Warzone 2100 Forums

@Shadow Wolf TJC: Modeling with wordpad? That's pretty hardcore Although I do understand that learning blender would take a week or two of unproductive fiddling around...

Sadly, I didn't know where to download blender, so I asked for a .pie editor, and I got WMIT, which seemed to be of little more use than just for viewing .pie models. Then, I discovered that you could view all sorts of files, such as .vlo, .slo, .js, .wrf, and .pie, using just a .txt editor, like Notepad or Wordpad.

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Choose the installer if you want to install it (gives file associations & stuff) or just take the zip for a portable version.

Thanks.

Anyways, gentlemen:

Meet the Sniper These Cyborgs are armed with a specialized anti-personnel cannon or railgun that's designed to take out enemy Cyborgs from a long distance, which is useful for a Cannon/Railgun specialist, as most of the T2 cannons and T3 railguns have been changed from all-rounder weapons to anti-tank weapons, which, while more effective against vehicles, are even less effective against Cyborgs. Moreover, the Sniper has a longer range than most of the other direct-fire weapons in its tier, with the notable exception of the Lasers line, which have been moved to T2, and specialize in longer-ranged direct-fire weapons.

Sadly, while the Sniper is deadly towards other Cyborgs, it's less effective against vehicles and structures in general.

Note to self: ask Aubergine to create a Meet the Sniper video.

Next thing I want to show (and forgive me if I have to double, triple, or quadruple post to get these pictures out) is how the terrain would affect the speeds of various vehicles:

Offroad: This would be used as the standard to which terrain would affect propulsion speeds, for the purposes of balancing. Most terrain types would fall within this broad category, including: Continued...

Next, I'll be introducing some terrain that would slow down most vehicles that try to cross them, including cyborgs, but not hovercraft or VTOLs (since they float over the terrain). Typically, this terrain would be muddy/slushy/marshy, so they would fall within the Green Mud and Slush terrain types. They include: Sadly, I couldn't find a picture of Green Mud from the Arizona tileset, but that would also be included in here.

Also, we have roads and water. (Now I probably wouldn't have to show you any pics of those now, would I? ) The roads would provide speed bonuses towards all units except for hovercraft and VTOLs (again, since they float), while the water would provide a speed bonus towards hovercraft, to help make up for how the propulsion system wouldn't support much weight.

I believe i need to warn you. The speed modification of terrain is already visible in standard. If you push it further to be more strategic, most maps will not be balanced between most weapon set. Most map will have odd rules were rocks draw on scissors. It look interesting, but you will break the game dynamics. The only solution to add bigger terrain impact would require to complete the new weakness cycle and triple the amount of weapon lines. (3 type of machine guns (slow, fast and delicious), 3 type of flamers, 3 type of cannons, etc. )

Personally, I see nothing wrong with having certain weapon lines, or propulsions, have an advantage in one environment and/or a disadvantage in another. If I try to make them equally advantaged in all environments, I fear that I'd be making them seem less special from eachother. For example, I'd have to adjust their stats to the point where every line would have a long-ranged indirect-fire weapon, or that every line would have a short-ranged powerhouse of a weapon, and I don't really want to do that.

Likewise, I see nothing wrong with maps that favor certain weapon lines over others. Have you heard of the saying, "Variety is the spice of life"? I mean, if every map was made to perfectly balance out all the weapon lines, and all the propulsions, then I believe that they'd all be rather stale in terms of playability.

One of the beautiful things about Warzone 2100 is that all players start off as the same "faction", and have access to the same stuff. They just need to decide which things they want to unlock 1st to suit their playstyles and/or needs, not just for dealing with their opponents, but also for dealing with their battlefield. Moreover, I feel that rts games nowadays need, for each of their factions, a means of dealing with a wide variety of battlefields, such as a long-range artillery unit, and units that can traverse over/across mountains, water, etc. Starcraft 2, Supreme Commander 1 and 2, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 are all fine examples of these.

That said, if I do see something that seems to perform all too well, or all too poorly, in all too many situations, then that's when I know that something's in need of balancing.

Shadow Wolf TJC wrote: Starcraft 2, Supreme Commander 1 and 2, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 are all fine examples of ...

I am the only wz player that didn't play that games?

Giani wrote:

Shadow Wolf TJC wrote: Starcraft 2, Supreme Commander 1 and 2, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 are all fine examples of ...

I am the only wz player that didn't play that games?

Nope. Never played any of them...

Come to that, never even heard of them before I joined the forum...

Searge

Searge-Major wrote:

Giani wrote:

Shadow Wolf TJC wrote: Starcraft 2, Supreme Commander 1 and 2, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 are all fine examples of ...

I am the only wz player that didn't play that games?

Nope. Never played any of them...

Come to that, never even heard of them before I joined the forum...

Searge

Me neither, well, except for Starcraft 2, though thanks to the wonders of the internet, I've seen enough gameplay footage to get a good idea as to how they're supposed to play out.

Likewise, I see nothing wrong with maps that favor certain weapon lines over others.

Have you heard of the saying, "Variety is the spice of life"?

Precisely! That's exactly the reason why any map should have balance between different weapon lines. Otherwise the gameplay on this map is not varied enough and becomes dull after you found out that a certain weapon line is overpowered.

Exactly like NoQ says. Let's make an exemple : if there is a map where cyborgs are so much slowed down that their efficiency is more than 30% down¹, they will start to lose even against cannons or rockets. It will become obvious to everyone that to win, one will need to send tanks and only tanks. The result will be everyone playing rocket-only in each single game in that map.

Worst, it will make everyone unaware of it or unwilling to play rocket die stupidly _every_ time. The main tiles in a map will impose a gameplay to everyone.

¹ And you look like you plan to make tiles have visible effect, so it is bound to be at least 30%.

I'm now planning on remaking some of the maps, like Vision, High Ground, or Fishnets, so that they'd be more balanced for this mod, though I'll likely do that after I release the 1st beta.

By the way, guys, I doubt that at least some of the creators of some of the custom-made maps that were included into the main game were aware of how terraintable.txt worked, when they 1st made those maps. Personally, I've only recently learned what terraintable.txt did, and it was thanks to aubergine's explanation as to how unit speeds were calculated.

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I know WZ is the first RTS you ever played so you are probably not familiar with the genre history but I thought to mention one of the all time classic RTSs called "Total Annihilation" from 1997 (same lead designer who many years later created "Supreme Commander" - Chris Taylor). My reason being the sole expansion pack for "TA" was called "The Core Contingency" (1998). Not that it makes any diff as far as CR but fans of the genre could mistake it as a homage to "TA". Then again that may not be of any importance and "Contingency" is a cool name afterall.

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