Metal Factions - Page 10

Metal Factions

Total-Annihilation-esque RTS game with four original factions.

Moderator: Content Developer

raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Hovercraft hanging out on the beach...
Image



2020/04/07 ------------------ NOTES v1.32 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

ECONOMY
- reduced the HP of wreckages to 100% of the units original HP instead of 150%
- reduced the amount of metal wreckages have from 40% (25% for heaps) to 30% (15% for heaps)
- adv. metal extractors are about 30% more expensive
- exploiter metal extractors are about 50% more expensive and slightly more explosive (also a bit bigger visually)
- fusion reactors are about 5% cheaper but produce about 600 E/s instead of 800 E/s
(the wreckage yield reduction and late game economy nerfs are meant to encourage players to attack and damage the enemy economy and avoid saturation)

MISSILES
- increased the area of effect of level 2 fast missiles from 60 to 100 and reduced their range from 1450 to 1350 and ajusted costs
- also reduced the range by 100 on CLAW "Bishop" and SPHERE "Stresser" and adjusted costs
- slightly increased the dmg/s of level 2 fast missille turrets

- all l2 fast missile weapons with relatively high reload time now have overkill prevention to avoid wasting shots on light targets
(this also makes other turrets not try to fire at those targets)

FIGHTERS
- AVEN and GEAR level 2 fighters's missiles now have 630 range and 120 area of effect
- CLAW and SPHERE level 2 fighters' lasers now have 600+ range and they also have a secondary AA bomb with huge area of effect and a long reload time
- missiles and AA bombs from level 2 fighters will try to reacquire targets instead of flying in circles (most of the time)
(these changes made them significantly more expensive, but much effective against level 1 fighter swarms as long as they hit-n-run carefully)

LONG RANGE ROCKETS
- long range rocket platform cost increased to 3500m
- long range rockets now have much smaller explosions if they're shot down
(this also means that if launched in bursts they're much less likely to chain-explode if shot down)
- long range nuclear rockets had their area of effect reduced from 800 to 600 and damage from 10000 to 8000 and cost reduced from 4000m to 3000m
- long range rockets pierce through shields


SHIELDS
- increased the shield cap, regen rate and cost of SPHERE "Aegis" by 50%
- increased the shield cap, regen rate of SPHERE "Shielder","Screener" and "Hermit" by 100% and cost by 60-100%
(this should lead to people requiring less shields to perform, which helps avoid performance issues)
- drastically reduced the max amount of shield points shared between large area shields from 10% of max per second to 2%
- large shields cannot absorb more than about 3-4x of their regeneration rate


MISC
- minor damage and HP upgrades add +6% instead of +5% each

- SPHERE "Slicer" will now prioritize aircraft if they're in range
- reduced range of SPHERE "Slammer" from 1350 to 1260 and adjusted cost (about 10% cheaper)

- increased range and cost on GEAR "Barrager" by about 5%
- increased cost of very long range plasma cannons and railgun by about 25%
- increased the cost of CLAW "Massacre" by about 10%
- increased the range and cost of CLAW "Dynamo" by 5%

- CLAW "Pike" explodes violently when killed
- violent death explosions (Penetrator, Pike, etc.) deal M instead of H damage

- increased the turn rates of AVEN "Javelin" and "Turbulence" missile turrets by about 50%
- increased HP of AVEN Zephyr from 1800 to 3000 and cost from 1800M to 3000M
- increased AVEN "Tsunami" damage resistance when closed from 20 to 30%
- made AVEN "Tsunami" about 5% slower but slightly more maneuverable and its weapon has faster projectiles with bigger area of effect and energy cost and slightly less dmg/s
- increased AVEN "Swatter" dmg/s by 20% and cost by 10%
- increased AVEN "Excalibur" range from 1100 to 1300 and also drastically increased damage per shot, energy costs and slightly increased size, but made it about 15% slower and nearly 2x as expensive
- reduced range and projectile speed of AVEN "Skimmer" and made it about 15% cheaper


- GEAR "Firestorm" is about 20% slower, has 10% more HP and its missiles are now tracking, but had its cost increased by about 50%
(it's now also immune to burn)
- fire area effect duration on air increased from 2s to 5s

- increased brake rate for submarines
- made hovercraft and spinbots air-transportable if below the 3000 mass threshold

- made Comsat stations avoid wasting their turns when multiple stations from the same team are targetting the same location
(players can reveal one location permanently if they have 6 stations targetting it with "repeat" enabled)

- 5-10% cost reduction on dedicated anti-sub aircraft



COMMANDERS
- AVEN "Alpha" form commander now has -10% speed, +30% dmg/s and a M damage plasma bolt cannon instead of L damage EMG as secondary weapon
- AVEN "Zeta" form has the -10% range and 30% dmg/s on the lasers
- AVEN "Builder" form gets a very slight speed reduction and a light laser weapon instead of the EMG
- rebalanced many commander forms to keep the consistency of the relative strength of surface vs underwater weapons and more accurately
(this required lots of minor changes to a lot of commander forms, too many to name)

--- UI / Visuals

- tooltip shows a message with the transport weight class limit for air transports
- AVEN plasma bolt projectiles are a bit bigger to make them more threathening
- force player list widget to the bottom right corner
- Comsat action sound fades after just a few seconds to be less annoying

--- AI

- fix MFAI not reverting its builders to normal priority in some cases
Attachments
stuff7.jpg
stuff
(398.57 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out with a small fix. Same links as the one before.

2020/04/10 ------------------ NOTES v1.33 ----------------------

- fixed two lua errors that could occur during battles
(one was related to the comsat changes on last version and the other to burning units)
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Missiles incoming!
Image


2020/05/05 ------------------ NOTES v1.34 ----------------------

--- new units

- added AVEN "Lightning" : long range rocket which damages and paralyzes units
- added GEAR "Pyroclasm" : long range rocket which separates into 6 untargetable incendiary submunitions when approaching the target
- added CLAW "Impaler" : long range rocket which shoots an untargetable very fast projectile when approaching the target
- added SPHERE "meteorite" : armored long range rocket with a relatively weaker warhead

--- Balance / Mechanics


FIGHTERS / AIR
- GEAR "Instigator" and SPHERE "Crustle" no longer avoid targetting air units if there are ground units in range
- GEAR "Firestorm" : increased HP by 50%, reduced speed by 20% and adjusted cost
- SPHERE "Meteor" will no longer try to chase enemy air targets
- AVEN "Falcon" and "Talon" have shorter range, shorter reload time missiles and fire them 1 by 1
- AVEN "Falcon" has a secondary 460 range high dmg/s laser turret with 360º firing
- CLAW "Hornet" has range reduced from 450 to 350 but higher damage/s and faster reload time
- CLAW "X" is now slower, tougher and has 4 secondary 460 range lasers
- increased range and cost of most units with lasers with less than 400 range by about 10% so they're more able to shoot at aircraft
- CLAW "Blizzard" has 60% more HP and is about 25% slower and 10% more expensive
- AVEN "Swift" and GEAR "Dash" now have shorter range missiles with less burst, higher dmg/s and faster reload time


- GEAR "Luminator" : reduced reload time from 15s to 12s and adjusted cost

- AVEN hovercraft plant and CLAW spinbot plant now also build l1 land and ship construction units
(this is meant to make them more viable as starting factories)


LONG RANGE ROCKETS
- long range rockets accelerate to up to twice their normal cruise speed when descending towards target
- long range rocket explosions deal only 10% damage to other rockets in flight


OTHER
- fixed scopers and comsat stations decloaking units when their projectiles hit
- SPHERE magnetars no longer damage or pull other magnetars with either the aura or the active
- CLAW "Gyro", "Ringo" and "Dynamo" get about 6% cheaper
- SPHERE "Moth" about 5% more expensive as the angle restriction does not matter much
- AVEN "Tsunami" now deals 500M dmg/s instead of 700L dmg/s and costs 5% more
- AVEN "Slider S" now has slow firing H damage depthcharge is 25% more expensive
- AVEN "SLider" costs 12% more, but had its 500 range cannon replaced with a 400 range energized plasma cannon with nearly double dmg/s
- reduced range and cost of level2 static artillery by about 10% (Guardian, Punisher, Massacre, Banger)
- increased CLAW "Armadon" movement speed by 20% and adjusted cost
- reduced the cost of H armor units by about 6%
- all area shield generator units now explode somewhat violently when killed (simila to Penetrator, and other ~3k metal cost energy intensive units)
- slightly increased the "blind" zone of SPHERE commanders to avoid them attacking units while standing on cliff edges without being shot back
- increased the radar and sonar ranges of advanced radars and sonars by about 30-40% and adjusted their costs
- reduced the cost of air scouts by about 12%
- increased range and cost of AVEN "Trooper" and "Warrior" by about 10%
- slightly reduced CLAW "Pike" range from 1580 to 1500 and adjusted cost
- cloaked commanders had their decloak range increased from 100 to 170
- made units with relatively short range non-instant non-tracking projectiles slightly cheaper
(this is a partial revert of a previous nerf which intended to hurt Double and Boar but affected AVEN's emg units as well)

- added 30 range to all weapons that use the "lasercannon" weapon type, which now also includes claw railguns and miniguns to work around an engine bug where they get up to 50 less range than intended
(this is what caused units such as AVEN magnum and some GEAR commanders to have uneven weapon ranges)
- reduced CLAW "Piercer" range and cost by about 10%

- GEAR commander's raider form : missile reload 7->14s, flamer range 250-> 270, dps 600 -> 700, flamethrower projectile speed 230 -> 270, speed 2.1 -> 2.2
- slightly increased the speed of H armored commander forms (about 4%)
- reduced the model size and range of SPHERE "Moth" from 510 to 420 and reduced cost by about 20%

- units will no longer try to target commander drones less than 50% built

--- AI

- MFAI won't try to build on water (this caused issues on "island" maps with water edges)
- MFAI will make a few more metal extractors early and not use the commander to area patrol
(revert of a recent change unintentionally made easy and normal AI too slow to expand and easy to beat)
- MFAI will likely self-destruct and respawn its commander if it gets stuck in a hole on maps like "Ravaged" for more than about 30s
- MFAI commander will try to chase its raiding group if it's stronger than it's regular attack group

