Metal Factions - Page 4

Metal Factions

Total-Annihilation-esque RTS game with four original factions.

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raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

did i say "this weekend"? I meant "in a month" ._.

but here it is:

2014/01/15 ------------------ NOTES v0.7 ----------------------


game has been renamed "TA : Factions" ---> "Metal Factions"

--- AI

- added MFAI : it should play decently on mostly land maps with a land path between base positions

--- unit balance/fixes

- ARM Construction Kbot couldn't build respawner
- slightly increased the damage done by anti air hovercraft
- CORE "Marauder" : increased hitpoints but reduced firepower a bit
- ARM "Phalanx" made faster but with less HP and damage per second
- increased hitpoints of ARM "Flakker" and CORE "Cobra"
- increased speed of long range plasma shots
- buildings no longer have different line of sight for ground and air units
- override maps' unit movement speed modifiers
- prevent aircraft collision damage
- some units with rockets no longer target aircraft
- SPHERE "Concealer" became sturdier and looks different
- made wreckages 50% harder to kill
- reduced the height and metal content of wreckage heaps
- made air repair pads tougher but more expensive
- slightly increased the relative cost of weapons with large area of effect and/or tracking shots
- slightly increased the range and cost of CLAW "Hyper" and CLAW "Piercer"
- increased the range and cost of SPHERE "Bastion"
- CLAW "Bishop" increased hitpoints, firepower and cost
- slightly increased the slope tolerance for vehicles
- SPHERE Ark and Stalwart's missiles track their target
- CLAW "Mega" significantly increased hitpoints and cost
- ARM "Sniper" : slightly increased speed, hitpoints and cost
- disabled custom strafing behavior for heavy aircraft (was still inconsistant and broken)

--- visuals

- fixed some build pictures
- medium and light emg should be called just emg (dmg is always light)
- fixed some wreckages
- improved ARM "Sniper"'s model and animations
- slightly improved ARM "Knight"'s movement animation
- slightly improved CLAW "Bishop"'s model and animations
- slightly improved model on several SPHERE kbots
- fix size occupation % for air transports tooltip
- improved CORE Wind Generator's model
- fixed death blasts on some aircraft
- slightly improved ARM "Samson"'s and "Hammer"'s model and animations
- loading pictures : changed the logo and added one with info about the line formation command

--- widgets / gadgets

- added message separator widget (by Kloot and Brain Damage)
- fixed gadget errors that appeared on spring 95.0 and 96.0 with the previous version
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

and i'm thinking of really going the TA IP free route.

replace ARM and CORE with new factions.

maybe

AVEN : conventional looking vehicles and robots, emphasis on mobility, replacing ARM

GEAR : flamethrowers, fire bombs, heat rays and weird contraptions, replacing CORE

hmmm...
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PepeAmpere
Posts: 589
Joined: 03 Jun 2010, 01:28

Re: Metal Factions

Post by PepeAmpere »

Yes, do that! Good decision.
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

Thanks.

A new version is coming out in the next month or two with lots of changes:
--- moving away from TA IP
- remade most textures
- changed the texturing units on all factions to make them consistent within each faction and different from other factions
- replace ARM and CORE with AVEN and GEAR factions (added and removed some units, renamed others)
- miscellaneous improvements to unit animations (scripts)
- all tracked vehicles now have animated threads

--- balance/mechanics
- some changes to balance (penalizing longer ranged units)
- maybe change the way aircraft work, namely bombers
- all lasers are instant hit weapons now

(the stuff above is about halfway done at this point)


there's also stuff i'd like to do in the short term:
- get at least one host running on the official server
- improve AI
- add more unique units and weapons to each faction
- improve UI (a bit)


lots of work o_o
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Anarchid
Posts: 1384
Joined: 30 Nov 2008, 04:31

Re: Metal Factions

Post by Anarchid »

This thread has only one picture.

