Empires 2.23 Released

Discussion in 'News' started by Kylegar, Mar 14, 2009.

  1. Kylegar

    Kylegar Specstax Rule

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    Empires 2.23 is released, which adds a bunch of new features, new textures, and a sexy new map, emp_coast, by tysn.

    Screenshot of emp_coast

    Empires 2.23 also features the addition of Mk2 Chassis for the NF Light Tanks and the BE AFV. These upgraded hulls are more expensive, but feature additional weapon slots for the Missle Launcher (for the NF LT MK2) and Cannon (BE AFV Mk2). They are unlocked with the 'Upgraded Chassis' research.

    Also featured, is the ability to opt in or out of commanding. No longer will you ask "Hey, Who want's to be commander" or someone getting the command position when he clearly does not want it.

    You can read the full changelog Here .

    You can download the 2.22 -> 2.23 Client patch, as well as a 2.23 Full Install, on the download page. The server patch and full install are also located there.

    NOTE: Due to technical Issues, the Linux build has not been completed at this time. The hamsters should be reloaded in the wheels and the binary turned out by the end of the weekend.
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2009
  2. Emp_Recruit

    Emp_Recruit Member

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    simon: SHOULD WE FRONLOAD OR BACKLOAD THE RESEVIOR EXPANSION COSTS?
    simon: OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    simon: WTF!!!!!
     
  3. jragbir

    jragbir Member

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    So revives and arty strikes cost more squad points, but you can still spam arty strikes? uhh...
     
  4. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    The cost change of those 2 is not related to their use, they were raised as a precaution, with 2.23 the range in which you gain squad points has been doubled as well. Technically you will get points more easily.
     
  5. jragbir

    jragbir Member

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    So its that much easier to arty spam a comm vehicle I guess.
     
  6. Straevaras

    Straevaras Member

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    I say increase squad hide too.
     
  7. RoboTek

    RoboTek Member

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    I cannot speak much for infantry related aspects, but it seems that I really am not a fan of this version. Nothing dies and battles drag on. Reactive seems amazing and buildings are made of paper and cost alot.

    Edit: Wait a second, I just checked. Reactive is better than every other armor now and the fastest one to get. The stuff effectively has 112 health a plate, reduces damage from high speed attacks, deflects damage hit at angles, takes half damage from bio weapons, and is effectively the easiest to repair. Its detriment is that it ways 33% more than most armors, but it is significantly better per unit weight and has a higher max and is fast and cheap to research so I barely see a problem.

    What the hell?
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  8. Roflcopter Rego

    Roflcopter Rego Member

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    You... muppets...
    So there was this problem that LTs with reactive were better than a BE heavy tank. So naturally, you made reactive considerably better to make the problem worse. GJ. On top of this, you have nerfed bio-diesel, so the BE tactic of fast meds so they don't get arsehurt is no more. And then, on top of that, something possesed you to give the first branch tanks UMLs and HE, but of course an HE AFV will get one hit into a UML LT before it dies. And you have made meds pointless for NF, which was their only weakness. Prepare for the maps that had about 150NF:100BE to go to 175NF:75BE, if not worse.
    tl;dr These updates create considerably more unbalances but they can all be fixed with small AFV.


    Also what's the expensive rax all about? Surely it's more fun to spawn on the front lines than back at base because 'Oh noes you have to wait 3 minutes for a forward rax now'.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  9. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    It's update whining time! Same procedure as every update.

    BTW: Is Streets Of Fire playable again?
     
  10. Roflcopter Rego

    Roflcopter Rego Member

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    in the 2.22 release i see:
    'woot vehicles are fun again' and 'GJ team'.
    only negative thing is the machine pistol, which was justified.

    anyway, a new AFV model needs to be released in less than a month or there is a serious chance that a massive amount of players won't play anymore, these unbalances are just stupid.

    Anyway, whose idea was it to implement a) super power reactive and b)MK2 tanks without a working (the AFV will now be refered to as a game crippling bug) AFV model
     
  11. Omneh

    Omneh Member

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    I honestly can't understand the reasoning behind this update.

    Aside from not being tested at ALL (and don't blame this on the testers, aside from randomly pulling forum access, you, being the devs, haven't really been too into testing this either) you have managed to exacerbate imbalances already in the game by sneaking in these MKII tanks (which I considered a bad idea, but since I didn't have tester access anymore for unknown reasons aside from being "replaced", couldn't comment on) that not only render medium tanks obsolete, also manage to tip the balance of the game even further in favour of NF by giving their LT's two slot missile launchers.

