Complete Annihilation News

[Saktoth]

For the crashing, are you using Vista? Vista crashes with spring a lot.

Im afraid though, that CA is its own game. We are not re-creating OTA, as there is Classic TA for a perfect port, and XTA and BA for a good quality, stable, balanced mod based on OTA (And both cater to widely different playstyles, too). This isnt just a graphics update either, one of the major things we changed at first in CA was the graphics, and everyone just said 'This is just BA with new graphics, why would i play it?'. CA needs to set itself apart, needs to distinguish itself from the crowd. People who love OTA wont be playing for prettier graphics, they'll be playing for the gameplay.

We will have a new fiction, new faction names, we are going to really walk away from cavedog IP. This isnt an OTA recreation project, its made in the spirit of (and the engine almost forces it to be similiar to) OTA but there are already plenty of mods out there for people who just want a remake. CA is its own game.

We'll have a similiar economic setup, basic gameplay, feel, and a lot of familiar units. But CA was created to innovate. If there are units that share a similiar role, we will find a difference to accentuate. If there are units in both factions that are the same, we will make them different (as small as the storm getting an arc and a lower rof, to something as big as the hammer being long-range artillery while the thud is high-hp assault). Other units we have removed (even OTA ones) while adding in new and unique units. We want to reduce redundancy and add in new tactical options.

Truth is though, even BA and XTA are very different from OTA. BA has an exclusive AA system, much like starcraft or some other games, not like OTA at all. BA also has a bunch of new units (shields, and a bunch of third party units) and weaponstyles (beamlasers over beamweapons). We are sort of beyond the point of being an OTA recreation project, just by starting with BA.

Some of the new units dont seem to belong in there, especially some of the air units. They differ too much from the old ones used, and whats worse, they differ from the TA style.

Which? The Blastwing is just a flying roach (with a lot less damage, of course), the black dawn just an expensive rapier, the banshee just a light brawler. The Bladewing is something unique and interesting but in the end its just an EMP gunship. The Liche and Krow are relatively unique but they are, in the end, just a different take on a bomber and gunship.

[CarRepairer]

Call me crazy, but shouldn't the fact that caspring.org is down merit a post in "Complete Annihilation News?"

[kiki]

When are JETPACKS going to be released in the mod? I have had soo much fun with those. I have made vertical launch rocket planes, arty planes, flak-shield planes, flying dgunning coms, and flying flak. They are really soo fun and cool to play with.

Pro tip:

Have one person fps the jetpack, and another person fps the unit it is carrying. That is amazing.

[Google_Frog]

kiki, might this be a bit OP?

Wasn't CA going to have teleporters, the gantries would make a good teleporter building once the gantries are replaced with a nano turret thing.

[Saktoth]

The pandoras box of difficulties in balancing it, as well as a few script errors, are precisely why its not in the game. It certainly adds a LOT of new options though (essentially, flying versions of EVERY unit) but that adds a lot of exploits too.

AFAIK CA was never going to have telepoters. This sort of thing is just not necessary imo. Air transports are more than sufficient for speeding up your frontline deployment (esp with the transport widget) as well as deep-strikes. We might end up using it if someone codes a good one though, core needs more special abilities, what with arms monopoly on cloak, emp and all-terrain.

[[XIII]Roxas]

...Even though Core already has counters to all those things.

Spiders--->Artillery. 'Nuff said.
EMP bombs--->Damn near anything with a gun and some range
Cloaking--->Cloaking detector/AK's in search-pattern

[CarRepairer]

Also, Core has cloggers and cloggers are cute. They toddle along all innocent and you just want to feed them from a bag of peanuts.

[Saktoth]

...Even though Core already has counters to all those things.

Spiders--->Artillery. 'Nuff said.
EMP bombs--->Damn near anything with a gun and some range
Cloaking--->Cloaking detector/AK's in search-pattern

No, not really. Core does not have superior artillery (if anything, arm has superior art, which is wrong IMO), EMP comes in more forms than bombs, and Seismics are not an adequate counter to Cloaking (and shouldnt be, due to the relationship- siesmics are not a cloaking antinuke).

Either way the point is to give core more tactical and strategic options.

[Gota]

Give them the "yuri" unit from red alert 2.

[[XIII]Roxas]

Core's artillery is more easily used. Core ALSO has many hide-and-strike options, such as Hiding Scorchers, Cans, Eggs, and anything with a flamethrower. Arm has no such equivalent, with the exception of snipers POSSIBLY filling part of the gap.

EMP comes in two or three forms, basically. Silo, Bomb, and Weapon. Core has the bomb.

Seismecs are adequate for a small position. Core has AK's for exposing cloaked forces, anyway.

[manored]

I got a problem with this mod. Then I try to play with opens normally, except that once the map opens I can see everthing normally like start game (green/red boxes, allies points) but I cannot do anything and my name keeps red. No clue about the problem...

