Absolute Annihilation: Spring[old]

[Caydr]

I don't see why the Mercury/Screamer range was reduced, those things have such a slow reload time. They deserve that range.

Their range is still quite long, like twice a Guardian range or something.. And one hit will destroy any aircraft except krows in a *very* large radius. As of 1.35 they were useless against gunships keep in mind... that includes krows, blackdawn, etc... that's fixed now.

[tanelorn]

With this Brawler vs Flak thing, I think you're missing the point by comparing 20 brawlers, 50 brawlers, etc. vs flak. Flak is area affect. Sending in a bigger swarm just gets you more casualties. Yes they initially do more damage until the first brawler dies, but because of area effect flak, you are gonna lose more brawlers the larger your swarm is.

I'm completely happy accepting that Brawlers aren't very good baserapers anymore. Their primary use is and should be battlefield engagement. If the enemy makes a pack of mobile flakkers to accompany his army, congrats to him.

If you want to be more effective in your fighting, combine brawlers with lesser aircraft, and let the lesser aircraft distract mobile flakkers by flying over a second before the brawlers show up. Then have the brawlers target the flakkers. Brawler / bomber combos work too.

I just think this whole "how many brawlers does it take to kill 10 flakkers" is a bit pointless. Brawlers aren't designed for baserape in the first place, so why concern yourself with them? It reminds me of the XTA mentality of "just build brawler swarms and you win the map by default".

[Caydr]

Well that's exactly the kind of reasoning I'm trying to avoid. People felt that brawlers ultimately were the very best unit you could build - they are very powerful with only a handful of counters. I'm trying to just really enforce exactly what you just said - brawlers are NOT the best option for base attack. I think it's now a lot fairer, especially with the boost to mobile flakkers.

I must inform everyone who downloaded 1.4 in roughly the first half hour it became available that they will likely need to download it again. The first release had a bug in it which can be detected by seeing what kinds of games you can host. If, despite your having installed 1.4, you find only 1.35 F and B variants but 1.4 S, you will know you have a problem. Also if your commander does not fire his D-gun but rather moves to the location you told him to shoot.

The version of 1.4 that was initially posted had both these bugs, but it was only online for a matter of minutes before I caught the error and re-uploaded. The total downloads of this bugged version were less than 10, so at least the problem won't be widespread. Sorry about this oversight on my part, guys...

[MR.D]

Everything is running smoothly thus far, 1.4 seems solid as a rock.

[yermoth3r]

I must inform everyone who downloaded 1.4 in roughly the first half hour it became available that they will likely need to download it again. The first release had a bug in it which can be detected by seeing what kinds of games you can host.

I'm new to taspring. Downloaded spring 0.67b3 as well as TASserver_0191.zip (we run on a lan)

unarchived AASpring14.zip to taspring\mods\
we then ran lanserver.bat and fired up our clients and connected to the lan server. clients are .193 and server remains at .191 mind you. select aa1.4F from menu and begin our battle. error comes up regarding sounds and cursors

Code: Select all

GameType=AASpring14F.sd7;

No such cursor: cursornormal
No such cursor: cursormove
No such cursor: cursordefend
No such cursor: cursorattack
No such cursor: cursorattack
No such cursor: cursorpatrol
No such cursor: cursorrepair
No such cursor: cursorpickup
No such cursor: cursorunload
No such cursor: cursorreclamate
No such cursor: cursorrevive
No such cursor: cursorcapture
TA Spring 0.67b3

could not open wav file
sounds\button9.wav

file Armor.txt not found
file gamedata\sound.tfd not found
file gamedata\moveinfo.tfd not found

after putting in 1.33 and 1.35 in the mods dir, game started without error until we went to build a lab. then the error was no cob file scripts\armforge1.cob
what is my mistake?

[BadMan]

Hmm....

All those files are in the .sd7. Try deleting all past versions of AA (all varients as well) and re d/l AA1.4 and try it again. Make sure all of your buddies do the same thing.

Have you all tried playing online? Does XTA work? Try playing S and B varients and see if those don't work as well.

If all of the above fails, repost the problem.

[yermoth3r]

Looks like a typo. All's good now. Version S was OK and needed no change.

AASpring14B.sd7
modinfo.tdf

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-B;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Barebones Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring135.sd7;
}

s/b

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-B;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Barebones Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring14.sd7;
}

AASpring14F.sd7
modinfo.tdf

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-F;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Forged Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring135.sd7;
}

s/b

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-F;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Forged Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring14.sd7;
}

[Slamoid]

Caydr, there's one unit I'm REALLY missing. PLEASE put in a missile sub. This would REALLY require use of more/better naval stradegies. Probably 2 types: A fighter-type missile launching L1 sub, low damage, low ROF, then an L2/3 one that launches MERL/Ranger type missiles.

I think it would add GREAT strateguc value. Thanks!

[Caydr]

Looks like a typo. All's good now. Version S was OK and needed no change.

AASpring14B.sd7
modinfo.tdf

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-B;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Barebones Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring135.sd7;
}

s/b

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-B;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Barebones Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring14.sd7;
}

AASpring14F.sd7
modinfo.tdf

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-F;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Forged Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring135.sd7;
}

s/b

Code: Select all

[MOD]
{
Name=Absolute Annihilation 1.4-F;
Description=AA for Spring v1.4 Forged Edition;
URL=http://www.planetannihilation.com/aa;
ModType=1;
NumDependencies=1;
Depend0=AASpring14.sd7;
}

Yeah I noticed this bug about 3 seconds after I uploaded. Will be fixed in next version.

