Placed with a fatso inside, powerplants outside, and the commander for scale.
The Fatso is currently the largest mobile unit in the game (5x5 footprint), so in case it's not obvious, the experimental(s) will be massive in comparison. Experimentals are intended to be game ending units. Similar to how the krog was generally a game ending unit in OTA+CC.
The first unit for this factory will be the Krabgroth, a giant 4 legged walker with a massive main laser cannons and 2 secondary guns (haven't decided what the secondary guns will fire, a big part of me wants to go with flamethrowers but miniguns or something more exotic isn't out of the question).
It and the krabgroth won't be ready for playtesting for a couple of days, because I have to polish and refine the units and their scripts, however, as of evo test rev 651 the experimental factory is in game and working, but not on any build list. If you'd like to have a look at it, the unitname is "eexperimentalfac".
Similar to how the krog was generally a game ending unit in OTA+CC.
It wasn't. In a game of evenly matched people, whoever built a Krogoth first would lose from the massive economic drain. Krogoth were only built when toying around newbs, or in unusual game settings that made unit count more important than metal&energy cost (in which case you'd see more than one krog). The game enders of OTA+CC were a bertha, a hawk swarm, a bomber strike, but never a Krogoth. Because Krogoth was imba, way too costly for its effectivness.
a giant 4 legged walker
Only four? You should aim for at least six or eight!
haven't decided what the secondary guns will fire
Do you want a specialised unit that still requires an escort, or an all purpose one unit army? Depending on the answer, use versatile weapons like guided missiles and high RoF fast bullets, or exotic weapon systems with a more narrow use.
It's minimalist but turns into this industrial technological advanced looking hangar. Cool.
Question, if you don't mind: Will it get a ground plate? if it does i'd like to think just some oil stains or something.
2nd question, also related to game-ending units (because sometimes every faction gets their own one):
will Evo feature factions once again at some point in the future?
Well superweapons aren't always a game ender. There have been several times in evo where I've been nuked repeatedly and still won. THe build speed of everything is 5 seconds or less, so if you have mass econ you can relocate somewhat easily provided you have enough incoming metal to afford to rebuild. The biggest kicker is losing your powerplants. Energy and power in evo are very much the 2 most important resources, whereas metal is just a means to build structures and units.
Yes, the cost of this unit will be very hardcore, however, in damage potential, it will outshine even a nuke. I have already decided upon the damagetypes it's weapons will do. The main cannon will be explosive, which is semi useless vs mobile units, but rapes bases and defenses. It's secondaries will both be the medium damagetype making it very crappy vs structures but excellent vs mobile units.
Due to evo's gameplay, if you were to get one of these units out, it would end up being escorted anyway. However, it's armor will be heavy which means that massed raiders would be able to take it down with heavy losses assuming they were microed semi intelligently.
It's entire damage potential will be soley based upon how it is used. If you use it wisely, you're probably in good shape, if you just send it in, well like I said, massed raiders. Raiders are the cheapest units in the game, however, lets just think this through...
I'm thinking 40 power to build krab. That is 4 fusions, so 180 * 4 = 720 metal. Plus the factory (40 metal) and a -40 energy drain while building (nukes drain 62 energy while building the nuke for 5 minutes but only require 20 power). And probably around 200ish for the unit.
So all in all, fairly attainable. If given the choice, I would probably opt for this over a nuke, however, it could go down to the right unit mix fairly easily. Many players forget to mix raiders in with their army which is a massive mistake as raiders give 1000 los and most heavier units have roughly the same los as their range, but the fact is, it takes a moment for units to react to something entering los and their range at the same moment, so the damage potential lost is quite a lot.
Nukes have the advantage of having an extremely expensive (if not effective) counter, so to some degree you can nuke nearly anywhere you like and have a good chance of the nuke landing. The bad thing is the fact that nukes take a lot of time to build (~5 minutes) and there is nothing you can do to speed that up. Moreover, their energy drain is enormous and as a result your army will suffer (because remember, energy is also used for ammo) and possibly cause many of your units to be incapable of firing in a large engagement. Additionally, if your nuke silo blows up, it blows up the same as a nuke missile meaning that anything remotely close to it is going to die. I've won more than once by scouting a silo and bumrushing it with everything I had.
