Modoptions thread

Modoptions thread

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TheFatController
Balanced Annihilation Developer
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Joined: 10 Dec 2006, 18:46

Modoptions thread

Post by TheFatController »

Please post ideas for new mod options here!

Guidelines:
- No small balance changes that people wont notice until half way though the game eg 'stumpies do 5% less damage modoption!'
- Preferably sweeping gameplay changes that add a different gameplay angle to the Mod.

Example:
No comnapping mode - Bad
AA2.23 hover commanders mode (which also happens to disable comnapping) - Good
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Jazcash
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Joined: 08 Dec 2007, 17:39

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Jazcash »

Would it be possible to implement map changes via the mod?

For example, you could change the values of Wind, Metal Extraction, Tidal, Gravity and Hardness, all via the Battle Lobby.
Like some sort of .SMD file changer accessible via the Mod.

Some other options:

* Disable DGun Completely
* Sudden Death Mod (Com has 500 Health)
* T1 Mode (Disables Teching) ( I would really really like this )
* Ghost Mode (No radars or long LOS units)
* No Com Explosions (Like CA)

You could even go all the way and implement different game types. I know king of the hill is already being worked on but there are other you could use:

*Assassination (Each team has a VIP player, when that VIP player dies, that team loses. All the other players on that team have to protect their VIP and kill the enemy VIP to win)

*Territories (If you've ever played Halo you'll know what I mean. There are several hills throughout the map, each hill can be taken only once. For example, if a team sits in a hill for 30 seconds, they capture it, then even if they die, the hill cannot be retaken by the enemy team. The team with the most hills at the end of a certain time wins.)

*Protection (Each team has a VIP, that VIP has to get to a certain location on the map, both equal distance from each other. The rest of the VIP's team has to protect his com till he safely gets to the position. The VIP's Com has extra health, maybe 10000 or so. The first VIP to get to the position wins the game for their team. Also no transports of any sort are allowed.)

There's just a few suggestions :P
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Pxtl
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Pxtl »

Just throwing some ideas out there, of varying levels of quality:

Ultra-cheap factories - L2 factories cost as much as normal L1 factories, L1 factories cost as much as 2 constructor units. Encourages experimenting with L2 play, mixing unit-types, etc, since a lot of hardcore games only see L2 as an endgame assault, and only use one L2 fac.

Best Of Both Worlds - every Arm/Core factory or constructor has both factional Arm/Core units of its type wherever there is substantial difference (peewees/aks, sumos vs fatboys, etc), except in places where it would be 100% redundant (like stumpies and raiders, or L2 jammers, etc). So an L1 kbot player gets to pick whether he spams AKs or Peewees.

Deathmatch Tactics - fixed unit cap of 32 units per-player, no L2 resource units allowed, Comm has strong energymake/metalmake. Comms respawn, but when they die they lose all their child units. First alliance to kill a fixed number of comms (10*players-in-alliance?) wins.

Immobile Comm - It's been done in every other mod, why not BA? The trick is to give the Comm some kind of energy-intensive power that will make it nigh-invulnerable in the late game so that it can't be wiped out with a single suicide-strike by bombers. In this approach you can give the comm an Annihilator or whatever beefy weapons you like, since it can't be used for commrushing.

There are also about a million ideas you could come up with by disabling various units, but that would be kind of redundant with the build-list.
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TheFatController
Balanced Annihilation Developer
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Joined: 10 Dec 2006, 18:46

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by TheFatController »

Just throwing some of my ideas into the thread (these aren't things i'm certainly going to do, just stuff on my mind)

Startpoint Shuffle at game start everyone's commander is swapped with another allied start point, the result is people on the back might spawn at the front or vice-versa, this would give no 'advantage' to fast loaders but might piss people off.

Comshare bonus commanders teams who are comsharing get an additional commander for each player on the team, so a comsharing team of 8 players would get 8 commanders, but they'd still be on the same team.

Racial Animosity Arm units do 15% more damage to Core units, Core units do 15% more damage to Arm units. This might create a bit more tactics in team games and make people think about the side they chose a bit more.
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Pxtl
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Pxtl »

Heheh, after playing Ikaruga, I'd take it to a ridiculous extreme:
Units do 150% damage to opposing side, and 50% damage to like-side, but units gain experience and the player gets energy for being damaged by enemies of the like side.

Actually, in general the "taking damage from enemy units gives you energy" would be a funny mechanic.
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Jazcash
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Jazcash »

Seasonal Dynamics

Each unit looks different depending on the time of year. At Christmas, all units wear santa hats, halloween, they wear pumpkins on their heads.
YokoZar
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Joined: 15 Jul 2007, 22:02

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by YokoZar »

TheFatController wrote:Just throwing some of my ideas into the thread (these aren't things i'm certainly going to do, just stuff on my mind)

Startpoint Shuffle at game start everyone's commander is swapped with another allied start point, the result is people on the back might spawn at the front or vice-versa, this would give no 'advantage' to fast loaders but might piss people off.
This might be a bit weird with "choose in game" start points, but would be rather good for "choose before game" or "fixed" start points.
Comshare bonus commanders teams who are comsharing get an additional commander for each player on the team, so a comsharing team of 8 players would get 8 commanders, but they'd still be on the same team.
I really like this idea, although it would be nice to be able to select more than one start point as well. Bonus points if you can make the "select and center" widget pick a different commander for each player.

The main difference I can think of between this and just starting/taking a TestGlobalAI is that you couldn't mix arm/core as easily.
Racial Animosity Arm units do 15% more damage to Core units, Core units do 15% more damage to Arm units. This might create a bit more tactics in team games and make people think about the side they chose a bit more.
Nice idea, but I don't think it will have the effect you might have been hoping for. The 15% should only affect strategy for the units which don't shoot much or can't be shot back (basically long range artillery) - sure you do more damage, but you also take more damage. This means I want my bombers only firing at the same enemy race (who does less damage).
el_matarife
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Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 02:04

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by el_matarife »

"No sharing to enemies" should be on by default.

