Expand and Exterminate version 0.42

[Pxtl]

Use air?

Also, I expect that fast-attack units are an NI-exclusive schtick.

[Decimator]

Gunship-type units fill the raider category. Perhaps too well, actually, as we're looking at possibly nerfing them.

[KDR_11k]

Air is a special target class though, requires special weapons to fight (and a special factory to make) and those special weapons tend to have a pretty large range. I think some fast ground units would be much different from air units simply because they get shot at with different weapons.

[Pxtl]

A second issue with air is that a big strength of air units is swarmability. Since terrain doesn't stop them and they stack, a much larger mass of air units can be brought to bear at a time than land units. This makes them very hard to balance for raiding - their density is ideal for a full-out assault force, not raiding. Buffing them for raiding makes for terror in swarms. Maybe buffing anti-air blast-radius would fix this?

[aegis]

Make planes spread out to a realistic area?

[Scikar]

Make planes spread out to a realistic area?

I think that runs into the collision stuff which causes so much lag.

[Ixoran]

My thoughts on the Aliens:
Brilliant design.
But, I think they are to inconsistant early on. Way to inconistant.
It seems like they are slaughterhouses ein mid-game, weaksauce in early, and at a slight advantage in late.

The changes I could suggest are:
Slightly faster moving scouts. They seem too slow.
To get some really early on defense, scouts should have a one time morph into a harassment class. The key to this is it should be a one-time quick, cheapish morph. that way, you could always clone a scout and morph one, and harras while taking mexes, but they would still be outnumbered. That should add a little consistency.

Another thing. Since keeping/taking mexes can be a bit nasty with aliens, their energy/metal storage needs to be a little cheaper, and MAYBE Give liek a .5 metal and 3 energy boost. Something really small, I mean, the only way I could keep it viable was to have the commander build buttloads of storage while cloned scouts do the brunt work till middle game.

3. THEY NEED ADVANCED STORAGE FACILITIES. Please? They burn SO much enegy and metal storage is what makes them run. it seems silly not to have it.

4. Lastly, I think they could go for a 5-15% metal and energy cost reduction on morph and clone, even if it costs them 5-15% stregth.

Those are my two cents. I'd really like to know what you think Argh.

But Fanger, I love the concept, Love the mod. Some very different gameplay.

[KDR_11k]

Harrassment on the scout? Isn't dirt cheap buildpower good enough? Other scouts can't harrass well either. They're scouts, not raiders.

Aliens can make mexes with their scouts, the other factions cannot. Also aliens pay 1000M less for advanced mexes. I think that's enough tomake up for the lack of cloaked or armed mexes.

[Google_Frog]

I do find it annoying that the cheapest unit that can build turrets costs 800M. This makes defending expansion early on hard.

[Aun]

That's what units are used for in EE. Turrets can supplement your defence force, not compose it.

[Ixoran]

Harrassment on the scout? Isn't dirt cheap buildpower good enough? Other scouts can't harrass well either. They're scouts, not raiders.

Aliens can make mexes with their scouts, the other factions cannot. Also aliens pay 1000M less for advanced mexes. I think that's enough tomake up for the lack of cloaked or armed mexes.

A one time morph to harasment? So many people are complaining of the lack of aliens early stability it makes sense, you lose the ability to mex with that scout, and, it should take long enough to let other people get about the same harrasment, it is morph after all.

I have no problems at all with thier mexes, Jsut their early game consistency, they need slightly quicker storage, I mean, Fanger himself was talking about how the aliens Idle time is the reason they need storage, but their ability to store just seems, well, slow, or it ties up to many units. ( you really do have to keep building storage all game to maintain a good army, because clone is so imprtant, and without some proper storage, the E/M drain is insane for more than one clone at a time)

[KDR_11k]

The thing is that the other factions don't get much harrassment out of their scouts either. Alien mexes may be harder to hold (are they really?) but they're also much cheaper to upgrade to T2 (about 75% cheaper).

Also metal storage making M would be awfully OP, it's Expand & Exterminate, not Porc & Metalmake. No other faction can get M without claiming territory, if the aliens got M from their storage they'd be the only ones with metalmakers.

[Ixoran]

The thing is that the other factions don't get much harrassment out of their scouts either. Alien mexes may be harder to hold (are they really?) but they're also much cheaper to upgrade to T2 (about 75% cheaper).

Yeah, They are hard to hold early on do to the fact you just don't have enough units to protect them. It seems to be a problem to hold them to tier two for a lot of people. What would be so bad about trading the ability to construct with scouts for a little for speed and/or firepower

Also metal storage making M would be awfully OP, it's Expand & Exterminate, not Porc & Metalmake. No other faction can get M without claiming territory, if the aliens got M from their storage they'd be the only ones with metalmakers.

Yeah, actually, you're probably right. But then again, isn't expand and extrerminate about unique concepts/ sides? I guess I'll have to play a few more games and see if they're as inconsistant as a lot of people say. I did just fine for the few games I played (though making one or two mistakes screwed me for a while in one of the games)

[Neddie]

E&E rocks!

EEGDManAndTank3.PNG (13.78 KiB) Viewed 2335 times

[Neddie]

And one for URC.

EEURCHeatSate.PNG (11.23 KiB) Viewed 2266 times

[Totbuae]

Alien scouts can harass somewhat, they can reclaim enemy structures pretty quickly; a good sized group can even tackle light defensive turrets/towers. Alien scouts don't stand a chance against mobile units, though.

[Demos]

I hate to slam this mod but it is a port of the game "Earth 2140AD" with elements (the aliens) from "Earth 2160AD", I just thought that it might be good to point this out.

[[XIII]Roxas]

*Sarcasm*
Such a helpful first post.
*Sarcasm*

I would like to inform you, sir, that joining the forums simply to act in a destructive way upon works is not the way to become a valued member of the community. Indeed, this is possibly the best way to a constant feud with several community members.

I would also suggest that you take a close look upon the works of Fang. If you carefully sift through his posts, you'll gradually piece together that he indeed knows the similarities between Expand and Exterminate, and the Earth 21** series.

[Neddie]

I hate to slam this mod but it is a port of the game "Earth 2140AD" with elements (the aliens) from "Earth 2160AD", I just thought that it might be good to point this out.

It isn't a port, and we are aware of the inspiration behind it.

[Neddie]

I should elaborate;

We could simply import the content from the Earth series with a combination of lua scripting and model reformatting, but that is of no interest to any here, and rather than recreate the Earth series, Fang drew upon it for inspiration, much like the other game universes he is familiar with - you can find traces of Warhammer 40k for instance in his artwork.There is a lot of less derivative content which is either incomplete or imbalanced which is why it does not appear thus far - mostly he is working on the completion and balance of the current three factions with the fourth (Similar as above to a side from Earth 2150) and other content in the wings.