Metal Factions - Page 8

Metal Factions

Total-Annihilation-esque RTS game with four original factions.

Moderator: Content Developer

raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out!

Same links as the previous one.


2017/12/24 ------------------ NOTES v0.991 ----------------------

- fixed MAJOR bug introduced on the previous version which caused some units to become stuck on factories and others to not be buildable at all!

--- balance / mechanics

- increased AVEN "Omega Form" commander's HP by 100

- increased scout aircraft HP from 90 to 110 and cost by 10%

- adjusted the footprint size of a few of the bigger units

- made the GEAR advanced vehicle plant and advanced shipyards wider
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out! Grab it NOW!
here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


COMSAT Station (also the new area-extractor buttons are visible on the orders menu)
Image


2018/01/31 ------------------ NOTES v0.992 ----------------------


--- new units

- added COMSAT station for all factions : a somewhat expensive building that can reveal an area of the map for 15s every three minutes
(these are an alternative investment to having to recurrently suicide swarms of air scouts to reveal areas behind enemy defenses)


--- balance / mechanics

- when a unit is ordered to attack a target and then ordered to move, it should keep attacking the previous target while in range

- improved the lua metal spot handler so that the metal decals are perfectly centered and more visible when resource highlight view is enabled

- removed global resource multipliers and other game options as some weren't processed properly
(they may be changed/restored at a later date)

- fixed a bug which prevented commanders from capturing enemy units, but sharply reduced the capture speed to 2/3 of the normal build speed
- "Builder Form" commanders have their capture speeds and terraform speeds set to 2x the normal amounts (same as their build speed)

- slightly increased the extraction radius of advanced metal extractors to ensure that no metal income is lost if they're built beside an existing basic extractor


--- UI

- updated the name and descriptions of metal extractors, now extraction rate multiplier and energy drain is shown on the tooltip

- added buttons that allow building the various metal extractor forms in an area : basic (level1), safe and hazardous (level2)
. these replaced the metal extractor area-upgrade and upgrade state buttons
. constructors will build the level2 forms beside existing level1 forms instead of reclaiming them first

- disable game speed indicator when the game starts to avoid overlapping clock/fps indicator
Attachments
comsat_and_area_extractor_buttons.jpg
comsat and area extractor buttons...
(424.16 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

same links as before.


2018/02/11 ------------------ NOTES v0.993 ----------------------

--- balance / mechanics

- increased AVEN "Defender" damage per second by 45% and increased cost by 20%

- changed AVEN and GEAR level 2 fighters to shoot a pair of faster missiles with slightly higher burst damage but less range
- increased HP of level 2 fighters (except SPHERE) by 100 (10-15%) and adjusted the costs
- slightly increased the projectile speed and reduced the range of fighter aircraft
- increased strafing fighter aircraft's acceleration
(these changes make strafing aircraft more cost-effective at fighting other aircraft in general, namely hovering aircraft which can shoot back efficiently)

- modified GEAR "Firestorm" to use incendiary rockets instead of fireball cannons

--- UI

- commands for building or upgrading metal extractors in an area now show up immediately when shift-queued
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out! Grab it NOW!
here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


GEAR Land mines
Image

GEAR Luminator
Image

CLAW Dynamo
Image

AVEN Tsunami
Image


2018/04/24 ------------------ NOTES v0.994 ----------------------

--- new units

- AVEN "Tsunami" : Heavy Riot Hovercraft

- GEAR "Luminator" : Long Range Heavy Fire Support Robot
- GEAR "Land Mine" : perimeter defense

- CLAW "Dynamo" : Mobile Anti-Armor Energy Ring Launcher
(charges and shoots a very powerful ring that can pierce through multiple enemies, but charging can be interrupted by enemy fire)

(click here for unit details)

--- balance / mechanics

- AVEN "Bass" : reload time and damage halved, to make it more consistent. It's projectiles now show a cool space distortion effect
- AVEN "Excalibur" : reduced HP by 25% and cost by 12%. Modified model to look "slimmer"
- AVEN "Swatter" : reduced HP by 25%, changed armor type from L to M and adjusted cost
- AVEN "Talon" : reduced speed by 20%, increased HP by 20% and reduced bomb reload time from 9s to 6s and adjusted cost

- GEAR "Titan" : increased HP from 7500 to 8000 and adjusted cost
- GEAR "Flareon": turret rotates to keep firing direction to compensate for the body rotation, if necessary

