Complete Annihilation News

[kiki]

Yes, .give. see caspring website. It's not going to be part of the game. The world was never meant to see it. It's too dangerous, like the jetpack. Move along, nothing to see here.

What unit are you talking about? Some new toy for my ca jetpack sandbox fantasies?

[Krathi]

I looked and I can't find the command. Mind posting it here?

[Krathi]

Oh also, me and Edible were tossing around new unit ideas and this is what happened. We came up with the idea of a Railgun, that can load units inside it, then fling them which does damage proportional to the Metal and Energy costs. For example, flinging a Flea would do hardly anything, while flinging a Krogoth would be devastating. Of course, the downside is you need to sacrifice your own units to load it

[Neddie]

The only aircraft that is worth repairing is krow. It has 14k life and takes long time to repair. Thats why air reparir pad has nano 4*1000, regular nano just 200. Perhaps i was the only one that actually used repair pads in BA.

I suspect so. As you said they're only useful with krows.

You only need 5 nanotowers to get the same repair for 1 krow, and you can afford about 2.5 for the cost of an air repair pad. By krow stage, you'll have 5 nanotowers around anyway. Yes its only half as cost efficient, but when your nanotowers arent repairing your krow they can do something else, which more than makes up for the cost.

I used them with Krows, Rapier, T2 Fighters (Patrol) and T2 Transports, as well as Aerial Survelliance.

[ralphie]

I used them with peepers

[CarRepairer]

Retreat kind of annoys me because it replaces basic attention and micro, but on the other hand, it isn't nearly as good at effective retreats as I am with a few clicks, so go on, get softer!

Anyway, it is a matter of play style. I happen to use Rez, Repair and Reclaim often on the same front, depending on corpses, immediate threat, etc...

You were also annoyed when the unitrange widget suddenly hit the scene because you developed the skillz to test a laser tower and draw a circle on the map where it can reach. You are resentful because you developed skillz and now any nub without them can almost do what you do. Well I'm resentful because some of us are just not quick with the mouse and we never will be

[Neddie]

Well, I pay for that skill, I have severe carpal tunnel and I guarantee a click costs more for me than it ever will for you. Of course, I don't draw the range on the map, I store an approximation of it in my HEAD, along with the roles and capabilities of units. It isn't perfect, but at least it originates from me and the use of my faculties.

Where are you going to draw the line between automation and responsibility? Automation would be fine, if the responsibility it replaced did not have some bearing on the faculties which a good strategist or tactician should bring to the battlefield. I understand factoring out GUI or UnitAI weaknesses, but I think efforts have to be made to reintroduce the real depth which is lost.

In example; Having every building ghost is fine, provided buildings are not, shocking as it may seem, relatively static. Then there might be a requirement for reasonable scouting equivalent to a game with unghosted buildings. However, with static, ghosted buildings, and auto-point + auto-range widgets, scouting and intelligence gathering is not emphasized enough, it becomes a periodic and less important element of play that it should be.

I am not a Luddite riding through on the strength of my micromanagement, do not presume to cast me as such. Many people are much more capable in that department than I, and if I were such I would be playing Starcraft. I am an average player with an intense awareness of the disparity between the ideal of play, and the game we have now.

[CarRepairer]

I played starcraft for years and by the end of it I knew every stat of every unit from cost to damagetypes to hp and regeneration rate to everything else there can be. I learned every strategy and every counter and it improved my game a lot. But I could never reach the level of the good players because my hand-eye coordination is simply not that good. I could never achieve high actions per minute in that game or any other. My only matchups were those who were as slow as I am.

It is unfortunate that with spring there is still the issue of overcoming lag and the jumpy mouse cursor which only multiplies the effects of being slow. Despite the fact that I still unintentionally click on the wrong icon, command or unit 1 out of every 4 times, this is the best game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The power of its interface is the only salvation for those such as myself. I still look forward to optimizations that will improve the engine, but until then I can still enjoy the game. In fact I only recently learned this week about the power of selectkeys.exe. If only I had known about this sooner, it is desperately needed!

Sorry to hear about your ailment.

[Day]

<[LCC]Licho[CA]> Complete Annihilation is out! Join the Spring revolution! Modlink: http://caspring.org/wiki/CaUpdater

[Otherside]

<[LCC]Licho[CA]> Complete Annihilation is out! Join the Spring revolution! Modlink: http://caspring.org/wiki/CaUpdater

+ 1

[manored]

[quote="neddiedrow"] In example; Having every building ghost is fine, provided buildings are not, shocking as it may seem, relatively static. Then there might be a requirement for reasonable scouting equivalent to a game with unghosted buildings. However, with static, ghosted buildings, and auto-point + auto-range widgets, scouting and intelligence gathering is not emphasized enough, it becomes a periodic and less important element of play that it should be.quote] I think that generals have any information their troops know about/managed to gather presented to then in a pratic manner so they can plan efficiently... and the examples you gave looks like that kind of information :) There is also the fact of that with some information being processed for you you can control larger armies winhout loss of efficiency...

