Spring RTS Engine

Well, all metal output has been increased again, by something like 8%. Fusions are now available at level 1, and cost around 1500 metal, 12000 energy, and produce about 300 energy. It actually comes out to being slightly more efficient than they were before at level 2. However, they are also larger and weaker than before, meaning that they are easy targets for strategic bombers, and they still blow up in a big way, so you want to keep the rest of your buildings spaced away. We've introduced heavy fusions at level 2 that are close in stats to the old fusions. They're marginally more efficient, but their main benefit is simply that they don't take up so much space.

There are also some other changes that help speed the game up, for example, shipyards now only cost about 1300 metal, and both destroyers and subs are much cheaper- a destroyer is now equivalent in combat ability and cost to about 6 or 7 hovercraft, with the added bonus of being faster and equipped with good anti-sub and anti-air as well. (although obviously they can't go on land like hovercraft can)

oh, and thanks for the offer, I appreciate it. There is one thing that's been bugging me a bit, which is that planes seem to have trouble landing on carriers when they're moving. Have you noticed this happening in E&E?

Depends on the speed.. the faster the unit they need to land on moves.. the more difficult if not impossible it becomes for units to land on them.. Essentially You can either keep the speed down.. id say less than 3 should be allowable, or just stop carriers..

Also we can do some interesting stuff.. in Air refueling is possible.. the fuel point has to simply be outside the hitsphere of the refueler aircraft.. so a slow moving air refuel unit could is possible, if youd like to avoid graphical glitches with cruisealts.. you could simply make pylons that stick outside the aircraft and put the refuel point there.. sorta to simulate a fuel hose/rod.. If that was of any interest to you guys..

Additionally with Lua.. assuming I can get some kinks out you can doo some nifty things like make submarines that can surface and submerge.. or other things..

But yeah moving airpads present some difficulty for aircraft, though it seems to be mostly speed oriented.. the closer the pad is to the speed of the aircraft trying to land the harder it is for it to work..

Is it possible to make a fighter plane, upon getting the aircraft it is attacking into weapons range, slow down to the speed of said aircraft? That way, a freedom fighter attacking a shadow will maneuver behind the bomber and fire its weapons, at the same time being fired back at by the tail gun. Tail chase attacks ftw!

Fanger: Does the refueling aircraft you made move at all when planes are landing on it? Thor and I were just testing out a refueling tanker but we couldn't quite get it working. The planes were following directly behind it, but not landing. We tried setting the speed as low as 1.4, but same thing.

hrm.. Im pretty sure it can refuel whilest moving.. perhaps it cant..

I did a quick test.. the aircraft seem capable of landing on both moving carriers (ships) and moving carriers (aircraft).. however it was a bit wonky and didnt look very nice to say the least.. however they were able to do it..

I think it has to do largely with the difference in the speed of the aircraft vs the speed of the carrier unit... In EE I think this is pretty high as most aircraft move around 8-11, with the slower gunships only being 6-7, vs about 1.3-2 for the carrier units.. in NOTA, however there might be not so much..?

If it doesnt work, I apologize, it seemed like it should, but then again sometimes things in spring seem like they should work but dont..

It is possible as Ive tested both in TA and Spring.
A bug of auto-repair, like a dog trying to bit his tail, that make the plane go out the map was discussed in Smoth forum, and I think that it can be fixed with a tag for replenishment.

Of course speed must be lower than the plane to be replenished, fuel need to be separated from ammo (LUA?), and turn-rate must to be "tendered".
vonGratz

http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=10431
If the next version of Spring does have this feature, I suggest you put a capital ship tag on the refueling air tanker and call it an airship.

OMG THE CARRIER! I can't wait to see that baby in action!

Oh and by the way. I'll be working on some naval maps for NOTA, as there aren't enough of them and we can always use more.

My first one was just released today. Plays pretty well. Metal Econ is a little over the top. But it should at least let people experiment with naval strategies.

http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=12707

Man, I wish we wouldn't have to wait til the next spring version

Quanto, awesome!!
I've been hoping someone would make new ocean maps for a long time! Keep in mind that with next version's faster economy and cheaper early naval stuff, early naval gameplay is faster and more forgiving than before (since losing a destroyer or sub early on isn't a game-deciding mistake anymore). Also, although ships are easier to get earlier in the game, destroyers are now on a more equal footing with hovercraft. So I guess what I'm saying is don't worry if it doesn't play perfectly in the current version in terms of pacing and stuff. I don't think the naval gameplay is flat-out bad or really unbalanced in 1.32, but I do think it was too slow, unforgiving, and the units not as differentiated as they could have been.(I'm mainly thinking of destroyers and cruisers here) I'm sorry to have to hold off on releasing the new version, but the wait should be worth it.

As for the air tanker, maybe it's the acceleration being low or something that's the reason planes have trouble catching up, I don't think it's max speed since that's pretty high on fighters at least. It's not too big a deal though. We didn't really have a good model for a tanker anyway. I do like the idea of making it a flying carrier/airship. That might be more interesting and useful than a normal tanker.