--- UI / Visuals

- added "Artillery" to the description of several rocket and cannon turrets
- added "Very effective against air" tip to t2 missile turrets
- CLAW minigun and railgun weapons now have a more visible trail on their projectiles
(this required using a different weapon type)
- fixed GEAR land mines not showing damage on tooltip
- added "Click Selection Helper" widget that allows people to select units by clicking on the ground nearby,
(double click selects all of the same type within 1500 radius. It's disabled by default, but can be enabled on the F11 widgets menu)
- modified magnetars' glow to a more flickering animated form which looks better on slopes
Attachments
missiles_incoming.jpg
missiles incoming!
(510.85 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

Same link as the one before.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Hammer and other SpinBots...
Image

2020/05/13 ------------------ NOTES v1.35 ----------------------


--- new units

- added CLAW "Hammer" : Deployable Heavy Artillery Spinbot (needs to dig into the ground and open up to fire)
- added CLAW "Dancer" : Skirmisher Spinbot (shoots amphibious rockets which also hit underwater units)


--- Balance / Mechanics

BUILDERS
- level 1 mobile ground builders got a bit tougher, faster and more expensive
- reduced the auto-build time for construction towers spawned by DC rockets from 10 to 5s
- removed 100 M/E storage from construction towers and normalized the costs at 350m each with 1500 HP
- increased the cost and HP of level 2 construction aircraft so they survive a single 650 damage missile
- increased cost of level 2 construction units by about 12%

DEFENSES
- increased cost of static defenses by about 5-10%

AIR
- air units got 5-10% more expensive
- scopers got their range increased from 1200 to 1300
- AVEN "Ghost" explodes violently when killed and has 2500 HP instead of 1800 and costs about 20% more

COMMANDERS
- SPHERE "Nova" form commander's projectiles deal about 6% less damage but are ~10% faster to allow them to reach their max range if they get range upgrades
- reduced CLAW "Slayer" commander form's range by 10% and damage by 5%
- small adjustments in speed and HP (<5%) on several commander forms to even them out due to evaluation rules changes (penalizing the slower ones relative to the fast ones)


LONG RANGE ROCKETS
- reduced SPHERE "Meteorite" rocket's speed by 20% (note that it also lacks the terminal speedup the others have)
- set AVEN "Lightning" rocket's paralyze time to 30s

WATER
- changed many of the level 2 torpedo weapons to Heavy Torpedoes with 120 AOE and adjusted the costs
- AVEN "Piranha" and GEAR "Noser" get slower and Heavy Torpedoes with higher dmg/s as a weapon (Noser also gets 850 range)
- CLAW "Monster" is slower but has more HP and shoots faster "M" damage torpedoes
(these are meant to make them more effective against an enemy which only have t1 subs)

OTHER
- GEAR "Igniter" gets increased cost and about 10% reduction in speed and HP but has tracking incendiary missiles which can now hit air
- AVEN "Warrior" gets slightly slower and now has EMG on both arms and a missile launcher backpack which hits air units


--- UI / Visuals

- added more distinctive visual effects to GEAR "Vector" flares
- modified 3rd ally color to differentiate from 2nd (previously the shades of green were hard to tell apart)
Attachments
hammer_spinbots.jpg
hammer and other spinbots
(391.16 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Boom!
Image

2020/05/27 ------------------ NOTES v1.38 ----------------------

--- new units

- rocket platforms can now build premium tactical nukes that fly higher, faster, hit harder and CANNOT be shot down, but cost 25000m each
- AVEN "Trooper (Laser)" : trooper variant that's slightly slower and tougher and has an effective weapon against small and agile air units


--- Balance / Mechanics

COMMANDERS
- reduced base respawn time from 42 to 38s
- being morphed adds 50% to the respawn time
- being upgraded adds up to 50% to the respawn time
- increased the morph cost from 1200m to 1500m

LONG RANGE ROCKETS
- increased cost of "Pyroclasm", "Impaler" and "Meteorite" to 1400m
- reduced cost of tactical nuclear rockets from 3000m to 2500m
- decreased cost of "Lightning" rockets to to 1200m and reduced the impulse from the explosion
- fixed long range rockets deploying submunitions immediately if targetting a nearby position
- fixed collision avoidance issues which could make clusters of rockets "shake" in air and/or submunitions stray away from the target
- reduced distance at which submunitions are deployed from 700 to 600

OTHER
- GEAR Cloakable "Cube" : reduced HP and increased speed by about 20%
- reduced cost of gear mines from 70m to 60m
- reduced range and cost of GEAR "Snake" by about 10%
- fixed collision volume adjustment of units with small shields (they were vertically off-center)
- modified the targeted position of units to be at 75% of the unit's height instead of 50%
- prevent comsat projectiles from colliding with friendly units
- AVEN "Sniper" : increased damage per shot and reload time by about 20% and fixed the cloak attributes
- increased cost of area shields by 8% for mobile ones and 23% for the static shield
(the static one has a bigger radius)
- fixed issue that could make artillery cannons get less range than specified and/or not be able to benefit from range upgrades
(it would depend on map gravity)
- increased firing tolerance and turn rate of rockets on AVEN and CLAW gunships
- CLAW "Boomer" (heavy version) deals more damage and has a higher reload time (it now 1-shots metal extractors)
- increased range and cost of GEAR "Knocker" by 15%
- fixed torpedoes exploding mid-air before reaching floating targets
- increased GEAR "Aggressor" HP from 580 to 620 and adjusted cost
- increased SPHERE "Bit" HP from 525 to 680 and adjusted cost
- increased AVEN "Samson" HP from 700 to 820 and adjusted cost
- increased CLAW "Grunt" HP from 850 to 950 and adjusted cost
- made most units with 380-500 range L lasers prioritize air targets and have a slight energy cost to fire
(20% of their dmg/s, this makes them about 5-10% cheaper)
- reduced cost of radars by 5-10%
- GEAR "Grenado" becomes amphibous and has a 3x3 footprint instead of 4x4, so it can fit through cracks in base defense better
- fixed an issue with air tranports sometimes not being able to load or unload units on water
- increased the death blast damage and radius of AVEN mobile fusion reactors from 800 to 1900 with 500 radius


--- UI / Visuals

- build time indicator on the unit info box is no longer about 10% off
- fixed AVEN L2 construction hovercraft wreckage
- modified the build menu positions of hovercraft and spinbot factories to ensure L1 builders are shown before L2 builders

- show progress indicator for replays and when rejoining games or catching up if lagging behind
- show basic controls (speed/pause) when watching replays

- show warning message when players lag behind by more than 5s
- modified the first ally color to differentiate it more from the player's color
Attachments
boom.jpg
boom
(338.69 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

Same link as before.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

Stuff happening...
Image

2020/06/04 ------------------ NOTES v1.39 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- modified how shield HP is factored into the costs of shielded units, including area shields
(this makes them about 5-15% more expensive)

- modified how weapon dmg/s, aoe, spike damage and range are factored into the weapon values and unit costs
. this change penalizes units with 400+ range and relatively high dmg/s and benefits units with 500-1000 range and relatively low dmg/s
. L1 short range stuff mostly stays the same
. L1 light med range stuff (~600) gets ~10-20% cheaper
. high dps stuff gets more expensive (10-20%, but up to 50% on some extreme cases)
. long range ~200 dmg/s stuff gets more expensive (~10%)


- increased GEAR "Assaulter" movement speed from 1.8 to 1.95

- slightly increased fire rate and dmg/s for some L1 missile units

- fixed railgun and energy bolts apparently going through targets near the edge of their range without colliding

- CLAW "Assassin" form commander had its damage per shot increased from 650 to 850 with higher reload time (dmg/s slightly lower)

- fixed wreckage collision volumes being slightly off the ground

- walls and gates no longer count towards auto-surrender

- increased cost of construction towers from 350m to 400m
Attachments
stuff8.jpg
stuff
(369.82 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

Available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.

SpringFiles link

Stuff happening...
Image


A list of new and modified units can be found HERE


2020/10/04 ------------------ NOTES v1.42 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

AIR
- increase gear vector flare range by ~7% and energy cost to fire to 50E/s and adjusted cost
- reduce sphere twilight laser range and adjusted cost
- modified how weapons are evaluated and slightly reduced their range to make fast level 1 fighter aircraft cheaper relative to their level 2 counterparts
(a fix to how CLAW Hornet's weapon is evaluated for consistency purposes actually makes it slighly more expensive)
- increased projectile speed for AVEN, CLAW and SPHERE "M" damage type air-to-ground rockets and increased the unit costs by 5-10%
- SPHERE "Tycho" : slightly reduced the weapon range and HP, removed 3-shot burst and increased maneuverability

AMPHIBIOUS
- AVEN, GEAR and CLAW level 1 floating torpedo launchers get the same discount as water-locked ships (15%)
- CLAW "Sinker" gets the same 600 range sonar as the other L1 torpedo launchers
- level 2 vehicle plants can now make amphibious boats but they only get 5% discount instead of the 15% discount water-locked ships get
(they have a 33% speed penalty on land)

OTHER
- increased CLAW "Boar"'s precision and reduced SPHERE "Double"'s precision so it's the same (has a tiny impact on unit costs, < 2%)

--- AI fixes

- GEAR "Amphibious" strategy will try to make level2 vehicle plant to build "Proteus" on land
- prioritize distance to "safe" location when building unarmed buildings a bit more
- avoid building premium nuke if its combined army cost is below a certain threshold
- improved premium nuke targetting
- late stage non-classic AI strategies will try to field an advanced defense builder to get some long range static artillery
- non-classic AI strategies will try to advanced radar,jammer and comsat stations and keep visibility of the biggest nearest threat
- non-classic AI strategies build torpedo launchers on water
- construction towers will avoid building factories obstructed by features (which might be out of range of the tower)
- AVEN, GEAR and CLAW assault strategies will also build a few raiders
- improved how units avoid enemies when retreating (most relevant for AI raiders and aircraft)


--- VISUALS

- reduced the size and length of the CLAW railgun projectiles



2020/09/27 ------------------ NOTES v1.41 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- removed debug log that happened when drones moved away from the parent unit
- reduced the vertical speed of SPHERE's slow flying spheres to match their movement speed

