Micro Modules 1.09

[KDR_11k]

http://www.darkstars.co.uk/downloads/vi ... es_107.sd7

Still can't upload at SpringFiles so I'll go here for now.

Changes I remember:
-Arty no longer auto attacks, it needs an attack order to fire. When it fires a red target marker appears for all players who have LOS on the target position. It also can't target units anymore, attack commands on units get converted to attack ground commands (so it can't e.g. track the com outside of LOS). Arty volleys come down faster though.
Note that the target marker does not show how much arty is coming down and you can still retarget (causes a new marker) or stop the attack, feel free to abuse this for mind games.
-Master Converters show the name of their player now
-Disruptor got a massive nerf, stun time is now uniformely 3 seconds, damage and AOE were seriously reduced, HP, speed and range lowered. It still ejects blobs at the same rate though (that IS its purpose), you just need some other unit to kill them now as the dis will no longer do that.
-Merge Helper widget added, shows what a merge order will result in (inaccurate if you have blobs of different colors selected but what happens then is unpredictable anyway as the first to arrive wins).
-Any higher unit can now be morphed into a Master Converter for a cost of 30 blobs the first time and 20 additional blobs every subsequent time if you don't have an MC (you can share it with allies or something, I just wanted to discourage multiple MCs as the ALT-clicks won't check for more than one MC)
-Air got HP increases except the bomber which got a decrease and also a damage nerf. Considering HOW powerful a high level bomber is that was necessary, the thing would be unstoppable otherwise and with its damage can already chew through tanks (a bombing run is stronger than a TH shot). Fighter got a damage buff vs air to compensate for the HP buff
-All AOEs except arty and bomber have been lowered to increase blob swarm survivability
-Blobs got more range, they had less than the higher units which doesn't work well with their vulnerability
-Jumps and dirtsplashes now no longer show outside LOS/ALOS (d'oh)
-Ejecting in corners is now handled by the crash workaround too
-Added buildpics so widgets that use them will draw something
-Added heuristic to make waves not spawn near player units, may still happen if the algorithm doesn't find a solution in a limited number of attempts
-Tank Hunter bullet velocity reduced so the shots won't clip through turrets anymore
-Waves will die after 2 minutes now, that should be enough to fight them but if a unit gets lost or something the caller can call new waves again later (note that 2 minutes is very long and you should try hunting the lost units down so you can spawn earlier)

I think that's everything though it wouldn't surprise me if there's more.

EDIT: Damn, had some bugs and had to go through two version numbers to fix them.

[MelTraX]

Sounds like you came up with a solution for everything we threw at you.. Great work..

[Pxtl]

bawwwww, don't like all-manual artillery.

[TradeMark]

bawwwww, don't like all-manual artillery.

cant you put it fire at will?

[KDR_11k]

No, I disabled that because I can't track where it's firing otherwise.

[BaNa]

Arty still is a tad op, if you make a secret arty close by the enemy base then they dont have a chance to clear out. Also, an arty with 14 blobs in it wiped out 2 towers with >14 in both, that seems like too much?

Getting bettah tho.

[Pxtl]

Well, the arty warning indicator is supposed to fix that, right? So when you see the warning, you can eject your blobs from the turrets and form a tank to rush him.

[KDR_11k]

At 15 blobs loaded the arty comes down pretty damn fast so you have to react very quickly after the marker appears (it's not impossible though), the slower you are the more blobs get caught in the blast. Of course the arty's range is about the wave spawning distance at that level.

[MelTraX]

Imo the canon blob is a bit OP atm.. You can get from 10 to 2000 blobs in under 20 minutes by just using canon blobs on roam..

While testing that I also found out that you can call for more than one wave at once if you have a few hundred canons around your com.. I don't know if this is intended or not..

Another nice feature would be if the "cloned" blob would get all the settings of the original (firestate, roam, maybe patrol routes)..

[Google_Frog]

Can you set modules to hold position by default? It's really annoying when they run off while you're trying to join them together.

[TradeMark]

when two units are on same coordinates and you move them, it results in crash.

why this doesnt happen with BA?

[KDR_11k]

Can BA units ever be in the same spot?

Remember it has to be the exact same spot within the precision of the variables used, the distance must be exactly zero. AFAIK that just cannot happen when units are only pushed, they have to be spawned in the exact same place. EE is affected because aliens can clone in the same place multiple times resulting in such a unit pile...

Mel: Yeah but I'm not sure what to do... nerf accuracy? I'd rather not introduce special damage vs blobs...

[Pxtl]

Slower projectiles maybe? Make the cannon blobs primarily useful against non-moving targets?

[KDR_11k]

Shadow blobs are non-moving most of the time.

[Pxtl]

In that case, perhaps more variety in shadow units is what's called for. One thing I notice about the game is that players use completely different unit sets than for fighting each other. A kamikaze shadow blob that goes for the point-blank range would be fun, for example. And a airborne shadow wave would be a good shocker too. Either way, there is the fundamental difference that shadow-fighting is primarily defensive while going after other players is primarily offensive, but mixing up the shadow inventory would reduce the frequency of players specializing in the blaster-turrets or the cannon blobs.

[AF]

I have a picture showing 100 fidos occupying the same location, at varying rotations, but indeed all within the same footprint. I ordered 500 fidos to pass into a narrow pass on brazillian battlefield and atatck another 500 fidos doing the same thing btut he opposite direction, and a lot of them got stuck in wreckage and inside eachother.

You still find instances of units being pushed into wreckage and other units from time to time.

For example, tell a huge horde of conbots to build large blocks or metalmakers, and some unit types will get pushed into the metalmakers by the rest of the horde and get stuck. I still see flash/peewee/instigators stuck in wreckage when sent in large hordes in BA and XTA.

[KDR_11k]

Into doesn't matter, they have to have the exact same coordinate so dividing by their distance causes a division by zero.

[TradeMark]

Can BA units ever be in the same spot?

hmm... i just tested it with BA, and it crashes too o_O im fucking sure i have done before .give 100 armflash .give 100 armflash on the same spot and then moved them without crashing :S something changed in spring code?

someone should fix the code, im pretty sure the crash is caused by division by zero

[KDR_11k]

I already fixed that long ago when it used to crash Kernel Panic.net. We still didn't get a new Spring release since then.

[TradeMark]

who decides when new spring version will be released?