I think that you should move all current ships to T2 and add T1 ships such as gunboats, corvettes and finally, frigates. The main problem here is early game ship-rush, which can be solved by giving the T1 shipyard point-defense or a adding cheap on-shore torpedo launcher.

Hovercraft basically are tech 1 ships. The problem last version was they couldn't fight larger ships very well since they could be both outranged and outrun by destroyers. Destroyers next version are probably more or less what you're thinking of by frigates. Their main gun has equal range to hovercraft artillery, and they're weaker and cheaper than before. We originally did try putting pt boats in, but it just didn't work that well.

Hi, I want to play this mod, it looks very cool, but I don't know where I can download it Links in this thread dont work

This should work: http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/3557/NOTA_v132/#

I've noticed 1.32 has some pretty serious problems with the new spring version though. Flak, rocket boxes, and most likely some other units can't shoot, probably because of junk that was in the weapons files. I'm hoping we'll have 1.4 done soon, maybe this weekend.

Looking forward to it.

Me wants NAO!

It is done.
http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/3974/NOTA_v140/

Here is the changelog.


1.40
====

-Metal output increased across the board (from 75% to 85% of BA's values)
-Fusion Power Plants available at level 1; they cost about 1300 metal and produce 300 energy. Heavy Fusion Power Plants assume the role previously held by regular fusions.
-Factories can no longer be assisted; max buildspeed of most factories increased
-Added button that changes factory production rate
-All wreckages now give back only 50% of the original cost

-Added Wasp Light Carrier for ARM. It is relatively inexpensive, with six airpads and decent flak defense.
-Added Shamshir Strike Carrier for CORE. It can refuel up to nine aircraft at once, and has a single cruiser plasma gun, an advanced long range anti-air missile system, and plenty of flak.
-Added Skybus Infantry Transport for ARM. It is built by lvl 2 kbot, air, and advanced nanotowers, and can carry a full squad of infantry kbots.
-Added Valkyrie Mk II Light Infantry Transport for CORE.
-Added HAK Advanced Infantry Kbot for CORE.
-Added Razorback Anti-Air Mech for ARM. It is fast enough to keep up with Raptors, and comes equipped with two high-powered mini-guns that are extremely deadly to low-flying aircraft
-Strategic bombers have much greater hitpoints, but are more expensive and drop less accurate bombs
-Shadows and Thunders now come equipped with
tailguns
-Strategic Bombers can fly on top of each other so they don't get in each other's way on bombing runs
-Flak fires slower, but does more damage per shot
-Shadows and Thunders may take critical hits resulting in an engine fire and a premature death
-Shipyard cost reduced 40%
-Destroyers scaled down in size, range, hitpoints; they now cost only about 1300 metal, and are about equal to a group of six or seven hovertanks/hoverartillery
-Attack Sub cost reduced by about 30%
-Torpedoes on anti-sub hovercraft and cruiser now kill subs in two hits
-Stealth fighters can now cloak
-Stealth bombers can also cloak, cost and buildtime increased.
-Vulcan, Buzzsaw, and Nuclear Cannon cost decreased
-Vulcan and Buzzsaw range increased
-Tanks now take more damage from rear or side hits and slightly less from frontal hits
-Nuclear missiles now launch vertically from silos
-Stunner EMP missiles have much more range, can be blocked by anti-nukes
-Nanotower metal cost reduced to 1200; energy and buildtime remain the same
-Nanotower repair rate decreased 50%
-Necro resurrection speed decreased 50%
-Command Center more resistant to bombs
-Napalm bombers do somewhat more damage to buildings and ships
-Kbot lab cost reduced
-Solar Collectors and Geothermals cost less energy
-Maximum Slope for all buildings increased
-Radar Towers now use 20 energy when on
-Fleas have a different laser with more damage but less range
-Flying Fortress buildtime increased
-Reload time on Flying Fortress bombs increased
-Heavy tank buildtime increased
-Stealth bomber buildtime increased
-Transportable turrets are now automatically set to hold position
-Toadfoot now set to loopback attack by default
-Fixed problem with certain units not firing
-Added new model for goliath
-Added LUA widgets: custom formations, buildbar, healthbars, and more

Woo!

I need sleep right now, and then I have a party to host, but tomorrow I am all over this.

I've also updated one of the singleplayer missions, Island Defense. It requires the map Island in the Sun.
http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/397 ... efense_v3/

I plan to also update the other ones when I get a chance, but in the meantime the old versions work ok, though they have some minor issues. Just open them in notepad and change the modname to "NOTA.sd7" .

cloaked + stealth + air = WIN

Played the new version.. I like the additions, though I think some of the texturing on the arm ships ruins the geometry, and I dont like the model for the Arm carrier, but thats just me. Other than that good work...