- SPHERE "Gazer" flying sphere and commander forms now deal about 50% more damage per shot and have about 50% higher reload time
(They also got new visuals. The commander got its HP reduced from 4600 to 4500 to compensate)

- modified how the 360º weapons on strafing level 2 fighters are accounted for and slightly reduced their range and damage to compensate
- GEAR "Vector"'s flare no longer gets cylindrical targetting with 2x height boost due to being a "missile" type
(this was letting it outrange ground-based lasers too easily)

- increased GEAR "Cascade" cost by 13%

- reduced imprecision of most 500-1500 range plasma cannons by about half (this has a minor effect on unit costs, less than 3% in most cases)


--- AI fixes

- fixed AI sometimes still blocking its factories with other factories or advanced metal extractors
- modified the AI upgrade paths so it starts with the major regen upgrade, for now
(simple change that helps it keep its armies repaired)
- made AI more likely to build adv extractors sooner
- AI builders will now prioritize repairing nearby damaged units instead of assisting construction
- fixed AI not using units given to it
- fixed "brutal" mode not getting the resource bonus when using strategies
- AI is more likely to build construction units and change to advanced extractors
- improved how AI detects if it should change to air only or amphibious strategy depending on starting positions
- other miscellaneous AI fixes and improvements

--- UI

- slightly modified how chat messages from different sources are colored (again, to avoid white outline on some cases)



2020/09/20 ------------------ NOTES v1.40 ----------------------

--- new units

- AVEN "Gale" : level 1 anti-swarm aircraft which shoots wide AOE missiles
- AVEN "Spiker" : level 2 all-terrain indirect fire support robot

- GEAR "Incendiary mine" : level 1, shoots an incendiary missile at nearby ground or air targets, 90 metal each
- GEAR "Thresher" : level 2 H armored FLAK tank

- CLAW "Trajector" : level 2 all-terrain indirect fire support robot
- CLAW "Shredder" : level 1 anti-swarm aircraft with WB cannons (good AOE)


- SPHERE "Blower" : level 1 anti-swarm aircraft which shoots wide AOE missiles
- SPHERE "Masher" : level 2 all-terrain rocket artillery (indirect fire, H rockets)


UPGRADES
- air transport drone commander upgrade / air transport drones (upgrade costs 1500m)

--- Balance / Mechanics

TRANSPORTS
- air transports now lose up to 55% of their maximum speed when carrying heavy loads (up from 50%)
- increased the cost of level 2 air transports from 1200m to 1400m

CONSTRUCTION UNITS
- AVEN and CLAW level 2 construction robots become all-terrain
- GEAR level 2 construction robot becomes slower, more expensive, H armored and spawns 1 air transport drone which can carry itself uphill
- all level 2 construction units become more expensive but significantly tougher to enable their usage as front line combat engineers
- SPHERE level 1 construction vehicle is now M armored but slightly slower and more expensive
- all aircraft factories are now buildable on water

- wreckages now take about 3x as long to reclaim (half of the time it would take to build the original unit)

OTHER
- reduced AVEN "Knight"'s projectile speed, increased "pose" dmg reduction from 20 to 25% and reduced cost by about 5%
- reduced AVEN "Shocker"'s speed by about 20%, increased hp by 100, range by 10%, changed armor type from M to H and increased cost by about 20%
- AVEN "Merl" gets 20% damage resistance when closed
- slightly increased AVEN "Dazer"'s model size (cosmetic only)
- AVEN "Excalibur" gets increased range from 1250 to 1300 and adjusted cost
- AVEN "Tsunami" gets slightly reduced speed and HP but armor changes from M to H
- AVEN "Kodiak" is now more expensive and had its plasma cannons replaced with a longer ranged WB Cannons
(it's should now be very effective vs air units)

- GEAR "Canister" is 5% more expensive
- GEAR "Thud" shoots more accurately now, especially in high trajectory mode
- GEAR "Rhino" is 5% more expensive
- increased GEAR "Box" HP from 1650 to 1850 and adjusted cost
- GEAR "Kano" no longer prioritizes air enemies (oops)
- GEAR "Psycho" gets bigger, HP increased from 900 to 1100 and armor type changed from L to M and 40% increased cost
- GEAR "Pyro" is now taller and 20% faster but has slightly less HP and 10% increased cost

- CLAW "Ravager" gets HP increased to 3000, H armor and adjusted cost
- CLAW "Longhorn" explodes like the other static long range artillery
- CLAW "Aggressor" commander form now prioritizes air targets
- CLAW "Pike" gets increased range from 1450 to 1500 and adjusted cost
- CLAW "Flail"'s damage type changed from L to M
- spinbots no longer spin while under construction (visual only)

- SPHERE "Astra" now prioritizes air targets
- SPHERE "Shielder" had its speed reduced from 1.45 to 1.2 and cost reduced by 8%
- SPHERE "Hanz" had its weapon accuracy improved

- setting units to their cloaked state changes the fire state to "Return Fire" instead of "Hold Fire"

- made dragon's teeth being built neutral so they don't "bait" enemy fire
- made dragon's teeth not spawn the feature if they're destroyed before being fully built to avoid a possible "free" metal exploit

- set maneuverBlockTime on fighter aircraft and, disable looping on aircraft with belly turrets
(this should fix the issue where strafing aircraft would sometimes refuse to turn back and fly into enemy defenses)

- fixed bug where occasionally drones would persist after the parent unit was destroyed

- SPHERE "Shielder" can no longer be given "attack" orders to avoid it trying to ram enemy units

- modified how unit masses are calculated to make L armored units lighter and H armored units heavier

- SPHERE intelligence Drones now have their HP reduced from 1000 to 600 HP but get the "scoper" ability

- fixed a bug where shielded hit by paralyze damage would be able to fire while still being attached to air transports
(as a side effect transported units no longer take paralyze damage)

- removed a discount factor for air-borne short-ranged lasers as they don't get blocked by obstacles
(the only noteworthy impact of this was increasing GEAR "Zipper" cost by 5%)

- reduced the reference flight altitude of level 2 fighter aircraft from 240 to 210

- reduced the limit of commander weapon range upgrades from 2 to 1



--- AI / MFAI

- improved behavior to avoid wasting time when trying to reclaim nearby features/wrecks
- AI will track its team's combat efficiency and delay attacks until it gets a bigger army if it's being ineffective
- AI will now account for enemy unarmed area shields and some constructions units as threats
- fixed AI's raider and air squads not temporarily avoiding some areas where they're under fire
- fixed some AI orders ignoring altitude (this looked weird when fighting on elevated plateaus but was mostly harmless)
- improved how it builds advanced metal extractors (uses the same area commands as the players can)
- AI units will now move away to keep their distance from enemies that get close (on normal and brutal)
- will build sets of 4 solar collectors, wind or tidal generators for a more compact base
- added standard format to define AI strategies. The new naming convention for MFAI is MFAI : <difficulty> (strategy)
- renamed previous AI behavior as "classic" and added a new default strategy which is flexible (picks a specific strategy according to the map)
- added a set of more specific AI strategies:
. Air
. Assault
. Skirmisher
. Amphibious
- AI may nuke its enemies depending on the strategy (if non-classic)
- fixed issue which could lead to some builders getting stuck idling
- avoid building fusion reactors adjacent to factories (it would sometimes lead to them getting stuck)
- non-classic AI can use construction towers to speed up their early game
- non-classic AI will build metal makers
- added AI beacon which can be used to force AI to move to a position, can be used offensively or defensively
(CTRL+ALT+CLICK to set, CTRL+ALT+RIGHT_CLICK to clear)

WARNING : AI CHANGES ARE STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS AND HAVE SOME ISSUES

--- UI

- increased horizontal size of game end awards panel to allow longer player names
- slightly modified how chat messages from different sources are colored
Attachments
stuff9.jpg
(419.28 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

Same links as above.

2020/10/11 ------------------ NOTES v1.44 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

WATER
- increased range of level1 static sonar stations from 1200 to 1400
- reduced sonar range of submarines (level1 and 2) from 600+ to 500
(helps making them cheaper, but level 2 submarines now require external sonar)
- all submarines can now reverse at half their normal maximum speed
- modified AVEN "Crusader"'s cannon to have slightly less range, faster projectile and higher dmg/s with shorter reload time and M damage instead of H
- made level 2 radar/sonar ships slower and reduced their HP to reduce costs

AIR
- increased AVEN "Swift", GEAR "Dash" and CLAW "Hornet" ranges to 400, restored the 280L damage burst with 4s reload, and gave them a special 10% discount
- increased CLAW "X" energy cost to fire its forward facing lasers and slightly increased its HP

--- Visual

- SPHERE "Endeavour" : modified model to have only one bigger barrel to better convey its role
- GEAR "Enforcer" : modified model to have only one bigger barrel to better convey its role

--- AI

- reduced the stage 2 delay for brutal mode AI from 5 min to 90s
- when beacon set to within 900 range of the AI's base center, AI will try to move, not "fight" towards the location. Useful for retreating.
- added #AI COMPAD command : gets the AI to share a commander respawner pad to the player
- beacon markers should now appear to allies and spectators only
- check if the surrounding area is suitable for making factories when placing construction towers
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Stuff burning and stuff being zapped...
Image



2020/11/19 ------------------ NOTES v1.45 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- units that stop being captured start losing 1% of their capture status every second

- reduced speed % drop ground units suffer while turning from 33% to about 25%
(it should be 0 for soft turns but isn't due to an engine issue)

- increased range of 600-800 range level 1 static defenses to 800-870 and adjusted costs
(to make them more reliably able to hit air, commanders and skirmishers which got range upgrades)

- fixed bug where commanders which were building and reloading when picked up would get progressively more negative reload %

- AVEN "Knight" now has 5% faster projectile and about 17% extra range, but is about 20% more expensive
- AVEN "Stasis" has a 560 range 400D dmg/s disruptor cannon and less hp but is much more affordable and available at Level 1

- GEAR "Burner" got its damage per second reduced by about 10% and damage resistance lowered from 40% to 20% and hp increased by 15%
- GEAR "Cube" got its HP increased by about 5% and adjusted cost
- GEAR incendiary mines got their cost reduced from 90m to 85m

