Map+Mod suggestions for total newbie LAN party

[Oswald!]

Hi all,

I must first say that I haven't ever played anything on Spring engine, but am quite interesting in your efforts.

We are having a LAN-party in a couple of weeks with around 16 people and I was thinking something on Spring might be great for that occasion as big number of players is possible.

None of us has any experience on spring, but quite a lot of experience in RTS in general.

My question is: What mod and what maps would you suggest for such an occasion? We can of can of course play many alternatives, so just shoot if you have any suggestions.

And of course thanks in advance for any help!

[smoth]

mod Ca
map foldsomdam, whateverthatcachickensmapis....

play a few rounds of chicken defense so they can learn the mod...

???

PROFIT

[lurker]

CA does have a built-in tutorial, and you can't go wrong with chicken defense, lots of teamwork.

[Hoi]

tundra also is cool, here's a link to the mapping forum check the release threads, those maps are usually good

And yeah, CA is a good choice, chickens or not, you might also want to try S44 http://s44.koshi.homelinux.net/index.php

[smoth]

what is the name of that awesome chickens map, can someone post it for him?

[Jazcash]

Delta Spiege Metal!

[Gota]

I suggest Supreme Annihilation.
Its in Total Annihilations's spirit balanced excellently well and has all the necessary widgets inside of it already.
Maps I'd reccomand playing with it are:

metalheck v2.
Fields of isis V2.
Comet Catcher redux.
Titanduel v2.

Supreme Annihilation modlink:
http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1677

[Oswald!]

Wow, lot's of replies already. Thanks all! Will look into these ones.

[zwzsg]

Since you mentionned "total newbie LAN party":

I recommend Kernel Panic, as it's a mod that's very easy to learn and load of fun. It takes out all the boring bits of other RTS (like having to practice for a year before standing a chance or base building for hours then lose everything in a 2 mins fight), still maintaining the essence of RTS, but concentrating it in short games of intense thrills. Also, I made a complete Spring + KP installer for easier and more noob proof deployment.


Mods like C.A. have their own merits, but they're more geared to the dedicated Spring players than newbie Lanners. Having all your Lan people find and install the same version of CA will be a challenge in itself, then first time you run you are assaulted by dozens windows, popups and other Gui elements, if you know about the F11 keys to clear them you'll be blinded by such a long list widget to choose from it spans several screens, and even if eventually you reach the time of playing, there's so many units and specials features it takes days to even graps the basis of gameplay.

As for S44, it's even more hard core, I don't think the idea of a fun Lan party is to read an extensive manual of the different types of mid-20th century german mortar.

As for SA, only Gota plays it, so...

[KaiserJ]

for chickens i've made some maps, might be a bit packed w/ 16 people in terms of resources but i'd like to think they are some of the "easier" maps to co-ordinate a defending team...

here's the popular one...
Chicken Roast : http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1628

and here's one that's pretty similar, but i'd say in many respects better...
Chicken Nuggets : http://www.darkstars.co.uk/downloads/vi ... ets_v4.sd7

in any case, depending on how many people you have, just check out what people are playing on the lobby to see what's being played by team size or game type... but then again, there are so many good mods that don't have nearly the amount of playtime they deserve.

*edit* i hope that's what smoth mentioned, or i'll look like a pompous ass...

and yes, i agree... KP is very easy to pick up, hard to master, and tons of fun throughout... defenitely worth a try if you have people who arent used to a TA style economy in their RTS games.

cheers! enjoy your LAN party :D

[smoth]

Oswald: KaiserJ's maps are the ones I was saying are awesome for chickens mode!

[Pxtl]

Kernel Panic, with its bundled maps. Excellent game for utter n00bs.

Alternately, RPG-types love KDR's other game - that Micro-thing game. What was it called? The one where you spawn creeps and kill them to gain more untis that you merge together for bigger units.

Expand and Exterminate is another one - it's very intuitive. Once you learn the different weapons of a faction, they tell you 80% of what you need to know about a unit. Plasmas a line-of-fire land-only weapons, rockets are indirect-fire and anti-air weapons, and so-on. Plasma walkers and rocket walkers are otherwise similar. The units does have some other distinctions, but the weapon is the big one, and the weapons are consistent throughout the unit list. Simple consistency makes the game pretty intuitive. Combined with a simple resource model (no messy challenge of geometric economy growth) makes the game very straightforward.

[Neddie]

I found Kernel Panic to have the best rates of adoption and reported marginal enjoyment. If you could get a stable version of E&E or S44 that would probably work as well, particularly since S44 has been slimmed down considerably in certain ways from AATA.

[Nemo]

As for S44, it's even more hard core, I don't think the idea of a fun Lan party is to read an extensive manual of the different types of mid-20th century german mortar.

Oi, at least try the modern incarnation before writing it off as equivalent to AATA.

Much of what people struggle with when picking up S44 is their habits from *A - S44 plays very differently from *A games, but it isn't very far from general RTS convention.

Also, S44 comes with a handy installer - the game and several maps are all included, so lan setup is fairly streamlined.

[knorke]

I agree with zwzsg.
Start with Kernel Panic, its fun and easy to play.
After a few games the more experinced players can switch to other mods like CA because most people tend to just play counterstrike anway...
Or try XTA, its gameplay is a little slower and there fewer units to worry about.

Be sure to know about the battle options like starting ressources, startboxes as well as the F11 menu.

[KDR_11k]

As for S44, it's even more hard core, I don't think the idea of a fun Lan party is to read an extensive manual of the different types of mid-20th century german mortar.

If you've played CoH you'll recognize most of the unit types and the number of redundant weapons really got cut down, now you get like one howitzer, one AT gun, one light field gun, etc.

Micro Modules is currently broken, it's not an option ATM. Fibre runs fine (but is probably too complicated) and I think THIS may be workable. The Cuberor's Finest is nice and simple but I'm not sure how people will react to it.

[Teutooni]

I made a complete Spring + KP installer for easier and more noob proof deployment.

This sounds like a winner for LANs. All you need is right there, maps included.

but quite a lot of experience in RTS in general.

If you played Total Annihilation back in the day, you should consider XTA or BA. Right now they are a bit tricky for new users to set up properly, you need to get the spring engine, the mod in question, a map and a file containing TA resources called otacontent.sdz (which is technically illegal to distribute). If that didn't scare you, go for it, they're pretty much the reason spring is still going on. They are that good.

Good maps, let's see... for 16 players (8v8) there aren't many good ones imo, maybe Tempest or 2 continents if you don't mind water. For smaller games there are a lot of good ones like Altored divide, MoonQ20x or River dale. If you'd like to play 16 player FFA, I suggest mearth or neurope.

[Pxtl]

Well, if you're not going to play a geometric-growth game like BA where FFA games become porc-hell, I think all of Beherith's FFA maps can handle up to 16 players. Mearth is good - maybe FFA EE on Mearth? Or KP with the "put datavents on metal spots" option enabled?

[CarRepairer]

Well, if you're not going to play a geometric-growth game like BA where FFA games become porc-hell, I think all of Beherith's FFA maps can handle up to 16 players. Mearth is good - maybe FFA EE on Mearth? Or KP with the "put datavents on metal spots" option enabled?

In CA, FFA porc hell is impossible when using the ceasefire panel option. Teams can join forces easily to take down other players, and then quickly stab eachother in the back.

[Forboding Angel]

Give Evolution RTS a shot... http://evolurtionrts.info