Hello fellow Forum writers,

Me and my Friend Roach have been reading this forums for sometime now, and registered recently.

We were disscussing the balances within the game, then it struck us. The focus of Water based units in these forums has been really low. (or it has passed me by )

If lucas arts has put so much effort into making such diverse game, then surely they would have upgraded the whole sea battle scene.
From the Days of AOE2, sea battles have allways been lame, (cept if you have longboats ;) )
With the addition of air in the game, will players bother with the limited sea units? Units that can only travel on water?
Will the "sea map" be an out-dated battlefeild, compared to the unristricted use of air.
Now dont get me wrong, I can only presume, because like others (i think), have only played the one stupid map that comes with the demo. And that has a petty amount of water in it, so dont take what i say as a final conclusion, more as an observation.
A thought to finish on, What major part in the game will water units play? Compared to the unristricted, but fragile air units?
Only time will tell.....

The water will come good in multiplayer gungan v gungan I think ;) though I doubt I'll be using many water based units, certainly not offensive ones anyway.

Well, seeing as a got a mention in the first post, i thought i'd better post my two cents on the whole ordeal.

In AOK, i loved water. I always wanted to play, but unfortunatly certain friends didnt so we always ended up playing land maps, particularly Arabia. The main problem they had with water was the cannon galleon, being able to level entire bases with ease from afar. Im not sure whether there is going to be a cannon galleon equivalent in GB, but if there is, i am sure that there won't be a problem with it. Air units will only increase the ability to take down boats, save the anti-air ones.

Also, water maps were usually restricted to people going only a handful of civilisations, those with bonusues. I am hoping that water maps in GB will be playable by all races, or at least those with good air ability, as well as those who excell on water. Its things like these that will really make the game stand out, and make it more fun all round.

it's all about diversity, folks..
water gives players another option of attack. imagine yourself preparing yourself for all those attacks you like yourself... and then getting your water-side buildings completely smashed by a sea-force (that, incidentally, includes units that CAN bring down air-units)...
that's what makes for a rounded game imo.

guys in AOK water was your most precious recourece if it was beside your base ud better get ships on it for dfense if it was by ur opponents ud bettter get to that so u can take down the base



i also noticed in the demo that air units arent as strong as i thought they would be so the emphesis on sea is going to be much greater


and without a treb like unit teh cannon galeon equivalent is going to be the most impostant unit in the game with the ability of long range and huge firepower



my strategy with a game is dont complain about it try to adapt and learn what units are good where and so forth


well i think i got my ummmm about 5 cents in there

Originally posted by JEDI_MASTA
and without a treb like unit teh cannon galeon equivalent is going to be the most impostant unit in the game with the ability of long range and huge firepower

There is a treb equivanlent, the laser cannon.

However, i think that sea has always been an outdated battlefield in all rts's. I remember hating the Pearl Harbor mission in RA2 because it forced you to use water.

I wouldn't mind a bit if this game had only ground units, no air and no sea.

when u play a "water map" or make 1.....they will have a lot of use

Once again, i make the point, I am not out to slander water units, I am just questioning the usefullness in this game.

I can see that there will be pivital momments in a game when the use of water will save your arse, I am not quite sure they will be as usefull as compared to AoK.
I aslo hope that the combat in water will be more diverse insted of galleon v galleon, where whoever gets the first shot wins.

Aslo it is with great displeasure to see people say the air units aren't strong enough!:mad: :mad: :mad:

You just need some brains to use them!

well, water can be important. i guess it all depends on what map you play on as well as who you play (gungans). however, if you expose a certain weakness of your base to water, you could be asking for a whooping. i just think there's more variety in terms of strategy when you add water and air units. that's why i think aok and starcraft are the two best rts game i've played, tactical variety...

They have a purpose. Some people would maybe not excpect a sea attack. I had one kill me in a tournament. I lost badly. They also provide another way to land troops. You could land them from 2 directons, increasing your chances of killing them. That is a sueful tactic in a DM match.

The only thing I'll use water units for is to kill Gungans. I like ground units better.

A naval attack can take a player for surprise... say with the rebels, you will be able to kill a lot of units if they aren't expecting you to attack from there.

You must remember Gaber's report a while back...

He said he had his arse handed to him because he didn't care about his opponent's Gungan navy...

"If you turn your eyes from the snake it will come up and bite you"
--------------------Me

It all depends on what map your playing.....

If the people choose not to play water maps, thats there loss. ;)

I played a little bit of AOK, but never got to use the navy. The only time I even got to the water was to get fishes. Now I was never really good at AOK, but most of the battles didn't envolve water maps. The only RTS that I played where navy maps were used a lot was Total Annihilation (TA), still to me the best rts that I've played, granted I only played a few RTS. TA had maps specifically for navies. One of them, Metal Isles, was a #1 played map, including many other maps that included water. I enjoyed playing with navies. It was a good balance in the game. I can only hope that the integration of GB's navies will be similar to TA's navies. I also hope that one civ's navy isn't that much of a handicap, but I know for certain that the Gungans will be superior.

P.S. Are there any fellow ex TAers out there, and how did you like TA compared to other RTS.

The porblem with navies are that they cant go everywhere so many people dont like them. I hope those cannon galleons arn't in it. They own everything in the water. Too bad there isnt any submarines.