. All a FPS map needs is a world model, and you can create those with some free programs out there. Massive assault is hex based, so is quite a bit more complex, as how the game plays out is very highly linked to the layout of the map.

The fact that MA is fully 3d makes it a lot more difficult to deal with than RTS map editors as well. Its not a simple task to just go and plop down terrain in a 3d environment.

In short, the very reason this game is so gorgeous makes it difficult to design a map editor along with it. For it to be remotely possible for a 3d game with the map so integrated with the gameplay, the map file itself would have to be a custom work of incredible complexity. Warcraft III was able to do it, but Blizzard's got more resources at its disposal than you can shake a stick at. Massive Assault was created by an independant 3rd party company with limited resources. I think they made the right decision in focusing on making the game look so good, rather than spending countless hours trying to build a map editor.

I can understand that providing a full map editor would be a daunting prospect for the developers, not just because of the mesh modelling and the graphic map for the planet, but also because I think they would need to do most of the map dynamics before they even start the graphics. Most other map editors allow you to build the graphics first, and then the regions can be defined by what the graphics have done. In MA I think they would have needed to work out the hex dynamics first, then built the graphics around these - which leaves much more room for error.

Perhaps the developers could provide some tools that interested parties could use to build the dynamics of the hexes and their borders, and then players in the on-line community who can work the 3D could generate the mesh and graphic map for each planet with some guidelines from the developer of what the final map needs to saved as (resolution both of mesh and graphics). And perhaps they could provide some of the terrain models such as trees and cities for the model.