- CLAW "Hazard" had range reduced from 550 to 450, M damage type, 33% reduced reload time and is now 10% cheaper
- CLAW "Roller" rockets had damage and reload time increased by 50%
- CLAW ring thrower units get their reload charge reset when they're picked up by air transports
- CLAW "Nucleus" had its range and cost increased by about 25%
- CLAW "Brute" had its cannon replaced with a M damage spreadshot WB cannon with faster projectiles, higher burst and aoe and adjusted cost
- CLAW "Halberd" had it's missile dmg/s doubled, acceleration and brake rate reduced and cost adjusted

- SPHERE "Pulsar" had its range and cost increased by about 14%
- SPHERE "Hanz" now has about 10% higher HP and H armor type, but is about 10% slower and 20% more expensive
- SPHERE "Stout" now has a M damage type cannon with about 15% less range but 33% higher dmg/s and is about 13% cheaper
- SPHERE "Helix" got about 10% higher dmg/s and 10% more range but is about 20% more expensive
(the turret on the 3D model gets a bit bigger and more menacing)
- SPHERE "Golem" is now 15% slower, has HP increased to 8000 and higher dmg/s on the missiles and is about 15% more expensive
(the sound of the cannon also changed to differentiate it from charger's)

- attempt to improve aiming for CLAW Brute and AVEN "Zeta form" commander
(to avoid weapons locking up as they try to aim at different targets)

--- UI / Visual

- unit tip text for GEAR "Blazer Form" commander indicates the damage drop-off with range
- MFAI player numbers are shown as prefix on the player list (they're relevant for targeted AI commands)
- added visual warning indicating allied and enemy long range rocket launches (fades out 15-30s later)
- prevented area-metal-extractor commands from cancelling morph

--- AI

- added #AI COMMORPH command : gets the AI to morph its basic commander immediately
- added #AI DEFMULT <N> command : sets the AI defense density multiplier, -1 to reset
- fixed player-specific AI commands not being processed properly
- slightly tuned the early game builds for assault and skirmisher strategies to have less construction units and more attack units
- slow commanders will stray away less from the main force to build metal extractors
- added AI support for custom strategies
(these are loaded from LuaUI/Configs/mf_strategies.json on the user's Spring directory - check the strategy editor on the web site)
- allow STRATEGY commands from enemies if specific player numbers were used, the AI has no human allies and only during the first minute
(this can be useful for players to play against AI that use their own custom strategies)
Attachments
stuff10.jpg
stuff happening
(348.14 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Image


2020/12/01 ------------------ NOTES v1.46 ----------------------

--- new units

- GEAR "Rager" : level 2 cloakable armored fire support robot


--- Balance / Mechanics

TARGETING / AIR
- all lasers, heat rays, energy bolts and miniguns get +80 base range when firing at air units specifically
(it only applies after the target has been acquired and reverts immediately once it dies or gets out of range)

- slightly reduced the range of the 360º weapons on level 2 fighter aircraft
(the evaluation formula was adjusted to increase their cost a bit so they end up about even)
(they no longer outrange the forward weapons even if upgraded)

- CLAW miniguns are slightly more efficient at hitting small strafing air targets
- CLAW big railgun projectiles now keep going past their max range and have a slight arc to their trajectory
(the visual changed slightly)

OTHER
- GEAR "Big Bob" now has a heavy missile launcher and has its 3 weapons with 750 range, but is about 10% slower and 30% more expensive
(its cannon now explodes mid-air vs air targets)

- GEAR "Infernal Form" commander and CLAW "Nucleus" now have perfect accuracy
(this is a workaround to avoid an issue where the shots would explode mid-air on high trajectory mode)

- increased GEAR "Moe" range and cost by about 10%

- GEAR "Knocker" is bigger and tougher and has H dmg type cannon with 420 range (down from 620)

- GEAR "Titan" gets slightly bigger and tougher (+HP, range, dmg/s), but also slower and more expensive

- reduced GEAR "Blaze" and "Flareon" heat ray beam times from 1.3s to 1s (this raises their price by about 4%)
- reduced GEAR "Blaze" range from 1000 to 960 and reduced cost by about 5%


--- UI / Visual

- renamed "PLANT" build tab to "FACTORY" and renamed the most factories as well
- improved glow effects on most projectiles
- modified aven disruptor cannon projectiles
- improved the cannons on most GEAR 3D models
- slightly improved SPHERE Helix and Screener models
- fixed error messages related to AI using custom strategies with broken morph definitions
(a warning message to allies is shown instead)


--- AI

- custom strategies allow using a custom upgrade list instead of the pre-built ones
- lowered the enemy threat estimation thresholds (AI less scared to attack)
- enemy threat estimation changes with measured efficiency more sharply
- main attack force prioritizes engaging enemies near its base
- L2 builders are a bit less likely to get distracted assisting other builders
Attachments
stuff11.jpg
(388.01 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

here

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


attack?
Image


2020/12/08 ------------------ NOTES v1.47 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

TARGETTING
- replaced cylinder targetting for missiles with spherical targetting (still stretched vertically 2x)
- removed height range bonus from cannon type weapons
(this slightly reduces the range of cannon and missiles fired from aircraft at ground targets and makes relative ranges of missile and cannon artillery more consistent)
- removed the 33% vertical range stretch from laser/beam weapons
(they'd fire and apparently hit but deal no damage past their normal max range)

- GEAR and CLAW pop-up static defenses will now open up if enemy long range rockets get within ~150% of their range
(the ones that can hit air well)

- fixed issue that caused railgun projectiles to overshoot targets

AIR
- GEAR "Knocker" now tries to attack air units as well (cannon projectiles explode mid-air)
- increased the turn rate of several air-to-ground rockets
- slightly increased the missile range on AVEN and GEAR L2 fighter aircraft
- SPHERE "Tycho" can now turn its body and fire regardless of where it's moving but is a little less maneuverable and about 13% more expensive
- AVEN "Gale" and SPHERE "Blower" had the AOE reduced from 150 to 130 but have about 20% higher dmg/s and 4% increased cost
- reduced the cruise altitude for several figher and bomber aircraft by about 10%

OTHER
- normalized the footprint and collision size for fusion reactors

- fixed canister not firing at targets in some positions
(now it'll also try to turn towards the target more precisely)
- SPHERE "Nova" form commander no longer ignores terrain while firing
- modified GEAR "Rhino" cannon aiming to align itself better with its targets

- GEAR "Pulverizer" missiles are now a bit faster and wobble a bit less to hit incoming rockets more effectively
(they still suck at it)

- increased the speed at which stuck targets slide down cliffs

- cloakable radar jammers are cloaked by default

- removed 100 energy and metal storage from commander pads

- increased cost of L2 fusion reactors by 6%

--- UI / Visual

- slightly improved the turret hinges on some GEAR models
- railgun projectiles are no longer visible by enemies outside of LOS coverage
(a known issue is that now they're also not visible by allies outside of LOS and should be)

- fixed DC rocket auto-build green effect sometimes persisting if the unit is destroyed while the auto-build buff is still active

- reduced the cost of hypersonic nukes from 25k to 24k metal and increased the maximum damage from 12000 to 13000

--- AI

- when attack units are not "seriously damaged", evasion maneuvers are done towards the enemies instead of away from them
- added "retreat health fraction" parameters for commanders/assaults/other for custom strategies
- added #AI BEACONTYPE all|raiders|main to set which unit groups follow the beacon
- when assisting attack parties, commander is more likely to move to the front line
- when the force is not attacking, it's more likely to patrol and do something useful (repair/reclaim)
- will try to move its commander around a bit more when it thinks it might be stuck
(to avoid self-destructing near cliff edges in some cases)
- fixed the message when AI responds to COMMORPH commands
Attachments
stuff12.jpg
(400.71 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

(springfiles link currently unavailable)

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.



Image


2021/01/07 ------------------ NOTES v1.50 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- GEAR "Kano" gets range increased to 580 and cost increased by 13%
- increased fire burning damage over time from 180 to 210 (duration increased from 6s to 7s)
- CLAW "Hazard" gets HP increased from 1500 to 2000 and armor type changed from M to H but also 26% increased cost and lowered the closed resistance from 50% to 33%

COMMANDERS
- GEAR "Blazer" commander form gets range increased from 690 to 700 and a very slight speed reduction to compensate
- AVEN "Delta" commander form gets range reduced from 720 to 680, speed increased from 1.6 to 1.63 deals about 10% higher dmg/s
- AVEN "Gamma" commander form gets range increased from 680 to 690 and about 10% higher dmg/s but speed reduced by about 10%
- CLAW "Aggressor" commander form gets range reduced from 700 to 690 and about 1.5% higher dmg/s
- minor adjustments between weapon value between surface weapons and underwater weapons on various other commander forms
(these are to try to ensure that betweem similar archetypes, the relatively faster forms do not also outrange the slower ones)

--- UI / Visual

- modified the orders UI again to make it slightly smaller, narrower and the panels now also stick together




2021/01/03 ------------------ NOTES v1.49 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- fixed the 2nd wreckage threshold for long range rocket platforms


--- UI / Visual

- made the icon buttons a bit bigger
- reduced the contrast between the mouse cursor frames
- modified the build queue numbers to make them easier to read
- added button with the total queue size for factories and which clears all queued units when right-clicked
- support setting keys for regular commands (attack, repair, etc.)