Nearly every strategy in evo is a calculated risk, but if you can pull it off, it can win you the game. Entertaining as it is, I've even managed to loose to turret creeps (which is insanely expensive if you really commit to it). Figure that a light turret is 30 metal and a heavy turret is 80 metal, requiring 2 power and 5 power respectively... Putting up a single heavy turret will cost you roughly 130 metal, but defenses are quite powerful if positioned correctly and even positioned badly they can be devastating however, their requirement for power gives them a weak Achilles heel because you can bypass the turret and go for the power source. At the same time, killing a player attempting to turret creep can be very simple if you scout. Fatso assault tanks do insane damage to structures and defenses while the defensive turrets do little damage to them (like 35 or less per shot for a light turret, and around 50 per shot for a heavy turret. Considering that the fatso has 1000 hp, you can imagine they do well, but Fatso's fall like a house of cards to skirmishers and raiders and basically can't really defend themselves due to their slow rate of fire).
Anyway, I went off on a tangent, but the point is, experimentals and nukes are meant to be game enders. It won't always turn out that way and it's not impossible to recover, but simply going for these weapons won't lose you the game either if you play smart, however, your army size and composition will suffer, but an army that is microed well vs an army that isn't will obliterate the unmicroed army.
*Sidenote* ORB's (Field medics) as of tonight, have the ability to use an AOE heal that heals in a range of 1000 for +100 hp, costs 50 energy and recharges every 10 seconds.
FireStorm_ wrote:It's minimalist but turns into this industrial technological advanced looking hangar. Cool.
Question, if you don't mind: Will it get a ground plate? if it does i'd like to think just some oil stains or something.
2nd question, also related to game-ending units (because sometimes every faction gets their own one):
will Evo feature factions once again at some point in the future?
Yes and yes. The second faction is ~ 2/3rds done being modeled last time I checked. Once the Krabgroth is in, faction 1 is pretty much complete. The only other unit that might get added is the sawtank. An Experimental with a giant sawblade and a tractorbeam. Carnage ensues
You realize by putting "experimental" on it, these units will remain "experiments" for the entirety of the game. I don't know why tier 3 and 4 units are experimental, as much as they are high tech. I mean the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan was derived from nuclear experiments, just as most new weapons, but by no means were they an "experiment" by the time they were used.
Plus, it's very TA and Sup com ish. Which I though evo was steering away from.
just make a big sphere, and give it a laser. oh wait done before: death star...
well maybe a big cube.... oh wait: borg
well maybe a large disk... oh wait: independance day and sup com
giant spiders?
maybe giant mechs?
giant airplanes?
Why is high tech giant? I mean the bigger you are the easier you are to by shot at. If you think about it, a great high tech weapon could do lots of damage and be extremely small, but thats not fun.
bobthedinosaur wrote:You realize by putting "experimental" on it, these units will remain "experiments" for the entirety of the game.
Thanks mr party pooper. Using the term experimental is nothing to do with TA or Supcom and everything to do with RTS in general.
It's technical distinction is: Krabgroth - Destroyer Class Walker
Krabgroth is obviously a reference to Krogoth, just in the same fashion as the faction 2 light skirmisher was named "Blink". Pardon me for having some fun with the naming schemes.
bobthedinosaur wrote:
Plus, it's very TA and Sup com ish. Which I though evo was steering away from.
Oh ok, so having a giant walker mech labeled as experimental means that the game as a whole is emulating supcom and TA. Yet, I would venture to guess that you haven't played it within the past 2 years, or even the last year, so how would you be able to possibly form an informed opinion?
Edit: All that wasn't mean offensively. I was simply being blunt.
Maybe the Experimental factor could manifest in the units behaviour. For instance, that there is a chance the unit spontaneously brakes down on the battlefield, falls with its belly to the ground, and blows smoke for like 30 seconds before auxiliary-systems kick in and it continuous its rampage.
Otherwise perhaps something indicating just the big scale of the thing, i.e. : Macro Weapon Platform Project.
Micro drones that constantly follow it, conduct minor repairs, and scan the thing for performance evaluations? Coupled with one or two limitations that don't quite make sense unless theyre being used as controls?
The perfect way of demonstrating the experimental nature is by adding a unit whose 'experimental nature' can be exploited. How about a large fast heavy flamer unit with a tendency to self combust under heavy use? Kamikaze unit or reckless danger to your own forces?
Maybe the Experimental factor could manifest in the units behaviour. For instance, that there is a chance the unit spontaneously brakes down on the battlefield, falls with its belly to the ground, and blows smoke for like 30 seconds before auxiliary-systems kick in and it continuous its rampage.
Heh well, in theory, experimentals breaking down and crap like that sounds like a fun mechanic, but in truth it would just be annoying. The people here astound me with the ability to argue at length about nothing at all.
Anyway, I've "Re-designated" the factory type. If you want to find out what it is, well I guess you'll just have to play it then