- CLAW "Gyro" charge disruption threshold lowered to 25% damage taken within 3 seconds instead of 1 second

- SPHERE "Magnetar" : increase passive regeneration from 160HP/s to 250HP/s
- SPHERE "Nimbus" : missile and rocket have 600 range

- increased the damage dealt by GEAR and SPHERE long range plasma cannons and reduced HP by about 15%
(to make them more cost effective at their core role, which is long range bombardment)

- Major regeneration upgrade adds +2HP/s in addition to the 0.2%HP bonus
- Commander regeneration upgrade adds +20HP/s instead of 15HP/s


--- UI / visuals

- slightly improved some of the models, textures and walk cycles

- made unit status bars slightly bigger and easier to read
- GEAR heat rays now have a more dynamic texture
- improved the appearance of the commander name tags (widget from Balanced Annihilation, by Floris and Bluestone)
- tooltip shows different label and damage color for disruptor/paralyzer weapons
Attachments
mines
mines
gear_mines.jpg (123.79 KiB) Viewed 131853 times
gear_luminator.jpg
luminator
(405.22 KiB) Not downloaded yet
dynamo
dynamo
claw_dynamo.jpg (107.39 KiB) Viewed 131853 times
aven_tsunami.jpg
tsunami
(326.52 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out!

same linksas before

2018/04/26 ------------------ NOTES v0.995 ----------------------


- fixed warnings that showed up when building SPHERE geothermal powerplant

- fix issue with name not appearing over AI players' commanders

- fixed issue which caused flying spheres and some aircraft to move weirdly due to collisions with the factory after construction finishes

- improved wreckage of SPHERE "Trax" and GEAR "Box"

- changed some of the sounds for the SPHERE and CLAW commanders and many vehicles
User avatar
ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

Re: Metal Factions

Post by ThinkSome »

raaar wrote: - improved wreckage of SPHERE "Trax" and GEAR "Box"
A gear box? Does it throw cogs all over the place once it gets destroyed? :D
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

No, but it has a boxy body, and has the GEAR logo with two cogs in the belly.
box
box
gear_box.jpg (83.75 KiB) Viewed 131802 times
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out!

same linksas before


2018/05/27 ------------------ NOTES v0.996 ----------------------

--- balance / mechanics

- units with weapons with an AOE edge effectiveness boosts got a bit cheaper
(5-10% cost reduction on GEAR Grenado, CLAW Nucleus, Massacre and Mega, and AVEN Stasis and Tsunami)


ECONOMY
- increased the base economy from 6 M/s and 60 E/s to 8 M/s and 80 E/s
(this is meant to give a bit more slack for players who want to do something other than rushing expansion)

- reduced energy cost of repairing damage from 100% to 75% of the unit's energy cost


AIRCRAFT
- air transports fly higher and change altitude faster

- SPHERE flying spheres now use the smoothed air mesh to avoid bumping into cliffs

- air mesh should follow the ground height profile more closely
(this means on maps with high hills aircraft will not climb so high unless they're closer to the cliffs)

- aircraft no longer try to fly below the altitude of the lowest metal spot
(relevant for maps where disputed ground is on high plateaus delimited by steep cliffs)

--- UI / visuals

- tooltip over empty ground shows altitude instead of ground speed modifier (was always x1)
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out! Grab it NOW!
here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


SPHERE "Nova" form commanders holding back the CLAW invaders
Image



2018/08/19 ------------------ NOTES v0.997 ----------------------


--- balance / mechanics

GENERAL
- roughly doubled the speed of blast waves from explosions
- self-damage in general is reduced to 33% of the original value
- Large Fusion reactors explosion radius increased from 275 to 325 and damage from 2000 to 2500 and get a 5% cost reduction
- increased the cost of GEAR "Big Bob" by about 50% and removed the high-trajectory mode
(was unusually low due an error on the balancing algorithm related to having high trajectory option and two weapons - oops)
- fixed an issue with aircraft debris "shaking" on the ground
- fixed heat-rays not having the stated 30% damage drop over range
(the auto-balancer wasn't fooled so now the units get about 10% cheaper as a result)

SHIELDS
- large area shields regenerate faster by draining up to 10% (1% from small shields) of maximum shield charge per second from shields within its radius
- shields are only shared above half the maximum charge

