The sheer audacity and stupidity of several of users here has made me register and account, so that I can contribute as to why "Hey, this sounds cool, they should add that!" ideas are NOT good ideas.
My first point is that Robot kept the game simple for a REASON. Halo's fanbase is mostly made up of trigger happy teens who use obscenities the way a hooker uses contraceptives. Liberally and with enough redundancy to make FEMA blush. The game was therefore made to appeal to Halo's fanbase and NOT to the RTS fanbase (i.e. StarCraft, Age of Empires and Command & Conquer). Thus the simplistic design and easy to handle designs.
My second point is that it's all good and well to want MORE from a game. Just keep it reasonable. "It would be cool if we had more leaders like X" is a good way of showing your support for Robot and providing feedback. "We need massive armies and big guns and lots of spaceships that go PEW PEW PEW PEW" is NOT a good way to provide feedback. We ALL want more, but each part added, means that something else needs to be cut, as there simply isn't enough time and space to have EVERYTHING we want.
And on to replies of other people's "ideas" for Halo Wars 2.
UNBELIEVABLE:heres a list of ideas on how to make a good HW2.1.custom armies- you can customise your units and team. of course there are default teams but a slot either side for your unique team.this includes units upgrades,powers,ecobonus
This is addressed by the Leaders. Each Leader is has unique powers and abilities, which makes them ideal for different tactics as well as strong/weak vs other leaders.
While having more customization would be good, it would be better to have things a bit more streamlined. Successful RTS games for the console were non-existent before Halo Wars and with time, as a larger console RTS fanbase builds, I'm sure there will be games with much more customization, but at this moment (and in the near future) RTSs are still being introduced and lots of FPS gamers need to learn basic strategies and the ideas of WHAT an RTS really is.
UNBELIEVABLE: 2.intorduce territory-this makes fight for land very competive.split up map into squares,red is enemy,green is allied,white is neutral.to capture remove all enemy STRUCTURES not troops and build an outpost inside.
Land grabbing is a basic RTS strategy even in Halo Wars. Man people will be aggressive and build a base right next to the enemy so that their units can get into combat sooner. Many maps, like Docks and Exile, are VERY susceptible to early Base grabs on the enemies side and forcing them to expend resources on building an army to take out the base, while at the same time stagnating their economy.
UNBELIEVABLE:3.fixed bases - get rid of them,they ruin it ,start with an outpost that makes engineers and mongooses.free build would be much better.
It was planned to allow freeform building and the game was developed as such, but late game testing showed that this was NOT a good idea as it would complicate the game for many beginners to putting off extreme. Having fixed bases made it much easier for new RTSers to get a feel for the game as well as make the game more strategic. Having bases placed in easily defended areas made it easier to stop rushes, as well as prevent people getting boxed in with enemy buildings (i.e. turrets, which could be built to a near infinite number in the free form testing)
Another problem was from the technical point of view as each map had to be tested for building glitches as well as unit glitches. This would increase the cost and time to produce any further DLC.
UNBELIEVABLE:4.leader powers- cut covi leader powers,replace with support powers. makes the game more even.eg - mega turret barrage or a blast from covi ship.
Covenant Leader Powers were made because people ENJOY (go figure) have a super unit on the field that does massive damage and is hard to kill. As stated at Counterpoint 1, the Leaders all lead to different strategies and different styles of play. I have played games where I enjoyed flying around as a 3 Star Prophet of Regret and harassing enemy buildings, as well as games as Captain Cutter, where I laugh myself silly when I Mac Blast someone's Scarab.
The UNSC Support Powers and the Covenant Leader Powers are nicely balanced. UNSC's Powers are brutal, to the point and devastating to large armies, but they have a long cool down time, which the enemy can use to his advantage. Covenant Leader Powers are weaker in comparison, but more effective in the long run. But they're nothing a good Disruption bomb and some well placed units can't easily stop.
UNBELIEVABLE:5.more leader powers- UNSC-carpet bomb,mac, cyro,napame bomb(leathal vs air, infantry and light vehicles)emp bomb ( no effect on infantry ,stuns air and vehicles for twice the time of cyro)for covi= ship blast of some sort,plasma bomb(= to nabame bomb) mega turret barrage.
You wish to cut Covenant Leader Powers yet add more Support Powers, simply because you PERSONALLY may not enjoy playing as Covenant. While that is an okay opinion, in no way does that serve to better the game. Please refrain from making claims that these "ideas" make "HW2 is destined for sucsess". The fans, not a single person or even development team, decide whether the game is a success or not.
UNBELIEVABLE:6. 5 tech levels-why? it adds more upgrades, it spreads the units better(tech 0- just marines,engineers,tech1-scouts,marines,anti infantry units,engineers,tech2-more adv infantry, light vehicles.tech3 - only difference is all infantry and scorps and hornets avalible.tech4- more adv vehicles and air.tech 5 - everything.
