You make some very good points. Here’s just a few clarifications on the concept:
When the games begins, I based this idea on the concept that your settlers are essentially starting from scratch, including their military prowess–they really wouldn’t know how to fight smart. As for an early goblin raid, it is likely that there will be alternatives for such problems besides pure military conquest–I believe there was a page in which we discussed dealing with goblins, particularly punishing a goblin thief, and one popular suggestion was the option to kill it or let it live for a ransom instead( @SteveAdamo, can you remember which one? I think it was a Development post). These sorts of interactions could save your settlers from an early Game Over, without relying completely on a military system.
Plus, with the proposed Defense Mode for normal settlers, your entire early population can be used to fight back in dire times. Because concepts such as Defense Mode or the Town Bell are so rudimentary and logical, I feel that they shouldn’t necessarily be tied to the Tactician and instead be available from the start. They could possibly be improved later on, such as increasing the settlers’ damage output or their ability to take a few hits.
That’s true. Some concepts might be more useful than others, but my hope is that such a system could be diverse enough that you wouldn’t have to rely on a “Titan-Buster”. It’d need some time to balance out–and of course, not be a critical component to enjoy the game. But for the players that want to have more combat or a higher difficulty, I’m sure Radiant will have those options at some point to really test out their tactics.
Like the Commands, I’m wondering if it would be better for the upgrades to also be limited by a certain amount at one time–the Tactician isn’t physically changing the units, but rather his/her “advice” is boosting the units’ effectiveness. That way, there’s more encouragement to mix and match abilities and decide on what’s most important for the situation. Think of it similar to the Bioshock series with Plasmids. On top of that, different armor and weapons can also then be applied for physical changes.
Thanks very much for all the good points so far. Part of my inspiration came from the Fire Emblem series, with the Tactician as the player’s personal class and my appreciation of its overall versatility–I’d like to see more units like that in games, since “tactics” in real-time strategies oftentimes seem to get pushed into static menus rather than be an integral part.
Plus, there’s something about the Awakening design that makes it one of my favorite RPG classes so far…
