5DG #1

• Got a basic environment done in order to setup basic AI and combat.

• Got some progression going, with health for both bases and leveling system for the units. Units that reach max Level 10 are marked as "Champions", with a crown.
• Set up a camera and basic UI on a Soldier that you can toggle with Space, just to get a feel for the first person mode.
• Added sound FX for the combat and BGM.
• Ranged units now firing and leveling normally.
• Objectives got visual representations through crystals that need to be protected.
• Teams now start in a back area to give them space to spawn and get in formation, as well as give archers a better chance to protect the objectives.
• Added a Core Tower to the bases that thematically controls the faction's processes, reviving the army and draining health from any invaders trying to spawnkill.

Several "technical" decisions ended up being core design ones. 

Respawn times could mean having large intermittent team fights or a constant skirmish with scattered units , with a change of just a few seconds. Large battles usually snowball into victories while constant skirmishes get balanced out. The leveling system was intended as a positive feedback loop to break balance and end matches quicker. Too low base exp grants levels easier, making the first team fight winners get a bunch of Champions and completely anihilate the opponent right after. Too high and you just see a bunch of units level up but not last enough to really pile up experience and no side gets a real advantage.

With a leveling loop too easy you get offensives so unfair that a bunch of Champions can enter the enemies' back area and spawn kill them all,  which also means units with a whole bunch of health are within range from the Core Tower to drain and replenish the base. That mechanic ended up rarely seen in the final version because I decided to leave things a bit more balanced and very few units even dare to spawn kill.

Archers ended up being a real dillema in the end. I had most of the systems built before they were even firing actual arrows, so when the time came for them to join the fray they presented serious balance problems.  Firstly, they're very imprecise by default, since they just fire at a fixed force based on a detection radius, because having them actually calculate the trajectory for perfect shots every time would spend time I didnt have. That means they have a real hard time getting kills.

I had to give them absurd fire power and/or real low base exp just to see some becoming champions here and there, but that actually brought up a good thing, with them serving as experience drains. They can kill easily and grant low rewards, "stealing" experience from the main fights, smoothing out the leveling curve for melee units naturally, instead of putting hardcoded barriers in their leveling requirements. They almost never hit anything unless there's a big gathering and after big gatherings you usually have snowballs, so distributing the rewards for these big fights organically ended up being perfect.

The whole battle system ended up pretty satisfying and Im really happy with how it works. Managed to finish the "match" loop, with win/fail states but no interactivity haha. Guess it's a spectator sport.