The units are ALREADY spread out very nicely. Most units can be built at Tech 2 while, the upgrades that make those units stronger are available at higher tech levels. This makes a fine balance of whether one goes for the early, weak army in hopes that the enemy isn't prepared or whether one can pump out that one vital upgrade JUST as one attacks/defends.
A threesome may SOUND good in theory, but is a hassle in reality. Having more stuff may sound good in theory, but how much of this will be used? (i.e. the Ghost/Chopper: The least used unit of Halo Wars)
UNBELIEVABLE:6 long reactor builds- by this i mean,first reactor = 2 mins,second = 5 mins more,third= 7 mins, forth= 10mins,fifth=12mins to build.this encourages early war ,rushes and discourages turtles.
Halo Wars already discourages turtles with the Rock, Paper, Scissors build. A turtle will rarely be able to scout the enemy and build units to counter an attack. In addition, if the attacker concentrates ALL his fire power on the base, he can usually take it down, yet sustain heavy losses. At this point, the attacker rebuilds his army and wipes out the remaining troops of the turtle.
If you're referring to turtles who wait for an attack, wipe out the attacking army and quickly counter attack, then that's called STRATEGY. This usually only occurs if the attacker doesn't scout and pushes his army into a losing battle.
UNBELIEVABLE:7.pop limit- every sector captured adds pop,start off at 100. massive wars, yes.
Massive Wars, no. Halo Wars wasn't designed to pit huge armies against each other, but to let the individual skill of players shine, with their micro managing skills, as well as smart decisions regarding economy, military and technical conflicts. Spamming units is NOT skill, albeit it IS a strategy.
UNBELIEVABLE:8.unit pop-infantry very low(1-2) light vehicles(2-4),air (6-8) heavy vehicles(6-8), uber units (15-20),why, makes infantry very appealing to use.gets rid of full pop vehicles or air.but vehicles and air must be made unbelievablely powerful so they seem worth it.and uber units have to kill an army by itself.
Well.... You seem to HATE Covenenant leaders, yet you wish uber units that are so "unbelievablely powerful" that they can "kill an army by itself". So you want units that are more powerful than the Scarab? That seems to be utterly pointless. What would be nice is if Robot added more units that have specialized roles (i.e. the Brood Wars expansion of StarCraft). Specifically, I would enjoy to have those Rebel Snipers as an alternative to the Flame Throwers, although it IS just the Jackal with a different skin.
UNBELIEVABLE:9.rock paper scissors- didn't work in HW, dont try again.
It did work. In fact it worked VERY well. Building counter units is a just another basic RTS strategy. In fact, it's a basic rule of life! Any RTSer worth his salt will scout the enemy, just as they will try to remain unscouted. Knowing what the enemy is building lets you build to win. If there were no counter units, then there would only be need for a single unit and the game would revolve around who could make the most units in the shortest time.
UNBELIEVABLE:10.new game types- some infestion one where the first team to get to a certain forerunner building turns into a flood team that never runs out of men and all enemy are limited to tech3 and last one to survive wins.(not including flood)also king of the hill would be great and a free for all.
The DLC showed that more is not better. Despite new game modes, over 90% of people still only play Standard. A FFA gametype would be very nice, but FFA revolves around turtling, which you seem to absolutely hate. Thus I don't see why you're even proposing it.
UNBELIEVABLE:11. equality- make unsc and covi equal its stupid having covi weak.
Why is it stupid? Like I have said before, it provides for different play styles. As UNSC you have less but more powerful units. As Covenant, you have more but weaker units. At max population caps, armies will mostly fight to a draw (if both players are at an equally high level).
UNBELIEVABLE:thats all i can think of for now, i will draw up a set of equal teams for covi and unsc later.(it would be brill if somone from robot comments on these ideas,if they used these ideas HW2 is destined for sucsess) if you disagree with anything please say, the more we fine tune these ideas the better they become.
Well, at the end of it all, it seems the majority of your ideas aren't ways to improve Halo Wars 2, but simply things you personally didn't like about the game. Yes, there are things that I don't like (i.e Brute Rushes, people quiting early and the rather unbalanced matchmaker) but these aren't things that are ignored by Robot or Ensemble. They DID do their best but not everything is perfect and not EVERY situation can be predicted and circumvented.
While there is room for improvement, a complete overhaul of the game isn't what's needed. Fine tuning of existing units and abilities, as well as the addition of some units and structures is what would entice players to the game.
Maybe an additional building that builds special units? A variety of mutually exclusive upgrades, i.e. Movement Boost OR Damage Boost OR Health Boost. Things that will make people have small tactical differences against their opponents. Halo Wars isn't about massive armies and huge super units, but about using your resources to the best of your ability to out maneuver, out trick and out build your enemy! Victory goes to those that adapt on the battlefield.
Halo Wars 2 should continue the lineage of streamlined menus and units as well as in depth tactical game play.
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
- Marcus Aurelius