if you guys can update whenever you want then please fix the midbridge bushes (also remove the link to the tutorial since we all know its never getting fixed)
"Active" is a term that slips a little depending on the week. For myself, I think that a small balance release might be a good idea, every 3 months or so. If there's an actual problem that needs fixing, that is. Three months isn't a lot of time in Empires development, but it's just enough to find out what's being a really big problem. Though I can understand not wanting to release things as a patch without having anything other than a few numerical tweaks, sometimes it's a little necessary. Maybe if you used letters, e.g. 2.41b etc, to denote the changes instead it might feel less like false advertising. I have to agree with Trickster on the diversity though. Last time I played I wtf'd at having a bunch of random weapon and armour combos even during the same maps. There was a time when you could count what the research would be on one hand, with no thumb.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head there. In the past, there have been really substantial balance problems that were left for a really long time. With 2.24d for example, which was the active version for 15 months, reflective/physics was the ONLY viable research tree. It got so bad that both Pickled and myself issues serverside patches (neither of us were developers or server owners at the time) to deal with that. There just simply wasn't any development happening once CB left and it honestly seemed like that was the only option. This was obviously way before Steam distribution as well. Now though, it's really not that bad. The only real issue was Fission. I should have issued a serverside patch some time ago just to fix it, but I was absolutely dead-set on making it work how I wanted it to. It was only when I finally got time to really spend time testing it out that I realised it actually couldn't be done with the current scripts. At which point, I just reverted it to 2.40 and rebalanced from there (fission was a bit OP in 2.40), which took me all of 5 minutes.
Trickster, Before anything you need to know Empires Mod ROCKS. It's a very intelligent game that is much more complex than any other game I have ever played. It requires significant player dedication to compete. I LOVE things that do not get boring after you learn the game. It's also a community of people who have the same desire to be challenged. I think our common thread is that we love competition. So WELL DONE to all the developers ! OK - I've worked for over 30 years as a Software developer, team leader, and am very good at working on small and big teams, with customers, service and support and training QA. One model we used with our firmware team may work for you. It did work for a robotics team I mentored. This is the first time the team ever got autonomous mode to work well using this model. Video 1) Firmware team would put on a chalk board (use something digital) the items they are working on. They have complete control over what order those items are, but it may update on a daily basis. 2) Every team has a customer - no one works as their own customer. In actuality every member has a customer they deliver items to, and they often are customers from which they get items. 3) The customer asks for things from each team and relates their needs that cause each team to reprioritize their list. You can ignore things if you like - but the list remains in priority order based on your customer and it changes frequently. A good reason to ignore something is that you are in the middle of item 3 that was item 1 yesterday. 4) We'd meet for 30 minutes before work each day and rework the list with our customers. It is a good thing to get customers to NOT change things on a daily basis - get your shit together - don't make constant changes or you will have delays. I would ask students on robotics - "Who is the customer you are working for". If they said "No one - I just wanted to do this" - then I would get them to understand that they may be working on something that no one will ever use.
Are you seriously callling empires complex? I think you are mistaking clusterfuck casued by human unpredicatability with real complexity. Empires is a fps/babies first rts. Supreme Ruler, Europe Universalis, Crusader Kings, Dwarf Fortress etc are complex games. Also, I didnt know you were reaching 60's.
We're all reaching 60 - I'll just be there before any of you. And I'll still be kicking your ass in Empires
So... this guy in your profile page is actually you? wow. Empires is just not intuitive, as I previously stated in another thread. It takes shit load of time for a newbie to figure out the right things to do, which is just the first step for him to get any good at this game. The complexity of tactics and everything else is just medium. I am not really seeing much new tricks/tactics in "recent" years. As z00m stated, nothing much more than human unpredictability. Mvalley&Cyclopean are IMO good(if not the best) maps to follow the development of tactics in Empires, tactics on these maps have been changing all the time. Last but not least, I put 5 cakes on z00M.