    Seriously, what the fuck?

    Now the LT can ram up behind every single one of BE's bloated chassis', and spam its UGML, or whatever it happens to be mounting, into it until it explodes. Not only this, but the armor buff means even a PAPER LT is unkillable by any infantry, and reactive is now the fucking god armor, right alongside 3phase and tracking systems for a recipe for NF winning, since the LTMKII now excel in both anti tank and anti structure (anti infantry omitted because infantry do piss all damage to tanks now) thanks to their ability to mount salvo ML's and UGML which are pretty much siege cannons.

    Sure, the AFV can mount cannons. Doesn't really help when you overheat pretty quickly when using them, and do less damage than the majority of easily accessible missiles. Not to mention you STILL can't angle your turret to hit that LT ramming you, and the cannon requires more skill to hit a target with anyways.

    As well as this, the MKII have the effect of rendering a huge amount of the art in game obsolete, with games rarely ever seeing mediums, and never seeing heavies and artilliery. Its really a waste. Even when you do see meds and heavies, NF still have the upper hand with their dual ML heavies, that thanks to electrical being the no brainer research path for them, have had decent ML's for the majority of the game.

    The 400 res barracks is a good way of punishing a team and a commander. Again, I don't really understand the reasoning behind this, since all it serves to do is slow down gameplay, and punish a team even more for losing a forward barracks, making that slippery slope in empires even more slippery. Not to mention, walking across the entire map is pretty dull, and not having APC spawns, and the BE APC being even further nerfed (seriously, do you guys have something against BE? sure seems like it) makes this even worse.

    Oh, and congrats on making infantry completely useless. yet again, I don't see where the problem was before, but now even a standard armored tank is an unstoppable killing machine, thanks to the buffs to armors, and god forbid they get a better type, since absolutely everything is better than composite was, meaning the grenadier is rendered even more useless, even quicker. The only thing that can kill a tank is another tank, and if your were unlucky enough to lose ground at the start of the game, you won't even have that luxury.

    I honestly don't expect any developers to read this. After all, they managed to completely disregard the majority of the community's suggestions, and shoehorn a ton of new "features" into the mod without any consultation or testing, features that could potentially kill it.

    I really hope you don't intend this release to be the last until 2.3, because in that case, we are fucked.

    Vehicle handling is fun again by the way, congrats.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  12. Omneh

    Omneh Member

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    I'm playing it right now.
     
  13. Mr. Weedy

    Mr. Weedy I will report bugs on the bug tracker

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    \o/ Empires mod is dying, empires mod is dying, empires mod is dyyyyyiiinnggg and what pleasure it gives to us.
    What pleasure it gives to us, what pleasure it gives to us, what pleasure it gives to uuuussss!!!! Because DEVS KILL IT BY THEMSELVES.

    I agree totally with Omni and many many other community members who aren't satisfied with the latest update.
     
  14. CobaltBlue

    CobaltBlue Member

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    It's whining time again because the game play has gotten progressively worse since 1.07.

    Bugs have been fixed yes, but game play has taken a huge downward spiral towards "WTF Zone".

    Out of all the thousands of reasonable suggestions posted on these forums, what possessed the devs to choose the ones they did?! Someone in-game suggested that the devs must be purposefully sabotaging the game, and I can honestly see no reasoning more logical.

    The commander voting I give a big thumbs up. Other than that, I can't think of anything that was anything but detrimental.

    It doesn't even take in-game testing to know what the devs did was a terrible terrible idea.

    "you havent even played it, what are you talking about."
    I think you mean the Devs haven't even played it yet. I don't think they even thought about it.

    Is there even an over-all vision for the direction of this game other than down?
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  15. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    And this attitude is exactly the problem. Those "many many" community members that dont like the update started whining before they played even one minute of 2.23.
     
  16. Sirex

    Sirex Member

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    Havn't played the update yet but what i can figure raising the hull was just way way way wrong. I think it is good that you brought plain armour to the same level as the rest of the armour, but it was bad that you raised hull.

    For christ sake no one likes to just sit and fire at things that don't die. And now you made grenadier useless, GOD DAMN IT!

    Gj at fixing comm vote and vehicle handeling!

    Also i like that you raised Rax cost, no more fucking rax spam that makes it totally futile to try to dissloge an enemy wiht 5 raxes at one place, that really sucked. Also this made it more strategic in where you focus your team, and what you prioritse. But then again you fucked the grenadier totally so any team not rushing better vehciels will lose becuse you devs fucked grenadier over. GJ LOL.

