Well, I started this a while back and then went on a hiking trip, so it just sat for a while.
Edit: links down for a bit.
This is a rebalance for Final Frontier, based on my opinion that the current Final Frontier setup forces players to endure several minutes of "Sim Space" - or tedious resource queuing and turret building, before they can attack anything with any viability. The changes I made increase the pace of the game, lowers the ability to porc yourself into a base, and makes level 1 raiding (as well as raiding in general) truly worthwhile.
Oh, and this makes FF playable on non-metal maps. Costs have been drastically reduced, so now you can survive on a level 1 economy for a good bit. Of course a level 2 one is better, but it should be easier to avoid nanostall on non metal maps.
I won't list the changes I made, since if you saw them you'd have a gut reaction and shout that it was terrible, since a few of them are pretty radical. If you want to see them, they're in the changelog, but I suggest you play it before you read that.
This absolutely requires Final Frontier 1.18 to already be installed. The reason I can make this download so tiny (430kb) is that all the bulky content is downloaded with Final Frontier 1.18.
If any huge balance issues are revealed in this, I'll fix them, but my plans for this are to fix the bomb interceptibility and possibly the space mines, then leave it be.
Have fun, feel free to comment on/attack/complain about/praise/cry about/eat a donut in worship of Low Fat FF in this thread. If you have a problem with it, it'd be nice if you told me what exactly the problem was, so I can fix it, but I'm not too fussed - the less I do with this, the more I do for 1944 =)
To be more clear: the changes I made balance FF for a normal Spring map. Playing on a Metal map (as most FF maps are), will be like playing on Speed Metal in AA or XTA. Its not my fault that the normal mod requires a metal map to be playable...
Low Fat Final Frontier v.42 released
Moderator: Moderators
Low Fat Final Frontier v.42 released
Last edited by Nemo on 25 Jul 2006, 23:39, edited 4 times in total.
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Drone_Fragger
- Posts: 1341
- Joined: 04 Dec 2005, 15:49
Hmm. Most games of FF are actualy played on surrounded or Asteroid field. But this is what i've been saying for a long time now, Sure, Comparered to eachother (like 300 for a turret and 300 for a fighter) the costs seem fair, but don;t forget, level one mexxes still only produce what they do in AA or XTA.
The reason that most FF maps are metal maps is because the mod demanded that level of resources in order to be playable.
If this is picked up by FF players at all, FF maps could be normal maps, with patches or the like.
I made this for me, really, because I found that level 1 units were completely ineffective when compared to any turrets, and took forever to kill anything, even in numbers. It seemed like turrets as a whole were overpowered, which encourages porcing to a large extent. I changed that, because porcing and waiting until its possible to build the super ships (or huge swarms of the slightly more effective level two ships) is boring.
If this is picked up by FF players at all, FF maps could be normal maps, with patches or the like.
I made this for me, really, because I found that level 1 units were completely ineffective when compared to any turrets, and took forever to kill anything, even in numbers. It seemed like turrets as a whole were overpowered, which encourages porcing to a large extent. I changed that, because porcing and waiting until its possible to build the super ships (or huge swarms of the slightly more effective level two ships) is boring.
Kuhbump. New version out - interceptors still don't work, but there's a similar gameplay effect in place.
Full changelog:
Low Fat Final Frontier .1
All Armed Ships HP cut by half.
All armed buildings/turrets (FORT TED class) HP cut by 2/3
All non-armed buildings HP cut by 1/3
All metal and energy costs cut by 1/2
All buildtimes cut by 1/3
-----------------------------------------
TODO V.1:
Core beamlaser vs Arm pulsecannon balance
(core level 1 fighters/turrets very effective with instant hit lasers,
while arm's turrets/assault fighters fire pulsecannons that often miss)
Add missile/FS2 style bombers
Add a real carrier? (long term/hard)
Fighter balance vs big ships/capships (make capships less vulnerable vs fighters,
more vulnerable vs bombers).
Magnetic floating star-mines. (negative impulsefactor weapon)
----------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.2
All fighter weapons damage vs battlecruisers reduced by 1/10th.
All fighter weapon damage vs super capital ships reduced by 1/3
All fighter weapons damage vs resource buildings increased by 1/3.
Changed bomber weapon from OTA style linebombs to FS2 style bombs*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TODO v.2:
Test interceptor weapon for monglerbomb interceptibility.
Fix laser vs pulse cannon balance
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.3
All mobile units given 'dontland' tag
monglerbomb model size reduced
All fighters (both sides) given an interceptor weapon that can shoot down bombs.
Bomber cruisealt doubled to prevent driving into targets (400)
All fighter damage vs shipyards increased by 1/3
All bomber maxvelocities reduced by 1/3
Monglerbomb velocity set at 200.
All bombers costs and buildtime increased by 2/3, health decreased by 1/3 to compensate for bombs not being interceptable currently.
Reduced Core fighter weapon effectiveness vs all fighters by 10%
Added spacemine unit with tractor weapon, buildable by all level 2 or 3 cons.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.35
Removed Spacemine from build tree, since it isn't working yet
Doubled buildtime and added 1/3 to cost of bomber - it was too spammable, and bombs aren't interceptable yet.
Removed Super Flying Hotdog of Death and its Bun. Too much ketchup. Aka the Devastator and its Titan yard.
Removed the Arm ODS teleporter. Its wacky, and is pretty broken.
Removed the FirstStrike - there's no need for a whole nother missile cruiser when the role is already filled.
Tripled the cruisealt of the Longbow so it can shoot over things more easily, thus completely removing any need for the FirstStrike.
Changed Monglerbomb model to the Core V launch missile from XTA. So I'm a model thief. Wanna fight about it?
-------------------
First public release
-------------------
Low Fat FF v.4
Increased damage of Fury turret 10% vs all units.
