[Public Test] Empires Unbalanced Edition

Just because I enjoy it doesn't mean I, um, enjoy it.
Well.
Shut up. Meany.

 

don't you start making enemies that soon

 

I want a max of +300damage :D

Costs 2800res total and 15 minutes.

 

Rex and I are working on our own set of custom scripts and I want everyone here to try them when we're done.

 

Question for drag: Is it possible to do some kind of Support grenade? Like It has reverse bio, or replenishes ammo? And If that could be done could a weapon be made that decreases enemy ammo? I'm more wondering if this is possible rather then feasible.

 

To take a cue from TFC: Emp grenades. Detonates munitions of the weapon the user has equipped at the time. Damage depends on amount of ammo for that weapon and the ammo type.

 

Tested the new scripts today.

Me liek:

*adv rpg (1 rpg tears through 3 plates of composite)
*weapons overall (diversity is nice)

Bugs(or features, what do I know):

*maximum plates per side is 5 now
*bio supply cannon worked as an ammo crate (replenished all weapons) for the first 10 min of the game, then it stopped replenishing ammo at all

 

I know that it is possible to make weapons that give negative heat to target but since ff is off these won't work on friendly tanks. There is a way to make a weapon that takes heat away from your own tank, like an emergency cooling system but it has it's problems too. Decreasing enemy ammo can't be hacked via scripts.

Everything else will need coding and thus a decent concept first because I don't want to use up our coding manpower for possibly crappy new features.

@Cad: Maximum plates per side is still 6 for heavy tanks. However I think there is a bug in the armor display of your own tank so it only shows 5 plates per side. Bio supply cannon should, in fact, not regenerate ammo at all. So unless some funny coder sneak-implemented that feature... I reckon you were near an armory/repairpad/box ?

 

i said that before, bio supply came in faster then i could shoot it for no reason

 

gl with that.

 

While fixing stuff I thought about this. It should be possible with current code.



You could go from chem III to any other 2nd tier to get some specific weapons. Say you run out of money on tier 2 physics and desperately need cheap stuff you can go Mech I. The "sidestep" researches would cost less money and time but would be "stub" researches, you can't upgrade from them anymore.

 

Feels like buffing the winning team even more =/

 

Same money and time but stub researches for T3-T2, less for T2-T1. make it an unattractive sacrafice for the winning team, but as you said a viable tactic for a desperate team.

 

I like it.

If they want to progress that tree they have to do the proper basic research. Plus doing it using stub research should cost a small penalty (make noticeable there's fee involved) so that they don't research all of Mech1. This should only be viable for a couple of specific counters that you need.

 

Ok...It should be clearer now. Thanks go to Zeke and his 1337 paint skillz.

4 of them are missed out obviously because I can't be bothered doing all of them.
Also, where it says "UPG" in chemistry, it means "Chemically Upgraded".

I can't really think of how I could make that clearer. This was done using the weapons Drag provided in his first post.

 

I see how that is...I like it. I'm assuming the same goes for everything else?

 

I absolutly disagree with making RPG upgrades an extra research.
The one real test game was the ONLY game I ever played in which
I felt usefull as grenadier the whole time since 2.12

 

I disagree with completely splitting up a tree into two weapon categories, its effectively doubling the amount of trees to 10. Splitting up a tier in two I can consider but a whole tree, nay I say, nay.

 

I don't think I've posted this elaboration here yet, so here goes.

NOTE: This post was about armor variants, which is where you get the basic armor, and versions of that basic armor that are better against one thing, but worse against another, which could be useful when the enemy is focusing a lot on missile spam or is using a lot of infantry-based attacks. I personally think it's worth a try, but the most important part of this explanation is the bold part, which explains the use of unique armor abilities.

This discussion was about a tree that still had amors and engines in several trees, but I think Drag's system will be the easiest to balance and most interesting to use because of these points / prerequisites:

1) With the implementation of unique armor abilities, armors will be chosen not as much because of their ability to counter certain weapons, but because of their usefulness in a certain playstyle.

2) Placing weapons, armors and engines as proposed by Drag's design in this thread will allow more flexible playstyles. If you place armors and weapons (or even engines!) in a single tree like the old research tree, you effectively limit your team into one single playstyle or manner of doing battle. This is a gigantic bitch. Don't believe me? How many of you think going full chem or full mech eng is a great idea? Without realizing it, players are already trying to mix and match playstyles from across trees by combining armor from one tree with the weapons from another and the engine from yet another. This proposed system makes it easier to do so, and removes the need for having to know the tree inside out to even get the most basic research paths right.

3) In general, this proposal will shift the focus from "group of best combos in the game" to "group of best combos for that round depending on the enemy tech and your team's playstyle". For a more elaborate explanation, see the last paragraph of my quote. When properly balanced, the chosen research path will rely entirely on what the team does with it and no longer on the individual merits of a few strong research items.

4) More communication between the commander and his troops will be necessary with this proposal, perhaps even some prep-time to discuss the most interesting path for the current round based on what his team likes and what the commander feels will be the best tactic RTS-wise.

 

So.... you're endorsing armor and engines distributed in the individual trees or not? I'm a little confused.

On one hand you get really interesting playstyles in that tree. Your cloaking mech example. On the other hand you want to provide variety and combinations, which seems to provide more for a single tree of just engines and armor.

Or, perhaps you're endorsing the new system of allowing cross-tree research without advancing into that tree, which gives the flexibility of mixture while keeping each tree distinctive?


I do like the general theoretical goal, though. It sounds like we're on the right track in the thinking of good tech tree design. Now, make sure it's noob comm friendly!