WALLS
- increased the cost slightly and build/repair time by about 10% for fortification wall sections
- changed the armor type from L to M but reduced the hit points from 4800 to 2500
- walls no longer change to "features" when built, so they can be repaired
(this also makes it easier for your units to use own walls as cover as they won't attempt to fire through)

COMMANDERS
- added Sphere "Nova Form" commander : slow but heavily armored. Weapon has huge area of effect and can shoot in high-trajectory mode.
- GEAR "Infernal Form" commander has high-trajectory mode
(it can shoot its fireballs uphill and over walls)

AIRCRAFT / SPHERES
- AVEN "Twister" now has "L" damage emg/laser combo (better vs light units and air)
- AVEN "Tornado" made a bit slower, tougher and has "M" damage rockets
- SPHERE sphere factory can build air transports
- SPHERE flying spheres are generally set to hold position to avoid wasting energy
- modified way that energy cost when moving is calculated for the flying spheres to avoid draining the full amount when repositioning vertically while idle
- advanced construction drones are now automatically set to "high priority"
- doubled maneuverability of scout aircraft
- aircraft flying way off the map are "teleported" back to a spot on the nearest corner
(workaround for a Spring engine bug)

(click here for unit details)

UPGRADES
- increased the general limit of commander upgrades from 2 to 3
- increased the cost of hp, range, damage and speed commander upgrades from 500 M to 750 M, but increased own limits from 1 to 2
- increased own limits on commander regen and drone upgrades from 1 to 3


--- UI

- changed the default side from "AVEN" to "RANDOM"

- moving mouse over chat box position if it's no longer visible shows it and scrolls to latest message
- 15s after the latest "scroll up", automatically scrolls down to the latest message

- show a warning message if the Spring engine version is different from the recommended (currently 104.0)
- show a warning message if game starts without any opponent and disable victory conditions
- show a warning message if game starts with unsupported AI players instead of MFAI

- show a warning overlay whenever the commander is damaged while out of view of the player

- fixed an issue with resource drain wrongly rounded to integer on the tooltip
- moving mouse over orders menu buttons shows default hotkey information in most cases
- do not assign "perfect" efficiency award when players resign early before any units are killed


--- AI / MFAI

- builds scout pad and uses air scouts
- improved targetting for attacking forces to be more sensitive to the direction of threats and allied units
- added ability to detach a ground raiding party which will try to sneak around enemy defenses and hit vulnerable targets
(fast ground units are assigned to it by default)
- the attack aircraft group also behaves like a raiding party and will try to sneak around defended areas
- more likely to target metal extractors and construction units in general
- set long range units to hold position to avoid them chasing fleeing targets into range of enemy fire
- construction units are less likely to run into enemies when trying to build metal extractors
- use offsets when processing game state,etc. for multiple AI instances to spread the load across multiple frames and avoid "hickups"
- reduced the amount of free metal and energy income the brutal AI gets (50 to 35 M/s) and the scaling over time
- attack aircraft group takes into account enemies which are bad anti-air when considering where to attack
- normal MFAI builds the first factory earlier so it grows faster
- avoids building factories on places which do not have a soft-sloped land connection to the base center
Attachments
sphere_nova_com_holding_claw.jpg
stuff happening
(372.25 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

Made a small fix to the previous release

(same links as above)

2018/08/19 ------------------ NOTES v0.999 ----------------------

- fixed MFAI sometimes morphing its commander immediately when the game starts


2018/08/19 ------------------ NOTES v0.998 ----------------------

- fixed walls providing sight like other player-owned buildings
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out! Grab it NOW!
here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


CLAW outpost with Nuclear missile flying off a rocket platform
Image

GEAR outpost defended by "Rhino" tanks
Image



2018/10/18 ------------------ NOTES v1.000 ----------------------


--- new units

- added long range rocket platforms for all factions (level 2), which can hold up to 4 rockets each
- the rockets have relatively low HP and L armor type and can be shot down by enemy weapons which target fast units and aircraft effectively and have good range
- the rockets' range covers the whole map

New rocket types:
- Nuclear Missile: expensive missile that will likely kill all units on a large radius unless it's shot down while still far from target
- Destruction/Construction "DC" Missile: can kill small clusters of units, provides temporary vision and spawns a construction tower on impact

(these are identical for all factions : faction-specific ones may be added at a later date)