[Noruas]

<[LCC]Licho[CA]> Complete Annihilation is out! Join the Spring revolution! Modlink: http://caspring.org/wiki/CaUpdater

Xta is where its at.
http://spring.jobjol.nl/download.php?ma ... PEV943.sdz

[manored]

<[LCC]Licho[CA]> Complete Annihilation is out! Join the Spring revolution! Modlink: http://caspring.org/wiki/CaUpdater

Xta is where its at.

But everthing is too big in XTA :)

[Neddie]

In example; Having every building ghost is fine, provided buildings are not, shocking as it may seem, relatively static. Then there might be a requirement for reasonable scouting equivalent to a game with unghosted buildings. However, with static, ghosted buildings, and auto-point + auto-range widgets, scouting and intelligence gathering is not emphasized enough, it becomes a periodic and less important element of play that it should be.quote] I think that generals have any information their troops know about/managed to gather presented to then in a pratic manner so they can plan efficiently... and the examples you gave looks like that kind of information :) There is also the fact of that with some information being processed for you you can control larger armies winhout loss of efficiency...

In my example you have persistent knowledge of things which are static only due to a flaw in game design, and if they were not static, you would be forced to scout better and more often. In that situation, persistent knowledge would hurt as well as help, which is realistic and would add depth. As it is, it is a weakness in the world and correspondingly lessens the breadth of play.

[Saktoth]

CA thread kthx.

Well, I pay for that skill, I have severe carpal tunnel and I guarantee a click costs more for me than it ever will for you.

This is why you need more automation ^-^.

Of course, I don't draw the range on the map, I store an approximation of it in my HEAD, along with the roles and capabilities of units. It isn't perfect, but at least it originates from me and the use of my faculties.

I drew the range on the map.
All. The. Time.
Usually HLT's, but sometimes antinukes, so i can sneak a nuke in between the gaps. HLT's most commonly. I always used to draw off my own antinuke range so my allies knew if they were protected.

This is the sort of information which is available to the player with a little bit of effort, and really should just be presented to him if the UI is doing its job. It improves the level at which the game is played, allowing sneaky attacks with weasels and better use of skirmishers and artillery.

I am not a big fan of memorizing data in games- its why i think map-obscuring Fog of War is a bad idea, for example. Winning should depend on tactical and strategic competence. I know that there is always a degree of acquired knowledge- a player will always have to learn how to use his tools, but the UI should be there to present every single piece of information it can to the player, so the players job is to make the decisions as to how to employ that information- not pore through modit looking up unit stats. The game shouldnt even be about getting an intuitive 'feel' for unit ranges from thousands of games. Thats really just experience, learning by rote, and says little about the players skill.

But intel must play a role, it is as you say. Here we get into a tricky issue.

On the one hand, having accurate recon of the enemy is what allows you to respond, react and counter him. Basically, intel is at the heart of player interaction- without recon, you are playing a blind guessing game, not a dynamic interactive matching of wits.

On the other hand, having the ability to disguise that information and surprise the enemy is the core of many interesting strategies. Oftentimes outwitting the enemy relies on him not knowing your weakness either because he wasnt scouting correctly or because you defended yourself from his scouts.

Now, if scouting is made too unreliable or just difficult, people will simply do it less (and the game suffers in interaction). If intel isnt valuable because it is so hard to get people wont bother to try and get it.

The best dynamic to be struck is one where intel is cheap, easy, and effective but there are various tools a player can use to block the enemies scouting attempts. Jammers and radars are a good example- making intelligence gathering itself an interactive element of the gameplay. One innovation CA has made is cloaking fields (For arm, who are more focused on information warfare than core). Not only can you be safe from enemy radar but you can also make your whole base much harder to scout visually.

Im also tossing around the idea of mobile/transportable turrets for arm, or even other mobile/transportable buildings.

Remember though that constructors make half as much energy as solar panels, mobile anti nukes and carriers make 300 e (just less than a third of a fusion), and that focusing generally on mobile units over buildings can already give you a large advantage in intelligence warfare. So, there are already tools available to this end.

[Neddie]

I was thinking about some designs for factories that move and then deploy, but there is a difficulty there - orientation of deployment and unit construction.

[CarRepairer]

<[LCC]Licho[CA]> Complete Annihilation is out! Join the Spring revolution! Modlink: http://caspring.org/wiki/CaUpdater

Xta is where its at.
http://spring.jobjol.nl/download.php?ma ... PEV943.sdz

CA thread kthx.

I'll forgive Noruas this once because he gave CA the (Dragon's) Egg, quite possibly the best unit ever next to the clogger. One free pass Noruas!

[BlueTemplar]

Is there a link somewhere to the latest version, not only the latest stable version?

[manored]

CA is upgraded too frequently: Its not viable to play the latest version winhout using the CA downloader to download it.

[Saktoth]

You can play the stable, but really, nobody else does :/