That is insufficient.
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

i've been removing all ARM and CORE units and replacing some with remodelled equivalents, etc.

here's some screenshots (work in progress)

AVEN units
aven_units.jpg
AVEN units
(1.21 MiB) Downloaded 1 time
Image

GEAR units
gear_units.jpg
GEAR units
(1.2 MiB) Downloaded 1 time
Image

all tanks have animated threads now (based on simple alternating textures, frequency depends on unit speed %)
Image
Attachments
tank_threads.jpg
new tank threads
(75.38 KiB) Downloaded 1 time
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

here's a screenshot of some other GEAR bots

from left to right, "Grenado", "Big Bob", "Frea-" I mean, "Psycho", "Pyro"

"Grenado" is a specialist tough assault kbot with cannons and a big death blast, a concept not seen very often, but seems effective.

Image
Attachments
gear_bots.jpg
some gear kbots
(75.73 KiB) Downloaded 1 time
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

took a long time, but it's releaseable now.

put it on springfiles
http://springfiles.com/spring/games/metal-factions-0

2015/08/24 ------------------ NOTES v0.8 ----------------------


--- major move away from TA IP : replaced TA factions with original ones (they mix familiar units with new ones, all models were remade though)
- replaced ARM with AVEN
- replaced CORE with GEAR

--- new units

- (all the 200+ units for AVEN and GEAR)

- added long range AA missile turrets for all factions (previously only CLAW had)
- replaced SPHERE "Drum" with SPHERE "Chub" : Armored Missile Robot
- added SPHERE "Stresser" : Shielded Missile Cruiser
- added SPHERE "Screener" : Amphibious Mobile Area Shield Generator
- added SPHERE "Aegis" : Area Shield Generator
- added SPHERE "Shielder" : Mobile Area Shield Generator
- added SPHERE "Crustle" : Light Tank
- added SPHERE "Stark" : Advanced Missile Launcher
- added SPHERE Advanced Sphere Plant, which builds slow, heavily armored flying spheres with shields and that require lots of energy to move
- added SPHERE "Construction Sphere"
- added SPHERE "Gazer" : Sniper Sphere
- added SPHERE "Astra" : Missile Sphere
- added SPHERE "Chroma" : Very Heavy Assault Sphere
- added SPHERE "Gaunt" : Infantry Robot

- added CLAW "Flail" : Hard-hitting Infantry Robot
- added CLAW "Tempest" : Amphibious Missile Robot
- added CLAW "Scythe" : Heavy Cloakable All-Terrain Robot

- added a "Builder Form" upgrade for all commanders, which trades some weapon power for 2x build speed and increased build range


--- gameplay/balance changes

- changed SPHERE white beam lasers to red medium lasers
- changed most laser cannons to instant-hit beam lasers
- increased the cost premium associated to having longer ranged weapons
- increased the cost premium associated to having faster, tracking or instant-hit projectile weapons
- increased the accuracy of long range plasma cannons (they're now considerably more expensive though)
- all paralyzer weapons deal an extra 33% damage to HP

- reduced metal generated by commanders from 4M/s to 2M/s
- added free base income for all players : +6M/s and +30E/s
- commander respawn costs 500 metal and commander appears fully upgraded
- upgraded commanders can no longer morph back to their original forms
- increased energy output of wind generators by 30%
- geothermal generators also give +3M/s and are a bit more expensive, but now explode violently when killed
- added commander wreckages

- changed attributes of some units to emphasize their roles : toughness oriented units are tougher, namely the level1 ones, damage oriented units deal more damage
- radar, sonar and jammer units are tougher but no longer produce energy and drain more E/s. They are also more expensive
- fixed the automatic disabling/enabling of radars,etc. when player runs out of energy

- changed bombers to hover instead of strafing and deal higher damage per bomb, but with a high cooldown. Players can opt to leave them hovering while they reload or temporarily retreat to avoid enemy fire
- level1 fighter aircraft are now slower but cheaper
- improved acceleration for fighter aircraft
- fighter aircraft abort their dive mid-way to avoid enemy fire and collisions with ground units
- fixed two aircraft being able to land on the same repair pad
- air repair pads are tougher and repair twice as fast
- made air transports tougher, more expensive, and lose up to half their max speed depending on load

- standardized build options : commanders and level1 builders can build all level1 units and structures, level2 builders can build everything
- construction units are tougher in general and some have perks like being faster, tougher, all-terrain or amphibious
- nano towers can now build all level1 units and structures
- factories are a bit more expensive now, especially the level 2 ones

