Micro Modules 1.09

[Agon]

Version 1.02 stopgap seems to have a fix for the "selecting unit bug".
Edit: nope, it was the different openal package. Moved from packman repo to opensuse repo.

[Spawn_Retard]

somehow i ended up having an epic 1v1 with [Friends]loliboy which lasted nearly 1 hour and a half.

Ended because the god damn game crashed.

Makes me angry inside.

This mod gets really porcy, to porcy for me and im a speedmetal hero.

you can make turrets undefeatable

and the only way to win from my view is to call very heavy wave, or tank wave while you attack, yet that makes your com vunrable

Is this what you were aiming at KDR?

Also, without this the game wont end.

Edit:

This has to be the most annoyingly crashy mod ever lol.

[fc14159]

There hasn't been a single game where it didn't crash. Pretty fun though, nonetheless.

Also, is it not possible to vote for difficulty level after your MC dies? Or is the number correlated to the number of MC's?

Radical change suggestions below, beware.

I really think there should at least be a mode where there are no creeps, and you can only get blobs from killing enemies, and you can set the number of blobs gained for every enemy blob killed. Turret porcing works way too well, and newbies get killed by creeps instead of enemies most of the time. With good turrets, there is almost no way of losing.

Metal spot based gameplay would make the mod way easier to comprehend. Yes, it would take away most of the mod's uniqueness, but I personally only like the tactical aspect of the mod, not the econ.

[BaNa]

I got crashed after like 45 mins of fun singleplayer creep killing.

hey i thought of a way to give speed bonus to units:

- make it possible to add a third blob color to a unit, in this case it would just minorly buff a stat, like: (red - attack, green - speed, blue - hp)

- i dont know how damage scales with number of blobs in a unit, but you could make it logarithmic, thus making UUBER towers a bit less UUBER.

infolog:

Code: Select all

Cannon: Can't reach destination!
Spring 0.76b1 has crashed.
Exception: Access violation (0xc0000005)
Exception Address: 0x0081ab9d
DLL information:
0x00400000	spring
0x7c900000	ntdll
0x7c800000	kernel32
0x77dd0000	ADVAPI32
0x77e70000	RPCRT4
0x73f10000	dsound
0x77c10000	msvcrt
0x77d40000	USER32
0x77f10000	GDI32
0x774e0000	ole32
0x76b40000	WINMM
0x77c00000	VERSION
0x68b20000	GLU32
0x5ed00000	OPENGL32
0x73760000	DDRAW
0x73bc0000	DCIMAN32
0x76c90000	IMAGEHLP
0x71ad0000	WSOCK32
0x71ab0000	WS2_32
0x71aa0000	WS2HELP
0x6ed80000	glew32
0x10000000	SDL
0x7c340000	MSVCR71
0x00de0000	DevIL
0x66fc0000	freetype6
0x61b80000	zlib1
0x003e0000	ILU
0x6bc00000	sfvmr
0x5ad70000	uxtheme
0x24000000	mlfhook
0x02000000	ctagent
0x69500000	nvoglnt
0x71a50000	mswsock
0x662b0000	hnetcfg
0x71a90000	wshtcpip
0x76c30000	WINTRUST
0x77a80000	CRYPT32
0x77b20000	MSASN1
0x72d20000	wdmaud
0x72d10000	msacm32
0x77be0000	MSACM32
0x77bd0000	midimap
0x73ee0000	KsUser
0x6dfc0000	TestGlobalAI
0x59a60000	DBGHELP
Stacktrace:
(0) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0081AB9D]
(1) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0081DD8F]
(2) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0071473F]
(3) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x007481A0]
(4) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x005D8EBC]
(5) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x005F495A]
(6) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x005F684B]
(7) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x00855AB9]
(8) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0085ED08]
(9) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0085F0DE]
(10) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0085F316]
(11) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x0095D309]
(12) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x004010A7]
(13) D:\Program Files\Spring\spring.exe [0x00401123]
(14) C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll(RegisterWaitForInputIdle+0x49) [0x7C816F97]

[LordLemmi]

I like it and found out some great ways to kill a enemy really fast. And yes the random crashes are a big problem... Mod rocks so far but don´t work for long. I think the most thing about the crash is the pathing of the units when you join or merge or "release" them, that are the times where i had a crash.

Have fun fixing it.

Ah and btw,i want more units xD hehe.
merged stuff should be able to merge again with other new units.

[Google_Frog]

Try making a mode where, instead of calling waves, blobs slowly spawn at spawn points placed around the map. This way you'd have to wander around killing blobs and there would be a limited number so killing the enemy would be important. Blobs that spawn could also eventually combine into blob tanks so the longer a point has been left alone the stronger the defenders.

+1 to getting blobs from killing other players. Maybe there should be a chance of getting a blob from them. Or they could give you blobs only when you knock them to an even number of blobs.

[KDR_11k]

The problem with PvP bounties is that it means whoever wins a battle is even better off, it doesn't automatically benefit an attacker. If you attack and your attack fails that means the defender gets bonus blobs.

