Suggestion Variations on Grooves to add depth to Commanders

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Gimmedacloyster, Feb 9, 2019.

  1. Gimmedacloyster

    Gimmedacloyster Tentacle Wrangler

    So I like the game. Reminds me of advance wars in all the best ways but there's just one thing that it is missing in comparison...... there isn't enough actual variation between Commanders and gameplay styles. In Advance Wars your choice of CO was EVERYTHING. It completely changed your style of gameplay. In the early Advance Wars games playing as Max vs playing as Grit, or hell even Sami would change the entire strategies you'd use in battle. In Days of Ruin which is closer to Wargrooves "Commanders". The CO's had passives that effected certain units in different ways around them which changed gameplay dramatically.

    In Wargroove..... the commander doesn't really change much honestly. There are no passives. The powers are .... underwhelming honestly. In Advance Wars if you get a CO Power the tide of war could change dramatically, "suddenly all my ranged units can attack +2 squares away". In Wargroove I can summon a 100 gold "infantry" that can maybe move a little further and capture a base.


    Possible ideas for variations or changes:


    • Access to more than one groove in battle with different effects.
      Mercia for instance could heal for defensive purposes or have access to something with a bit more offensive flare. Valder could summon a skelly, or maybe consume some gold and revive a few units at 80% health near him etc etc... different utility depending on the situation. Would also make PVP harder to predict what they'll use.

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    • Equip different grooves "before" battle
      Could have abilities that focus on specific units, or other support skills. Would add variety to single player campaigns and gameplay and make it harder to predict your opponents play style in PVP.
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    • Have 2nd levels of grooves.
      Introduced later in advanced wars they have CO powers and super CO powers. If a normal grooves effects are able to turn the tide of a single skirmish then you could add a higher tier of groove you'd have to wait for which could change the tide of battle even further. Do you use you're groove quickly to try to gain an advantage or do you wait and try to make one big push to gain ground against you're opponent. Capture a base, kill their commander etc.

      That or have even give it a risk reward aspect. It's powerful and far reaching but it makes you're commander unable to move next turn, or consumes HP, sacrifices some of your units, lowers your defense, offense or movement temporarily etc etc...

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    • Give Commanders a Passive Buff when a groove is charged
      This was similar to AW Days of Ruins but this idea would be a variation that it only activates when the Groove is charged compared to when a CO is on the field. If a Commander has a groove charged give them a passive buff that effects a certain number of tiles from them. The number of tiles and effect could vary character to character or they could effect certain units etc etc..... if you have a 2nd tier of groove maybe increase the AOE or have the passive affect other units on top of the original Tier 1. Example: Tier 1 affects Soldiers defense, Tier 2 affects pikeman.

      etc etc.... I'm just throwing out ideas rather than concrete suggestions.


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    • Any of these changes could bring out the Commanders personalities. Valders a necromancer, play on that fact. Make him raise more of the dead. Mercias a Queen have her buff her troops with inspiration, etc etc.... any of these or other ideas for grooves could add to the depth of gameplay for what commander you choose.

    In competitive games people always strive to find a perfect PVP balance. But I feel they often try so hard to make everything perfectly balanced that they lose the actual variation in gameplay mechanics that makes these games fun.


    • Make commander modding doable to achieve such things?
      I have little experience with modding, but having custom commanders with editable grooves via mods at the very least would make the game go from "Meh" to amazing. Such a thing doesn't exist now but hopefully in the future.

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    Folks could list ideas for variations, 2nd tier grooves etc below. Why not? Could be fun.
     
      Last edited: Feb 9, 2019
      Couch Tomato likes this.
    • aiscool

      aiscool Poptop Tamer

      "Give Commanders a Passive Buff when a groove is charged"

      That's a fantastic idea. It's an incentive to not use their ability. Whether it effects allies in the area or a global buff (like AW). That would create some good decisions.
       
        Jim Witness likes this.
      • Gimmedacloyster

        Gimmedacloyster Tentacle Wrangler

        aiscool likes this.
      • Fadedsun

        Fadedsun Astral Cartographer

        This looks VERY interesting. Chucklefish, take note! I know this is why CF implemented the ability to mod the game ,but I would like it if the vanilla version of the game got an interesting update like this in the future. I agree with the above post that choosing commanders doesn't feel all that important. A groove can't always turn the tides in a big way as much as you'd hope it would. Giving commander different attack/defense/movement, etc. is a big step towards changing how you decide which commander to use.

        I was explaining on a Discord channel today how in AW I could look at a map and easily make my decisions about which CO I wanted to use based on map layout/terrain/amount of properties, etc. In WG, this isn't as simple due to commanders not feeling vastly different.

        Adding an edit to emphasize how good that mod looks. I think this is what WG should have been all along!
         
          Last edited: Mar 1, 2019
        • Aerok777

          Aerok777 Space Hobo

          Oh man, if this game had CO passives like Kanbei and Colin from Advance Wars I fear I will never play another game. I can only imagine one of the Felheim COs having a CO ability like that one old paratrooper guy. Man, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this awesome game. It does Advanced Wars so much justice that it brings a tear to my eye. I enjoyed AW: Days of Ruin the least (I enjoyed the cartoony graphics and style of the first Advanced Wars up to the third one) and remembered returning it to EBGames within the first hour or so, so I don’t know what features were there. Dual Strike was awesome though and my favorite one. I think in there they also had two tiers of CO abilities like you stated. Maybe Wargroove can expand/upgrade and add a third tier where an ability is global instead of tiles? For instance I like healing hurt units but it seems like a downgrade that units have to be close to the commander or certain units to heal. I understand that it’s probably like that for balance for pvp and I guess it’s just the rose colored glasses of nostalgia that make me miss Andy even though when I was a child I thought he was basic and useless. I also like your idea of variable CO ability customization. To play on your idea I think something that would enhance the replay value and maybe add some light grinding elements is to have something like a “skill tree” for the two (or three) tiers of CO abilities by leveling up your favorite commanders after each battle by using them more frequently. For example, playing matches as Caesar and gaining exp after an online match or quick play/arcade where when you reach level 5 with him, you are able to choose/set to summon 2 dogs when using the tier 1 ability instead of being able to move again before battle. This would encourage competitive play/meta as well as dedication to master your favorite commander and try out other commanders on the side to know the enemy. And to those who are worried about balancing issues, maybe an option to disable CO skillset customization to keep it standard or even go the OTHER way and have a game mode where everything is unlocked except for CO abilities that can only be obtained from completing Arcade mode challenges with that CO. I don’t know. I just love the heck out of this game.
           
          • Beefster

            Beefster Poptop Tamer

            I miss having passives, but what you're asking for with the extra grooves pretty much makes Wargroove a completely different game. Save it for modders.
             

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