Absolute Annihilation: Spring[old]

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 03 Nov 2005, 09:01

Doomweaver wrote:Peewees do not automatically attack enemies! I just lost a game cause of this!

i just tested and it works fine here...

Also Many Thanks for this release, it's Great!!

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 03 Nov 2005, 09:22

Hmm, maybe it was because of sync errors or something like that (not that I was getting any, so i guess that's not the reason

) But they wouldn't attack the small scout kbot's, or flashes. (Unless I told them to, of course, but that means that they cannot be moving while firing) How did you test it

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 03 Nov 2005, 09:27

check replay

Replay

keep your cursor in the middle in the divide, after the two peewee squads are added put your cursor below the divide

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 03 Nov 2005, 15:10

Spring still has a lot of these sorts of things... At times, for whatever reason, the fact that "A" unit exists and is in range of "B" unit just doesn't get through. It can be seen as often as once or twice per game... it's no fault of the mod-maker. For instance, at times you can move units right past LLTs without them so much as turning to aim, whereas you can do that again 30 seconds later and be blown away. It's not a script bug, it's not a weapon bug, it's not a unit bug, as all of these files in AA are basically identical to those in XTA, UH, or any other mods based on TA, so the only reasonable alternative is that this is some kind of engine flaw or caused by lag/loss.

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 03 Nov 2005, 20:57

Sorry, didn't know! (I've never noticed it before, to be honest!)

"Spring still has a lot of these sorts of things... "

I hope they're fixed soon!

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 04 Nov 2005, 00:29

i reckon Caydr is right. lag is a killer and acts as a catalyst for the engines self-destruction

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 04 Nov 2005, 20:50

Changelog 1.0 > 1.01 so far. If you see anything missing below, post and I'll make the change.

Nano tower costs increased to slightly above those of an adv. construction kbot
Nano tower building radius reduced again to 300 (400)
Nano tower maxslope changed to 10 (20)
Nano towers now explode as a special weapon which will badly damage nearby nano towers. Self-destruct is still a tiny explosion.
Fixed Core Nuke Launcher special damage vs Commanders
Set Krogoth and Orcone to kill Commanders with their explosion
Increased nuke edgeeffectiveness to 0.3 (0.2)
D-Gun now does 1,000 damage, rather than 20,000 damage (will still be a one-shot-kill versus virtually anything)
Banshee armour reduced to 500 (650)
Flak AoE doubled to 256 (128)
"Shellshocker", "Wolverine" ranges boosted about 5%
Plasma batteries are now set for high trajectory only
"Guardian", "Punisher" models modified to accomodate high-arc
1 new loading screen added, bringing total to 15

----------

The reason why nano towers have been so ridiculously cheap up till this point is because in the OTA version of AA, they were built from a special pad. The pad made up for the very low cost of the turret, because it alone cost about 50% more than a construction kbot if I remember right. I'm surprised I didn't notice this error sooner.

Plasma cannons (Guardian, Punisher, Ambusher, Toaster) are desgned, in AA at least, for long-range defense only. They are not intended to be a one-unit defense for an entire base. I've been very frustrated lately playing online games, finding that people just build these on a hilll somewhere and then basically have unchallenged control of that entire section of map, not even building extra defenses around them. This was not the case in OTA:AA, where a lone guardian would be an easy kill for even just half a dozen AKs. The problem can be seen especially on "Small Divide", where these guns are actually able to target units which are physically beneath themselves with direct-fire... a ridiculous situation if I've ever seen one. A similar problem arose with artillery units - 10 or so of them were basically invulnerable to any form of attack except for bombing because they could turn their gun to any angle. The problem arises because Spring ignores minbarrelangle tags. The best solution to this, IMO, is to set them as high-trajectory ONLY. This make there be a significant lag time between a shot being fired and a shot impacting if the target is at close range. If the target is between maximum and medium range, the increase in time from firing to impact is not really noticable.

1.01 will be out in 3-7 days.

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 04 Nov 2005, 20:58

Caydr wrote: D-Gun now does 1,000 damage, rather than 20,000 damage (will still be a one-shot-kill versus virtually anything)

WTF! Are you kidding? It might add to the gameplay, but that absolutely kills the aesthetics of the thing. Also, a commander with more health than 90% should survive the superunit blasts, just, that way proper use of cloak can be uber-effective.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 04 Nov 2005, 21:09

The change to disintegrator effectiveness has no effect on gameplay, I've learned. A direct hit can still kill an AK or Krogoth alike. TBH, I don't even remember why I made this change, someone just asked me to ^_^

Maybe I'll switch it back...

Proper use of the cloak can still be "uber-effective"... you can kill the most powerful unit in the game with a single blast. You give your life in the process, mind you... how heroic!

This change was made after a long, long, long discussion over at the official AA forum. People became understandably pissed when a unit could kill something they'd spend so much resources on and walk away virtually unscathed. In the early game, your commander is your first line of defense, in the late game it becomes your "get out of jail free" card... enough firepower to give you, maybe, a chance to make a comeback if it's used properly, but only once.

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 04 Nov 2005, 21:48

Hmm, to avoid people having to restric the d-gun to starting positions, maybe make it cost more energy, say about 800, and make the commanders laser a little better.

