Wasn't that the other way around...and then fixed?Argh wrote:Meh, somebody really needs to make the fragment program use the alpha when doing shadows for Units, just like it does for Features.
P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Moderators: Moderators, Content Developer
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Meh, IDK. What I do know is that it doesn't work, and that the problem's in Spring somewhere. I'll discuss that in Dev.
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Second lengthy beta run with DRB last night. Didn't get a lot done tonight, other than bug-fixes and minor stuff, was kinda tired.
The economy is very nearly fixed up now, and it's definitely feeling a lot more like a game, and less like a collection of ideas. I'm going to be playtesting every week until release, to make sure that it's as tight as possible.
The game is pretty swarm-based, during early game. The speed-up on factory output means that if you have the resources, you can burn them and have really terrifying forces of spam, feels somewhat like NB did. Unlike NB, though, the various fixes and improvements give it a lot less reliance on just plain RPS stuff, and there's a lot of serious tactical play. If you just spam one thing, you'll lose, and if you don't micro and the other guy does, he'll win on cost, pretty much every time. That said, the spam-factor means that nubs can play this and have fun watching stuff blow up (well, on larger maps, where they'll have time for a slower start).
Various things were buffed / nerfed this round, a lot of changes were made to tighten up the balance, now that the economy is finally working something like properly again, for both sides. This isn't really a complete list, just an update just to kinda give people an idea what's going on:
1. AutoTurret is useful again, finally. Just needed a range increase (and damage decrease).
2. Heavy Shell hitpoints buffed (again), weapon damage (autocannon) up slightly. Expect them to be very big piles of hitpoints for cost.
3. Build-time on Resistance Biketanks is down quite a bit. They're quite nasty in swarms. Haven't decided what to do about their mine-laying feature, though, it just never seemed all that useful. I may need to put a specialist unit in that can do my more-realistic minefield concept, or just give that to Engineering Teams.
4. Tier costs have stabilized, roughly. It's 500 Materials to buy Tier Two, 3000 for Tier Three, per Factory. 3000 seems to be about right- if you can afford it, you've either sacrificed a lot, or you're winning anyhow. The change in build times makes buying it a winner even if you're not using the next tech-level yet, and for Overmind, getting access to Artillery Shells at Tier Two is a big deal.
Tier code has proven to be a really good thing for this game design, btw- it cuts out a lot of the suck of "how the heck do I balance X in Y factory", among other things. We did quite a bit of hardcore-rush stuff, just to see how that played out, and it really, really helps make sure that you can't OMGWTFBBQ somebody with a one-trick-pony attack where they just don't have the right counter. With a flat, one-factory model, it really seems to be a good idea.
5. I'm removing Reclaim as a major source of resources. You cannot convert trees or buildings into "ready cash" now.
I'll put in "demolition charges" that can be used to level buildings / trees with.
I will (possibly) be adding a third Ancient object which will be a "treasure box" that can be reclaimed for a resource bonus (these will be placed on the map via World Builder, to facilitate different gameplay).
This obviously has implications for World Builder objects. I'll see if I can't develop some fiat code that flattens their metal worth, just for P.U.R.E., but leaves it intact for OTA clones that want to use WB.
6. The Resistance MBT has a new weapon... it's basically a shotgun with bouncing shots (yes, after removing that from the Artillery Shell awhile ago, I finally found a use for it that I like). Very nasty for crowd-control, very different from the GunTank. It also got a hitpoint boost, slower speed, and is larger. The speed-up special is actually fairly important now.
That unit *finally* feels really different and differentiated. May have to do minor rework of the model, dunno yet.
7. GunTank weapon damage increased. It's not quite as evil as 0.55, but it's closer to the original balance / purpose of the weapon. Good choice for taking out Pillboxes, or backing up AutoTurrets trying to defend against LightMech swarms.
8. LaserCannon's area effect reduced, ROF and damage increased. It's fairly terrifying, if you didn't bring countermeasures, like it's supposed to be. Previously wasn't even slightly worth its overall cost, it got nerfed too much along the way.
9. As mentioned previously, the gimmicky use-once MegaConstructor is gone. It just had too many problems and I was never really happy with it.
Engineering Teams can now Assist it, so Resistance can actually have a practical MM econ late game now. That route isn't terribly efficient, won't ever be, compared to capturing Ancient Facilities, but it gives them real options if they're pushed into a corner and have some resource income and can hold their ground.
10. Now that I can have a Tier Two for Resistance, where they cannot build their Heavy Troopers immediately, they're probably going to see a buff, dunno where I'm going with that yet.
At this point, Tier One is pretty close to balanced. Tier Two is probably not quite there yet, although it's a lot better than it was. Tier Three isn't anywhere close to balanced yet, and it's fair to say that Air isn't quite at a final state. And the Overmind's giant robot o' dewm... heh... let's just say that we'll probably make a video of it in action next weekend... and it'll be pretty cool.
Hopefully after this week, other than minor content projects, I can get map-design and SP stuff done.
The economy is very nearly fixed up now, and it's definitely feeling a lot more like a game, and less like a collection of ideas. I'm going to be playtesting every week until release, to make sure that it's as tight as possible.
The game is pretty swarm-based, during early game. The speed-up on factory output means that if you have the resources, you can burn them and have really terrifying forces of spam, feels somewhat like NB did. Unlike NB, though, the various fixes and improvements give it a lot less reliance on just plain RPS stuff, and there's a lot of serious tactical play. If you just spam one thing, you'll lose, and if you don't micro and the other guy does, he'll win on cost, pretty much every time. That said, the spam-factor means that nubs can play this and have fun watching stuff blow up (well, on larger maps, where they'll have time for a slower start).