The only FPS I loved was the old Unreal Tournament - before they screwed it up. Prior to that I mostly played top down strategy and occasionally Quake/Wolfenstein. Those games are much more constrictive since they are mostly hallways and not outside and no real vehicles. I don't believe newbs know the different tactics or we wouldn't have engineers throwing grenades at troops. Who would guess their grenades were building only grens. Shouldn't they be named something different ? Who would inherently know the difference from SMG 1 vs 2, or when and where to drop cameras or buildings ? The tactics are learned or trained and I found very few (actually NO) one willing to do training. From a recent newbie perspective and still learning, I know there are tricks vets use and don't advertise or document. I have learned quite a few myself. I have revealed many of them to newbs. Myself and LT trained three newbs on Canyon last night. They didn't have a chance - so I turned on All Talk and told them what to do. Told them we are coming into your base - try to kill us. When they started shooting their engie rifles at our tanks we told them how to kill us. Told them to setup more than one base. Where to put the bases, how to defend them and how to research. I wish I had recorded it since every newbie should have the same training. Only issue is that it encourages them to COM when they need hundreds of hours of play time before they should COM a match with more than six people. Recently I've been remote com'ing and encouraging up and comers to get in the vehicle then telling them what to do. Always it's initially SLOW - but speed and learning where to look and how to time your self is critical as COM. I know I can jump in the COM vehicle with 2 seconds left on the timer and bring up the research screen - ready to kick it up. While out of the vehicle to monitor the mini-map to feed other players. Never to focus on game play from COM view for more than a few seconds or you get entranced. Know when to drop armories and to PUSH the newbs to move and not camp. PS: Loved kicking Senior Awesome's arrogant ass in every game last night - one of which remote COM'ing where we squeezed him to death between upgraded turrets. He tried the same tactic on us, on a larger map, and almost got us but we hit heavies and squashed him. Level 3 Turrets are OP ! They should be left as they are but more expensive. Way to go EvilEd ! 3 vets+one newb vs our 2 + one Newb and level three turrets took down our dominance of the map - only to win it in the end with OP BE Heavies. When you have a vet team vs newbs - you guys really should switch into training mode. They don't know you are vets and it's an easy kill that will just discourage them from playing again. I know it's fun to do - but you can do it in a training way "We're coming in to kill you - get ready with grens - hold button down to guide the missle. Use missles on tanks and mortars on buildings." And now I return you to your regularly scheduled harassing and abusement of Trickster.
Hehehe I deserved that final loss. I was having too much fun with the CV. I only went upgraded turrets cause you put all those level ones outside my main base and I knew my team wouldn't care lol. Most of the rounds were stacked on BE's side that night, had several new players who seemed to enjoy the game. Hope they'll stick around, they were fun to play with. Is fission fixed now, for real? I haven't had time to check.
Fusion is fixed. I researched it to get some experience with it but I didn't like it. Even if I kept moving my BE heavies would overheat. It's not as fast as 3 Phase, so I'll still use mostly Electrical, Bio and when we're sitting still like on Money - Coolant. I went Fission on Money to test it, and because it was in the research path going for extended range. PS: I enjoy playing with you Awesome. You are a worthy opponent and we're pretty close in skill. I think last night could have gone either way and you certainly had me on the last map until Evil Ed pulled that rabbit from his hat. Keep it fun dude !
Money is kind of a sucky map for Fission. But given something nice and open, I really like it, especially early on. Once you get some speed up it does feel like it cools pretty quickly. Expect APC rushes with DU and Fission. I love it with an NF LT - its so easy to drive quickly.
I do know that. Try Fission and report back what you think. It's not the same old fission it used to be.
Security - try it and report back. My experience is that Fission is good UPTO heavies. Even when you continually circle the base, if you fire too often you slow then stop until your heat drops. It's not as fast as 3 phase. I do think it will encourage more use of Extended Range - which is good, so it might just be balanced properly and a decent alternative to 3 phase for those that don't want to research electrical. I can see some matches going Physics and Mechanical initially for Compo, ER, 3Phase, Arty & tanks. No time wasted with HE in Chemistry, or Electrical 3phase. Fastest way to dominate EMP_Money Damn now Awesome will JustGoScrewMe.
Lies. Fucking lies. That voice can't come from that face. Nail, meet head. I think JGF used "complex" as a proxy for "takes a while to learn."
Voice match's face - here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5NxcDr_9wY at 1:59 I almost die. I was going to step backwards and the wife had her feet right up against mine and I couldn't move so I turn and pull out coming about a foot from my head. That was about an 80 mph dive. Last second I actually hit my wife with the plane. She was not hurt since it was on the ground. She thought she was safe standing behind me. I told her I would just duck and she'd eat a plane at 100+ mph. Don't worry - No fear - she's covered - life insurance Just logged off from playing. It got a little boring KICKING AWESOMES ASSES ! Also my first time commanding rainbow road, and I must saw we rocked it. Awesome had the same strategy as me - but I researched it faster. Fun night of playing. Vinnie