Pxtl · Post by **Pxtl** » 04 Nov 2005, 22:14

Caydr wrote:The change to disintegrator effectiveness has no effect on gameplay, I've learned. A direct hit can still kill an AK or Krogoth alike. TBH, I don't even remember why I made this change, someone just asked me to ^_^

Maybe I'll switch it back...

Proper use of the cloak can still be "uber-effective"... you can kill the most powerful unit in the game with a single blast. You give your life in the process, mind you... how heroic! This change was made after a long, long, long discussion over at the official AA forum. People became understandably pissed when a unit could kill something they'd spend so much resources on and walk away virtually unscathed. In the early game, your commander is your first line of defense, in the late game it becomes your "get out of jail free" card... enough firepower to give you, maybe, a chance to make a comeback if it's used properly, but only once.

Too bad you can't make the Commander unit change depending on whether or not the game is in "game ends" mode. In "game ends" I don't think anyone would mind if the Commander was nigh-god-like, because it's use would be the supreme gamble. Sure, you just took out a Krog in one hit, but you also exposed yourself and lost a lot of health.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 05 Nov 2005, 07:32

Worked on it for a few hours, achieved my goals early. Here's the final changelog. The changes to nano towers and plasma guns alone is a massive improvement to the balance and fun factor, IMO.

Changelog 1.0 --> 1.01

Nano tower costs increased to slightly above those of an adv.
construction kbot
Nano tower building radius reduced again to 300 (400)
Nano tower maxslope changed to 10 (20)
Nano towers now explode as a special weapon which will badly
damage nearby nano towers. Self-destruct is still a tiny
explosion.
Fixed Core Nuke Launcher special damage vs Commanders
Set Krogoth and Orcone to kill Commanders with their explosion if
in close proximity
Increased nuke edgeeffectiveness to 0.3 (0.2)
Banshee armour reduced to 500 (650)
Flak AoE doubled to 256 (128)
"Shellshocker", "Wolverine" ranges boosted about 5%
"Mumbo" laser damage reduced to 26 (28)
"Radical", "Blocker" AoE reduced to 32 (48)
"Dragons Claw" reduced to 900 HP (1100), damagemodifier increased
to 0.15 (0.075)
"Dragons Maw" reduced to 1000 HP (1200), damagemodifier increased
to 0.15 (0.075)
Four new loading screens added, bringing the total to 18
Plasma batteries are now set for high trajectory only
"Sumo" speed reduced to 0.6 (0.75)
Core "Punisher" model modified to accomodate high-arc
Arm "Guardian" completely remodeled
New buildpics for "Punisher", "Guardian" to reflect model changes
New buildpic for "Blocker"

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 05 Nov 2005, 07:41

Caydr wrote:The change to disintegrator effectiveness has no effect on gameplay, I've learned. A direct hit can still kill an AK or Krogoth alike. TBH, I don't even remember why I made this change, someone just asked me to ^_^

Maybe I'll switch it back...

Proper use of the cloak can still be "uber-effective"... you can kill the most powerful unit in the game with a single blast. You give your life in the process, mind you... how heroic! This change was made after a long, long, long discussion over at the official AA forum. People became understandably pissed when a unit could kill something they'd spend so much resources on and walk away virtually unscathed. In the early game, your commander is your first line of defense, in the late game it becomes your "get out of jail free" card... enough firepower to give you, maybe, a chance to make a comeback if it's used properly, but only once.

When we play compeditively we play "game ends if comm dies" Practically this means you can't at all use the comm to defend against the super units. Why not make thier explosion damage do 90% comm health or something, so you only get away with dgunning a kroggie in extreme cases, as one shot from any of thier weapons will put him below the threshold.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 05 Nov 2005, 08:12

Units accumulate experience which boosts their HP considerably. I bet that a war-ravaged Commander could probably still withstand the explosion of a Krogoth, especially if he was at maximum dgunning range. Not to mention being at the stage of game where a Krogoth would even be seen.

Krogoth explodes with 7500 damage points at the center of the explosion, 2250 at the edge (0.3 edgeeffectiveness, 960 AoE). Commander begins with 4000 health, dgun range is 250... you do the math. (I tried... failed miserably. Good thing I took math for three years.)

BTW, 1.01 posted. Currently available on SourceForge only, though I've sent a PM to Gnome and I'm hoping by morning I'll have a listing in "more mods" as well.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 05 Nov 2005, 08:40

Screenie of the new Guardian/Punisher models, accomodating full firing arcs.

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 05 Nov 2005, 10:14

Looks good

Optimus Prime · Post by **Optimus Prime** » 05 Nov 2005, 12:23

Will there be come more new units in later Versions?
I love the Metron tank for example or did u played the Kuro TA mod? There are some really cool units...

btw. I dont like that a full com can die of a krogexplusion

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 05 Nov 2005, 12:28

the core windmill is still bugged, it waits for seconds before rotating...

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 05 Nov 2005, 18:11

Doesn't that happen in XTA too? It's not like I have some special non-rotating script or something.

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 05 Nov 2005, 18:58

it's fixed in UH

Spring RTS Engine

Absolute Annihilation: Spring[old]