I'd also suggest built in banned unit options like "No AIR" "No LRPCs" "No nukes" "no tac nukes" and a few similar options, on checkboxes. That would make it super easy to setup gimmick games by just clicking a few boxes, especially on SpringLobby which doesn't have a great unit banning interface yet.
YokoZar
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Joined: 15 Jul 2007, 22:02

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by YokoZar »

el_matarife wrote:"No sharing to enemies" should be on by default.
I thought it was, it's just a spring bug that lets you share everything on the resign screen.
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Pxtl
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Pxtl »

Welll, if you're going to make a suite of "no X" options, then "No makers" and "no extractors" and "no L2 econ" and "no L2" are obvious musts.
el_matarife
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Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 02:04

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by el_matarife »

Pxtl wrote:Welll, if you're going to make a suite of "no X" options, then "No makers" and "no extractors" and "no L2 econ" and "no L2" are obvious musts.
Yeah, I'm assuming that we'll end up with checkboxes for pretty much everything like "No Sea" "No hovers" "no T3" and so on.
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TheFatController
Balanced Annihilation Developer
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by TheFatController »

HectorMeyer
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Joined: 13 Jan 2009, 11:20

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by HectorMeyer »

Improved FFA diplomacy - A beefed up FFA version of the playerlist, which includes the status you have with each player (Ally, Enemy). Through some added buttons, you could propose/break alliances. A button for whispering to the specified player would be nice too. Maybe even include a matrix, which makes you see the status of all players with each other.

This would spice up FFAs a little bit.

What i'd really love to see is a sophisticated diplomacy system for FFAs, including a trading interface, peace treaties for a certain duration, and reputation. It needed to account for "territory" though, so "peaceful" troops couldn't enter your territory, park near your fusions and declare war.
YHCIR
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by YHCIR »

HectorMeyer wrote:Improved FFA diplomacy - A beefed up FFA version of the playerlist, which includes the status you have with each player (Ally, Enemy). Through some added buttons, you could propose/break alliances. A button for whispering to the specified player would be nice too. Maybe even include a matrix, which makes you see the status of all players with each other.

This would spice up FFAs a little bit.

What i'd really love to see is a sophisticated diplomacy system for FFAs, including a trading interface, peace treaties for a certain duration, and reputation. It needed to account for "territory" though, so "peaceful" troops couldn't enter your territory, park near your fusions and declare war.
CA had Ceasefire widget, but I think it was removed (and added again?).
Somewhere in here probably http://trac.caspring.org/browser/trunk/ ... UI/Widgets
It's pretty much exactly what you describe.
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BrainDamage
Lobby Developer
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Joined: 25 Sep 2006, 13:56

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by BrainDamage »

YHCIR wrote: CA had Ceasefire widget, but I think it was removed (and added again?).
Somewhere in here probably http://trac.caspring.org/browser/trunk/ ... UI/Widgets
It's pretty much exactly what you describe.
it's a gadget, not a widget
http://trac.caspring.org/browser/trunk/ ... sefire.lua
el_matarife
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by el_matarife »

TheFatController wrote: Comshare bonus commanders teams who are comsharing get an additional commander for each player on the team, so a comsharing team of 8 players would get 8 commanders, but they'd still be on the same team.
Yokozar, Smurf, and I have run two test games (by using cheats and empty AIs) of this and we're all thinking it is amazingly awesome and you should add it to BA ASAP. All you need to do is allow you to spawn multiple commanders in the startboxes and maybe add a widget so you can see which units your team mates have selected.
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Beherith
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Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Beherith »

el_matarife wrote:
TheFatController wrote: Comshare bonus commanders teams who are comsharing get an additional commander for each player on the team, so a comsharing team of 8 players would get 8 commanders, but they'd still be on the same team.
Yokozar, Smurf, and I have run two test games (by using cheats and empty AIs) of this and we're all thinking it is amazingly awesome and you should add it to BA ASAP. All you need to do is allow you to spawn multiple commanders in the startboxes and maybe add a widget so you can see which units your team mates have selected.
Oh pretty please implement this! I want sooo hard! Just let both players select start positions individually:)
bashar
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Joined: 03 Dec 2006, 23:06

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by bashar »

Beherith wrote:
el_matarife wrote:
TheFatController wrote: Comshare bonus commanders teams who are comsharing get an additional commander for each player on the team, so a comsharing team of 8 players would get 8 commanders, but they'd still be on the same team.
Yokozar, Smurf, and I have run two test games (by using cheats and empty AIs) of this and we're all thinking it is amazingly awesome and you should add it to BA ASAP. All you need to do is allow you to spawn multiple commanders in the startboxes and maybe add a widget so you can see which units your team mates have selected.
Oh pretty please implement this! I want sooo hard! Just let both players select start positions individually:)
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BaNa
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Joined: 09 Sep 2007, 21:05

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by BaNa »

Hey if we can change the map information via LUA, we could do depleting metal as an option. Active mexes would lower metal levels in their area over time, mohos faster than regulars, but both would happen along a - exponential curve, so it never actually goes to 0.
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Teutooni
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Joined: 01 Dec 2007, 17:21

Re: Modoptions thread

Post by Teutooni »

TheFatController wrote:AA2.23 hover commanders mode (which also happens to disable comnapping) - Good
AA2.23 WEZELS of DETH mode - Very good ))))

Seriously, though, I'd like an option to override map specific variables like gravity, wind, tidal, etc.
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