--- balance / mechanics

GENERAL
- fortification walls have H armor instead of M

- comsat stations reveal the targeted area for 30s instead of 15s
- fixed issue with comsat beacons being targetable and blocking projectiles

- made relatively slow units and defenses and units with relatively high HP/cost up to 10% cheaper
- made relatively fast units or units with relatively powerful and long-ranged weapons up to 10% more expensive

- reduced the death explosion damage and area of effect for most level 1 ground units

- removed experience gain by dealing the killing blow to enemy units
(this means that having the HP bar drained by enemy fire is now worth 50% as much experience as killing an enemy of equal value instead of 25%)

- removed obscure flanking mechanic unless specifically stated
(units took up to twice as much damage when being hit from different directions)

- increased the HP and speed of level 1 light tanks by about 10% and adjusted the cost

- GEAR "Canister" and "Eruptor" are set to hold position by default
- GEAR "Infernal" form commander got about 5% less direct weapon damage on the fireball cannon and 5% increased range on the torpedo weapon
- replaced GEAR "Crock" with "Rhino" : Amphibious assault gun with 33% front-back dmg resistance bonus/penalty a forward-only cannon and a secondary laser turret
- CLAW "Assassin" form commander got about 5% less range, reduced HP by 100 and 25% higher reload time on its torpedo weapon
- CLAW "Longhorn" : increase model height to compensate for its flatter trajectory
- SPHERE "Emerald" form commander got 5% more movement speed but 9% reduced range and reduced energy cost to fire from 160 to 120 E/s
- SPHERE "Nova" form commander got 10% increased range
- SPHERE "Ruby" form commander got 15% reduced energy cost to fire
- increased the HP of SPHERE "Rock" and "Slicer" by about 10% and adjusted the cost

MISSILES/AA
- increase damage and reload time for light missiles by about 20-40%
- make large fast missiles L damage instead of M and reduce the area of effect (from 80-120 to 60)
- reduced range by 200 on static launchers, increased turret turn rates and reduced pop-up delay and reduced the unit costs significantly
(this increases the effectiveness against light units and aircraft, including long range rockets, relative to against medium/heavy armored units)
- missiles have cylinder targeting with 2x range altitude limit and fly a bit faster
(so they're also better at shooting down long range rockets)
- CLAW "Hyper" is a bit taller when open and also slightly improved the model


UPGRADES
- changed minor regen upgrade to give 1 + 0.1%HP per second instead of 2 HP/s
- increased flat regen on major regen upgrade from +2 to +3 HP/s


--- UI / Visuals

- Made lasers thicker to make them shinier
- SPHERE "Opal" beams and forms have been renamed to "Emerald"
- big explosions shake the camera
- used a rounder model (more faces) for SPHERE "Chroma" and "Magnetar"
- moving mouse to the upper part of the screen will show a less intrusive "press space to view chat" hint instead of showing the chat
- GEAR "Heater" tank has a longer and narrower body to differentiate it more from the "squarer" slower tanks

--- AI
- SPHERE AI will make more long range missile towers instead of static sphere towers
- AI moves attacking groups more decisively when targeting undefended clusters of enemies
- fixed AI definition of number of builders by task type
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

New version out! Grab it NOW!
here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.



2018/11/22 ------------------ NOTES v1.01 ----------------------


--- new units

- added AVEN "Perceptor" : Intelligence hovercraft. Provides radar, sonar and radar jammer


--- balance / mechanics

- Fixed GEAR energy storage not being able to be built underwater
- increased the terrain slope tolerance and reduced the death blast damage of AVEN "Runner" to match the other small robots
- AVEN "Knight" has move state set to "hold position" by default
- increased the movement footprint for a many small and medium robots so they'll clump together less when moving in groups
- removed the 2x vertical range bonus on short range flamethrowers (GEAR) and laser cutter weapons (CLAW)
- CLAW "Slayer" form commander gets 10% increased speed and 10% reduced range
- CLAW "Sword" : reduced laser cutter range by 10%
(this means flamethrower and laser cutter units can no longer hit air in most situations)

