(This page is currently under construction!)
1 Information
Despite being a full 3D RTS-FPS hybrid game with comprehensive physics for all objects, Urban Assault engine is very robust and allows the players to create a myriad of units without imposing much restrictions or a significant loss of performance during the gameplay. This is especially true for single-player mode, where the unit limit for the players in a standard sense does not virtually exist at all.
In this manner, the players are practically allowed to create units until the game becomes unstable, and this generous design allows inexperienced players to complete missions through brute-forcing with sheer numbers of units even when their strategy did not work. However, the game follows a separate rule in multiplayer mode, where the general performance and balance of the match are the main priority.
2 Single-player
There is no unit limit placed for the players in the single-player game. The players can virtually create units until the game engine becomes unstable. On the contrary, the AI players are subject to a unique energy upkeep/maintenance mechanics, whose design is intended to gradually hamper the capacity of AI players to create additional units once they have numerous units and flaks under their control by dynamically increasing the creation costs for extra units.
The upkeep/maintenance mechanics for AI players will be covered in a separate Energy Math article.
3 Multiplayer
In multiplayer mode, there is a unit limit of various types and for different connection methods. The type and size of unit limit is defined per each level data script file.
3.1 Official Multiplayer Notes
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4. UNIT LIMITS
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There are two types of unit limits that you will encounter in multiplayer
games. One is the "hard" limit type, for low-bandwidth games (these levels
are indicated by telephone icons on the Level Selection screen), and the
other is the "soft" limit type, for high-bandwidth games.
Hard Limit
The hard limit is pretty basic. Once you reach the hard limit, you will no
longer be able to create any additional units until those that have already
been created are destroyed. The hard limit is used for low-bandwidth levels.
Soft Limit
The soft limit works on the idea that the more units you create the less
efficient your energy absorption rate becomes (see your printed documentation
and online Help for information on the Energy Manager and resource management).
Once you reach the soft limit, every unit you create over the limit causes
your energy efficiency to drop by 5% (you may not notice this if you have
already had the good fortune to conquer numerous sectors). The way to return
your energy efficiency back to 100% is to either conquer more sectors or
destroy your other units.
The default unit limit is soft 80 limit for normal levels, and hard 12 limit for 'slow_connection' levels.