- prevented dragons teeth from being crushed by some units
- doubled the height and cost of fortification walls
- set wreck resource metal to 40% of original unit


--- visuals

- commander respawn has a new animation with smoke and glowy particles
- commander explosion animation leaves a lasting nano effect
- remade most of the walking scripts used by all factions
- nearly all tanks and vehicles have animated wheels and threads
- replaced most of the TA textures with original ones
- improved most CLAW and SPHERE unit models and animations



--- user interface

- changed the build/order menu appearance (now based on Red UI)
- added button to change building orientation
- added button to change building spacing
- added build options filter with the following options : ENERGY/METAL, PLANT, OTHER
- changed the user interface backgrounds
- show tip for units with unique properties, ex: "33% slower on water", "50% dmg resistance when closed"
- show build times taking into account the combined build power of selected units

--- AI

- modified AI to work with the new factions

--- cleanup

- removed some unused widgets and gadgets

--- license

- changed license for original content and artwork to CC-BY-ND. Unit scripts, lua widgets and gadgets have their own licences though, which is usually PD (the default) and GPL for some
(check LICENSE.txt for more information)
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

I'm running a SPADS autohost called "nebula1".


When it stats it prints a warning that "lobby account isn't tagged as bot", and that I should contact a lobby admin.

So, lobby admins, please tag it as "bot".
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

activity log xz001

fixing some issues:
- fix AI start positions when startboxes are set
- significatly reduce build times (up to 50% on level1 factories)

patch coming out later today
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

made a few more changes and put the patch on springfiles.

also updated the first post and the nebula1 autohost.


2015/08/29 ------------------ NOTES v0.81 ----------------------

--- gameplay/balance changes

- reduced the build times for all level 1 units and buildings by about 25% and 50% on level 1 plants specifically
(energy/metal costs were kept, but this should speed up early game considerably)
- converted SPHERE small fusion reactor to a cheaper fission reactor, which consumes 0.5M/s
- CLAW "Sinker" to be tougher but more expensive
- fixed AVEN floating "Defender" cost and HP to be similar to the land version
- reduced brakerate on light scout aircraft
- reduce submarines' radius to prevent unwanted targeting from cannons, etc.
- reduce turret rotation speed on long range plasma cannons

--- AI

- MFAI's commander is automatically repositioned to make it compatible with "choose in game" start positions and team start zones
- fixed MFAI lua error that could occur when aircraft went outside the edges of the map
- removed debug messages
- fixed MFAI labels on player list widget

--- other

- removed the old self-damage prevention gadget that missed the cleanup on v0.8 (wasn't working)
- repositioned claw mono-wheel robot models a bit higher and adjusted their acceleration and wheel speeds
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
Posts: 14673
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43

Re: Metal Factions

Post by Forboding Angel »

You should link your repo up with rapid so that it's easy to try it out!
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

I put nebula1 autohost back online.

It seems people are able to automatically download from springfiles through the autohost, so not having it on rapid isn't such a big deal (I think)

also made another minor update:

2015/09/01 ------------------ NOTES v0.82 ----------------------

--- gameplay/balance changes
- made AVEN and CLAW level 1 scout robots cheaper but slightly weaker

--- other
- fix some build menu pictures
- minor adjustments to a few 3d models
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

another update


2015/09/06 ------------------ NOTES v0.83 ----------------------

--- new units

- added CLAW "Hazard" : Disguised Pop-Up Rocket Launcher


--- gameplay/balance changes

- fixed CLAW geothermal powerplant death blast and cost
- slightly decreased cost of GEAR "Grenado"
- slightly increased dmg/s on AVEN commander's weapons
- slightly increased fighter aircraft dmg/s
- slightly reduced cost of GEAR "Blaze" and "Solaris"
- increased dmg/s and cost of CLAW "Thumper"
- slightly decreased cost of static defenses compared to mobile units
- fixed short-range pop-up weapons not popping-up to fire when ground below them has been deformed
- slightly reduced cost of level 2 factories
- fixed SPHERE "Slammer" and "Lancer" rockets flying slightly above the target

--- AI (MFAI)

- checks if exit is clear when placing factories to avoid units getting stuck
- fixed a lua error when retrying build orders that got interrupted
- GEAR builds more Big Bobs, Pyros, Psychos and Titans and less Cubes

--- other

- fixed some wreckages
- made SPHERE area shields a bit less transparent
- fixed some death animations where the whole body of the unit would fly weirdly intact
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code_man
Posts: 260
Joined: 19 Jan 2014, 13:10

Re: Metal Factions

Post by code_man »

raaar wrote:I put nebula1 autohost back online.