Does this mod needs anything diferent from the other mods of spring?

[Saktoth]

Core's artillery is more easily used.

Which? Core arty is almost identical, they dont have the hammer at t1 though, so their arty is -worse-.

Core ALSO has many hide-and-strike options, such as Hiding Scorchers, Cans, Eggs, and anything with a flamethrower.

Only the egg 'hides'. Arm has a range of cloakers that fill a similiar role- spies, snipers, gremlins and mass-cloaking jammers.

EMP comes in two or three forms, basically. Silo, Bomb, and Weapon. Core has the bomb.

Arm has the EMP bomb. It has the tick, the stiletto, the Faraday, the bladewing, the twlight mumbo spy and sniper death fx as well as EMP + Damage weapons on the Zeus and Panther. Core has no EMP.

Seismic are adequate for a small position. Core has AK's for exposing cloaked forces, anyway.

Seismics usually detect a unit when its already too late, and need to be babysat. AK's are far from ideal for this, and rather too expensive. Cloggers are better.

[[XIII]Roxas]

Regardless, they DO have a cloaked unit counter.

As for the 'hiding' units, anything is possible with a cloak-shield and creative terraforming.

Core Artillery is, pretty much, sucky at T1, true. However, they totally outstrip Arm with sheer power at T2.

[Jamuk426]

Hello, I have been playing CA for awhile now, and I just have a small request about the new fusion graphics.
Since one of the recent versions was released, my core fusions have caused my computer to slow down immensely while at the same time making them look much worse. They also no longer have any distortion effects on them.



Under the version information, the last time the effects on them were changed was version 1375. Would it be possible to make the effects of the fusion reactors changeable in the options?

[Saktoth]

Core Artillery is, pretty much, sucky at T1, true. However, they totally outstrip Arm with sheer power at T2.

Id take the penetrator over the tremor any day, and the sniper over the dom.

Jamuk: Disable lups. That will fix the slowdown issue. If you want the effect back though, talk to jK about it.

[BlueTemplar]

Hi, I have a Mac, and can't open sdz files. Where could I get a recent version of CA in sd7 "packaging"?

[quantum]

sdz files are just renamed zip archives. Try renaming ca-r123.sdz to ca-r123.zip before opening it.

[kiki]

The pandoras box of difficulties in balancing it, as well as a few script errors, are precisely why its not in the game. It certainly adds a LOT of new options though (essentially, flying versions of EVERY unit) but that adds a lot of exploits too.

AFAIK CA was never going to have telepoters. This sort of thing is just not necessary imo. Air transports are more than sufficient for speeding up your frontline deployment (esp with the transport widget) as well as deep-strikes. We might end up using it if someone codes a good one though, core needs more special abilities, what with arms monopoly on cloak, emp and all-terrain.

Jetpacks just need careful balancing, and an arm equivalent. First of all, make them t2 air. Then, make it so they can only cary a few KBOTS. LOL @ flying tanks etc. They should be able to carry the ak, the storm, the crasher, the thud, NOT HAK, pyro, and maybe i forget a few more. Flying doms are hilarious but mostly stupid. Flying arty is similar, but even more pointless and useless. Jetpacks are weak enough that they are dangerous to use against ANY aa. In this case they are basically useless. So my final idea is to make them t1 air, and make them really cheap, so that they are a good alternative to "real" core air. THen maybe take out the ability of the avenger to hit ground, so jetpack combos function as gunships instead of avenger. They best part of all will be flamer planes. Shield planes are interesting and effective too, but the shield ranges are too large. If there is something that decreases the range of the spectre when it is picked up it would be useful.

Arm equivalent could be teleporter, but as mentioned it is a cool and pointless/useless idea. Maybe a dropship, which is a multi-unit transporter that drops the units on the battlefield for quick deployment. I dont know tho. THis whole jetpack thing just might not fit. Maybe there should be t3 jetpacks for t3 bots instead? Flying krog squad = gg


Core doesnt have emp. Core just gets emp'd.

Ya, pene is better than tremor mostly, but actually tremor and dom have very unique roles compared to arm units. Use a tremor to completely destroy defenses or a base really fast, or do a cleansweep on a chokepoint. Use doms as a pretty good anti-ship weapon. Also, doms are much better at killing defenses than snipers. Snipers are more anti-unit.

About hide and strike: Arm can "hide" with their cloakers and jammers, but what is meant is that flames are good things to hide behind the corner because at close range and with surprise they can inflict incredible damage. Terraform + flames = win.

[BlueTemplar]

Looks like the CA file on springplayersclub is corrupt, that's why I wasn't able to open it.
Where could I get a recent version?
http://files.caspring.org/snapshots/latest.sdz.php gives me a 404, and http://files.caspring.org/snapshots/ a 403...

[det]

CA is only distributed through Subversion or CADownloader. If someone gives me shell access to a n OS X machine, I can port the subversion script for them.