And another thing!
Just reading the last part of the previous entry had me thinking about worker units costing resources that are used for military units. Grrr..... Command and Conquer: Generals, I am looking at you.
Riddle me this: Why, does the little GLA Worker, who constantly complains about not having shoes and has no weapon or defence at all cost $200 whilst the GLA Rebel, who has a gun and can attack the enemy cost $150?
Did the GLA Workers' diploma of Demolition Charge Construction cost $50? You didn't think to put them all in one class and get some kind of bulk discount? Hell, they don't have any shoes unless you buy them some for about $2000, so it can't be that. What is it? What makes them more expensive than an attack unit that I can use to kill my enemies with?
Lets take this, and put it in perspective.
Snipers, level 3 General upgrade for the US of A. Pop 'em into a humvee and go drive to Mr GLA's base. First up, all the guys sitting in the stinger towers (their defensive structure) get sniped. So they are no defence against this. Next up, lets drive by all the resource centers and barracks. *gunshot* *gunshot* *gunshot* *gunshot* . That's the sound of all your workers (at $200 a pop) getting sniped and any unlucky infantry at $150/$250 a shot. In fact, the most annoying thing about this, is that you don't even need an attack unit to kill the GLA workers. That's right, you can just take any vehicle unit (including your Bulldozer) and RUN THEM OVER! >_<
Bad game designers!
By the way, I feel I should shine some praise on Spellforce 2, as they did do some things right. First of all, the game is graphically very pleasing, there are some awesome effects. From the way your units and the landscape reflect in the water, to the way you can see your units warped reflections through crystal archways and icy pillars. It looks awesome. The unit textures and detail are good enough to be viewed way up close in cutscenes and not look bland at all. Oh, and surprising it loads in about 5 seconds. I really was taken aback about that. I mean normally the newer the game the more crazy stuff it's doing and the longer the load times, at least when compared to running the original on the same hardware, yet somehow the reverse is true here. SF2 loads easily 5 times faster than SF1. Next up is that they added in a sorely missing 'compare' feature when buying new items. You know the deal, mouse over the item you are interested in and it will automatically show how it compares to your current item equipped. Very nice, I liked that a lot as it was such a pain in SF1 gearing your guys up. Oh also, another neat thing is that your main hero will no longer stand idly by whilst being shot full of arrows. In SF1 your main hero did nothing unless you asked him/her to. Meaning that if you weren't paying attention or you were in a battle elsewhere when he got attacked (thus making it seem like the alarm sound was for your current battle not a new one) he wouldn't raise a hand to defend himself. In SF2 they will begin fighting back and move to engage the enemy unless you told them to stand still with 'H'.
Phenomic did do some nice things with the races, although I do miss the complete units trees from SF1. Basically all the races have formed alliances and are split into 3 groups now, each comprising units from 3 of the races, all with special abilities and uses. Plus the towers can be upgraded with abilities from each race. So playing the Realm grants you a standard defence tower. Once you begin going down the Human, Elven and Dwarf paths upgrades open up. The Human one makes the tower do more damage, the Elf one allows it to heal units nearby and the Dwarf one grants it more armour. That was neat, and the mixed units are neat too, but I really would like some more variety. Plus I miss the unit upgrades from SF1. The basic ability to be able to pump out some Paladins, or if you have enough resources and are in need of some fire resistance on them, buy the Fire Sword upgrade allowing them to do more damage and resist fire attacks. In SF2 it's clearly rock/paper/trolls.
Digit
====
"Can I kill nooooow?"
Riddle me this: Why, does the little GLA Worker, who constantly complains about not having shoes and has no weapon or defence at all cost $200 whilst the GLA Rebel, who has a gun and can attack the enemy cost $150?
Did the GLA Workers' diploma of Demolition Charge Construction cost $50? You didn't think to put them all in one class and get some kind of bulk discount? Hell, they don't have any shoes unless you buy them some for about $2000, so it can't be that. What is it? What makes them more expensive than an attack unit that I can use to kill my enemies with?
Lets take this, and put it in perspective.
Snipers, level 3 General upgrade for the US of A. Pop 'em into a humvee and go drive to Mr GLA's base. First up, all the guys sitting in the stinger towers (their defensive structure) get sniped. So they are no defence against this. Next up, lets drive by all the resource centers and barracks. *gunshot* *gunshot* *gunshot* *gunshot* . That's the sound of all your workers (at $200 a pop) getting sniped and any unlucky infantry at $150/$250 a shot. In fact, the most annoying thing about this, is that you don't even need an attack unit to kill the GLA workers. That's right, you can just take any vehicle unit (including your Bulldozer) and RUN THEM OVER! >_<
Bad game designers!
By the way, I feel I should shine some praise on Spellforce 2, as they did do some things right. First of all, the game is graphically very pleasing, there are some awesome effects. From the way your units and the landscape reflect in the water, to the way you can see your units warped reflections through crystal archways and icy pillars. It looks awesome. The unit textures and detail are good enough to be viewed way up close in cutscenes and not look bland at all. Oh, and surprising it loads in about 5 seconds. I really was taken aback about that. I mean normally the newer the game the more crazy stuff it's doing and the longer the load times, at least when compared to running the original on the same hardware, yet somehow the reverse is true here. SF2 loads easily 5 times faster than SF1. Next up is that they added in a sorely missing 'compare' feature when buying new items. You know the deal, mouse over the item you are interested in and it will automatically show how it compares to your current item equipped. Very nice, I liked that a lot as it was such a pain in SF1 gearing your guys up. Oh also, another neat thing is that your main hero will no longer stand idly by whilst being shot full of arrows. In SF1 your main hero did nothing unless you asked him/her to. Meaning that if you weren't paying attention or you were in a battle elsewhere when he got attacked (thus making it seem like the alarm sound was for your current battle not a new one) he wouldn't raise a hand to defend himself. In SF2 they will begin fighting back and move to engage the enemy unless you told them to stand still with 'H'.
Phenomic did do some nice things with the races, although I do miss the complete units trees from SF1. Basically all the races have formed alliances and are split into 3 groups now, each comprising units from 3 of the races, all with special abilities and uses. Plus the towers can be upgraded with abilities from each race. So playing the Realm grants you a standard defence tower. Once you begin going down the Human, Elven and Dwarf paths upgrades open up. The Human one makes the tower do more damage, the Elf one allows it to heal units nearby and the Dwarf one grants it more armour. That was neat, and the mixed units are neat too, but I really would like some more variety. Plus I miss the unit upgrades from SF1. The basic ability to be able to pump out some Paladins, or if you have enough resources and are in need of some fire resistance on them, buy the Fire Sword upgrade allowing them to do more damage and resist fire attacks. In SF2 it's clearly rock/paper/trolls.
Digit
====
"Can I kill nooooow?"