--- AI

- more likely to build energy generators in general to try to achieve a higher energy surplus
- more likely to build wind generators
- fixed AI not building geothermal generators
- fixed issue with MFAI assigning too many builders to dedicated roles and not leaving any to build level2 factories back in base
- fixed AI skipping level2 factories unless it had significant surplus energy and full stores
- AI builds radar and radar jammer units from the advanced factories earlier and is more likely to rebuild them if they're destroyed
- more likely to build artillery units against enemies who make lots of static defenses
- AI builders tasked with building metal extractors now build defenses and radars nearby instead of spending time moving around
- fixed check for idle builders to avoid them getting stuck
- less likely to move relatively fast units from the main party to the raiding party if unable to attack (requires much longer periods where it's unable to do so)
- normal MFAI is slightly more conservative when attacking (will try to grow its numbers further before doing so)

--- UI/visuals

- change dust particles from small and medium explosions to be more noticeable while keeping them finer for large explosions
- modified the chat widget to avoid breaking words when splitting text to lines
- modified AVEN Bolter's model to make it look less blocky and reflect its light armored status
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

(same links as before)

2018/11/26 ------------------ NOTES v1.02 ----------------------

--- balance / mechanics

- SPHERE "Chroma" and "Comet" flying spheres explode more violently when killed
- AVEN "Bolter" now shoots in 6 round bursts instead of 2 round bursts, but reload time is tripled and cost increased by 7%
- fixed "rare" issue where long range missiles could become untargetable and explode both on the platform and on the target

--- AI

- make AI less likely to get stuck without making level1 and level2 factories
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

(same links as before)

2018/11/30 ------------------ NOTES v1.03 ----------------------

--- balance / mechanics

- reduced the dmg/s of CLAW "Slayer form" commander's torpedo by about 20%

--- AI

- easy and normal AI should grow a bit slower but be harder to rush and use the commander better when base is under attack

--- UI

- fixed an error that could appear sometimes when right-click-dragging to draw line formation
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

Aircraft being torn to shreds...
Image



2018/12/15 ------------------ NOTES v1.04 ----------------------

--- balance / mechanics

- reduced the cost of most aircraft (not spheres) by about 4-8%

- removed stealth (invisible to radars) ability from air scouts, aven warrior and adv. sonar stations
- removed high trajectory mode from AVEN "Racer"
- reduced AVEN upgraded commanders' radar/sonar ranges from 1000 to 800 to match all the others
- reduced the minimum decloak distance for stealth drones from 200 to 90 (commanders have 100)

- fixed many torpedo and depthcharge weapons not being destroyed by the out-of-water threshold

- fixed bug where one of the queued upgrades would sometimes get wrongly canceled
- fixed bug that could allow players to build more upgrades than the allowed maximum for each type

- fixed issue where aircraft and flying sphere factories would become invulnerable to projectiles with low AOE when fired at from certain directions

- increased turnrate of AVEN "Icarus" missiles so they can properly chase fast air units flying nearby

- set specific gravity for some high trajectory weapons (namely CLAW "Massacre") to prevent them having lower than expected range


--- UI / visuals

- automatically reset orders for construction towers if they're targetting outside their build range
- adjusted the name of torpedo weapons for consistency : "Torpedoes" and "Unguided Torpedoes"
- fixed clearing of map markers and drawings every few seconds which shouldn't happen (leftover from AI debug)

- settings widget enforce 10k nanoparticles limit and sets mouse scroll wheel speed to -25
(the latter should prevent new players from bumping into the annoying inverted mousewheel zoom issue)

- fixed invisible hull sections on GEAR "Executioner" and "Jigsaw" ships and added thruster tubes on all ship models
- GEAR "Jigsaw" back turret raises significantly higher as the laser can shoot over the front turret

- increased icon size for level2 factories
- reduced icon size for construction towers
- added icons for magnetar, radars and radar jammers

- fixed expenditure labels and values on the resource bars

- made ruby and obsidian lightning beams more intense visually

- made team colors somewhat brighter to make it easier to tell icons apart and contrast better with darker map backgrounds
Attachments
chroma.jpg
(387.34 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

(same links as above)

2018/12/18 ------------------ NOTES v1.05 ----------------------

- increased AVEN "Kit" HP and DPS by 25% and speed by about 7% and increased cost by 30%

- fixed warning about performance due to changes on the idle construction tower widget on the previous version

- fixed warning about missing texture when building GEAR "Proteus"
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

Ghost and Aces...
Image

Burn!
Image




2019/03/05 ------------------ NOTES v1.06 ----------------------


--- New units

- split the existing AVEN "Ace" into two energy-intensive aircraft:
. AVEN "Ghost" : Stealth Bomber (can cloak and has radar jammer)
. AVEN "Ace" : Very Fast Assassination Bomber