2021/01/02 ------------------ NOTES v1.48 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- doubled AVEN "Twister"'s laser rate of fire and slightly reduced the rate of fire for the EMG and increased cost by 14%
- AVEN "Tornado" has 12% less speed but 10% higher dmg/s and HP and is ~3% more expensive

- fixed CLAW "Jester" not prioritizing air targets by default

- fixed AVEN construction ship "built by" reference to the hovercraft factory (this affected AI only)

- fixed lots of relatively expensive buildings leaving the full wreck regardless of how violently they were destroyed
(this makes nukes more effective)

- increased the footprint of many small units (namely robots) from 2x2 to 3x3 to reduce clumping

- increased AVEN and GEAR level 1 missile tower range very slightly 820 -> 830 and adjusted cost

- GEAR "Igniter" got about 25% faster and more maneuverable but lost 15% range (the missile is also a bit slower)
- GEAR incendiary mine got its cost reduced from 85m to 80m, range reduced from 500 to 400 and initial impact damage increased from 250 to 350

- increased max footprint for air transports to avoid issues where they're unable to pick up large units

- units with 4x4 and larger footprint (most relatively big L2 units) are now more consistently able to crush small wreckages

- increased the damage bonus on minor and major damage upgrades from 6/10 to 7/13 per module

- increased amount of metal on stage 2 wrecks from 4.5% to 9% of the original unit's cost
- increase the 3d model size of stage 2 wrecks

SHIELDS
- increased costs of area shields by about 10%
- fixed an issue that made large shields ignore damage boosts to weapons hitting them
(as a side effect, weapon damage upgrades also make explosions look slightly bigger visually)


LONG RANGE ROCKETS
- rocket platform cost increased from 3500m to 4200m
- terminal phase distance reduced from 900 to 800
- faction-themed rocket costs reduced by 50m

--- Performance

- optimized outline widget (very noticeable difference when zoomed out)
- optimized the logic that extended range for lasers shooting at air (noticeable impact when many units are present)
- fixed serious issue related with scoper usage that over time could lead to out-of-mem errors and to being unable to build units

--- UI / Visual

- replaced the mouse cursors for various orders
- moved basic commands to a separate build/orders menu panel with icons instead of text labels that match the new mouse cursors
- increased the number of build order icons that fit each page from 5x3 to 7x3
- build order icons are now sorted by price (the construction units are shown first)
- changed the build spacing options from 0,1,3,6,12,20 to 0,1,10,20
- build tab shows current and max number of active tabs
- added support for mf-specific simplified custom keybinds
- removed the "land at X" order from aircraft (it's useless at the moment)
- updated the engine compatibility recommendation to "105"
Attachments
gui1.jpg
(414.24 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

(springfiles link currently unavailable)

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Stuff burning and exploding!
Image



2021/01/31 ------------------ NOTES v1.51 ----------------------


--- new units

- added CLAW "Nailer" : level 2 underwater fast torpedo launcher

--- Balance / Mechanics

ENERGY WEAPONS
- modified how energy costs to fire affect weapon value and unit costs, increasing costs of all such units by 0-10%


OTHER
- slightly increased the range of "Trooper", "Bit", "Grunt" and "Pinion" to 420
- increased AVEN "Trooper"'s damage per second to 72 and adjusted cost
- AVEN "Knight" gets cost increased by about 10% but has an energized plasma cannon with slightly higher dmg/s, projectile speed and area of effect
- AVEN "Javelin" has slightly higher acceleration and turn rate
- AVEN "Merl" and "Ranger" rockets now fly at a point above the actual target before making a terminal dive, to bypass walls and other obstacles
- AVEN "Gunner" has a taller base and a higher firing point
- AVEN "Warrior" gets double damage on the EMG but 30% higher cost

- reduced triggering radius of GEAR mines from 50 to 35
- GEAR "Vector" flares get the same vertical range scaling as other missile-type weapons
- GEAR flamethrower units other than the commander got range increased from 200-260 to 260-320, projectile speed increased and costs adjusted (about +10%)
(the flamethrower sounds and visual effects have also been improved)
- fixed flamethrower damage not scaling with unit experience
- GEAR mines no longer require flattening the ground below
- renamed GEAR "Aggressor" to "Pinion" to avoid confusion with the CLAW commander's morph form
- GEAR "Might" lasers have range increased from 450 to 550
- GEAR "Dominator" form cannons now explode mid-air vs air targets
- GEAR "Punisher" has a taller model with higher firing point
- GEAR incendiary mines can no longer be built underwater
- GEAR incendiary mines now have 5s overkill prevention to avoid triggering many mines on the same unit
- GEAR incendiary area of effect duration in air increased from 5 to 7s
- GEAR "Firestorm" looks slightly bigger and fatter, reduced speed by 10%, increased hp by 50% and adjusted cost
- GEAR "Luminator" got its turn rate increased
- GEAR "Toaster" pops up further and gets a higher firing point

- CLAW "Bullfrog" got cannon range increased from 600 to 750 and adjusted cost
- CLAW "Mace"'s armor type changed from M to H, cannon replaced by a M damage spreadshot cannon (similar to brute's), speed reduced by 20% and adjusted cost
- CLAW "Dynamo" has slightly higher turn rate
- CLAW "Hammer"'s armor type changed from M to H and cost increased by 12%
- CLAW "Longhorn" gets +200 range so it outranges the other t2 long range cannons unless upgrades are involved and 3% increased cost

- SPHERE medium lasers had their damage per shot normalized at 150 and get a unique firing sound (thanks Thor)
- SPHERE "Magnetar" got cost increased to 10000m but reload time halved and aura damage doubled
- SPHERE "Crustle" got slightly higher speed and maneuverability

- increased speed of "Instigator", "Bold" and "Assaulter" and "Boar" by about 2%

- increased cost of Intelligence drone upgrade from 1000m to 1500m and reduced the jamming radius from 500 to 420

- units now get increased damage/s on weapons from experience as a damage per shot boost instead of reload time reduction

- fixed some units with rapid-fire weapons getting a faster fire rate (and dps) than they should (notably Trooper and Skimmer)

- changed commander death blast damage type from H to M

- fixed metal extractors always spawning the first wreck stage regardless of how violently they were destroyed

- most level 2 artillery and ~1000 range fire support units are now set to "hold position" by default

- very slightly lowered cost of (~2%) units with an armored state

- reduced firing tolerance fighter aircraft's forward-facing missiles for "Falcon", "Talon" and "Vector"
- increased firing tolerance fighter aircraft's forward-facing missiles for "Dash" and "Swift"

- slightly lowered the cost of relatively slow (<2.1), low HP (<2500m) , short ranged (<500) armed units
(this effect stacks on top of previous modifications so some of them actually had their price slightly increased)

--- UI / Visual / Audio

- all lasers now leave a fading effect when they fire, proportional to damage per shot

- shortened the sound of SPHERE lightning beams to avoid saturating the sound channels

- modified the color and sound of CLAW light lasers to differentiate them from the M and H ones

- modified AVEN EMG sounds

- added more glow and smoke effects when units are destroyed
Attachments
stuff13.jpg
stuff burning and exploding
(372.05 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Jump!
Image


2021/03/27 ------------------ NOTES v1.53 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics


ECONOMY
- fixed "Bio Dome" providing income while partially built
- wind generators show average and altitude bonus information on the tooltip
- fixed wind generator income (output was about 30% higher than it should be)
- fixed wind generation bonus depending on relative height gap and not gap relative to water level


NAVY
- increased the sonar distance on GEAR "Viking" to match its base range (and cost by 7%)
- made radar/sonar ships smaller, cheaper and available at L1 shipyard
- fixed CLAW "Hunter" missing from the shipyard's build menu (oops)
- CLAW "Speeder" had its HP and weapon range and damage increased and cost adjusted
- CLAW "Hunter" got HP increased from 1200 to 1400 and cost adjusted
- AVEN "Rush" and "Fletcher" are about 15% slower but more affordable

OTHER
- CLAW "Mega" explodes violently when destroyed
- fixed AVEN "Wheeler" always leaving the full wreck regardless of how violently it was destroyed

--- UI / Visual / Audio

- fixed jump hotkey not being displayed on the orders menu (defaults to "J")
- fixed extra death glow effects being too big when large expensive units are destroyed




2021/03/26 ------------------ NOTES v1.52 ----------------------


--- new units

- added "jump Thrusters" commander upgrade : allows all commanders to perform a ~400 range jump every 15s
(further upgrades reduce the reload time and increase the attributes)

- added CLAW "Breaker" : L2 heavy assault/raider tank

- added AVEN Trooper "H.E.M.G" : L1 slower and tougher fire support trooper with a relatively long range high dps/cost E.M.G

- added AVEN "Stinger" : L1 Small stunner/raider submarine

- added GEAR "Blowfish" : L1 Kamikaze sub

- added CLAW "Hunter" : L1 raider/anti-sub ship

- added SPHERE "Targe" : L1 skirmisher/anti-sub ship

- added AVEN "Pelter" : L1 Amphibious guided bomb launcher
- added GEAR "Lobber" : L1 Amphibious guided bomb launcher
- added CLAW "Cache" : L1 Amphibious guided bomb launcher
- added SPHERE "Slugger" : L1 Amphibious guided bomb launcher


ECONOMY
- added AVEN "Bio Dome" : delayed return energy/metal generator
- added GEAR "Mass Burner" : consumes 0.2 metal/s and generates 80 E/s, hazardous
- added SPHERE "Hardened Wind Generator" : a relatively tough but also relatively expensive wind generator


--- Balance / Mechanics

- modified how weapon efficiency scales with projectile speed to benefit non-tracking weapons with projectile speeds that are relatively fast but not guaranteed to hit
- weapon efficiency ratings now also take into account area of effect and "burn blow" ability
- reduced the cost of weapons with relatively high area of effect and reduced the scaling associated with high edge effectiveness
- units with tracking weapons get slightly more expensive

- increased cost of innate regen on units (the only affected unit atm is the sphere construction sphere)

- fixed AVEN "Albatross" firing its laser in weird angles and modified its targetting priorities to properly engage enemy aircraft

- CLAW "Mega" : significantly increased HP, range, area of effect and damage/s, but doubled cost

- GEAR "Toaster" changed HP from 3097 to 3000
- GEAR flamethrower weapons had their damage reduced to about 70% but deal M damage instead of L

- increased range of AVEN "Excalibur" by 80 and reload time by 10% and adjusted cost

- normalized the flight altitude for air scouts at 200, reduced their turn radius and doubled their vertical speed
(this should make them more responsive to commands to move nearby)

- made all the "spidery" all-terrain units amphibious as well

- increased the fire rate of GEAR "Crasher" and CLAW "Jester" to differentiate them more from their single-barreled counterparts
- slightly reduced the collision size for SPHERE "Needles"

- renamed CLAW "Breaker" commander form to "Brawler"
- increased range of CLAW "Pike" by 50 and adjusted cost

- SPHERE "Ark" and "Stalwart" missiles are now labeled "Anti-Armor" to match their H damage type

