mongus wrote:
Actually, I would like to see some players that really liked the game(TA), and were great fun to play with, getting into the lobby and having amazing battles with, thinking in the tremendous potential/advantage spring has to offer over TA. (no to mention its mods.)
And the game is working almost perfect (despite the little bugs every now and then).
Spring actually taught me a thing or two about unit control that I've been able to use in OTA recently. I think Spring has amazing potential, not only as a strategy but as a first person shooter and a flight sim.
ginekolog wrote:OTA has bad balance imo, so why porting it?
Actually, AA level 2 units make level 1 obsolete. In most games you have to tech 2 to counter. Level 1 defense and units crumble against mavs for the most part. OTA had a very fine balance. The gist of it was that the map sometimes decided what side you played as (meaning it actually gave you a reason to change sides, not just because you felt like it) and also the unit balance was very precise between Arm versus Core. Core EMG (AKs, instigators) weren't as effective as Arm EMG (flashes) but peewees were more underpowered than AKs so were rarely used. However, you might think well, that means Arm can flash rush really easily but core cant. Actually, keeping flash at a distance means you can take them out without losing units if you're using slashers (Core rocket vehicle). For arm, the micro came in when u wre trying to keep your flash at the front of your attack force with short range, the samsons at the back, so you did the most damage at once. For core, it was about taking out the flash at a distance without being hit by them which meant wasted metal by Arm who would then have less Samsons which have slightly less armour than Slashers. This fact actually forced both sides to play differently because of the units themselves. It wasn't poorly balanced. It was done in a way that would allow a difference in gameplay on purpose. Thats why slashers are more heavily armoured. That example is pretty much for a moon map or wide open space where you get a lot of raiding (hence the EMG) but you also need range. There are plenty more I could go into in depth, but I don't want to bore you. Noone even mention pelicans...
To be honest I think the future of Spring is something far greater reaching than anyone has really realised.
What if instead of simply having one commander per team, you have one commander per team and then a number of other players whose job it is to actually play AS the units themselves? The more they take out, the better they get, the bigger mechs they're allowed to pilot as the commander creates adv plants etc. The units are still issued with commands by the commander and have access to the same data as him, but they're the ones in control of the mechs. It'd add a new dimension. Including the ability to pilot aircraft and the like... Clan wars in which you have 7 or 8 members playing with only 1 or 2 commanders. What about 70 or 80 players with only 2 commanders?
Just a thought, but that's entirely where this thing you call Spring could be going in a few years time.
If you can convince OTAers to begin playing Spring you'll get them hooked is all I can say. Spring was born of OTA and I think if you want to know how integral to the project it is you want to ask the SYs why they played it for so long, why they spent years developing for it and why they're still involved with OTA at all.
Some people want to disband OTA altogether and to be honest, its one thing not to play it and let others play and quite another to discourage others from continuing the TA modding that will actually bring in and please a lot more people.
If you could get the TA community over here you'd boost it by at least another 50 at any one time and that's another quarter the current lobby total.
Tbh, I can't wait to see the OTA mod coming out that actually recreates it. It'd be fantastic at some point in the future to see it coupled with all the ported/remade maps from the original game. A mod is exactly that - a modification of the original. So far we have had NO original content. People are so hung up on the opinion that mods are better... better than what? An original? We don't have an original Spring port to compare it against. Everyone keeps changing and tweaking things to make it "better".
I say ROLL ON REALOTA!! :)
It gets a bit pointless that way...