Absolute Annihilation: Spring 1.46

LOrDo · Post by **LOrDo** » 14 Apr 2006, 22:30

Soo...has like Caydr died or somthing?

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 14 Apr 2006, 22:37

well he is working on GEM and stuffs

he thinks AA1.4 balance is good

(OK he is right apart from the flash and maybe the pitbull)

Egarwaen · Post by **Egarwaen** » 15 Apr 2006, 04:32

I think Mat's right. Vipers seem considerably more useful than Pitbulls. They're smaller, so you can pack them tighter, and seem to make decent close-defence for a BLoD.

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 15 Apr 2006, 10:46

Min3mat wrote:well he is working on GEM and stuffs
he thinks AA1.4 balance is good (OK he is right apart from the flash and maybe the pitbull)

Well, if he think it's good. Why did he made a WIP 1.45 change log then?

AF · Post by AF » 15 Apr 2006, 18:21

If you do make any change sor enw rleases, add the following to the mod_info.tdf file:

Code: Select all


[MOD]
{
    //usual stuff here

   [NTAI]
   {
        tdfpath=AA;
    }
}

else I'll nag and whine and scream for as long as it takes be it hours days months or years....

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 17 Apr 2006, 19:55

Not dead, a near miss though. I'll add that NTAI stuff to next release. Anyone know if there's any other AI-specific changes that need to be done or is everything good on that front right now?

With the overwhelming majority of players using AA and how generally successful 1.44's been, I thought I'd take a bit of a break. Really gotta get the maps I was working on finished someday soon too. Got a good feeling there, maybe take some of the things I've learned from AD and apply them here.

Looks like I've finally got a short break between "everything else", I'll try to make progress on the next version soon. Just make sure if there's anything mentioned in other topics but not here, POST IT HERE. Haven't got much time for forum-searching atm.

Leaderz0rz · Post by **Leaderz0rz** » 17 Apr 2006, 20:12

just nerf flashes and all will be well...

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 17 Apr 2006, 20:32

You made a changelog for 1.45 a while ago.
It led to several discussions, but in the end, everyone wanted those changes. So just go with that. And indeed, nerf flashes. Those are the nr1 annoyance in AA.

FireCrack · Post by **FireCrack** » 19 Apr 2006, 04:03

Oh, another thing, the sabot VTOL's.

Do they realy serve a purpose at all now? If they do i would like to know, but they seem just like more costly versions of the other gunships. If there's no great purpose they fufill now, i think they should be either changed, or removed.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 19 Apr 2006, 04:23

If I remember right:

Third of the firepower of a krow, third of krow's cost, quarter of krow's
armor, twice krow's speed. Just a heavy gunship. I really like these units, so I don't want to remove them... so if anyone has suggestions how to make them better or unique in some way or something like that... it's welcome. Hey, maybe they could be resistant to flak or something? Not like, 90% damage reduction, but something to improve their survivability. Just so that missile units aren't obsolete? Hey that's not bad... Whaddy'all think?

Would really necessitate that L2 anti-air kbot everyone's been wanting though. Anyone got some leads on that kind of thing? I asked a while back if anyone could either find some suitable units or make some. I guess I could really make them myself by now, but it'd take time away from more important stuff related to the mod.

What I really want is a unit similar to the jethro, but with one of the arms being a light flak gun (approx 1/3 the firing rate of regular flak) and the other arm be a reasonably rapid missile launcher, something akin to a packo. Would be same for both sides, but with the usual cost/armor/speed variations you're used to.

Edit: awww dammit now I just have to make them myself, it'll be too much fun. Now look what you made me do.

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 19 Apr 2006, 20:22

graaah stop the blabbering on silly littel changes! THE FLASHES MAN! THE FLASHES! (or is it fixed by the new spring release like teh LAZOR OF DAHHHOOOOMMMM HLT in XTA?)

Egarwaen · Post by **Egarwaen** » 19 Apr 2006, 20:24

Caydr wrote:Hey, maybe they could be resistant to flak or something? Not like, 90% damage reduction, but something to improve their survivability. Just so that missile units aren't obsolete? Hey that's not bad... Whaddy'all think?

Sounds like it could work, and might solve the "air is useless late-game" complaint by giving people a way to use air to destroy ground-based AA. Especially since they'd still be vulnerable to Hawks/Vamps.

What I really want is a unit similar to the jethro, but with one of the arms being a light flak gun (approx 1/3 the firing rate of regular flak) and the other arm be a reasonably rapid missile launcher, something akin to a packo. Would be same for both sides, but with the usual cost/armor/speed variations you're used to.

Maybe make it all missiles no flak, so that there's an obvious difference between vehicles and kbots?

