TA:WD

[HildemarDasce]

I agree.

If you've lost interest in this GZ, then I think you should at least consider handing over management.
Personally, I think the WD mod is the greatest one made for OTA, and I truly appreciate your toiling with it.
It could easily take the crown in Spring too, with seemingly not so much effort. It would be sad to see it all just fade away.

Issues that need to be solved are according to me:

- Stability (obviously). Just make it run smooth and errorfree.

- Aircraft are too easily shot down. All too often a fleet of attack jets is taken out by a dozen ak-toting infantrymen. Make it so that only dedicated AA units can effortlesly down aircraft.

- Aircombat is a bit strange. I've never actually seen a plane taken out by an AA missile, yet Broncos and Pucaras are veritable berserkers in the sky, even when facing migs and f-16's.

Forget about new models and "bling bling" and such, because frankly, I think few of us really care much about that, as you've already nailed such a good gameplay concept. At least we don't care until there is a solid, playable version out.

In any case, thanks for a great mod GZ!

[Decimator]

Damaged aircraft land on BMP-3s but they don't actually get repaired there, so I get stuck with helis and such on my apcs.

[FolCan]

I noticed somethign with the bmp 3.. its machine gun shot.. but the bullets hovered in one place and then fell down killing the tank itself

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

I am not giving on this, I just needed a break from it.

I just moved, needed time to adjust, etc, before I moved I was busy with experimenting with the new S3O format.

I noticed that air-combat definitly has problems, many of the bugs seen in TAWD are caused by engine changes to Spring.

I will focus on gameplay now but I WANT AN AI to puts up enough of a fight so I can test the gameplay.

[Chocapic]

apart the texture errors and some noweapon errors, this mod is way cooler than what i thought.
I had never really played a entire game on it, but the sounds and the explosions and tanks and all that stuff makes the mod look quite realistic.
Its a got damn great mod.
Whoever is doing it should correct the errors

[Decimator]

GZ, you can always do what Caydr does and host beta games or have someone host them for you. That should solve your testing needs.

[maestro]

I am not giving on this, I just needed a break from it.
I noticed that air-combat definitly has problems, many of the bugs seen in TAWD are caused by engine changes to Spring.

so do I
oh and the engine changes spreading likes avian influenza.....
people keep asking more features/changes for goods so it not going stabilized now....
Im not sure about missile about miss... last time I heard complain about missile always hit ?

[maestro]

Damaged aircraft land on BMP-3s but they don't actually get repaired there, so I get stuck with helis and such on my apcs.

probably someone add isairbase=1 on my bmp3 ?

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Planes landing on BMP's is partially my fault since Gnome suggested me to add it so infantry would fire from within the BMP, but that never worked....grrr....

I need a new plan for game ballance, we need to make a think tank.

We could reduce range on the air to air weapons and/or use a different scale, or we could just bug the devs, missiles dont go beyond their range.

Tank Combat works but thier LOS range is a little crappy and an automated way to make UAV's guard tanks would be nice in this case kinda like C&C generals, either that or increase LOS range on tanks substantionally.

I need suggestions to work with, I am quite confused on what to start with first...

[smokingwreckage]

Well, maybe first some bug-hunting. Then, I'd say that fighter jets and the like need to do massive damage to helicopters.

In terms of balance, maybe drop out some units so there's only one or two per battlefield role, then when it's better balanced and less buggy, add some back in? Just a thought. And personally I'd rather see dynamic and exciting ground and air combat than to add naval while ground/air still isn't quiteright....

[maestro]

In terms of balance, maybe drop out some units so there's only one or two per battlefield role, then when it's better balanced and less buggy, add some back in?

WD endless variants of unit is inherent part of the concept. There is no way ill change it.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

For temporarilly beta testing, I could remove some units, or just not build them...which would be more practical.

I will slowly start working on it, but first I need to focus on some other things like get my GED, get my drivers license and look for a job in the mean time...I still have plenty to do

if I have these things out of the way I will definitly have more time for WD...

[smoth]

from what I understand a GED isn't too hard to get. Is that true?

[smokingwreckage]

maestro: Just a thought for temporary lightenening of workload. I like playing around with the endless variants on air-ground attack :)

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

I think the helicopter issue is almost fixed, next on my list is making Artillery/Tanks fire on ground targets only.
(MG's will be able to shoot in the air like in real life)

Any other issues you would like me to adress? let me know.

[XigXag]

I think the helicopter issue is almost fixed, next on my list is making Artillery/Tanks fire on ground targets only.
(MG's will be able to shoot in the air like in real life)

Any other issues you would like me to adress? let me know.

Hey Ground Zero, you might know this already, but to prohibit a unit from firing a certain weapon at a certain target category, you have to use the OnlyTargetCategory# tag (where # is the unit's weapon number). For example, to prevent a rocket artillery unit from firing its rockets at aircraft, use the following line:

OnlyTargetCategory1=NOTAIR;

Here I'm assuming that the artillery rockets are weapon 1. If it has a machine gun as weapon 2, as in the case of the LARS, it will still fire the MG at aircraft unless you specifically prohibit that weapon also.

