Okay so I was just thinking about the different techs a few days ago and then...

IDEA: Low tech, Med Tech, and High Tech Levels!

So when you first start out campaign you have to get a low tech.
Either Ronin or Dummy.
Later in the game, maybe after enough money to purchase, you can upgrade!
So Ronin goes to Coalition and Dummy goes to Imperatus!
Last Upgrade, costing more!
Coalition to Browncoat, and Imperatus to Whitebots, err, Techeon.

I think this will work because in my opinion, dummy and Ronin appear the weakest. Not weapons damage or statistics, but appearence and choices... Dummys are plastic and ronin throw rocks.
Next up and my opinion, coalition are the upgraded clones, and Imperatus are the upgraded robots. (Even though Imperatus have little arsenal now, i think that will change)
Lastly, Browncoats are the best clones, and techeons make the best robots. (When they get intro'd)

Like it? Dislike? Comment?
DO IT!!!

I don't really think that's how the relationships between the vanilla factions work; there are some minor parallels to be drawn, yes, such as "some of 'em are robots", but they're all separate and distinct factions. Now, I like the idea of upgrading factions, but I think it'd make more sense to have superior actors and devices available progressively, instead of switching factions outright. And even then, that rings a little too much of RPG for Cortex Command.

Why don't you just have levels within the factions?
Like being able to access different guns and bodies withing the faction at different Tech Levels.
You could even devote money to research in the campaign screen, leveling up your tech.

I agree. For example, you choose coalition as your faction. First you will only have the Coalition light + stuff like pistols/compact assault rifle/shotgun, you could then reseach better weapons like the assault rifle and auto-shotgun and finally the Coalition heavy and miniguns and stuff.

What Major and Nocifer said. It would force players to actually use cheap / low-end guns, extend the gameplay period, and add a sense of achievement to leveling up techs.

Might be easier to have less gold available so you can't afford any of the 'higher tech levels'.
The whopping 1000 credits per turn is a ridiculously high amount.

@Major: I like the research thing. Something similar like Syndicate, if you know the game.

1000 oz per site isn't ridiculously high. Well, it depends. At least for mods, it's not, like, many mod's light infantry cost around 300 or more, and that is pretty expensive, specially at the moment of building bases.

So unlocking better techs would be more interesting.

Looks like the OP misinterpreted the concept of Techs. They're not so much Techs as Factions. When you play as the Coalition, for example, you're fighting to establish your faction, the Coalition, as the sole controller/owner of the planet.

I think it'd be better handled as a sort of 'Requisition' aspect. Your faction has all this stuff already, but most of the really big toys are off-limits because they need those supplies elsewhere. As the conflict heats up and you encounter tougher opponents/more heavily fortified bases, you may feel the need to requisition heavier weapons and so on.

Basically, it'd be a resource seperate from Gold that you unlock things with.

Only if the AI was also forced to use crappy guns. It would be slightly unfair if the AI got to use the coalition minigun or the uber cannon while you were stuck with a glock or a shovel.

Well, yeah, basically what Arcalane said. Some sort of secondary resource that each faction uses to progressively unlock better and better technology as the metagame continues and the battles escalate.

So, you start off with a light scouting force type thing on the first scene invasion, and go from there to the heavy snipers and minigun turrets later on. The AI would behave in a similar fashion.

I conccur with the idea of having requisition as a new resource for unlocks.

How should requisition be acquired? Just given after each successful attack or defense? Having other ways to acquire requisition would help differentiate it from money.

We dont need requisiton as a seperate resource cause, when you upgrade to last level this requisition resource will just pile up.
Just make that you upgrade your faction to several tiers with cash.
Something like this:
Level/Tier 1 - you start with this (pistols , SMGs, light actors)
Level/Tier 2 - 2000 oz (Assault rifles, shotguns, snipers)
Level/Tier 3 - 4000 oz (Rocket launchers, miniguns, heavy actors)
Level/Tier 4 - 6000 oz (plasma cannons, railguns, etc)
Level/Tier 5 - 10000 oz. probably for mod factions only (super weapons such as nukes and death rays )

The pricing could be individual to each faction, cause some factions may lack weapons in one or the other category.


This difference in power will actually make matches fun and challenging.
So no fixed AI progression, it will remove the whole point in leveling you faction.

Just like what you do to unlock things on Cortex Shock, which is a very good system.

I support this idea.

So I posted this before the rollback but I guess it disappeared.
I think a potentially cool way of doing it would be awarding different amounts based on the outcome of the battle and the type of battle. Using arbitrary numbers with slightly less arbitrary ratios, losing a defense fight would give you 3000 requisition, winning an attack 1500, losing an attack 1000 and winning a defend 500. When brains become a limited resource this would have to be changed so losing attack missions gave 3000 as well. Battles for unnocupied territories would give nothing.

Justification:
Gameplay - This makes it harder for one team to completely stomp the other since the losing team would have better tech to make up for their lack of gold. The good thing is that even if you try to exploit it by swapping a territory back and forth the ai would get the same amount.
Fluff - This works on the assumption that the company doesn't expect much competition for the area at first, so you would be provided with small arms to stave off aggressive wildlife or bandits or some such thing. If you keep winning battles they'll be inclined to believe that there's no threat to their operation on the planet so they'll feel no need to give you access to better weapons and troops. However, if you seem to be losing a lot they'll realise that if they want to take the planet they'll need to allow you access to more advanced tech.
This may be the sort of idea that would turn badly in gameplay though, I'm not really sure.


Also Asklar, based on that comment I think you'll like UL 2.

The problem here is that better tech also costs more, so if you're low on cash already it probably won't help you very much.