Had a cracker of an idea this morning as I woke up,

Quite simple really, rather than handing powerful upgrades to brand new units that have just been created, apply them to units based on certain ranks of veterancy. You would still need to unlock the upgrades by whatever method it's done, but the upgrades wouldn't take effect on units until the required rank has been met.

An arbitrary example might look like:

(Archer)
Rank 0 - nothing, normal stats
Rank 1 - fire arrows upgrade
Rank 2 - rate of fire upgrade
Rank 3 - accuracy upgrade
Rank 4 - range upgrade
Rank 5 - explosive fragments (light AoE damage in addition to normal damage against primary target)

I stress 'arbitrary'. Nothing's to say there will be upgrades like that at all, that's just what I came up with for an example.

Instead of making veteran units better they are now technically skilled enough to carry upgrades, seems like a good idea.

As long as when you purchase the upgrade it gets automatically given to any unit with the needed rank.

A neat idea, but there could be balance issues.

Like if you just lost a battle, his army will have more upgraded units while anything you build to try and kill them won't, regarless if you have the same upgrades and what not.

Mike

What if some sort of mage unit could cast a large AoE 'amnesia' spell on an enemy army? Temporarily disables all upgrades and veterancy for a period of time, during which rank 0 units have a level playing field. The spell could have a long cooldown before it can be used again, otherwise people would just spam it all the time I guess.

Coffee!! I need more coffee.

Fire arrows should definetly be some kind of upgrade and not something gained by veterancy IMHO.

I think the point is that it is an upgrade that you have to purchase, but only veteran units can use it.

Yes I know. All units you buy fire arrows for should get it, not just veteran units.

When I suggested veterancy everyone started raging about that you would have to babysit your army, this suggestion would promote babysitting, a lot more than simple veterancy.

I agree with Chosan on this one, sorry. Veteran units are rare unless you take the time to baby sit them or they are mega units. There's no point in putting in purchasable upgrades that are for Veterans only.... It's a waste.

I guess. But then, veterancy was never fully realized in SupCom2 either because regular units died so quick. Alright, what if some upgrades ignored veterancy and some used it?

Make the really good ones apply regardless of veterancy, but have one or two that could only be gained through combat experience, things like accuracy, attack speed and armor penetration.

The Supremilated mod used veterancy to buff damage, range, and RoF of units on top of health and regen.

IMO, it didn't work out very well at all: The game degenerated into an ACU rush to spam overcharge at everything and grab. veterency. It was at that point I stopped playing that mod, and started pondering how to do gameplay myself.

It's also debatable how worthwhile it is to micro individual veteran units when so many units are spammed.

I think every unit should gain vet, but not related to upgrades, a vet system similair to BFME or cnc would be awesome.
Some important things about veterancy though,

Clear levels, like 1-5 levels, so that you can clearly see when a unit gains vet.

Veterancy gained should be related to how big/strong/expensive unit you kill.

No instant health boosts, instant health boosts is what made veterancy such a failure in FA, monkeylord going on killspree for example...

Hmm? If you were throwing at MLs the mass of units they needed for any more than one veterancy rank, you were using the wrong damn units. Harbingers and mobile shields for Aeon, Percys for UEF, Bricks and other MLs for Cybran, and Ythotha/Othuums for Seraphim. Strategic Bombers for anyone who felt like it. If you were throwing T.2 and T.1s at a ML, it deserved to get infinite veterancy.

I dislike how lower tch levels get obsolete in FA, that sucked and hopefulla KnC won't be like that. The veterancy instant health boosts was a ridicilous awful feature that made low tech units even more useless.

TBH, only tanks and AA became irrelevant. Late game I'd still do a mass Lobo drop if I saw the chance, since it was a low cost exercise and since those things could do MASSIVE damage. Utility units never lost use, and it took until VERY late game that you stopped seeing T.1 scouts, as they are certainly cheaper and build faster, until you get to the point of the game where you have to build 20 mavors with 200 Hives apiece to get anywhere close to +0

Nevertheless, instant health boosts when you gain vet was an awful feature.