Also, I agree with Mat: FLASHES.

FireCrack · Post by **FireCrack** » 19 Apr 2006, 21:27

Funny enough, i played a game after making that post and had sabot vtols used against me the first time.

Higher survivavility would be good, as they are now i feel they die too fast to exploit their firepower advantage. Even when mixed in with normal gun ships to help them use their power, the flak blast radisu tends to damage them fairly well.

Mars Keeper · Post by **Mars Keeper** » 19 Apr 2006, 21:29

It would look nice with the BlackDawn a little bit bigger aswell, looks small at the moment.

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 19 Apr 2006, 21:54

Sounds like it could work, and might solve the "air is useless late-game" complaint by giving people a way to use air to destroy ground-based AA. Especially since they'd still be vulnerable to Hawks/Vamps.

looks like the NEWB banner is here to stay ,^^

Peekaboom · Post by **Peekaboom** » 19 Apr 2006, 22:08

Caydr,

Couple suggestions:

1) I don't know why the SABOT VTOL is around, but i agree that you should make them unique in some way as you suggest. I think what you should do is make them useful as counter for adv. missile towers (they sort of work in this capacity right now). The idea being that they are tougher and can take out the adv. missile towers--requiring players to diversify their air defense by making flak as well. Maybe flak is more effective vs the VTOLS are a consequence.

2) This brings me to the adv. missile towers. You're proposing to Double Fireing Rate but HALVE the damage. This is not the solution. I reccomend HALVING the range but leaving the high damage (maybe boost the fire rate a little). The problem is that the adv missile towers make supporting raids or fighting off land attacks with your planes ineffective, since the towers cover way beyond the extent of the "heart" of someone's base. Its really bad when planes take off, go onto their patrol route, and get blasted the second they see an enemy unit.

I think the adv. missile towers allow players to get away WITHOUT building anti-air fighters as the first line of air defense, and this does nothing other than take an exciting element out of the gameplay.

3) The CRUISE MISSILES seem a little glitched. Often they won't fire when ordered to attack manually even when it is in range. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I tried to find a pattern in what was happening but to no avail.

4) Depth Charges are broken, although maybe this is a spring engine problem?

5) Have you given any thought to making the adv. jammer towers require more energy to run? It might be nice to see how they work if they come online LATER in the game. But I don't know, this might take away from spotting, but may make the jammer vehicles more useful mid-game.

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 19 Apr 2006, 22:09

yes nerf flashes.

I always imagined a lvl 2 AA K-bot being some sort of walking Flag gun. or so... If you ask really nicely, I could make you one (will take time though).

And AA doesn't have lazers of doom, since it uses beems rather then lazers. (right?)

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 19 Apr 2006, 22:47

Fusion's explosion isn't big enough

Egarwaen · Post by **Egarwaen** » 19 Apr 2006, 23:10

Min3mat wrote:looks like the NEWB banner is here to stay ,^^

And why's that, Mat? Perhaps you could explain yourself instead of just throwing around insults and being an asshole? Please note, before you reply, that I didn't say that air's useless, merely that some people seem to think that it is. So if you're calling me a n00b because you think I'm saying air's useless, perhaps you need to learn to read.

Now, if you're taking issue with something else I'm saying, perhaps you could explain what? Caydr suggested making the Sabot VTOLs hardened against flak but still vulnerable to missiles. That means that ground-based advanced AA (flak-based) will be less effective against them, and things like Hawks/Vamps (which use missiles) more effective.

And if you don't like the perception that air's useless late-game, perhaps you could attempt to defuse that perception by providing information about how to use it effectively instead of just insulting people. You're free to contribute to the Wiki. Even if you can't write English well, I'm more than happy to edit for you.

Then again, that'd be more work than just flaming and generating excuses about why you're not playing right now, so I suppose I shouldn't expect too much...

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 19 Apr 2006, 23:14

Caydr wrote: Would really necessitate that L2 anti-air kbot everyone's been wanting though. Anyone got some leads on that kind of thing? I asked a while back if anyone could either find some suitable units or make some. I guess I could really make them myself by now, but it'd take time away from more important stuff related to the mod.

What I really want is a unit similar to the jethro, but with one of the arms being a light flak gun (approx 1/3 the firing rate of regular flak) and the other arm be a reasonably rapid missile launcher, something akin to a packo. Would be same for both sides, but with the usual cost/armor/speed variations you're used to.

Edit: awww dammit now I just have to make them myself, it'll be too much fun. Now look what you made me do.

if anyone remembers it, there was a cool race made for TA called Rouge. you could check them out. if you can't find them, PM me and i still have some of the files on my computer.

Spring RTS Engine

Absolute Annihilation: Spring 1.46