The ship's speed is something I've played a lot with. On one hand, I want them to feel epic and I want your ships position to matter a lot. On the other, waiting "3 minutes to get back to base" just isn't fun. I don't want to add a warp drive or anything so I may just buff the turning rate, acceleration and the titan engines.
I'm working on a selection of defensive hardpoints. It's difficult because I suspect people won't want to use them because they don't help you farm creeps, so I'm trying to make them attractive in other ways (such as point defence turrets that will interfere with other people's creeping). The ship hangar will likely go. Superweapons, I'm working on adding a few as useable skills that will cost a lot of energy.
I think that you should only increase speed and turn rate a little, but boost titan engines alot that way ships still feel epic in normal combat, but can use titan engines to speed up (acceleration should be small though) and then going to your base will go very fast, but you won't get overpowered close combat. Also, disabling titan engines in combat isn't nice, all ships are equally fast so you can be hunt down for eternity. if you enable titan engines but the damage taken will be doubled or tripled it will mean strategic HP-watch and you can get away easier.
the rest sounds nice though, i'll play this once in a while and watch the improvements :)
I had an opportunity of playing this fantastic game a few times, and here is feedback:
You can see hostile cannons long before you can see his ship.
You can hear sounds from the ship only if camera is close to the "ground", standard problem with scrolled cameras.
Mothership is too damn fragile.
You should increase build times or allow building turrets and upgrades only near the motherships. Now the best strategy is sitting close to enemy mothership and intercepting enemy fighters for +10 minerals.
ah yes that first point is pretty weird xD had that too though i forgot to mention. and even though sounds may sound awesome, 1. space is space, no sound in space 2. with this many weapons firing this many things with 6 ships the sounds are a pain to listen.
I approve of the rest :)
First off, hands down to the epic battlecruisers in this game, and the turret placements attached to it, at first i was just astonished. after that i noticed the game needs quite some improvement, here's what i think need to be done:
- More interesting map: add some space stations along the way that produce vespene gas for you to use on certain upgrades/weapons.
- Adjust creep pathing: right now they all go in a straight line towards the base, since you need to farm them for money you stay there as well, i think it would make greater gameplay if the move around the edges of the map as well, a bit like in star battle.
- Randomize creep pathing: i think this would make the game more fun as fighters will occasionally advance or retreat because the opponent has less or more of them on that lane. also you won't be able to sit bakc and relax and enjoy the standard income, you need to work for your money with the shifting frontlines. for example make 5 paths, 8 groups that should spawn, and let them spawn wherever they like on the 5 paths.
- make the game faster!: i know that 2 mile long battlecruisers have a hard time accellerating to great speeds, but the game is very slow, the titan eengines aren't very titan as i only see a slight increase in the horrendous movement speed. i think they should have more power, acceleration can stay low but i'd like to speed up more if i use titanic engines so it doesn't take 3 minutes to get back to base.
- make easier selectable emplacements: i find the turret hardpoints pretty difficult to select, especially the small ones. make buttons on the ship to select hardpoints.
- make superweapons!: i think you should use the 2 templar > 1 archon code for a 3 large points > 1 ultimate frontal death ray or something type of weapon. for example you can combine 3 wraith bays for a wraith fleet bay creating 6 wraiths instead of 3 (same with viking and merc viking) at a cost, or combine 3 heavy siege tanks for an awesome splash damage Magnetic Accelleration Cannon of some sort. the possibilities are endless.
- new small weapons: in the games i have played i have seen the basic sentinel weapon, and then upgrade to autocannons and missile launchers and their heavy variants, thats it. I don't know if there's anything beyond that, but the game is over too fast for those weapons to be bought. the missile launchers are currently vastly superior due to the range. i think there should be a bit more weapons, and I have thought of a new small weapons system: you start with a sentinel, then you have 3 upgrade paths: damage, range, fire rate. it doesn't increase the range/damage of the sentinel, but it gives you a new weapon in that upgrade path. for example the first range upgrade would be a 25 range weapon with the same dps (a light missile launcher?), the first fire rate upgrade has the same range but increased fire rate (obviously) for 50% more dps or so, and damage just deals 50% more damage. then you can upgrade for a second time, so you can go pure damage, or for example range/damage. and so you design your very own turrets for your own gameplay. every combination has a different ability/effect, for example some weapons can have splash damage, bouncing, void ray like damage increase, the current over charge/emp missiles abilities, ignore armor, extra damage against shields, Damage over time debuffs, speed debuffs, that sort of stuff. sentinel costs 50, first tier costs 100, second 250, third 500 (not more than three tiers so you don't need THAT much new turrets made, and you shouldn't be able to buy it anyway, then the game would be going on way too long.