ECONOMY
- reduced cost of L2 adv. metal extractors by 10% and L2 exploiter metal extractors by 20%
- reduced cost of GEAR "L2" construction robot by about 20%

NAVY
- AVEN "Skeeter" now has 900 HP and 50M dmg/s depth charges instead of the EMG
- CLAW "Sword" now also has 70M dmg/s depth charges and has forward facing +/- 25% damage resistance
- reduced the movement speed and increased range of AVEN "Crusader", GEAR "Enforcer" and SPHERE "Endeavour"
- GEAR "Searcher" is now slightly bigger, slower, 1000M HP, with increased damage/s and range on the weapons
- GEAR "Viking" had its missiles and depth charges replaced by a 650 range 60H dmg/s torpedo launcher
- SPHERE construction ship got HP increased and armor type changed from L to M
- SPHERE "Skiff" is now slightly bigger, slower, 1000M HP with increased range on the laser and a 45M dmg/s depth charge weapon

- L1 "destroyer" ships got the label changed to "gun boats"
- modified the trajectory of most land and sea torpedoes and depth charges to be more confined to water while still being able to hit hovercraft


--- UI / Visual / Audio

- settings widget enables ground decals as the game starts (required to show metal spots on many maps)

- whenever a player is detected as lagging behind 5+ seconds, also pause the game

- remove shockwave from small explosions (light missiles and cannons) for performance reasons

- improved the on-fire visual effects

- fixed an issue where ships would sometimes stop displaying water trails when moving

- slightly modified some sounds, visual effects and 3D models for a few AVEN units
Attachments
jump.jpg
jump
(317.46 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


CLAW base with totems.
Image


2021/05/02 ------------------ NOTES v1.56 ----------------------

- changed GEAR "Box" laser to fire alternatively from each arm instead of both simultaneously
(workaround for the parallel beams missing thin targets)



2021/05/01 ------------------ NOTES v1.55 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- AVEN "Racer" had its turret turn rate increased from 180º/s to 280º/s
(it also got smooth-aiming which updates every frame, like most mobile units have)

- GEAR "Box" changes from 100L dps to 74 M dps and a bit more energy intensiveness and 8% increased cost

- GEAR "Igniter"s will avoid firing redundant incendiary missiles at the same target

- L2 static missile launchers are now buildable on water

- CLAW "Dancer" has about 5% faster rockets with 25% reduced reload time but 22% increased cost

- CLAW "Dynamo" is about 2.5% cheaper and had its HP increased from 2400 to 2700

- slightly increased the base jump attributes for relatively fast commander forms and reduced them for the slow ones

- increased the path finder's refresh rate


--- UI / Visual / Audio

- GEAR mass burners have thinner smoke effects to avoid obstructing the view too much and also performance reasons

- fixed the missing ally cursor image

- reduced the volume of some sounds like features getting crushed, default command "clicks" and stun-related electric arc effects



2021/04/27 ------------------ NOTES v1.54 ----------------------


--- new units

- added GEAR "Rattler" : Heavy infantry bot with M lasers

- added CLAW "Totem" : Hardened resource collector


--- Balance / Mechanics

- made cube buildable by AI, it had the wrong builder attribute

- increased the HP bonus from the major HP upgrade from 10 to 11%

- reduced minimum water depth for medium and large ships from 18, 30 to 10, 15

- GEAR "Burner" can no longer be set on fire

- fire burn damage over time now scales with unit experience

- CLAW "Breaker" will now avoid targetting air units
- CLAW "Breaker" and "Flail" shotguns have a narrower spray angle

- fixed issue where construction towers would sometimes no longer auto-patrol when idle

- fixed reload times on a few dozen weapons which were slightly off of multiples of 33ms

- fixed transport drones for some factions being reclaimable/capturable

- slightly reduced the collision volume of light laser towers to avoid exploits where they get shot at without firing back

- increased damage/s for most anti-ground aircraft by 10-20% and adjusted costs
- AVEN "Gryphon" rockets had their damage increased and type changed from M to H, but got 28% more expensive

- SPHERE "Shine" turns a bit faster
- modified distance checks for long range destructible rockets to make them more consistently targetable regardless of the direction they're travelling
- SPHERE "Meteorite" rocket got its speed reduced from 450 to 400


--- UI / Visual / Audio

- added camera flip widget, bound to ctrl-shift-o
(rotates player view 180º : SW becomes NW)

- combat experience is now visible for enemy units as well
- combat experience icons will show up above each unit

- added ally cursors widget
Attachments
totems.jpg
(411.9 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Stuff happening...
Image



2021/06/04 ------------------ NOTES v1.57 ----------------------


--- new units

- added SPHERE "Shooter" : L1 missile tower

- added AVEN "Salvo" : L2 Rocket Artillery Hovercraft


--- Balance / Mechanics

- made AVEN "Kit" rockets fly about 20% faster with slightly higher trajectory and one at a time, 10% increased fire rate
(the previous 2 rocket burst was too easy to bait and dodge)
- made AVEN "Bolter" rockets fly about 25% faster

- fixed evaluation for CLAW "Gyro" and "Ringo" weapons, making them ~5% cheaper

- reduced cost of L2 unit factories from ~1700m to ~1500m

- AVEN "Delta" commander form has slightly higher energy efficiency on the cannon but about ~3% lower dmg/s

- GEAR "Rhino" had its range increased to 900 and dmg/s increased to 100 but is about 7% slower and costs 36% more

- increased AVEN medium drone range from 420 to 460 and consume 25 E/s to fire

- increased AVEN "Swatter" HP by about 8% and reduced its speed by about 12% and cost by about 5%


--- UI / Visual / Audio

- settings widget forces scroll wheel speed to -25 only if >= 0

- resource bars show blue markers to indicate the high-priority reserve threshold for metal and energy (right-click to set)

- unit information panel shows effective targets for weapons : SURFACE, AIR, WATER

- clicking on "show graph" on the awards panel will show a new summary graph with the history of relative unit value and resource income for all teams throughout the game
(clicking a second time will show the default Spring engine graphs that were shown before)


--- AI

- added #AI RESIGN command
Attachments
stuff14.jpg
stuff
(415.65 KiB) Not downloaded yet
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Brzzrzzrzrrzt...
Image


2021/07/24 ------------------ NOTES v1.68 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- fixed bug where logic that makes stuck ground units slide down cliffs was affecting units being airlifted or jumping

- made GEAR, CLAW and SPHERE L2 construction vehicles amphibious

- fixed an error when trying to load GEAR adv construction robots with their own drones as they are destroyed


2021/07/18 ------------------ NOTES v1.67 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- relatively expensive units get up to 10% cheaper
- relatively slow units get up to 5% cheaper
- increased the cost of relatively long range units by 1-6%
- CLAW "Longhorn" had its reload time increased by about 20% and cost slightly reduced

- minor increases in mobility for relatively slow commanders (< 5%)

- GEAR "Cascade" deals slightly higher damage per run to big targets like factories, but each bomb has slighly reduced area of effect
- limited GEAR "Cascade"'s ability to lead moving targets

- increased maneuverability and turret turn rates for various relatively mobile robots, mostly L2 ones
- GEAR "Psycho" has 3% increased range and 3% reduced speed

- increased turn rate of AVEN "Merl" and "Ranger" rockets to avoid overshoot issues

- removed the energy generation from mobile construction units and reduced their costs by about 15%
- the L1 mobile builders also got slightly higher HP

- increased the missiles' turn rate and reduced the aiming tolerance for AVEN "Swift" and GEAR "Dash" to avoid overshooting the target
- removed the 10% discount from AVEN "Swift", GEAR "Dash" and CLAW "Hornet"
- increased HP by up to 50% and reload time by 20% on AVEN "Thunder", GEAR "Shadow" and SPHERE "Manta" and increased cost by about 10%

- added 15 HP/s regeneration to CLAW "Totem"


2021/07/03 ------------------ NOTES v1.66 ----------------------


- fixed normal build priority units halting their repair rates when stalling metal but not energy

- made non-battleship ships more consistently able to cross shallow water

- CLAW "Monster" has H damage torpedoes, slightly increased range and ~37% increased cost

- increased cost of minor upgrades from 250m to 350m

- CLAW "Hunter", AVEN "Rush" and "Slider(s)" get a secondary WB depth charge weapon to help them against L1 subs
- CLAW "Hunter" and AVEN "Rush" get slightly lower speed and higher HP

- ground units now slide faster down slopes that are too steep for them
- fixed a bug that caused units floating over steep slopes to "dance" around

--- UI

- selection circle no longer tilts for units floating over steep slopes

- commanders now default to "hold position"

- changed key combination to open menu from ESC to SHIFT+ESC to avoid confusing people who use ESC to cancel orders

- cloaking sets units to "hold fire" instead of "return fire" to avoid issues where they'd open fire against stuff that hit them a minute earlier

- added widget that sets all ground factories to "hold position" (disabled by default, can be enabled on the f11 widgets menu)


2021/06/29 ------------------ NOTES v1.65 ----------------------

- normal build priority units will no longer halt their reclaim rates when stalling resources

- move orders cancel area attack mode

--- AI

- if start boxes are set, setting AI beacon will force its start position

- late stage AI strategies will build more construction units to make it less likely to excess resources


2021/06/27 ------------------ NOTES v1.64 ----------------------

- CLAW "Mace" will now target air enemies with low priority

- added distinct low energy thresholds for disabling jammers, radar and extractors (300, 900 and 1300)

- normal build priority units will also halt their repair and reclaim rates when stalling energy

- fixed issue with wrong victory/defeat state showing up on the awards panel (again)

- fixed wreckage spawning for a number of units that'd always spawn the first stage wreckage

- increased the rotation rate of radar jammers to make on/off states easier to differentiate


2021/06/26 ------------------ NOTES v1.63 ----------------------

- removed the amphibious ability from AVEN "Javelin" and "Bass" and GEAR "Marauder"

--- AI

- allow spectators to send commands to AI they added, namely to override their strategies
(this allows spectators use their custom AI strategies against other AIs or human players without having to join in as a player)

- AI will now use CLAW "Hammer"

- fixed AI overbuilding torpedo launchers when on water positions


2021/06/26 ------------------ NOTES v1.62 ----------------------

- fixed icon for SHPERE "Shooter"

