Feature Request: Server-side global damage modifier

[Caydr]

This feature will be familiar to anyone who's played Star Trek: Armada 2 (a pretty crappy game, I admit, but it had a few good ideas)

Basically what it is, is a slider which adjusts how much damage all weapons do by whatever factor it's set for.

For instance, you might set it for 0.5 to make all weapons deal half damage, resulting in more strategic, long-lasting battles. You might set it to 2.0 for frag-fest games.

A similar slider for unit cost (including build time) would be cool too.

I know I'm inexperienced as far as c++ scripting goes, but this seems like a reasonably simple thing to do, the same way that Buggi scaled all units and ranged down by half in his custom exe.

Speaking of which, a unit scale slider would be good, even if it was limited to settings like 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, etc.

I just thought this would be a nice, easy-to-do feature that would make the game as a whole a lot more interesting. Those are the best kinds of features!

[FizWizz]

This feature will be familiar to anyone who's played Star Trek: Armada 2 (a pretty crappy game, I admit, but it had a few good ideas)

Basically what it is, is a slider which adjusts how much damage all weapons do by whatever factor it's set for.

For instance, you might set it for 0.5 to make all weapons deal half damage, resulting in more strategic, long-lasting battles. You might set it to 2.0 for frag-fest games.

A similar slider for unit cost (including build time) would be cool too.

I know I'm inexperienced as far as c++ scripting goes, but this seems like a reasonably simple thing to do, the same way that Buggi scaled all units and ranged down by half in his custom exe.

Speaking of which, a unit scale slider would be good, even if it was limited to settings like 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, etc.

I just thought this would be a nice, easy-to-do feature that would make the game as a whole a lot more interesting. Those are the best kinds of features!

*cough*soft mutators!*cough*

[IMSabbel]

ah.
i had endless fun with them and ta-mutation....

[Zoombie]

We should just add in all those totaly rockin soft mutators!

[Dragon45]

MM hmm, soft mutators would work just fine... maybe even a straight copy+paste of 99% of TA:M's code, with a few minor changes to accomodate the differently named .exe and file structure.

Although, it would be cool to see a TA:M-like interface integrated with the main Spring .exe But it's unnecessary for now.

[AF]

Ahk softmutators, the engine could do this extremely easily. I just dotn know where the code is to palce the bit that needs changing ro how to tie it in to the lobby itnerface and script.

[Spectre]

well I used Ta:M on a spring Lan ^^ works fine except like 1000 warnings

[IMSabbel]

hah!

The only problem is that SOMETIMES, the warnings are actually there for a reason :)

[AF]

Eitherway I think softmutators are a bad idea. I certainly wouldnt like to think of how NTAI would be affected.

And if you get lots of messages it means you\'re unsynced, and that means what you see isnt necessarily what your enemy sees....

[Caydr]

I don't think things like a global weapon damage modifier could possibly affect an AI. All things remain relative. Can you give examples?

[Maelstrom]

Damage calculations. Things like submarines learning AI would have to factor in a whole range of new settings to get the calculations done right.

But I still like the idea.

[FizWizz]

If I had to choose between mutators and AI, I'd choose mutators any day of the week.

[AF]

I dont thik so, cosndiering the engien changes would be much quicker, and easier todo and implement switches than sort through the proces of mutators

Besides How are you gonan deal witht eh problem of sync and different people havign different mutators?

[Nemo]

Uh, a soft mutator would be something set by the host in the room, thus solving any sync issues.

I'd love to see soft mutators, more so than future versions of NTAI.

[AF]

well if Mutators work with sprign but give sync errors all you need todo si make sure every eprson ahs identical files, right down to each byte, that should guarantee a game without any fo these problems.

And why people are talkign as if it's a softmutator versus AI thign is beyond em if you take out AAI.

NTAI wouldnt be affected by thsi unelss it messed up and changed the unti balance drastically. And adding warpgate like support would be easy, just tell me what the unitname is and I'll add it to the buildtree for when people start using this more.

[Nemo]

I mention that because you mentioned the effect upon AIs as a reason for not creating soft mutators. A few posts up, I think.

Anywho, I would imagine that if they were added into the engine, they would be included in the patch, and thus everyone would have it. At least at first, once people start creating their own it would work just like mods do now. Don't have the mod, obviously....you can't play.

[jellyman]

Can't wait: Damage mutator x10: Hordes of Hawks owning everything.
Damage mutator /10: Hordes of construction planes reclaiming everything.

[SwiftSpear]

I agree with pxtl's failed attempt to post in this thread. A game host side slider is too violent a change to include in client, however mutators are cool because at least you can't blame mod authors for making a mod that a certain mutator breaks the balance for, and at the same time someone making a mutator has to put some thought about blanace into it, or else it will just suck and no one will use it.

[FizWizz]

Can't wait: Damage mutator x10: Hordes of Hawks owning everything.
Damage mutator /10: Hordes of construction planes reclaiming everything.

moron, nobody ever made x10 mutators for TA, they usually went only double or half. there were other mutators too, like the all transports now shoot stuff, the universal hide-damage mutator, adv. radar for commander mutator, and other things that some people actually liked. oh yeah, and trippy colors too =D

Eitherway I think softmutators are a bad idea. I certainly wouldnt like to think of how NTAI would be affected....

...And why people are talkign as if it's a softmutator versus AI thign is beyond em if you take out AAI...

...NTAI wouldnt be affected by thsi unelss it messed up and changed the unti balance drastically...

speaks for itself^

[AF]

I was referring to that because somebody mentioned how AI's would ahve to deal with a large amount of enw data describing the change sin a mutator.

Then I realized that was silyl, and posted why, and how simple it would be.

Then people made the comments

So i then posted that i didnt see why people where making the comaprison after I'd quashed it.

Besides you want mutators, go use the mod system, Caydr already uses a mutator like setup for AA usign techforges, and zwzsg did the same for OTA mod using the build pics ro different bits etc...