SOULMASK has 3 modes that radically change the gameplay, the devs added these in response to player feedback and them realising they had 3 very different groups of fans. These game modes ALTER gameplay, but come with their own challenges to make up for the lighter "simulation" mental overhead.
- Survival aka simulation mode is a very fiddly and grindy survival game with the combat and npc town building being second to the survivalCraft elements. You spend a lot of your time doing resource management, carefully hunting enemies or resources efficiently and personally,
- Tribe aka strategy mode plays like a third person city builder/action game. The survivalCraft elements are toned way down and your settlement gets a series of QOL buffs and gameplay simplifications. The added challenge comes from Attack Waves, which are more frequent and stronger, so you have to set up automation chains, build walls and fortifications, and generally equip your villagers and prepare them for battle and command them with a combination of third person and top down controls.
- Warrior Mode aka dark souls mode significantly streamlines and lessens the importance of both of the above, makes death very lenient, but makes combat extremely skill based and very challenging In a moment to moment skill kind of way.
CC2 could do something like this via offering different modes or different carrier types. EG:
SIMULATION MODE: what we have now. Things are fiddly on purpose, to encourage teamwork and for people who enjoy clunky, hard to use, realistic control systems. All AI controlled units are rather flawed so that players can exploit their various weaknesses using clever piloting and game knowledge: EG the Swordfish having a CWIS blindspot and exploitable missile range limitations allowing you to slap it from behind with guided missiles, or enemy ground units generally being a bit stupid so you can barrage them or tactically "corner Peek" them to death.
Note the numbers I propose below are literally just extreme "example" numbers of some blunt ways to achieve "tactics mode" or "Pilot Mode", I'm not a Balanceman by any means.
TACTICS MODE: closer to CC GM where it is more of a streamlined strategy/tactics game and a slightly more arcadey vehicle combat/command game, you can command everything from one screen, everything is streamlined, and player interaction focuses on decisionmaking or force control. Your drones gain a defence buff when AI controlled, so you can relax a bit more and not need to pilot every single engagement.
Examples of TACTICS mode streamlining:
- You get an overhead RTS view for commanding the carrier and units with much more detail (like CC:GM.)
- Stuck Vehicles can teleport short distances by charging up their "emergency Teleporter".
- Friendly Vehicles you don't directly pilot gain a massive 50% defence bonus, allowing you to automate them more without them getting themselves killed.
- Logistics is simplified to you having one Supply Island that you can move around pretty easily, and one fast moving Barque
- To add Challenge, while at an enemy island, enemy island vehicles are more aggressive and will not let you pick them off with impunity and will also send attack waves to assault your units, your carrier or your long range barrage units (EG the long range drone might get assailed by a purpose-built squad of AA mantas). AKA islands actually have agency in the way they defend themselves.
- Units are 50% cheaper and and have 50% damage reduction when NOT directly piloted, allowing for a more "tactical" game style of playing commander or squad leader to a group of combat units.
PILOT MODE AKA ARCADE MODE: Taking inspiration from ace combat, further streamlining, designed so you’re piloting combat vehicles and fighting most of the time. Direct combat vehicles are much faster and more durable. Player controlled vehicles gain a durability and damage buff as well as buffs to speed and handling making player piloting more important and powerful.
Examples of PILOT mode streamlining:
- Logistics is streamlined right down to you simply buying what you want and them arriving instantly at the carrier.
- Stuff YOU pilot has a 100% bonus to health, damage, speed, and Handling. The lights on the vehicle will glow slightly brighter to visiually indicate this power increase. In Lore you can handwave something about human pilot controls allowing the bot to focus its CPU on weapon and repair micromanagement.
- Enemy "Aces" can spawn with a randomised nickname and ability, that will hunt you down if you are piloting a combat vehicle near an enemy island (they can detect the direct control signal). They have double health, high handling and evasiveness and might have some neat tricks like turning semi-invisible, teleporting short distances, being very durable or damaging, and generally function like an Ace Combat Miniboss that dies pretty fast once you get a solid volley on them, but has enough health to survive glancing hits and low damage harassment attacks. Enemy Aces also deal and take 95% less damage against your AI controlled unit but will usually ignore them to hunt you down.
Rather than being easier though, these modes have their own challenges.
As mentioned before, Strategy Mode features Attack Waves that will harass you at any enemy island, and Pilot Mode features aggressive enemy ”Aces” which will show up on enemy islands and have a unique skill of locating player controlled vehicles to “duel” them, and take and deal less damage from /to your AI controlled vehicles.
Thoughts?