Note that the BadTargetCategory tags merely prioritizes the unit's target selection, where OnlyTargetCategory# is an actual prohibition.

I did notice, however, that several units in the current WD release have "opposite" settings for their BadTargetCategory tags, such as "VTOL" for anti-air guns (which would make them prioritize non-aircraft over aircraft in their target selection). See the GDF-005's .fbi for an example of this.

The main issue, in my opinion, is the weird bug that causes airplanes to show up on the enemy map and radar as if they had been hit with a Zerg parasite from Starcraft. No helicopters have this bug, but ALL airplanes do, both Nato and Mospact. I scoured the .fbi files for clues but I have no idea what is causing this. Obviously stealth bombers are less effective when the enemy can see them from across the map the moment they take off...

To test this, I set up the Spring Single Player utility against an empty AI, then used the ".team #" cheat function to repeatedly switch back and forth so I could see which planes were visible to the other side.

Perhaps someone else knows what is causing this?

[Mars Keeper]

Because it realistic to see the enemy aircraft fly around?

[FizWizz]

Because it realistic to see the enemy aircraft fly around?

No. Non-gunship aircraft are visible by all players at any point on the map regardless of LoS, radar, and jamming. If you can't see a vehicle that is 100 meters away from a factory of yours, on open and level ground, why should you be able to see aircraft that can be potentially blocked by terrain, and up to infinity distance away? It is a bug, and a bad one.

[cCCP]

If you need help with balance hit me up on MSN. I am good with balancing shit.

As far as what needs to change...

Specific Unit wise:

Heavy Snipers are entirely too effective. A group of 20+ can Decimate Armor and Aircraft. They need a damage nerf, and to lose the ability to hit aircraft at all.

Advanced ATGM's are also extremely effective, especially considering the cost / time to produce large numbers of them when compared to Tanks.

MG infantry should have longer range than rifle infantry, but only when stationary like the E-WEB guys in SWTA.

Scout units (UAV's, Humvees, BDRM, Recon, Snipers) Need very long lines of sight, This would greatly increase their utility and make one build them more.

Tanks should have radar; but either keep their current or get downgraded LOS to force players to use infantry / mech inf to scout ahead of their main armored force to prevent ATGM ambushes.

Artillery needs to be more accurate, and hopefully implement the low traj high traj code from xta.

Aircraft are completely ineffective against ground targets, except for the mig29 strike aircraft. Which is more accurate and effective at bombing than the heavy bombers, and the advanced strike aircraft.

Missiles have little to no ability to turn, and thus are effectively useless against other aircraft.

These are the most glaring issues I have found during my playtesting.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Replies in bold

If you need help with balance hit me up on MSN. I am good with balancing shit.

As far as what needs to change...

Specific Unit wise:

Heavy Snipers are entirely too effective. A group of 20+ can Decimate Armor and Aircraft. They need a damage nerf, and to lose the ability to hit aircraft at all.

I never noticed this, I will give this a try.

Advanced ATGM's are also extremely effective, especially considering the cost / time to produce large numbers of them when compared to Tanks.

I wasn't aware that they were THAT effective.

MG infantry should have longer range than rifle infantry, but only when stationary like the E-WEB guys in SWTA.

I'll see what I can do here...fortunatly, Spring supports infinite types of weapons.

Scout units (UAV's, Humvees, BDRM, Recon, Snipers) Need very long lines of sight, This would greatly increase their utility and make one build them more.

Snipers were designed in such a way that they would need a spotter (recon or Spec-Ops like SEAL) to spot for them, same kinda for tanks but this does add a little much to micro, but does limit tank rushing.

Tanks should have radar; but either keep their current or get downgraded LOS to force players to use infantry / mech inf to scout ahead of their main armored force to prevent ATGM ambushes.

That might be a very good solution, they already had radar as a test, but at some point I removed their Radar...

Artillery needs to be more accurate, and hopefully implement the low traj high traj code from xta.

Artillery use a missile tag, so they are infact missiles more than a ballistic weapon, so the Hi-Trajectory tag will be useless.

Aircraft are completely ineffective against ground targets, except for the mig29 strike aircraft. Which is more accurate and effective at bombing than the heavy bombers, and the advanced strike aircraft.

I am working on this, Aircraft have extreme difficulty with locking their missiles on ground targets, this is mainly a spring fault.

Missiles have little to no ability to turn, and thus are effectively useless against other aircraft.

Actually their main problem is that they die when they reach their max-range, and units prefer to shoot at max-range rather than mid-range.

These are the most glaring issues I have found during my playtesting.

Thank you CCCP, i'll contact you on MSN when possible

And to answer Xig, I am working on adding tags that will limit Artillery units, etc to fire at aircraft.