Complete Annihilation News

[Otherside]

1000th post on epic thread

[manored]

Thanks for making sure it was a completely useless one while also too simplistic to be a decent comemoration :)

Again on information issues, I just remembered that then I started playing spring again I wasted some time in a game searching the land hover/amphi facility before noticing that the sea one was actually both land and sea... something to warn people of that, and also from that Aircraft plants can be built underwater, would be cool :)

[smokingwreckage]

Just quick question regarding 2747:

Doomsday Machine: WHERE'S MY B.L.O.D? The plasma cannon works fine, I guess, but it seems a little bit ARM or NOVA, luddites who fear patterning and energy weapons. Also it's not as pretty.

If you have been paying attention, beamlasers have been phased out of core almost entirely in favour of beamweapons (beamweapon=star wars style). The only units left with beamlasers at all were the doomsday and krogoth.

The cannon doesnt look ideal i know but i thought id just finish off the job since its range is going down to 700 or so. If you look at the weapons, core uses a lot more ballistic weaponry than arm does, and if you look at mr.d's remakes, they are gritty and realistic.

NOVA IS NOT ARM. Logos isnt core either. New storyline!

Both are robots created eons ago to fight the wars of a now extinct humanity. There is no patterning. Logos follow logic and try to perfect their code, they are utilitarian. Nova is aesthetic and passionate. The two sides represent creativity (nova) vs reason (logos).

Or at least thats what we've got so far, its subject to change like everything. But nova isnt arm and they certainly arent anti-patternist rebels (there IS no patterning).

Cool, cool. I haven't noticed as much in-game as I thought I would; I just miss the blue glowy blast of doom... although seeing spikers get hit by a plasma ball and then explode is pretty satisfying too. I really like what you're doing with CA actually, from the convenient widgets to the new graphics, units and storyline and the new, faster gameplay. Formerly an AA player I now tend to play mostly CA (chickens FTW!) with some NOTA in there for "epic-big-holy crap look at that gun!" play.

[Crayfish]

1000th post on epic thread

Actually, that was post 1001. Denied!

[Hoi]

Haha! a box of cookies for the one that gets the 1337th post:)

[AF]

The cookie king issues a fatwha against Hoi for cookie balsphemy of the highest order

[Hoi]

MUTERY!!!

[manored]

You know I find it really anoying that then you issue an attack order the unit moves just the enough to shot the enemy and then stops, making it easy for the enemy to escape if you arent controlling it directly and preventing you from chosing a target while your unit advances. I think it would be cool if there was a modifier that, then active, would cause units to constantly move towards their attack target instead of just the enough to shot. So for example a peewee ordered to attack a raider in your base would pursue him as efficiently as then under your direct control, making fighting-off raidings easier. (this whole thing currently can be done with the guard command, however the unit still keeps a bit of a distance, its less pratic and counter-intuitive)

In the same topic, I think that its sort of anyoing that then your units are moving you cant chose a target, and you will not always want your unit to move straigh towards the enemy, so being able to mark a target that your units will prioritize shooting at whenever this target is in range would be usefull.

[Hoi]

*coughs*roam*coughs*

[Machiosabre]

thats not what roam does.

[Hoi]

why does it say something like chase when I got to roam mode?

[Pxtl]

"Roam" means that the unit will go as far as it needs to away from its patrol or standing position in order to pursue an enemy it is engaging - if the unit runs to the other side of the map, it will follow him to the other side of the map. Manoever implies an imaginary tether beyond which the unit will not pursue, and hold-position means that the unit will not move to engage a unit it has not been specifically ordered to attack.

Note that none of these affect the "attack" or "move" behavior, but the patrol and standing behaviors.

[manored]

I find roam is a hardly usefull command, I mean, beside the fact that units on roam can be drawed out into traps and get killed and reclaimed, you dont wanna put units with big range in roam because they usually are weak and will get killed, but you dont wanna put units with small range in roam because they will get skirmished :)

[Saktoth]

A button with engagement distance would be very useful. So you can order a unit to get closer than it strictly needs to. But, this is micro and if you're micro'ing you might as well just give a move order.

If you set a close engagement distance in most situations, not only will units not utilize their full range, but they'll block eachothers line of fire when mass-attacking a target. Sure, the first things a problem for skirms, but blocking eachothers line of fire is even a problem for peewees.

Ideally id like to see a button to set -minimum- engagement distance too, so that a unit will actually retreat if an enemy gets too close. A simple autoskirmish.

[manored]

Microing requires your attention to be there tough, and this is anyoing in a large-scale game, especially if you need to command multiple units at once, such as in a early-game multi-raid.

Indeed the units would probally block each other and not use their full range, however attacking units right now stop moving right then the enemy is in the border of their range and then start shooting... this is bad then you are pursuing or fighting skirmishers because this means that if you manage to get the enemy into your range by moving first he may escape unleash you pay attention to that spot all the fight because your units will only start moving to keep him within range after he left it...

The guard command solves this issue but its counter-intuitive and (at least currently) cannot be used in area commands.

[smoth]

roam allows the unit to stray off after targets versus returning to a point after attacking. Iirc, the maneuver leash length tag is unsupported in spring so we cannot utilize this to make the roam setting more useful. Oh well, none of the ota people who supposedly shit elephants over their crap possibly being broken by a gameplay element have ever noticed.

*edits to clarify*

So if I set a unit to roam it will wander off after things it sees versus generally attacking things within a distance from it.

[Saktoth]

I agree with and understand your issue manored.

However, there are times when closing to less than your max range is a disadvantage, and a unit cannot 'know' which is best. Would a button to set engagement distance really get used? People rarely even take the time to put their units on hold fire (which is why we have widgets which will do that for arty and skirms). I think its still worth trying but are there any better options here, something more intuitive?

Oh, and i agree on target prioritizing. A unit shouldnt lose its target priority just because you gave it a move order. This is something i liked about homeworld, a unit could have independent move and fire orders. This is probably best as an engine change but ill make a ticket for CA.

[manored]

Perhaps there could be a menu on options to chose how these options, and probally others, came by default for each unit. I dont know if this is hard to do or not, but I believe it would be a great improvement to gameplay :)

[Flint]

Really love this mod, but there are a ton of pages on this thread, can someone explain or link me to information about the future plans of CA (nova, logos talk etc)?

[manored]

CA has a site: http://www.caspring.org