[Caydr]

Code: Select all

1.4 --> 1.41

 Core "Krow" movement speed reduced to 4.5 (4.66)
 Core "Blackdawn" movement speed increased to 5.45
 (4.35)
 Arm "Blade" movement speed increased to 5.8 (4.71)
 Blade/Blackdawn weapon AoE set to 32 (30), impulse-
  factor increased to 2 (1), weapon velocity
  increased to 700-1000 (500-800), wobble removed
 Plasma cannons are now trajectory toggleable
 Plasma cannon impulsefactor set to nill
 HLT range increased to 620 (570)
 Tremor range set to 1200 (1050)
 "Ranger", "Messenger" energy costs boosted by 2000,
  metal costs boosted by 300, damage per rocket
  reduced to 800 and 1100 respectively
 Thud HP reduced by 50
 Hammer HP reduced by 30
 Storm HP increased by 60
 Rocko HP increased by 50
 Sumo turnrate increased to 320 (275)
 Heavy unit crushstrength increased
 EMP bomber paralyzing time increased
 Removed a couple of unused unit FBI files... I guess
  there were a few more of these than I thought;  The
  actual total unit count is 389
 All buildpics converted to DDS; This will save a
  lot of space as well as improve performance!
 Viper is no longer useable as artillery if aimed at
  the sky
 Catapult HP boosted to 5600 (2600), wobble reduced
  slightly
 EMG damage increased to 10 (7)
 Gator_Laser (AK and Instigator weapon) damage increased
  to 75 (47)

Download:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ta-a ... p?download
9mb

[Aikida]

Plasma cannons are now trajectory toggleable

<3
Didn't in the FAQ they say that, they were unit eaters or something.

Aw well, we'll see how things turn out.

[Forboding Angel]

Caydr, .dds seems to be working beautifully.

[Caydr]

Plasma cannons are now trajectory toggleable

<3
Didn't in the FAQ they say that, they were unit eaters or something.

Aw well, we'll see how things turn out.

Yeah, with the impulsefactor tag now it shouldn't be as big a deal. I hope. I don't really have a way of knowing whether they're overpowered or not until it's been tested be people such as yourself.

[Aun]

Just played an Altored Devide game and Guardians seemed a lot more effective...

Another problem comes to mind as well; there isn't a reasonable counter to bulldogs and Goliaths. Everybody says to use Annihilators and DDMs to counter them, but I find it hard to have 1 or 2 of them by the time I'm being attacked by 4 Bulldogs.

[Chocapic]

Just played an Altored Devide game and Guardians seemed a lot more effective...

Another problem comes to mind as well; there isn't a reasonable counter to bulldogs and Goliaths. Everybody says to use Annihilators and DDMs to counter them, but I find it hard to have 1 or 2 of them by the time I'm being attacked by 4 Bulldogs.

build Bulldogs or Goliaths as well

[Decimator]

They're simple tanks, find a way to slow them down and then pound them with long-range units. Alternately, use aircraft to kill them if you don't have tanks of your own. Snipers/penetrators do huge amounts of damage if you have line of sight. Sumos might as well be tanks, and a swarm of mortys have no trouble dealing with a few gollies, just keep them out of range.

[Caydr]

I've never seen a minefield built except by me in a multiplayer game. People should use them more. In a recent game I turned the entire tide of the battle because I managed to catch the majority of an enemy's attack force in the middle of a minefield. Changed the balance of power entirely. Soon we were counterattacking and we ended up winning the battle (by the skin of our teeth) despite having already taken crippling losses.

[MaDDoX]

Caydr, I really enjoy your mod (something very hard to happen considering I'm a seasoned mod myself), but there's something I'd like you to reconsider. Lugers and Mortyrs having only the high trajectory firing mode. This sucks, it makes the merl and other "by default" artillery units redundant to them in usage, just varying on cost, range, etc. The original idea of these artillery (yeah, I was already around in original TA days) was exactly to have some lobbing ability, fire over dragon teeth and other obstacles - including your own tanks - but deal decent damage and promote mixing instead of just tank-spam.
I understand your concerns of not having an artillery unit interfering too much to the frontal line combat, whenever I do balance work I have these concerns myself, but you and me know that the most ellegant way is adding some specific weapon damage reduction to the MBT (main battle tank) class, or the other way around - lower a lot the weapon default damage and increase its power just vs structures.

I know it's your mod, and please don't take that as a blackmail or anything, but that's one of the few things that still makes me wanna play XTA sometimes. Even if the fire rate of Lugers on XTA is SO ridiculously fast.

[tanelorn]

Maddox has a good point. The toggle feature may make everything ok with mobile arty tho. Just remember that mobile arty has poor armor, so they are not tank replacements.

My greater concern is the high increase to the AK laser. I hope this doesn't make AKs uber. In my opinion, it would be better to give peewees and AKs more armor instead of more firepower. They die so fast to even minor weapons... I'd rather they stuck around longer instead of hit harder. What good is a stronger gun when the owner dies so easily?

Also, with the Thud HP lowered and the ROcko HP increased, I think an increase in Thud range is in order to compensate.

[BadMan]

Well, with the increased AK power, perhaps slow the unit down a tad. Perhaps equal speed to that of a peewee.