XP and unit unlocking

[Nomad]

I tried asking this in another thread and it went ignored, so I'm asking again here.

I've been thinking of buying this game, but while looking over the store page entry again I ran into that deluxe edition note saying that you get more XP, which means you can unlock units faster.

Later in the forums I read that in ranked matches you have to earn XP to unlock units.

Does this game really make you unlock units even in MP games? Does it punish new players by giving them access to fewer units?

'Cause that would be a dealbreaker, I think. I don't need this game to be like COD. I don't need another game where people who have have the advantage of more experience then me also get the extra advantage of better stuff.

[DeltaDude]

You earn XP by earning achievements in skirmish or by playing matchmaking.

If you are not interested in playing with the levels and XP you can play a custom lobby and disable units locked by level.

[Christmas Dog]

Yeah, you can unlock units by playing skirmish which is pretty much campaign

[Nomad]

Thank you for the prompt responses, even if they were what I was really hoping not to hear. I strongly feel that RTS games should not be crippling new MP players. And you certainly shouldn't be able to pay extra to shortcut the process.

But then again I hardly ever play RTS games MP. I mostly play what other games call skirmish, but what this game calls "not implemented yet". But I understand that there's a lot of credible third party scripted missions out there though, I've seen some of them and find them interesting. There may be something for me yet.

[vOid ✠]

Locking units does make sense (if this level - lock would really reflect experience, what it does not!). A newbie in a Superpershing is nothing more than expensive cannon fodder and ruins his teammates' game - with 95% probability. And then he quits, after he banked 30mins for it. Keeping the hands off of exclusive units means he can spawn cheaper ones and that means that he will actively take part in the game longer.
But with these lock mechanics it is useless.

[Nomad]

Well from what I see expensive units are underpowered almost universally. That's a separate issue, it does seem like this game is intentionally biased towards infantry, and to be honest I'm not terribly pleased with that. But I bought it anyway, it's still a fairly unique game that I've had my eye on for a while. The first time I took control of a soldier and manually fired his gun I felt like I'd violated some sort of fundamental RTS law, it was a weird feeling.