Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness Hints

What we want to see in a sequel

• (By Kurt Kalata and Paul O'Keefe)
  
  This is our wish list for an add-on pack for Warcraft 2.  Note that this IS NOT what is actually going to be in a sequel, if there is going to be one, but in case anyone at Blizzard is reading, here it is!
  
  - More Air Units!  How about a Transport?  Some sort of a bomber, or small, cheap guys, like in a balloon.
  
  - More Sea Units!  Basically, some small, one-man scooter that is fast, cheap, and can kick butt in numbers.  And have the ability to mine waters!  You know, place little mines that can only be seen by Flying Machines?  Also, you should be able to repair Oil Platform with Oil Tankers.
  
  - Have the ability to capture buildings.  Like, bring back Raiders, and the Humans can make Thieves.  And then, you can capture stuff, like the Engineers in Command and Conquer.
  
  - More Tile Sets!  Like a Cave (similar to the Dungeon in Warcraft 1), a Castle (looting a treasury, killing residents, etc.) and a Desert (palm trees and oases abound!).  This also means more fun critters to kill.  Put bridges back in to, I don't like land bridges.
  
  - More advanced map editor!  The editor with this game is fabulous, but editing mission goals would be even better.  Like capture and rescue missions, certain things to assasinate, etc.  Also, have the ability to "name" certain units, was well as giving each on-screen character unique characteristics (like giving one Grunt 100 HP and naming it Ogrim, and the one next to it, 20 HP and naming it Fred).  You should also have the ability to set the difficulty AI (making the bad guys stupider or smarter).
  
  - ARTILLERY!  Put oil drilling to a good use: make a Magazine, and produce an Artillery (Cannon), and Gunmen.  You could also make TANKS and other machines of war, with all sorts of armor and cannons, but very, very slow.
  
  - More structures!  How about a Drydocks/Repair Bay to fix any damaged ships or Ballistas?  Also, some sort of Dwarven (or Goblin) building that increases production of ore, and similar to a Lumber Mill, Peasants can bring gold and ore here, so you won't have to build a new Town Hall everytime you want to take advantage of a mine.
  
  - Land oil drilling!  Since some of the above things would require oil, and not everyone wants sea battle to be a part of their level, you could build Derricks on land (on oil patches beneath the soil).  Not as effective as water drilling, however, because Peasants/Peons can't carry as much.   Refineries can also be built on land.
  - Bring back the upgrading of horses!  And perhaps better upgrading on Ogres.
  
  - A couple more Magic Spells!  Bring back the Scorpian and Spider spells, make them more powerful, not the wussies they were in the first one.  An Earthquake spell would be cool, as well as a Possession (take control of enemies!).
  
  - Upgrading of Magic Spells!  Make it so that mana can be regained faster (by researching it, of course).  Additional spell levels mean more destruction (imagine a twice-upgraded Blizzard Storm?)
  
  - Have some new magic structures, like a Temple (Orcs) and Magic Guild (Humans), that you can do the aformentioned upgrading of spells, as well as summon Daemons (Orcs) and Gargoyles (Humans).
  
  - Smarter AI please?  This happens in other real-time strategy games, but sometimes a computer's units can get "stuck" (they don't know where to go) slowing down the game immensely.  Moving sea units proves to be harder than necessary (they are CONSTANTLY stopping where I don't want them too).  And some of the stupid things that they occasionally do, get rid of it.   Althogether, the AI is incredible, but it does have some flaws that keep it from being perfect.
  - Have a way to have the same color units fight between themselves! Example: Nation of Azeroth (blue) would fight against the Stormweaver Clan (also blue).  I'm sure Lothar would want to take it up personally with Gul'dan!
  
  - Tunnel digging! You could have peasants go into a mine, and dig a passageway that connects to another mine.  This would be awesome for sneak attacks.  Imagine 6 Knights coming out of your enemy's mine in a surprise manuver.  You could also dig pits, and cover them up with sticks or something so that it looks like regular ground.
  
  - Bridge building units! Ships could go under these bridges, so it would not interfere with water fights.
  
  - Group magic spells! If you want to cast polymorph (200 MP) but you only have 2 mages, each with 100 MP, then you could "group" them together, and have the option to cast that spell.  In the case of MAJOR spells, such as an earthquake spell or something, you could group 9 mages together for massive destruction.  The spell would cost like 2000 MP, so you would need a bunch of strong mages to cast it.
  
  - Little footprints and tire treads left in the snow and mud when anyone walked over it.  You could use this to see if there has been any enemy activity in that area in the last few minutes.
  
  - Trenches! You should really be able to fortify your position.  Make moats, barbed wire, electric fences, sandbags, etc.  Also, Blizzard should bring back the use of walls in the single player game.
  
  - Monsters roaming around, sort of like the Sandworms in Dune 2.  There would be sea monsters in the water, and underground monsters on the ground.  You would be able to protect yourself by building underground barriers or something.  Also, maybe a spell could be to temporarily "take control" of one of these monsters and sneak up on the enemy.  Also, bring back the Blobs, Brigands, Fire Elemental, and other things that were in Warcraft 1!
  
  - Critters were a nice touch, but there should be actual civilians or peaceful Orcs (yeah right).  You could enslave these civilians, or protect them, or do whatever you want with them.  It would be cool if they TRIED to make groups of warriors, and periodically sent groups of warriors into the enemy base, where they get slaughtered.
  
  - Underwater buildings! You could make defenses that only submarines could attack.  Like a giant underwater harpoon gun, or a bunch of logs, tied to the bottom of the lake.  When a ship passed above it, you could release the logs and they would quickly float to the surface and smash the hulls of anything there.  The planting of land mines would also be cool.
  
  - Armored Personel Carriers! Sort of like water Transports, but they would have little wheels on them and be able to travel on land.  You could carry 6 units in it, and charge it onto the enemy base.  Then click on "unload" and have your guys pop out and start wailing on the enemy.  There Carriers would be fairly slow, but have plenty of armor.
  
  Thanks!
  

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