So from what i understand: steamworks "might" have been offered to krenzo and it "might" be in works for polishing because "apparently" steamworks has been accepted by kenzo :confused:
I dunno if krenzo is still the deciding factor in whether empires goes to steam works. I don't think he is anymore, I think it's the active development team that needs to do the agreement signing and such.
My personal opinion is that if you're going to have the game featured on steam, you'd better rework some aspects of gameplay first. Like tickets. Yes, I know I practically have a vendetta on the issue but the whole purpose of tickets is defeated on all CTF maps by revive wars when a game reaches the last stretch. They also don't really scale well according to player skill/numbers. It'd be also a good idea on Conquest maps to have objectives more concrete than say, "killing things", because people tend to roam around on the more open-spaced conquest maps without actually really accomplishing anything after placing the initial refineries on the res nodes.
If people read map descriptions, this might solve 90% of those problems. As far as revive wars, the trick is to be reviving the entire game, not just at the very end. That way, one team ends up with 0 tickets and has to play defensively while the other team is then able to push them back. And, why would you need objectives from the game when you have a commander and squad leaders and teamates on mics? If you can't figure out what needs to be done, your commander is incompetent.
Only...*counts his fingers*...4ctf maps. Out of liek, 30. The game gets really deep, and it takes awhile to get used to it. We'd have a nub flow, have about 50% of those nubs stay, and have 5% of those staying nubs become vets.
Shadow is right, infantry maps are not Empire's thing and gameplay should not be changed if it works perfectly for classic maps.
i believe infantry should be treated as a separate cell in balance like, balance the 4 classes against each other balance the vehicles, buildings, etc against other buildings, vehicles... balance vehicle mg's and rpg's/riflemen stickies against each other this way if you add a cell like for example aireal planes this wont trow the balance off for another cell i think
Modular balance! I approve, but only partially. It's the dynamic of when these elements mix that's fun. Infantry, which being perfectly balanced amongst themselves, getting steamrolled by anyone in a vehicle is just plain poor. So, your cell theory only works if every single cell covers every proper dynamic. Unfortunately, this creates quite the mess just to make the network, and most people have a fairly solid frame in mind (balance my smg versus the tank!). Plus, you have very distinct synergies. The RPG, while it does hurt vehicles, can also hurt infantry. Should that be a cell of balance as well? This is similar to the problem with the Mutalisk. It's attack not only bounces but is used for both anti-air AND ground, making it a beast to balance.