(click here for unit details)

--- Balance / Mechanics

- increased reload times on AVEN, GEAR and SPHERE armed scouts (~20% dmg/s dps reduction) but kept costs similar

- increased speed of commander "Builder" and some of the average-moving commander forms by about 10%

- fixed SPHERE sphere factory's wreckage not blocking units
- fixed AVEN sentinel aiming from wrong barrel

- reduced energy efficiency for AVEN energy bolt weapons, slightly increased damage per shot and reload time (dmg/s is about the same)

- merged floating versions of basic turrets with the land versions to clean up the build menus
- radar jamming tower can now be built on water
- GEAR's basic pop-up turrets now also pop-up when built on water
- long range missile platforms now float on water
- increased torpedo flight times to avoid them falling short of targets
- GEAR Noser : made torpedoes properly track their targets
- increased turn rates on construction ships
- reduced the minimum water depth for medium and large ships from 25, 50 to 18, 30
- slightly reduced the targeting radius of submarines to avoid them being targeted by anti-surface weapons


- incendiary explosions that happen in the air trigger a mid-air fireball with 2s duration instead of the normal 20s on the ground
- GEAR "Destroyer" form commander was renamed to "Raider" and modified to have a dual flamethrower and vertically launched incendiary missile system
- GEAR "Infernal" form commander can now explode its fireballs mid-air
(this makes it a potentially dangerous against low gunship swarms, like the SPHERE "Nova" form)
- rebalanced fire AOE weapons : relatively fast-firing ones (Infernal form and Firestorm) got fire rate penalties and increased cost while slower firing ones got 5-10% cheaper

- CLAW "Dizzy" : reduced range by 10%, increased speed by 15% and fire rate by 60% and increased cost by 35%
(to make it crazier and differentiate it more from the other spinbots)

- fixed a potential scouting exploit with the area-metal-extractor commands

- fixed range upgrades not updating the dynamic damage drop with distance

- modified how aiming is done on some robots with different weapons on each arm to prevent conflicts



--- Sounds / Animations

- GEAR "Harasser" now properly turns it's barrel sleeve vertically when aiming
(note that this didn't prevent it from firing)

- modified the sounds for light plasma cannons and small incendiary explosions

- removed annoying looping sound when mobile radar jammers and intelligence drones are guarding other mobile units


--- UI

- enabled outline widget by default to make units easier to see
- made build and attack range indicator lines more visible
- show extra range circles for secondary weapons (red or purple for torpedoes)
- tooltip shows if buildings can be built on land and/or water

- disable wind or tidal generators on the build menus if the map has low average wind or tidal strength

- added hit-n-run mode option for attack aircraft : when attacking they automatically retreat in the opposite direction after firing
(hopefully this will make strafing aircraft more useful, it's going to be enabled by default only on bombers with a long reload time)

- added ON/OFF button to radar/sonar ships

- 10s after the game ends, a 30s countdown timer starts and when it ends the game exits automatically
Attachments
burn2.jpg
(360.57 KiB) Not downloaded yet
ghost_and_aces.jpg
(407.96 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

(same links as above)

2019/03/09 ------------------ NOTES v1.061 ----------------------

- fixed SPHERE "Shine" wreck error (typo on the previous version)

- modified AVEN "Ghost" bombs' trajectory to avoid it missing nearby targets
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

Units mobilizing for an attack...
Image



2019/04/11 ------------------ NOTES v1.07 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- changed AVEN "Wheeler" armor type from L to M, increased speed by about 10% and increased cost by 37%
- increased AVEN "Kodiak" cannon's rate of fire by about 25% and range by 10%, increased cost by about 10% and adjusted the model

- AVEN "Conqueror"'s projectiles shoot out of both barrels to match the animation

- made AVEN "Runner", GEAR "Harasser" and SPHERE "Trike" stronger but more expensive to make them more broadly effective as fast attack units

- slightly increased the turnrate of relatively fast vehicles to avoid pathing issues
- most smaller units can no longer crush trees

- allow depth charges to hit hovercraft

- removed "hit n run" button from construction aircraft
- prevent air transports from lowering into "void" hazard areas on some maps, killing the transported unit as it got below the threshold

- fixed issue of long range rockets getting attached to the wrong pad on long range rocket platforms