    So sence gerandier are useless, raxes can't be defenced by infantry any more, the only viable tactic is APC rush with anti vehicle machinguns, don't bother with machinguns vs inf.

    Next patch raise grenadier dmg and mine dmg or fail.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  17. Sirex

    Sirex Member

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    And´? We got plenty of peopel who have played the game and also whined on the forum, thus they confirm our vievs. Also it isnt that hard to think what the resaoult is if you know the changes lol!
     
  18. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    100% agree with omni

    and btw you dont really have to play the update to think about the conseqences of new changes

    looks like we know todays pug winner :rolleyes:
     
  19. Roflcopter Rego

    Roflcopter Rego Member

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    OK GUYS, I PLAYED.

    Firstly, I commed because I felt that gave the best view. I also played as NF, because I felt that it was better to play as the stacked team.
    PROBLEM 1:| did not build one barracks throughout the WHOLE FUCKING GAME because there was no point. I got APC spawns as soon as I could, and this effectively meant we could devastate the team without it - they can't even spawn at most refs because they could only afford 1 rax.
    CONCLUSION 1:Barracks to 400 is utterly pointless and makes a terrible game mechanic
    PROBLEM 2: Knowing it was all powerful, I then went for reactive. They lost around 6 AFVs and I lost 2 LTs, they were using reflective (which is expensive, it's not a shitty shit).
    CONCLUSION 2: Reactive is either massively overpowered or should take 4 minutes once in EE (like coolant). This should mean that other armours get a chance of being researched.
    PROBLEM 3:MKII LTs, with the incredibly cheap and easy to get UGML, dominated everything they had. I saw a group of 3 MKII lights take on 2 HE heavies and shitloads of infantry, BE stood no hope whatsoever. They could not damage the LTs enough with HE.
    CONCLUSION 3:MKII tanks have absolutely no place in empires whatsoever, they must be removed.
    PROBLEM 4: The CV was almost invincible. 8 mines and 4 mortars on a side lowered the hull to around 20%. Heat was not an issue at all. When we inevitably ended up camping their base sniping their CV with homing, it took around 5 minutes. 5 painful minutes.
    CONCLUSION 4: The CV should be a vulnerable tank, not an invincible one. Lower the hull health considerably, armour health is OK, maybe lower a little.

    FINAL CONCLUSION: Empires is completely broken. The best solution, and I'm being COMPLETELY FUCKING SERIOUS, is to remove it from the site, and tell everyone to reinstall 22 until there is a playable game. I have uninstalled empires and do not plan to play until there are massive revisions. I am so fucking pissed with the devs that you have utterly ruined my favourite game I can't even begin to put it into words. Empires is unplayable. Please ban whoever had these bright ideas from the forum and hard-code ban him from empires. It's the least he deserves.

    Jailbreak mod is where it's at.

    -- In case this gets deleted because I have flamed your mod (sorry), I would like to point out that I have gone through the trouble of doing some proper testing, and focused on getting clear results and conclusions. Admittedly the final conclusion may conclude some more personal opinions.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009
  20. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    You're entitled to raging.

    I don't see how it's bad that you built apcs instead of a barracks, apc's are more vulnerable, you chose to pick those over 400 res raxes, that's strategy. Unless everyone stops buying raxes, this will have to be proven with time.

    reactive is a low tier armor, while I see how it could essentially make or break a game, keep in mind that a reactive MKII can't fit a lot of weaponry. When you get to higher tier, if the game actually allows you, reactive won't remain the best simply as it's outmatched by the hp gain you get from having more plates per side. (it's also expensive)

    MKII's will be removed as easily as they were added, give them a try for now, we can see whether it's really the MKII concept that is horrible, or whether it's just that lights rape, or that heavies suck.

    CV is invincible but is easy to overheat, this is an experimental change, a lot of people felt the CV was too weak, that is why the low armor has been changed for high damage to heat mod. If it doesn't work out, again, it'll be removed as quick as it got added.

    Keep in mind that this game still is a beta, yes it has not been tested properly, but to make an omelet you have to break some eggs.

    If this version does prove to be a mistake in the next week, it will be changed again, and hopefully the experience from this patch will make for better judgement which could result in the next patch being twice as good as 2.22, you never know :p. It definitely won't be if this version isn't tested.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2009

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