- fixed wind generator threshold (oops)

- fixed game end status image on the awards panel when winners are undetermined


2021/06/23 ------------------ NOTES v1.61 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics


- fixed AVEN "Catfish" not being able to exit the vehicle factory properly

- AVEN "Turbulence" got slightly reduced cost by 3% due to angle restrictions on the secondary lasers
- slightly reduced cost due to weapon aiming angle restrictions on SPHERE "Screener", AVEN "Catfish" and GEAR "Proteus"

- slightly reduced the minimum wind threshold and added the SPHERE wind generator to the list of restricted build options

- fixed Canister, Crasher, Harasser and construction robot not having the Advanced Robot Factory set properly in the builder list
(this affected AI and the unit filter on the web site)

- reduced the HP of aircraft wreck parts from 2000-3000 to 600-1000



2021/06/21 ------------------ NOTES v1.60 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- fixed an error which happened if a comsat station was destroyed immediately after firing the "reveal area" projectile

- slightly modified CLAW "Assassin" form weapon reload times to ensure the reload bar corresponds to the main railgun weapon instead of the torpedo

- reduced HP of air scouts from 110 to 100 and reduced cost by ~3%

- GEAR incendiary units now have the "area attack" ability

--- UI

- fixed issue with wrong victory/defeat state showing up on the awards panel

- fixed energy->metal conversion panel which was assuming max +3 m/s from each converter instead of +2.5
- messages panel now shows spectator messages in a greyish tone
- modified several UI elements to scale better to 4k resolution

- make bottom left unit info panel armor/weapon types color-coded for easier reading

- auto-resize the minimap to better fit the area above the build/orders menu

- fixed area attack commands

- respawned commanders now inherit orders from the commander pad
- morphed commanders now resume queued orders after morphing

- fixed upgrade build orders below the limits being wrongly denied if players canceled/reassigned previous build orders


--- AI

- fixed AI not using GEAR "Might"
- will try be more selective when figuring out where to build construction towers
(to avoid issues where the first construction tower can't find a suitable spot for the first factory)



2021/06/12 ------------------ NOTES v1.59 ----------------------

- reverted cost reduction for relatively fast ground units that was unintended on the previous version


2021/06/11 ------------------ NOTES v1.58 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- fixed CLAW "Hammer" activating when built and blocking the factory

- 1-5% cost reduction for mobile ground units with speed below 1.6
- 1-5% cost reduction for relatively expensive units (likely L2)
(these discounts get bigger the slower the unit and the more expensive it was before)

- AVEN "Bass" and "Salvo" are set to "hold position" by default

- CLAW "Ringo" had projectile speed increased and reload time reduced by 25% but slightly reduced range and 20% increased cost

- increased area of effect for most M cannons and rockets from from 48 to 64 and H cannons from 64 to 80
(this made the units affected a 1-3% more expensive)

- slightly discounted some L2 ship turret weapons to account for slight angle restrictions
- increased the power of secondary cannons on AVEN "Emperor" and missiles on SPHERE "Stalwart" and reduced the power of the secondary railgun on CLAW "Wrecker"
(to make battleship costs more even)

- CLAW "Totem" also passively collects 0.1m/s


--- UI

- use moving average for resource income measurements to avoid spikes on the end-game chart
Attachments
stuff16.jpg
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Something burning...
Image


2021/09/26 ------------------ NOTES v1.76 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

MOVEMENT
- fixed the way the aircraft movement mesh is calculated to avoid some issues with aircraft stuck on map edges or very tall and steep terrain
- enabled "turn-in-place" on all ground units (some vehicles and hovercraft didn't have it)

OTHER
- increased GEAR "Mass Burner" energy output from 80 to 100 E/s and increased cost by 20%
- increased SPHERE "Gazer" damage output by 41% and cost by 23%
- increased SPHERE "Chroma" HP by 20% and doubled the shield to 3000, reduced M/H weapon damage by 5% and increased cost by 11%



2021/09/19 ------------------ NOTES v1.75 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- reduced the combat ability of morphed commanders by about 5%
(relatively faster forms got slightly more effected)

- reduced GEAR "Proteus" HP by 14% and cost by 8%

- increased the cost of minor upgrades from 350m to 450m

- enabled movement heat mapping
(should result in slightly less clumping when moving groups)
- slightly increased raw movement distance multiplier
(should make units more likely to move in a straight line over short distances)



2021/09/05 ------------------ NOTES v1.74 ----------------------

- added GEAR "Lesser Luminator" : L2 Heavy Fire Support Robot
(a more affordable version of the Luminator, which got stronger and more expensive)

--- Balance / Mechanics

- AVEN "Warrior" is about 30% more expensive but has an amphibious bomb launcher as secondary weapon
- AVEN "Javelin" gets range reduced from 850 to 750 but is now 16% cheaper
(cheaper but no longer outranges a variety of slow L2 fire support units)
- AVEN "Icarus" gets +50% dmg/s on the missile weapon and cost increased by about 5%
- AVEN "Bolter" has 10% increased area of effect and 1% increased cost
- AVEN "Skimmer" got range increased by 30% and cost increased by 7%
- AVEN "Raptor" will try to keep both weapons targetting the same enemy to avoid issues

- GEAR "Barrel" has about +5% range and cost increased by 6%
- GEAR "Luminator" is now amphibious, H armored, has a stronger weapon, secondary weapons and higher HP, but is much more expensive
- GEAR "Flareon" got range and cost increased by about 7%
- GEAR "Titan" got range increased by 6% and cost increased by 8%
- GEAR "Stratos" gets +50% dmg/s on the laser weapon and cost increased by about 7%

- CLAW "Halberd" has about +5% range and cost increased by 7%
- CLAW "Gyro" has 50% faster projectile with slightly flatter trajectory but costs 18% more
- CLAW "Sickle" cloak costs reduced from 30/15 to 16/8 and decloak radius reduced from 80 to 70

- SPHERE "Ark" has 12% more range and 36% higher fire rate but has 18% less HP and costs about 25% more
- SPHERE "Pulsar" has -100 HP and +6% range and cost increased by 7%
- SPHERE "Astra" has 12% increased dmg/s and 7% increased cost
- SPHERE "Nimbus" movement E drain reduced from 50 to 25 and range increased to 710 with M rockets and higher AOE, but is slightly slower and more expensive
- SPHERE "Atom" movement E drain reduced from 250 to 150 and cost increased by 7%

- improved maneuverability of AVEN "Albatross" and SPHERE "Neptune" and slightly increased cost

- reduced medium drone auto-build times for medium drones and transport drones from 11s to 10s and 16s to 15s respectively

--- UI

- fixed some energy-consuming units continuing their "work" animation despite being partially reclaimed and disabled
- fixed energy-metal conversion panel not accounting for converters that were partially reclaimed


2021/08/22 ------------------ NOTES v1.73 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

UPGRADES
- increased major speed upgrade from +10% to +11%
- increased major HP upgrade from +11% to +12%
- increased the commander HP upgrade from +15% to +16%
- reduced the speed penalty on minor damage and HP upgrades from -2% to -1%
- reduced the commander speed upgrade from +15% to +14%
- modified the commander regeneration upgrade from 20 HP/s to 11+0.2% HP/s


OTHER
- modified how turn-rates get evaluated in a way that benefits units with relatively high turn rates (> 600)
- sweeping changes that slightly improve slow units relative to fast ones, including commanders
- normalized commander accelerations and adjusted turn rates according to the commander's speed
(some relatively mobile commanders had low acceleration and could be more hindered by slopes or projectiles)

- reduced idle regeneration delay from 25 to 20s


2021/08/13 ------------------ NOTES v1.72 ----------------------

- fixed a rare bug that could allow for duplicate commanders being respawned for the same team

- fixed issue where construction towers would stop auto-patrolling after being shared between players and force them to roam

- increased HP of aircraft debris to work around them being destroyed by the aircraft's death blast

--- UI

- added "Contrast Adaptive Sharpen" widget (thanks Ivand and Skynet)
(small fps cost, disabled by default, but can be enabled through the F11 widgets list)



2021/08/03 ------------------ NOTES v1.70 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- CLAW "Knife" got about 20% cheaper and faster, but has about 30% less HP and deals 10% less dmg/s
(also made the model a bit thinner and improved the run animation)

- CLAW "Grunt" got about 33% faster and 33% more expensive

- SPHERE "Quad" is 3% faster and more maneuverable and has 5% more range but is about 17% more expensive

- AVEN "H.E.M.G" Trooper got slightly lower weapon precision penalty when moving


2021/07/31 ------------------ NOTES v1.69 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

AIR
- SPHERE "Spitfire" got about 12% slower but 37% higher dmg/s and cost increased by 8%
- changed AVEN "Gryphon" and "Twister" are slightly slower and cheaper
- GEAR "Knocker" is slighltly more maneuverable
- most relatively ground attack aircraft fly a bit higher (120 -> 140)
- reduced the speed penalty for loaded air transports from up to 55% to up to 45%

OTHER
- CLAW "Dancer" will no longer target air units

- AVEN "Samson" and "Duster" had their range slightly reduced by about 5% but HP and speed increased and cost adjusted
- AVEN "Delta" commander form had ranges reduced by about 3% but speed increased by about 4%

- reduced cost and HP of GEAR "Dragon's Teeth" to match the other factions
- Dragon's Teeth are now always visible regardless of zoom level

- SPHERE "Trax" : increased maneuverability and projectile velocity, slightly reduced range and adjusted cost

- GEAR "Grenado" is now about 15% more expensive, but is able to perform short jumps


--- UI

- fixed an issue where sometimes the idle-behavior check for construction towers would override orders given immediately before
Attachments
stuff17.jpg
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


Stuff happening...
Image

2022/01/09 ------------------ NOTES v1.80 ----------------------

--- UI

- improved commander respawn token build icon and fixed tooltip
- fixed performance issue on adv players list
- player list shows team resource % when on spectator mode to more easily figure out the relative income of each team

- CLAW "Grinder" and "Brawler" commander forms have slightly less range but deal slightly more damage

