don't know. in the twitch stream they had an empire level 34 and had psynumbra at level 12 and assembly at level 7 and the renown shop only contained initiates for psynumbra and reverse engineers, electrocutioners and snipers (plus their tier 1 units) for assembly - not even the tier 2 flyer yet. they also had amazon at level 3 which only gave huntresses, shrikes and biomancers.
so it appears that you actually have to unlock the stuff over the course of many planets before you can even put it into the shop for a specific planet.
guess the next dev dairy will be about the galactic empire mode - which is probably a better place to discuss that specific topic.
As I understand the mechanics of the galactic Empire, when playing for a certain faction/technology, we gain experience that opens up various new things from the corresponding section. However, as soon as we open them, we can safely put any units/operations/mods in the store and buy them at any time of the map - for the currency that we get for completing tasks. After that, we can easily recruit any set of units (for example) and buy them. As I saw from the stream, T1 = 100, T2 = 150, T3 = 200 and T4 = 250, pay and buy as much as you want at any time.
Yes, giving the opportunity to pump everything on the first map is not the best implementation of the idea, but it will also be a strange step to completely cut out the mechanics, such as the mechanics of heroes from the campaign. As it was said on the streams, the campaign will be limited to the maximum experience for one planet - what will prevent the heroes from being implemented in the same way?
We'll just have a system where some will come up with the most unbalanced builds and pass the most difficult tests with their eyes closed, and people who want to come up with a description of their Empire and play the "heirs of the Union" for the forces of Vanguard + Oathbound, with an emphasis on their commanders - will start each map in a much weaker position and will not even be able to customize their heroes for their campaign for ONE player. Not to mention the fact that we are wasting the potential of the RPG component of the game. Let's say that the player wants to create a Ker'ko commander who will use a wide variety of psionics (including mods from two NPC factions at once) and ride the Syndicate's psi chair.
Will it be unbalanced? No, please... compared to being able to field ascended Teachers for 250 renown. Will it be fun? For a player who wants it - no doubt.
And so, instead of a mode where everyone can play as they want and have fun, because, to quote the words of the developers from the stream: "this is YOUR personal trials and adventures" , we get a mode where imba-strategies will flourish, with a rush of T4 units (or others) and the subsequent incineration of the map with them. And players who want to win back from the commanders and role-playing games, will not have to pass this mode as planned, but endlessly delay the match on a certain map, because only on it they managed to get everything they wanted for their hero... and not to get pleasure from passing the planets for their two personal-story factions and their equipped heroes.
I would understand if there was a system like "heroes of Might and Magic", where only the talents and abilities of the hero mattered (and artifacts much more stronger than in Planetfall), but here, with the system of weapons/equipment and mods, we have the opportunity to create interesting and targeted builds, which even if they are at some point stronger than T4 units, then only one such unit, slightly, and in rare situations. Take the same psionic heroes, Ker'ko's psionic unit T4 and maybe even Psinumbra's T4 will always be stronger psionic than the psionic hero.
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I still hope that this will be an opportunity to play the "campaign mode" with advanced functionality and the ability to roleplay. That this will eliminate the need to collect interesting builds only inside the campaign - because only there you can collect certain items and mods from several NPC factions on different maps and then just enjoy the battles when you collect all this.
And not a mode where one part of the game's fans will find themselves with nothing, and the other part of the fans who do not like the micromanagement of heroes will just spam with unbalanced combinations and post "proud" guides about it: "Strongest combinations for all the planets on the expert" and so on.
