IP free CA fork needs developers for final push

[Google_Frog]

It does look a bit like a carrier but the battleship? The problem with a morph is you cant control the build time.

Yes you can...

"Time"

That equates to buildtime. THink abotu how you would normally calculate cost, then do it backwards and you end up with what you want essentially.

The player can't control the build time. As in how long it will take for the ship to be built, with assist players can control buildtime.

[Saktoth]

Indeed. Im talking player control not modder control. Buildtime is a resource and investment like any other though.

Cremuss made an excellent heavy battleship which i hope to use if we can get a texture. Yes, we will want to replace 3rd party 3do's eventually with new, high quality models: but they arent as high priority as factories.

[aegis]

you could allow for a "morph assist" command

[Saktoth]

I proposed very early on that morph should just plonk down a nanoframe, but, it never got implemented on the lua side.

Either way, its a moot point, the carrier is not so high priority that we need to adapt other models.

[Forboding Angel]

Indeed. Im talking player control not modder control.

oh

[Neddie]

It does look a bit like a carrier but the battleship?

I knew you'd be skeptical. It really depends on the changes made the the model for that use, I think if you sunk this below the rest of the added deck, this would make an excellent midline, though it would be an odd design.

[JohannesH]

Why is it so necessary that the player could boost the morph speed indefinitely?

[luckywaldo7]

Why is it so necessary that the player could boost the morph speed indefinitely?

Morphing is like using a factory that you cannot assist, and cannot vary the build speed like you can in nota.

Say you are stalling on resources, and an hlt that is about halfway morphed to anni is stealing that bit of energy and metal that you really need. Your only options is to continue the morph and not get the resources, or to cancel it and lose all the time and potentially some of the resources you invested into it.

On the other hand, maybe you really need that annihilator and you are even excessing on resources and have plenty of cons. It would be the same difference in resources and be much much faster to reclaim the hlt and build the anni from scratch.

It is just more ideal to have more control over the flow of your resources.

[JohannesH]

You didnt give a reason why exactly players needing to make that kind of choices is undesirable.

And cant you [w]ait morphing? If not atm that'd probably be easy to implement.

[Saktoth]

This isnt for design discussion of the game, if you'd like to contribute check 1Faction Tasks.

But ill answer anyway. Getting a bombardment ship up (such as carrier or battleship) quickly once you control the sea is a key part of the game, but a fast morph would leave all your cons idle (this unit costs 4k remember). The moment a player finds himself with a reclaim glut in the sea (say, he just took the sea) he will immediately pull this cons off his factory, morph it to a carrier, and go eat the reclaim. He will then probably switch factory and not make another carrier. There are a range of possible consequences.

Bombardment ships are much easier to get up quickly, and are the 'end state' of almost all shipyards. Once you win the sea, you morph and change factory. This may make it harder to get back into the sea for the player who has lost his factory, as with all the free cons he can secure the area easily and the opponent will very quickly have a carrier on his doorstep. This will also make them a bit more ubiquitous: Though you'll only tend to make the one (interface determines interaction if nothing else- though the fact that its a good way to spend your glut when you have idle cons is another reason). Is that desirable?

Secondly, if we use Cremuss's model for the battleship (which we really should) and it -doesnt- morph as the carrier does, battleship will be severely underutilized because the carrier comes with free build power.

Remember, build power is a resource just like metal and energy. You have to pay for it- its like making a unit that comes with free energy, bad when its not a deliberate design decision (IE, solar in BA not costing energy is very deliberate) especially bad in a game where all costs are normalized.

Though we are willing to adapt the gameplay if a modeler comes up with a cool enough new model (some models/units/roles can still be shuffled, and especially in 1faction, i'd like to add some new units), design decisions should ultimately be based on what plays well, not the dubious prospects of a new model (that would probably require a lot of work anyway).

We've had this discussion before internally in the CA team at length so its not like we dont think about these things.

[Argh]

Sorry about the delay on release, RL struck this week with a vengeance. Like the Terminator, I'll be back, probably will get this puppy available Sunday.

The aircraft carrier design I've been mulling over will be pretty deliberately futuristic, not referencing the classic "island" design, but using a catamaran, managed-buoyancy underwater powerplant / drive (IRL, this kind of design is cutting-edge big-ship architecture, not real common yet- look up the Martin-Marietta "stealth" ship) and other features of what a truly futuristic ship might look like, if it was an aircraft carrier in a world where everything is VTOL. So, it may be "weird", but I think it will turn out pretty cool in the end.

Cremus's battleship: if somebody wants to spend a bit of their time laying out the UVs so that I can re-arrange them a bit and save me some time getting to paint, I can probably find time to paint it. IIRC, it's a WWII ship with Cremus's "tech" feel, so it should be a reasonably easy project to uvmap, 'specially if the turrets can be mirrored, etc.

[Saktoth]

Ill get on it in a few days when im back at home, thanks Argh!

Really need to bug Otherside to get the rest of the models though: He says he has them.

[Argh]

Just a brief note: almost done. Script is coming along, it bobs, can build things, etc., just working on FX stuff.

[Saktoth]

Wow, really sexy, and will fit perfectly. What are the other units, PURE stuff?

On any other unit id say perhaps a bit more teamcolour, but differentiation is really of minimum importance for factories (you tend to know which are yours...).

[AF]

Arent they the wolfen faction units?

[Gota]

Why must some pure units look so plain,as if they are from a basic geometry class?Those units just look like floating triangles.
Why not add some more shape to them?

The shipyard has a kind of scavengy feel to it by the way.
As if it was made for a faction like the arabs in generals.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Looks great in that second pic. Do you have bloom turned on there?

[Argh]

No, I am not using bloom, it's just the unit shader and lighting conditions.

[manolo_]

looking good argh