Into The Breach Mod ideas

Again we come back to Subset games wonderful products. This time with the turn based chess like game Into The Breach. While nearly all aspects of it are near perfect there are some things that could be improved. Like its predecessor, Into The Breach is a single player rouge like (permanent death) game. With a very difficult 1 hour campaigns of which the objective is to fight back the alien bug menace with a group of time traveling giant robot (or mech) pilots. A lot of the game is brilliantly designed from the character dialogue to the mech balance to the music, but some aspects feel a bit left out so i developed some mod ideas for them.

Multiplayer: While the multiplayer version would retain the regular campaign there would be a few key differences, namely that each mech would be piloted be one person and the 3 mech pilots would have to connect over the internet. The would vote on their next mission, equipment and reactor placement. and would each control their mech during their turn. These missions would create a lot of intricate difficulties between the pilots. Losing your mech and dying would kick you out of the game and strategy would have to be agreed upon by the entire team. mechs with no pilots would be controlled by an AI decreasing their skill as the other pilots would hope that they don't ruin their strategy (not someone new who joins the match and finding pilots in the time pods would be the same as someone new joining. These deaths would add a whole new level of gravity to the game. Players would be much more conservative in taking damage for the good of the city. They would have to ask themselves questions like "whats the point of saving the world if i'm not around to see the end of it." Players would argue one what the best plan would be and the risk of death would be much more severe as instead of just losing a random pilot, your also replacing them with a random AI who might not adhere to your strategy. This could also account for some cool roleplaying where players could make dramatic speeches over voice chat before being destroyed in an explosion.

Extended campaign/Open warfare mod:

The bug hive is destroyed, humanity is saved, but it isn't. A large landmass full of bugs has risen out of the ocean and is threatening the corporate islands. With time comes progress and humanity has developed an army of mechs to combat this new challenge. This battle would be much different from the main game with bigger maps and bigger fighting forces many times over made up of the robots and tanks from Archive INC, and Pinnacle robotics. losing these fighters would still be a major hit as your forces would carry over into the next fight but you would have much more time to produce a new army. This would put the battle on a grander scale and would allow for more complex scenarios in which multiply bosses came from multiply sets of terrain that you would have to work around. While your mechs would still have the foresight that they have in the regular game, your robots and tanks wouldn't, they would be stuck in instant combat like the bugs. Additional pinnacle robotics would donate their fully functional robot factories and some of the levels would work out like a match of Fire Emblem. This extension would of course be optional as it would take longer then that main campaign and some people just want to play the base game.

Extra weapons mod:

A lot of the weapons in the game feel slightly lackluster and like FTL Captains Addition mod i would like to add to their roster. First of all, AOE (area of effect) weapons are severely lacking so here is a list of items you could use:

Sonic cannon: A cannon that dosen't disrupt terrain (buildings, mountains, forests, ice, sand) and deals 1 damage to all living enemies in a cone in front of you. Upgrades would include further range and disrupting some types of terrain like ice and sand.

Grenade: A grenade with limited range that fires over terrain. It would land then next turn it would explode essentially giving a sort of area denial. It would deal 2 damage to all units around it (including diagonal) Upgrades would include further range and damage.

Missile launcher: A missile launcher that would launch 3 shots that each deal 1 damage. these 3 shots anywhere on the battle field independent of each other. The shots could stack and deal a potential 3 damage but their greater use would be to hit multiply targets anywhere. it could only be used once per battle. its upgrades would be more uses, and more missiles.

There is also the missed opportunity of weapons that restrict movement. while there are items that push and pull they could be expanded upon.

Slime launcher: You could shoot out a line of slime that would coat all of the tiles it goes over and covers the target hit and knocks him back. Targets coated in slime have their speed halved. It would deal no damage. Upgrades would be knock back range and damage.

Gravity well: This item would pull in units for all of the surrounding tiles. it would deal no damage. It wouldn't have upgrades.

Webbing system: like the bugs you could web someone. restricting their movement next turn. Upgrades would include dealing 1 damage and canceling attacks.

There is also one weapon that i would like the have but it dosn't fall into any of the other categories.

PVC cannon: Hit any target in a straight line. The mech overheats when you do this however and catches fire. The bolt knocks them back and deals 3 damage. Upgrades would include not dealing fire damage to your self and dealing more damage.

Link to attack mapping: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UVdXoxU_-0VQ4kKpwF_qcYlpVx-2z4wOOdinUw-NMyg/edit#gid=0