- respawned commanders are set to the move state they had when they were previously destroyed


--- Sounds / Visuals

- added logic to automatically replace engine trees on some maps (for example, "Small supreme battlefield V2") with nicer looking trees
(models and textures by Beherith, same as used on ZK)

- modified sound when firing torpedo weapons and some of the light lasers

- made feature crush sound less annoying and fade out with distance
Attachments
aven_mobilizing.jpg
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raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

AVEN fort, complete with big walls, a gate, fusion reactors and energy-to-metal converters...
Image


flying spheres hanging out near the factory, including the new "Atom"...
Image



2019/08/04 ------------------ NOTES v1.11 ----------------------

--- Engine

- changed the recommended engine from "104.0" to "104.0.1-1327-g315b3fd maintenance" or later
(lobby clients should auto-download the correct version after joining the nebula hosts on the official server)


--- New units

- added GEAR "Igniter" : level 2 Incendiary Raider Vehicle
- added SPHERE "Atom" : level 2 Energy-intensive Fast Bomber Sphere
- added CLAW "Pike" : level 2 Heavy Fire Support Vehicle
- added large fortification wall sections for all factions (twice as big, 4x HP and build time, 8x cost)
- added large fortification gate sections for all factions
(gates are slightly weaker and more expensive than the big walls, but can be lowered to let units through)
- added level 2 Energy-to-Metal converter buildings for all factions : each costs 600M and converts up to 300 E/s to 2.5 M/s


--- Balance / Mechanics

AIMING
- increased turret turn rate for AVEN samson, centurion, and many other units
(short ranged units have higher turret turn rates relative to longer ranged units, with the exception of the ones which fire L missiles)
- make mobile units adjust their aim more frequently to more efficiently track targets when maneuvering
- evened out the range for many units with two weapons with slightly different ranges mounted on the same turret/torso to avoid issues
- slightly increased the precision of AVEN "Guardian" and GEAR "Punisher"
(also made the barrels a bit longer to highlight their relatively long range)
- removed inaccuracy on long range plasma cannons when targetting moving units (too random)
- fixed GEAR raider form commander's missiles not firing when it's building drones
- fixed some units with depth charges trying to hit aircraft
- AVEN "Twister" is more likely to use both weapons against air targets and chase them when patrolling

ECONOMY
- l2 advanced metal extractors have more HP but slightly increased cost
- l2 exploiter metal extractors are bigger, tougher and have 3.3x extraction multiplier instead of 2.5x, but drain 180 E/s and are more expensive
- radars and other energy-consuming units no longer get disabled for a few seconds after they're built if the player has enough energy
- l2 metal extractors are now disabled if the energy store falls below 800

WRECKAGES
- fixed AVEN "Kodiak" and hovercrafts' wreckage not blocking movement
- fixed most small units always leaving the full wreckage regardless of how brutally they were destroyed

COMMANDER DRONES
- reduced the delay between building drones from 4s to 2s
- reduced build time for light drones by 20% and increased build time for medium drones by 20%

OTHER
- adjust balance to reduce cost of weapons which are locked to high-trajectory mode and don't have tracking projectiles
- increased damage, HP and firing rate of AVEN "Merl", and also improved the 3D model
- increased range of CLAW "Massacre" from 1600 to 2100 and slightly increased reload time
(these changes offset the previous cost reduction)
- increased maneuverability and dmg/s of CLAW "Boomer" variants, but reduced range
- modified GEAR heat rays' damage type from M to H and adjusted the unit costs (about +15%)
- halved the energy cost of wall sections (it's 5x the metal cost, same as the other units)


--- Animations / Visuals

- units glow green with intensity depending on how much HP% per second they're regenerating
- fixed CLAW "Grinder" form commander rotating its barrels out of sync with the fire rate
- fixed laser firing point and modified barrel on basic/builder GEAR commander forms
- slightly modified GEAR "Proteus" model and fixed the build picture
- slightly improved textures on lots of AVEN units
- replaced an annoying sound when giving orders to some of the light vehicles
- improved model of the flying sphere factory and "Gazer"

--- UI / Widgets

- added widget that allows selecting a subset of the currently selected units of the same type
Attachments
sphere_factory_spheres_atom.jpg
(302.33 KiB) Not downloaded yet
fort_metal_makers.jpg
(375.29 KiB) Not downloaded yet
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