Decreased Fury HP by 5% to get more of a glass cannon effect.
Halved size of the new monglerbomb model to decrease chance of bombers blowing each other up en masse.
Added slight guidance ability to monglerbomb to help it hit slow moving ships.
Increased damage of level 1 turrets (Fury/Sythe) vs commanders 300% (from 90 to 270) to make comm rushing not a good idea.
More interceptor tests. Work damn you..WORK *twitch*.
Halved health of bombers so they can be taken out very easily - same gameplay effect as letting bombs be interceptable.
Bombs cost 100 metal and 200 energy to produce. Not an issue for one bomber, but with 15 it starts to hurt.
Halved HP of all con units to make them more vulnerable to raids.
Made cons and nanoturrets chain react to make con massing+unit spamming risky.
------------------------
Low Fat FF v.42
Removed remnants of Bomber interception system.
Bumped up fury damage vs commanders another 10%
Upped nearly all weapon damage vs ODS by 15%
Fixed level 1 ODS cost/buildtime (both sides) (was broken/nonexistant)
HP nerf for the level 1 ODS (15%)
Dontland tag updated to new version standard (airhoverfactor)
Full changelog:
Low Fat Final Frontier .1
All Armed Ships HP cut by half.
All armed buildings/turrets (FORT TED class) HP cut by 2/3
All non-armed buildings HP cut by 1/3
All metal and energy costs cut by 1/2
All buildtimes cut by 1/3
-----------------------------------------
TODO V.1:
Core beamlaser vs Arm pulsecannon balance
(core level 1 fighters/turrets very effective with instant hit lasers,
while arm's turrets/assault fighters fire pulsecannons that often miss)
Add missile/FS2 style bombers
Add a real carrier? (long term/hard)
Fighter balance vs big ships/capships (make capships less vulnerable vs fighters,
more vulnerable vs bombers).
Magnetic floating star-mines. (negative impulsefactor weapon)
----------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.2
All fighter weapons damage vs battlecruisers reduced by 1/10th.
All fighter weapon damage vs super capital ships reduced by 1/3
All fighter weapons damage vs resource buildings increased by 1/3.
Changed bomber weapon from OTA style linebombs to FS2 style bombs*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TODO v.2:
Test interceptor weapon for monglerbomb interceptibility.
Fix laser vs pulse cannon balance
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.3
All mobile units given 'dontland' tag
monglerbomb model size reduced
All fighters (both sides) given an interceptor weapon that can shoot down bombs.
Bomber cruisealt doubled to prevent driving into targets (400)
All fighter damage vs shipyards increased by 1/3
All bomber maxvelocities reduced by 1/3
Monglerbomb velocity set at 200.
All bombers costs and buildtime increased by 2/3, health decreased by 1/3 to compensate for bombs not being interceptable currently.
Reduced Core fighter weapon effectiveness vs all fighters by 10%
Added spacemine unit with tractor weapon, buildable by all level 2 or 3 cons.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Low Fat FF v.35
Removed Spacemine from build tree, since it isn't working yet
Doubled buildtime and added 1/3 to cost of bomber - it was too spammable, and bombs aren't interceptable yet.
Removed Super Flying Hotdog of Death and its Bun. Too much ketchup. Aka the Devastator and its Titan yard.
Removed the Arm ODS teleporter. Its wacky, and is pretty broken.
Removed the FirstStrike - there's no need for a whole nother missile cruiser when the role is already filled.
Tripled the cruisealt of the Longbow so it can shoot over things more easily, thus completely removing any need for the FirstStrike.
Changed Monglerbomb model to the Core V launch missile from XTA. So I'm a model thief. Wanna fight about it?
-------------------
First public release
-------------------
Low Fat FF v.4
Increased damage of Fury turret 10% vs all units.
Decreased Fury HP by 5% to get more of a glass cannon effect.
Halved size of the new monglerbomb model to decrease chance of bombers blowing each other up en masse.
Added slight guidance ability to monglerbomb to help it hit slow moving ships.
Increased damage of level 1 turrets (Fury/Sythe) vs commanders 300% (from 90 to 270) to make comm rushing not a good idea.
More interceptor tests. Work damn you..WORK *twitch*.
Halved health of bombers so they can be taken out very easily - same gameplay effect as letting bombs be interceptable.
Bombs cost 100 metal and 200 energy to produce. Not an issue for one bomber, but with 15 it starts to hurt.
Halved HP of all con units to make them more vulnerable to raids.
Made cons and nanoturrets chain react to make con massing+unit spamming risky.
------------------------
Low Fat FF v.42
Removed remnants of Bomber interception system.
Bumped up fury damage vs commanders another 10%
Upped nearly all weapon damage vs ODS by 15%
Fixed level 1 ODS cost/buildtime (both sides) (was broken/nonexistant)
HP nerf for the level 1 ODS (15%)
Dontland tag updated to new version standard (airhoverfactor)
Last edited by Nemo on 22 Jul 2006, 21:18, edited 1 time in total.
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clericvash
- Posts: 1394
- Joined: 05 Oct 2004, 01:05
I'd like to bring up one of the suggestions I had before for making things flow better.
Instead of making it so "bigger ship = higher tech level", make it so "higher tech level = more powerful". Make it so you've got two or three "tech lines" (fighters, warships, and capital ships, say), with roughly equal utility in different situations. (Fighters are cheaper and faster, capital ships as expensive as a bunch of fighters but really tough, whatever)
Instead of making it so "bigger ship = higher tech level", make it so "higher tech level = more powerful". Make it so you've got two or three "tech lines" (fighters, warships, and capital ships, say), with roughly equal utility in different situations. (Fighters are cheaper and faster, capital ships as expensive as a bunch of fighters but really tough, whatever)