I figured out what went wrong with the UnitDestroyed error spam (REALLY stupid mistake). No idea what triggers the voting errors though.

I guess spawning blobs could be done but I think I won't do that right now and arty may be too good at just killing the stationary creeps.

People asked for blobs to be all terrain so unloading near a cliff won't get them stuck, anyone against that?

One thought I had about ending the porciness was to buff the damage output of arty at higher levels, i.e. damage bonus for each shot and smaller spread so it can actually put a dent in higher level turrets. Perhaps also make the shots take even longer to arrive (it IS meant for bombarding bases, not for killing creeps). In fact at a point in the design process I thought that nuclear missiles should be an option to force mobility, if you're discovered you have to evacuate or get blown to bits but I abandoned the idea. More powerful arty (with sufficiently slow shots) wouldn't be guaranteed losses beyond the two units that formed the turret as anything else can be evacuated. Even if it doesn't cause damage it'll force the enemy to abandon his turrets for some time that you could use to move an attack force in.

Turrets already have a damage ceiling, no weapon can fire faster than once per frame so the DPS approaches a maximum asymptotically. It's the reason the tank hunter exists, it has no DPS limit.

For the record, the blue turret has a limit of 45 damage x3 guns x30 frames = 4050 DPS and the green turret has 180 damage x30 frames = 5400 DPS (should also get a reduction at range due to dynamic damage). The blue tank has 65 damage x30 frames = 1950 DPS, the air fortress has only 25 damage x2 shots x30 frames = 1500 DPS on the side guns but uses a TH-like cannon too.

[CarRepairer]

I love the game. Excellent work.

I noticed a distinction between this and metal based games. The games usually feel like they drag on because there is nothing of value to reclaim after a battle the way you do in *A. When you take a blow to your army, you literally feel like you've gone back in time to the start of the game and have to build up from square one. In contrast to a game where you can quickly rebuild from the fields of metal wrecks, even if you've lost most of your living units.

In other words, the main resource in *A is mostly cumulative. Once metal is extracted from a spot, it's stuck in the map (more so in CA with its more frequent wreckages) and economies will tend to grow and rarely shrink. In Micromodules, powerful waves of creeps or opponents fighting will "destroy the resource" and and cause the "economy" to easily shrink back down to the earlier level at the start of the battle. There's something off about this.

I am not sure how it could be remedied, but I agree getting blobs from shooting human enemies would have negative consequences. Have you considered a drastic change of making creeps become neutral items and picking them up instead of having them absorb into whomever shot them? This could apply to human controlled units as well, and maybe simulate wreckage reclaims.

[KDR_11k]

That would just mean you'd have to hold fire regularly and send a sweeper to collect all the drops.

[TheFatController]

People asked for blobs to be all terrain so unloading near a cliff won't get them stuck, anyone against that?

You could stop them being unloaded on cliffs with a testbuildorder check on an appropriate unit (see BA chicken defense).

[Google_Frog]

Turret range is crazy. There should be a max range.

[Pxtl]

Ahh. It makes sense. I had an uber-blue-turret and was finding it to be the best, but noticed that the damage was maxing out something fierce. That's the trade-off - the blue turret can be a beast, but it can be overcome by brute force, while the arty turret has a slow flight-time.

Still, I'd rather force players to be mobile - have them go out looking for trouble instead of sitting and calling it. Hence, my suggestion of littering the map with "boxes" that spawn an aggressive (and spread-out) wave when opened. Plus, if baddies are depleteable, then they must reach a point where they have to say "there's no more levelling up, time to fight".

Of course, that could lead to a stalemate where both players are hiding behind lines of uber-turrets, neither wanting to risk the pain of an attack.

Obviously, I'm just pulling suggestions out of my ass, but how about this:

1) Maybe add other families of creeps, like a family of air-attack creeps? A family of turret creeps? So when the player opens a tiny/small/medium/large box of creeps, they could be attacked by anything, not just tanks.

2) Comm units are Converters, but you can build more (1 join of each)... but they're immobile. This means you always have something you need to defend. If you take out all a guy's converters he's crippled (or dead, if game-ends)

[KDR_11k]

http://www.darkstars.co.uk/downloads/vi ... es_104.sd7

Since SpringFiles is down this has to suffice.

Changelog as far as I can recall:
- Added heuristic fix for crash (it will retry placing the unit in random spots up to 255 times, that should be plenty)
- Fixed the "AddBlobs" LuaRules error
- Rebalanced arty to take longer to reach the target, be more precise and get a damage bonus to every shot for weapon blobs, that should make it capable of putting some good hurt on turrets (but increases range more slowly). It IS a PvP unit, after all.
- Blobs are now hover and can move over any slope, same for the MC. Does NOT apply to mixed units so be careful where you merge them!
- The mod options now inclue a minimum wave level vote setting, you cannot vote to limit the wave below this level, useful for starts with higher blob counts than default.
- Added debug code into the voting system so I can try tracking down what causes the voting errors.
- Reduced BigTank wave to 25 blobs per tank and moved it down to rank between Hard and Very Hard, the BT wave was just too easy to kill with the right equipment so the gains should be lower (you gain one blob for every evil blob you kill, even blobs inside tanks)
EDIT: Damn, I forgot to mention the advanced eject options: Hold ALT to make ejected blobs head for the com, rightclick to order nearby blobs to join this unit instead of ejecting, ALT-rightclick to request blobs from the com.