It seems people are able to automatically download from springfiles through the autohost, so not having it on rapid isn't such a big deal (I think)
I think rapid allows downloading only of files that changed in between versions, like say you have 8.1 and get 8.2 then it only gets the files that changed in between.

Im glad to see your autohost troubles have resolved.

Nice work btw, i havent gotten around testing it extensively, but is nice so far.
Cant believe i kinda overlooked this game.
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

Thanks!
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

and another update

2015/09/12 ------------------ NOTES v0.84 ----------------------

--- gameplay/balance changes

- made paralyzer weapons a bit more expensive
- reduced energy cost and slightly reduced dmg/s of SPHERE "Obsidian Form" commander's weapon
- slightly reduced dmg/s of SPHERE "Opal Form" commander's weapon
- slightly reduced CLAW "Assassin Form" commander's movement speed
- changed height of wreckages relative to original units' from 90% to 60% and from 25% to 10% on heaps
- made geothermals have M armor instead of L
- torpedo launchers no longer automatically target land units
- reduced cost and E/s required on SPHERE "Opal" and "Obsidian" sphere towers

-- UI

- chat widget no longer scrolls back to first message when viewport is resized (ex: alt-tab)
- fixed chat widget to split long messages over several lines instead of cutting
- build options start on "ENERGY/METAL" instead of "PLANT"
- made "b" key cycle through build filter options
- added black outline on build queue numbers to make them visible over bright backgrounds
- changed number of build option rows from 2 to 3
- added sound volume control widget (uses +/- keys, made by Jools)

--- visuals

- improved textures some SPHERE medium armored ships
- fixed SPHERE "Ark" wreckage

--- other

- changed "immobile builders" widget to restore patrol order whenever nano-towers become idle for more than a second
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

and yet another minor update
(springfiles link is the same as before)

2015/09/13 ------------------ NOTES v0.85 ----------------------

--- gameplay/balance changes

- bombers no longer target other air units
- reduced flight altitude of level 1 bombers from 250 to 210
- reduced tolerance on CLAW "Boomer" weapon to improve accuracy
- SPHERE "Chroma" no longer produces energy
- drastically reduced cost of SPHERE armored flying spheres
- slightly reduced energy cost of SPHERE commanders' weapons
- made air transports slightly faster
- fixed nano towers to properly leave wreckage when killed
- fixed GEAR metal extractor not being buildable underwater
- metal extractors have increased slope tolerance and are more likely to leave wreckage
- fixed metal extractors and metal storages not leaving wreckage
- increased the HP of moho mines and adjusted costs (depending on faction)

--- other

- added missing icon for GEAR fusion reactor
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1094
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

and yet another minor update...
(springfiles link is the same as before)

2015/09/20 ------------------ NOTES v0.86 ----------------------

--- gameplay/balance changes

- drastically reduce cloak energy cost of AVEN, GEAR and CLAW commanders from 400 to 150 E/s when moving
- made AVEN, GEAR and CLAW robot radar jammers cloakable
- reduced cloak energy cost on cloakable units in general (to about 30-60 E/s when moving)
- made GEAR "Cloakable Cube" a bit faster and a bit more expensive

(all this means that groups of units can now sneak into the enemy base undetected!)

--- UI / widgets

- toggling cloaked state also toggles hold-fire/fire-at-will state for all armed cloakable units
- CTRL-C now also focuses camera on the selected commander
- enforce shift-ESC combination opening the menu
(in case it was disabled after playing other spring games that tamper with key configs...)
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Karl
Panzerstahl Developer
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Joined: 01 Apr 2010, 21:05

Re: Metal Factions

Post by Karl »

raaar wrote: "Grenado"
Image
Will there be a unit that is using the "Grenado" as a ammo and launching the latter unit?
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