Various things were buffed / nerfed this round, a lot of changes were made to tighten up the balance, now that the economy is finally working something like properly again, for both sides. This isn't really a complete list, just an update just to kinda give people an idea what's going on:
1. AutoTurret is useful again, finally. Just needed a range increase (and damage decrease).
2. Heavy Shell hitpoints buffed (again), weapon damage (autocannon) up slightly. Expect them to be very big piles of hitpoints for cost.
3. Build-time on Resistance Biketanks is down quite a bit. They're quite nasty in swarms. Haven't decided what to do about their mine-laying feature, though, it just never seemed all that useful. I may need to put a specialist unit in that can do my more-realistic minefield concept, or just give that to Engineering Teams.
4. Tier costs have stabilized, roughly. It's 500 Materials to buy Tier Two, 3000 for Tier Three, per Factory. 3000 seems to be about right- if you can afford it, you've either sacrificed a lot, or you're winning anyhow. The change in build times makes buying it a winner even if you're not using the next tech-level yet, and for Overmind, getting access to Artillery Shells at Tier Two is a big deal.
Tier code has proven to be a really good thing for this game design, btw- it cuts out a lot of the suck of "how the heck do I balance X in Y factory", among other things. We did quite a bit of hardcore-rush stuff, just to see how that played out, and it really, really helps make sure that you can't OMGWTFBBQ somebody with a one-trick-pony attack where they just don't have the right counter. With a flat, one-factory model, it really seems to be a good idea.
5. I'm removing Reclaim as a major source of resources. You cannot convert trees or buildings into "ready cash" now.
I'll put in "demolition charges" that can be used to level buildings / trees with.
I will (possibly) be adding a third Ancient object which will be a "treasure box" that can be reclaimed for a resource bonus (these will be placed on the map via World Builder, to facilitate different gameplay).
This obviously has implications for World Builder objects. I'll see if I can't develop some fiat code that flattens their metal worth, just for P.U.R.E., but leaves it intact for OTA clones that want to use WB.
6. The Resistance MBT has a new weapon... it's basically a shotgun with bouncing shots (yes, after removing that from the Artillery Shell awhile ago, I finally found a use for it that I like). Very nasty for crowd-control, very different from the GunTank. It also got a hitpoint boost, slower speed, and is larger. The speed-up special is actually fairly important now.
That unit *finally* feels really different and differentiated. May have to do minor rework of the model, dunno yet.
7. GunTank weapon damage increased. It's not quite as evil as 0.55, but it's closer to the original balance / purpose of the weapon. Good choice for taking out Pillboxes, or backing up AutoTurrets trying to defend against LightMech swarms.
8. LaserCannon's area effect reduced, ROF and damage increased. It's fairly terrifying, if you didn't bring countermeasures, like it's supposed to be. Previously wasn't even slightly worth its overall cost, it got nerfed too much along the way.
9. As mentioned previously, the gimmicky use-once MegaConstructor is gone. It just had too many problems and I was never really happy with it.
Engineering Teams can now Assist it, so Resistance can actually have a practical MM econ late game now. That route isn't terribly efficient, won't ever be, compared to capturing Ancient Facilities, but it gives them real options if they're pushed into a corner and have some resource income and can hold their ground.
10. Now that I can have a Tier Two for Resistance, where they cannot build their Heavy Troopers immediately, they're probably going to see a buff, dunno where I'm going with that yet.
At this point, Tier One is pretty close to balanced. Tier Two is probably not quite there yet, although it's a lot better than it was. Tier Three isn't anywhere close to balanced yet, and it's fair to say that Air isn't quite at a final state. And the Overmind's giant robot o' dewm... heh... let's just say that we'll probably make a video of it in action next weekend... and it'll be pretty cool.
Hopefully after this week, other than minor content projects, I can get map-design and SP stuff done.
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
What do you plan to do in order to promote your mod to be downloaded and tested/played ?
That would be sad to see it under played cause of the lack of communication in the last time.
That would be sad to see it under played cause of the lack of communication in the last time.
- 1v0ry_k1ng
- Posts: 4656
- Joined: 10 Mar 2006, 10:24
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
make really long posts on the spring forums blogging the development by the looks of itMasure wrote:What do you plan to do in order to promote your mod to be downloaded and tested/played ?

Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
shadows look like cows can't unsee....
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
I don't speak Gibberish. What's with the cow stuff?
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
I cannot remember the unit name, the rattle bots, their shadows look like some crazy cow silhouette. Warc is messing with us!shit dude have a sense of humor.
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
LOL, why didn't you just say that? You're right, looks like cows... it's the Moo Brigade
Humor module's busted, dude, I'm finishing normalmaps.

Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
I thought it would be fun to let others figure out where I was going.
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
My apologies. It was just a bizarre sentence.
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Argh, I'm no game developer, and no content artist, but some of your unit designs dont make any sense.
- Guessmyname
- Posts: 3301
- Joined: 28 Apr 2005, 21:07
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
That's probably my fault
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
I love my teeny weeny eeny meeny text
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- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
..... .... .... .... .. .. . .....
Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Well, start gnawin' yer leg off, then, it won't hurt much 

Re: P.U.R.E. 0.8 RC3
Have you done any more thinking about the exponential MM economy yet?
Forgive me if i havent been keeping up with development but you said you'd 'digest' it and i heard nothing more.
Forgive me if i havent been keeping up with development but you said you'd 'digest' it and i heard nothing more.