--- Sounds

- changed CLAW railgun sounds slightly



2022/01/02 ------------------ NOTES v1.79 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- solar collectors no longer produce energy while closed

- pickup distance for air transports increased from 30 to 35 with a dropoff altitude tolerance of 150 over land
- air transports no longer bank when turning

- ~1% cost increase on units with L damage type weapons
- ~2% cost reduction on ground units with short range lasers

- added description indicating that L1 factories have -33% build/repair time
- removed 100 E/M storage from factories

- reduced cost of scout pads by about 10% but increased the build time by about 20%
(to match the other cost/build time ratio)
- increased HP of air scouts from 100 to 150 (same cost)
- reduced the metal content for air scout wrecks to match 30% of their cost (50m -> 20m)

--- UI

- fixed lua error that would sometimes appear when clicking the unit selection buttons
- idle builders selector now ignores paralyzed units
- improved message box refresh mechanics
- mf_keys.txt is automatically created if missing and default keybinds are loaded
("W wall, Z areamex, V construction tower" and a few others, plus helpful comments)

--- AI

- fixed lua error when trying to set strategy for AI when the player has no custom strategies defined
(oops)
- AI with unspecified strategy will no longer try to go air-only on flat land maps





2021/12/19 ------------------ NOTES v1.78 ----------------------

- fixed issue with the selection widget where sometimes clicking one unit type would select a different subset

2021/12/19 ------------------ NOTES v1.77 ----------------------


- fixed light laser towers not prioritizing air targets
- slightly increased the slope tolerance for commanders to match the other robots (it's slightly higher than vehicles)
- fixed collision volumes of some of the advanced sonar stations and GEAR "Eruptor", CLAW "Mega" and a few others
- small adjustments to colision volumes for some vehicles

- reduced AVEN "Sniper" range by 5% and cost by 8%
- reduced AVEN "Penetrator" range by 5% and cost by 7%
- reduced the range compensation for a weapon type that's used on miniguns and energy bolts from +30 to +20

- increased GEAR "Lesser Luminator" range by 6% and cost by 9%
- fixed GEAR light laser tower's death explosion being larger than it should
- increased HP of GEAR adv construction robot by about 10% and reduced cost by 8%
- GEAR "Barrager" has 17% less HP,about 2.5% more range, slightly higher area of effect and rate of fire but 3.5% increased cost
- GEAR "Moe" has AOE increased from 54 to 70 and slightly increased cost
- slightly reduced the dmg/s of heatrays but reduced the drop in damage over the range from 30% to 15%
- slightly increased GEAR "Solaris" range to 1600 but reduced dmg/s by about 35% and cost by 25%
- GEAR "Beamer" opens up and turns about twice as fast
- GEAR "Cascade" deals less damage to relatively small targets and is easier to dodge
(it's still generally able to destroy a L2 factory in a single pass)

- slightly adjusted area of effect and cost of various units with heavy plasma cannons

- CLAW "Sickle" has M armor and laser changed from H to M with 10% more range and 10% less dmg/s. Costs 8% more
- CLAW "Pounder" has a very slight range and area of effect increase and slightly increased cost

- fixed wrecks of L1 construction construction robots/vehicle and ships not spawning the secondary wreck when violently destroyed

- fixed issue that caused vertically launched missiles and rockets to have less range than they should when firing at higher targets

- increased hypersonic nuclear rockets' blast diameter from 700 to 750

- mass burners and fission reactors now only produce the extra energy associated with the metal drain (using 60e/m ratio) if there's metal available

--- VISUALS

- miscellaneous improvements to unit textures

- damaged units are now slown as slightly darker

--- UI

- fixed issue that sometimes caused the idle construction tower trigger to run multiple times
(patrol would override queued orders sometimes)

- significant performance improvements on various UI widgets
- fixed performance leak issue with the commands/build orders menu that increased load over time
(it was main the reason for the fps being improved by typing "/luaui reload" late in the game)

- selected units widget now also shows idle builders and sorted results
Attachments
stuff18.jpg
raaar
Metal Factions Developer
Posts: 1095
Joined: 20 Feb 2010, 12:17

Re: Metal Factions

Post by raaar »

new version(s) out!

You can download it here or here.

Also available through the "metalfactions:stable" rapid tag, and by joining the nebula game rooms on the official server.


SPHERE attacking a GEAR island base...
Image


2022/04/25 ------------------ NOTES v1.85 ----------------------


--- Balance / Mechanics

- increased the energy cost fraction for reclaiming units from 50% to 60%

- players with bonus no longer gain extra resources when reclaiming units, wreckages and other features

- fixed transport drones not spawning over GEAR advanced construction robots


2022/04/20 ------------------ NOTES v1.84 ----------------------


--- New units

- added AVEN "Valiant" : L2 Anti-swarm/missile frigate
- added AVEN "Priest" : L2 Missile launcher

- added GEAR "Overcharger" : L2 Heavy riot/fire support hydrobot
- added GEAR "Strainer" : L2 Anti-swarm/missile frigate
- added GEAR "Tensor" : L2 Missile launcher

- added CLAW "Phalanx" : L2 Anti-swarm/missile frigate
- added CLAW "Lash" : L2 Missile launcher

- added SPHERE "Glare" : L2 Anti-light sniper/fire support


--- Balance / Mechanics

- slightly reduced range and hp of light laser/minigun defenses and lowered cost by about 10%

- reduced SPHERE "Stresser" HP by 40% and large missile range from 1250 to 1000 and cost by 33%

- reduced range of L2 static missile launchers from 1350 to 1250, slighly reduced the reload time and adjusted costs




2022/04/10 ------------------ NOTES v1.83 ----------------------

--- Balance / Mechanics

- reduced energy costs to move on most flying spheres by about 10%
- increased how much energy requirements for moving impact on the unit's cost (this makes Ace and flying spheres cheaper)

- increased AVEN "Ace" maneuverability, damage per shot and reload time by about 50% and HP from 1400 to 2000 and increased cost by about 30%
(it has a cost premium to account for being able to dodge a lot of tracking weapons due to its extreme speed)

- AOE damage slightly improved across all weapons
- explosion blast wave travels faster for most weapons

- increased SPHERE "Golem" cannon area of effect from 80 to 100 and cost by about 2%

- reduced the combat ability of morphed commanders by about 5% by reducing hp and/or speed

- GEAR commanders with energy bolt weapons will avoid trying to fire them through walls or wreckage


2022/04/03 ------------------ NOTES v1.82 ----------------------

--- new units

- added GEAR "Stilts" : L2 Armored heavy fire support hydrobot
- added GEAR "Buoy" : L2 Intelligence hydrobot
- added GEAR "Marooner" : L2 Torpedo hydrobot
- added GEAR "Rexapod" : L2 Very heavy assault hydrobot

- added SPHERE "Dipole" : L2 Energy-intensive fast fighter sphere
- added SPHERE "Cluster" : L2 Assault/anti-sub sphere

--- Balance / Mechanics

- increased AVEN "Excalibur" range from 1380 to 1430 and HP by 200 and increased cost by 8%

- reduced GEAR "Exploder" blast diameter from 250 to 180
- reduced GEAR "Rhino" cost by 8%
- reduced GEAR "Caliber" cost by 6% and added missing hydrobot regeneration on water

- increased CLAW "Pike" HP from 3000 to 3500 and reduced top speed by 5% and increased cost by 2%
- reduced CLAW "Hammer" cost by 6%

- reduced SPHERE "Magnetar" cost from 9000m to 8000m

- energy cost multiplier for repairing built units lowered from 0.75 to 0.60

- increased cost of static amphibious bomb launchers by 10%

- slightly increased the cost of units with relatively slow non-tracking projectiles
- slightly increased cost of high HP units, namely relatively fast ones
(in short, tough/fast units with flamethrowers,cannons and unguided rockets get 3-5% more expensive, fire supports with non-tracking weapons and fragile bodies get up to about 3% cheaper)


--- UI

- added "O" default keybind for ON/OFF action
- added "#GAME <command>" handler, whih supports two options:
. "CLEARWRECKS" command, which removes all wreckages (cheat mode only)
. "RESETUPGRADES" command, which resets upgrades for all players (cheat mode only)

--- AI

- GEAR amphibious strategy will now use the hydrobots
- no longer override strategy if manually set by the player (only if set to default/adaptable strategy)
- mark the corresponding threat flag when enemy has a significant underwater presence (to build more units that hit underwater)
- added preliminary ability to use jump when evading or engaging targets

--- OTHER

- removed lots of unused 3d model files



2022/03/19 ------------------ NOTES v1.81 ----------------------

--- new units

- added AVEN "Rover" : L2 fast scout/raider vehicle

- added GEAR "Bandit" : L2 fast scout/raider robot
- added GEAR L2 Hydrobot factory : builds level 2 amphibious robots that regenerate on water
- added GEAR "Metalhead" : L2 armored assault hydrobot
- added GEAR "Hopper" : L2 jumpy attack hydrobot
- added GEAR "Caliber" : L2 deployable heavy artillery hydrobot
- added GEAR "Exploder" : L2 walking bomb hydrobot
- added GEAR "Salamander" : L2 raider hydrobot

- added CLAW "Wolverine" : L2 fast scout/raider vehicle

- added SPHERE "Mite" : L2 fast all-terrain scout/raider robot


--- Balance / Mechanics

- modified how unit costs scale with unit attributes, progressively benefitting more expensive units
- reduced the discount for L weapons and armor types and reduced the premium for H weapons and armor
(in general, a lot of L1 units end up to about 5% more expensive and L2 units end up to 20% cheaper)

- significantly reduced the cost of sonar stations and the impact of short range sonars on many units


- GEAR "Pyro", CLAW "Flail" and AVEN "Commando" are now amphibious and have the ability to jump (10s reload)

- SPHERE "Bastion" has a bit more range and damage/s (still 10%+ less range than the counterparts)

- AVEN "Guardian", GEAR "Punisher" and SPHERE "Banger" deal about 20% higher dmg/s but cost about 15% more

- increased aiming rates and tolerance for some fast units with rapid fire weapons to allow them to efficiently fire while maneuvering

- SPHERE "Magnetar" : increased passive regeneration from 250 to 320 HP/s

--- UI

- removed "anti-air" from unit descriptions to avoid confusion
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