Here's another idea:

#8 temporary units and orbital abilities. By this I mean units and orbitals that aren't always in the game, or at least aren't always available in every game. These special units and orbitals could be released with DLC or at regular intervals.

Here are some ideas/notes/variations. 

- There could be one temp unit/orbital added short term for each faction (a season, a month, a quarter, or whatever), and one added longer term (a year). At end of year, players could vote on the new longer term unit/orbital that they would like to have in their long term slot (from those already released). Logic here is that RTS players love to complain about the weaknesses of their favorite faction, and this would give them the ability to have a little control.

- The temporary units could be introduced to multiplayer. The main ranked league would focus on the currently released series of temporary units.

- There could be a separate ranked league that allows players to pick their temporary unit from those already released (and available to the player?). The player would select the preferred unit (blind to what the other player is choosing) at the start of the match. There could be a random selection option too. The player choice could be announced to the opponent at the start of the match ("radar reports that the other faction is using XX technology"). This could add another layer of strategy to the game (and opportunity for bluff). It's easy to imagine top players making "signature" choices.  

 - You could also enable creation of matches with custom troop configurations, chosen from all standard and temporary units/orbitals (more diversity of units and orbitals). You could also introduce "quick pick" configurations of popular unit combos. And of course, randomized selection could be an option too.

- You could obviously do same in single player. Total customization of troop selection, randomization, and whatever.

- The temp units could potentially swap in for standard units, instead of just being added to the lineup. (ex. if you take this faster unit, you then lose your Apollo, so you'll be weaker against air).

- You could enable CUSTOM RANKED LADDERS on LAN, using predefined but unrestricted custom combinations of standard and temp units/orbitals. 

This just makes sense to me. It is true to the spirit that draws RTS lovers to RTS. We love it when knew troop types and new abilities are released. It shakes up the game. Do this on a regular basis, in a limited and controlled way that doesn't screw stuff up too much. That's the idea, I guess. 

This would give EVERYONE a good reason to purchase the DLCs, not just single-player folks. 

The only major problem I see with this is... would be REALLY tough to manage balance... but hopefully if restricted to one unit in ranked MP, wouldn't have a crushing effect. 

One one last (crazy) idea:

Make the T4 unit type into one that can go "Voltron."

So you produce the t$ units, in various combinations that make sense for the situation in the game, and when you have enough, you form them up into an army, and the combine into super-bots (or super ships or whatever).

Abilities of the super unit depend on the recipe used (the component units).

I guess point is that this would bring a bit more variety and variation to unit types. 

If combined with the temporary concept described above, this could add a great deal of replayability. 

(meaning T4 temporary units rleased on a regular basis that can all serve as super-bot components). 

Only problem with this is it doesn't really feel in spirit of David Simpson storyline, and more in spirit of crazy anime scifi.

 But Starcraft has something like this too (protoss can combine).

Two further  ideas to increase replayability/strategies:

1) Split the unit attack and HP upgrades into separate ones for T1 and T2 (and above). At the moment T1 does become a little bit obsolete, not totally, but its role becomes a lot smaller. They become easily killed and are especially vulnerable to orbital strikes. If you split the attack and HP upgrades so T1 got their own and so did T2 it means they could be made viable all the way to the end game. This is especially important if we are starting to get T2.5 and also with all of the extra defence structures we are getting with the expansion. There is space on the upgrades tab and you already have the code for upgrading the units so I wouldn't think it would be too hard to implement. It would give more options to players about how and when to improve their forces, allowing for more diverse and distinct play styles, and could make for a more diverse battlefield in the mid to late game. You may want to reduce quanta upgrade costs a touch.

2) This is an old idea, but still a good one I think. Allow us to build a second HQ or instead to teleport the single HQ to different points on the map. There are tons of cost and cool down options and location restrictions options available if you were worried about overuse. The static HQ is definitely a restriction on the end game and allowing the HQ to move could improve the end game and make it less predictable.