Sorry, there were some more things I wanted to do but the crash fix was so urgent I had to release this almost imemdiately after finishing it.

[Spawn_Retard]

Turret range is crazy. There should be a max range.

If Turrets had max range the game would be a stale mate.

The only way to kill off the other team is by mortar and turret strikes, helped by a handfull of tanks.

giving them a max range would make the game EXTREMLEY porcy, because tanks and other units die way before they get close to killing a good level turret

I've had an enemy level 132 blue turret killed way to quickly by a blue turret with 100 damage.

He didnt die because of the range because he snuck up on me.

long story short, stop BAWWWWWing about turrets and make tanks and air alot more effective.

[KDR_11k]

What I'd like to know about is how the arty plays out in 1.04. The first reacton most people had was "OP" but I think that's in part due to reacting wrong. What does everyone think? Is the damage fine/too high, does something else need changing (like giving an early warning/bigger delay between volleys)? I'd like to get some feedback on that, so far I think it needs some sort of warning as the volley is fired.

[[Krogoth86]]

Well in my opinion the arty is too strong. The problem is that it's a bit about who strikes first with a highly leveled artillery. There isn't a real way to handle it apart from that because if you try to attack with tanks you run into a disruptor and bang you're pretty fucked. As turrets also are the best way to get new blobs as fast as possible (which is something you really want) it's not that hard for the enemy to guess where you are and strike first...

So in the end it's about levelling up and while you think "I need just some more points" the enemy strikes with his arty and kills really lots of units (especially if people stay together what they tend to do). You then can try to move to another place but because of the huge range that's quite impossible and while you move the enemy still harvests more blobs and that way most games I played with 1.04 really ended in a way that the alliance which did an arty strike first wins because it just has more blobs as the enemy has to run / hide and has no chance to overcome the enemy which from that point has a way higher growing strength...

Imo the problem is that the disruptor breaks things a bit because it really is an excellent power drainer on enemy tanks and targets air too. I think that is really something that should be changed: The disruptors shouldn't stun to that extent and imo also shouldn't target air (although being a combo with green). At the same time air should be more viable - I think I've never seen a successfull attack with air yet (except for bomber strikes on "disrupted" basic units). I'd change the disruptor to be anti-ground only with less paralyzing effect and deliver AA via rocket towers and fighters (which only are built for scouting right now and so they need a stronger role anyway)...

My 2 cents...

[Spawn_Retard]

Ive played plenty of games where i could dodge arty.

once you make it so you cant see merging without LOS art should be balanced.

If your crying over losing against arty, have a look at any of the other opish units.

the one hit kill tank maybe?

[Saktoth]

Bug: Turrets hitsphere detection isnt great, a lot of shots pass through, especially the missile turret but the blue one too. Tank killer shots pass through blue towers -often-, its very annoying to miss a tank killer shot against an enemy turret, even more annoying to miss -several- shots. I target ground instead.

One of the other major problems with the game is allies (and enemies) summoning units ontop of you. If this happens at the start of the game (or any other time) when you're swapping out units you can lose heaps of blobs and even lose your com if he is empty at the time.

Just make creeps avoid spawning near other players commanders, at least. Then you can disable the silly voting thing too.

Tanks are really good. The red tank is the best thing against large units, no turret can compete with how well it kills the wraiths and the AoE lets it kill even small units. The blue tank is also pretty decent: It doesnt get the range buff of towers but otherwise id say its comparable. You dont need to rely on turrets and if you dont, arty is almost useless.

Once you get to 120+ blobs (about map-wide arty level) you can take on any wave at all with a tank so you dont need turrets anymore.

Disruptors are mean, but if you assault with your whole force, he has to have his whole force in a disruptor to get you, in which case he cant finish off the spam his disruptor creates and you can just kill him with that. If he makes adequate anti-spam then his disruptor wont be powerful enough to deal with your megatank. This is assuming he isnt too far ahead of you (in which case you wouldnt win anyway).

But you do need to attack with your whole force. Attacking with anything less than everything you've got (unless you're lightyears ahead) is a waste of time because tank power is exponential. Unless you can snipe a weak commander or such.

[ikaros]

the idea is great! i bet this mod will be fun when finished :)
i just played around a bit and i think there are these problems:

1) it's too slow and too porcy. you need to make people spread units over the map for more interesting gameplay.. perhaps some kind of blob producing areas on the map ( kinda like resources .. e.g spawning blobs at geothermal spots and you bring your tank there to shot them up )
this would bring up fights for certain areas with early mobile units.

2) if by accident your master converter dies early.. game's over. there should be a way to create a new one with say 10 blobs or something like that.. or spawn one with just a minute of waiting .. whatever gives disadvantage but doesnt lose the game

[Spawn_Retard]

Is the anti-tank tank, supposed to arc its weapon so it misses missle launchers?