If you allowed a 2nd HQ then you could create maps which have separate islands of networked nodes that you have to build a 2nd HQ to be able to access their resources. Building a second HQ would be expensive and vulnerable though so you'd have to weigh that up against access to more resources.  

Cheers.

This is done on purpose.

For Escalation you'd count.  We'll have a GOG version of Escalation.

i am a bit concernd about one thing regarding (one replay aspect)  and that is quanta archive/relay spamming.

so far in every game i have played i find that quanta is a very vital thing however i dont like to expose them and use a lot of space just for that alone when i coulde be making a better defensiv line.

the reason why i find this to be a bit repetative and kind of stressfull sometimes, is because when the income gets bigger i need to make use of it by having more quanta relay/archive the amount of space you use just to get more quanta income can sometimes be really annoying.

i wish there was a way to turn a 4x4 radius of the terrain into a building (as an uppgrade) where i can store quanta underground (so its not a big tower that stacks from each floor and goes straight up to the sky) in floors, (like floor one got space for 16, and next floor can have another 16 and so on.

Basicly what i am asking for is a way to use less space and make the quanta archive less spammable, whenever the income gets really to big for me so i dont have to handle every single worker, just to use the income and focus on min and max the income. i wish it coulde be something i coulde have an easier time to deal with and that stardock coulde make solutions that coulde ease up the spammable part with quanta and other aspects with the game.

if i were to take an a quick exsample it woulde be a building like the ( Mill ) from age of empires 2 where you coulde add farms to renew the process of gathering food,

just that is only the mill (building) and the farms wouldent have to use the space, beside the mill and have the option to repeat the farms without the players needing to manage it manually.

basicly the Mill woulde be 4x4 square building that can stock up 16 quanta relays on each floor (farms woulde be quanta relays/archives in ashes with a repeat button so it wont take unnesseary space and have to take away your time, by saying.

idle worker, plz return to the manage the quanta relays/archive again!. (its kind of the same thing as the micromanagement with starbases in galciv 3 before the update that came and fixed it and making it easier for us.)

When the game is gonna go up in scale you will need a system that can manage the more subjective things that needs you to take care of it. (i dont want it to be a building simulator but an rts where i can focus on beign a commander of a massive army. 

This is a good point, and a very decent idea IMHO. Worth trying.

Only wierd thing would be archers dominating T2 and T3 because they have advanced... But hey, worth a shot.

Agree it would make for additional strategy options. 

Have more game setup options similar to those in SupCom2 where we can change the nature of the game: no air units, no orbitals, slow quantum generation or other aspects of the game.

Kinda odd this isn't in anyways, every other RTS I've played lately (Command and Conquer, Dawn of War, Supreme Commander) all have the option to dictate certain rules. 

Well, all being equal the other person can upgrade their T2s as well, and to get a T1 to T3 level would take mind boggling amounts of quanta (and time).

But it does mean people can play more T1 late game, make them strong enough to surprise the enemy etc. One game go mixed, another game go strong T1 and high numbers, another game strong T2 etc. As you say, more options. Thanks.

Not much else to add that I haven't already griped about ad nauseam on the Steam forum.  Just wanted to say that I'm glad some people have mentioned it here, too.

Two or three orbital abilities (radiation clouds are several orders of magnitude less annoying than the nukes but still annoying for the same reasons) and the frequency with which they're spammed by the AI are literally the only things keeping me from buying several more copies of the game for my weekly LAN group or recommending the game to anyone else.

Beyond that, a speed-reduction to units retreating-while-firing (at least for the Cronus Dread, specifically) and a fix for the attack-move cursor bug that I reported in the beta would effectively nix all of my major complaints.  In my view, RTS replayability is almost wholly dependent on a functional and frustration-free skirmish mode.  Clear up the frustrations and continue to add reasonably balanced content and odds are, I'll continue to play and start recommending it to others.

Agree.

Although I already recommend it frequently and incessantly.

Good game, just with some issues.

I would like to see the build button icons in the UI cleaned up a bit.  The current icons are not very intuitive as to what they represent.  I have to spend a lot of time mousing over the button to see what it is.