- more creeps: in the singleplayer you get more and more units coming at you and even new ones. i would like to see this happen late game too in multiplayer. it gives us more money for more expensive upgrades, gives a bit of variety too, and might potetntially get dangerous. The star bases would need some defense cannons (with 1 minute respawn or so, because then if a massive wave suddenly appears all hope isn't lost) so they won't get swarmed by a wave of creeps.
I think this would improve voidcraft greatly and might make it way more fun than ship battle which i personally dont find all that interesting, but is still featured.
I really like the latest installment with the vehicle deck. however I think the beginning form could be a tad stronger, you are hero player units after all, so why can't you take on 2 creeps at once? and the missile launchers are pretty darn powerful: fire on the move, no lock on time, and hit multiple enemies, the missile launcher can even deal triple damage to single units if there are no others around. i had my tier 2 unit filled with 4 missile launchers, upgraded them a bit and everything fell under my onslaught. they greatly win over the cannons that have lock on time and then only single target damage (the first cannon with splash barely deals damage and can be dodged) AND shorter range AND can't be fired on the move. i think you should buff the cannon, nerf the missiles, and increase player hitpoints by about 20-25% the utility weapons like point defence turret seem fair.
I have one other complain about the new installment, i can no longer upgrade energy or other stats. i'd like to be able to fill 1x1 spaces with metal for hit points, heat sinks for movement speed (or place engines) and energy lines (that can't be built on) for extra energy, (only small amounts because they're 1x1, that means 64 per buildsquare) because i run out of medication energy way too fast. and this way you'll have nice stuff to do with leftover small bits of space! They wouldn't cost supply btw, just space and minerals( and maybe gas) that would automatically reduce the amount/size of weapons you can place too so invincible destroyers wouldn't happen. for now i have a lot of space left though, so increasing the turret size would help, or reducing the build space to 6x6 maybe, that would balance it out.
I know VoidCraft is your main focus now and i really love the giant spaceshipness but it's a bit too slow for my taste, this is more fast paced and really alot more fun, though your giant starship with hardpoints achievement in VoidCraft is really great (though Missile launchers are op there yet again xD)
Avantasia, Kamelot, Nocturnal Rites, At Vance, Blind Guardian, Masterplan, Stratovarius, turisas, Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Angra, Aquaria, Aina, Dream Evil, Dream Theater, Eluveitie, Edguy, Hammerfall, Helloween, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Mad Caddies, Gorillaz, Marilyn Manson, Dimmu Borgir, Rhapsody of Fire (formally known as just Rhapsody), Sonata Arctica, Beck (hit or miss with him), Bloodhound Gang, Eminem (On rare occasion), Orgy (also on rare occasion), Fastball (Childhood favorite), last but not least The Beatles.
thanks for posting a list of things that i should probably listen as well, your tastes are very alike mine :3 except for that i love to listen old 30's music and big band from time to time, fallout.3's background musics make me happy :)
Dream Theater (oh you stupid idiots, sending Mike Portnoy away when he just wanted a break after 25 years of non-stop action)
Iron Savior (Underrated german power metal band)
Masterplan (generally awesome, especially Sail On)
Sonata Arctica
Avantasia
Savage Circus
Nightwish
Hammerfall (just the instrumental pieces like Something For The Ages and In Memoriam)
Soul Sanctuary (pretty new band, pretty awesome debut album, expecting alot from these guys!)
Scar Symmetry
Bullet For My Valentine (not really THAT into screamo, but from time to time it's nice)
StormWarrior
and further i like some songs from Metallica, Solar Fragment, Breaking Benjamin, The Killers, Muse, 3 doors down.
And now for something completely different:
My favorite songs to play on the piano are
Nocturne op.9 No.2 by Chopin,
Maple Leaf Rag
Moonlight Sonata
And i write rock/techno/metal/classical crossovers :P
What you might want to try since the whole map's atmosphere is a metal works is screwing with the map's lighting, pumping the emissivity of the lights and removing the generic ambient light entirely ( set it black) can really do a lot to make lava or in this case water look like its emanating the light its actually reflecting. It takes *alot* of experimentation but you can do wonders with the light settings.
Problem is that i am a horrible noob at lighting settings and what not I'll do my best though, have to get better somehow, best way is to keep trying.
Another solution to the original problem may be to just edit water settings and increase Texture Roughness, worked for me when I encountered this problem today.
default waters should have some texture roughness too, for their waves.
Have you tried colouring water dark red and playing with its lightning options to give it a denser feeling?
i did i can make it look like a big red plateau of 'metal' if i'd want but it still has a feeling as if it's highly polluted water when i try adding a flow direction.
The lava itself can't move, though you can make it look alot more liquid by making the 'water' shallow. The rocks seem to appear in deeper water only, this is just personal experience. But flowing lava sadly isn't in the game as far as I'm aware.
This would probably help, i 'll try making the lava really shallow then, no flowing stuff then until someone decides to make a custom model and i find it xD (i'm horrible at any programming/modeling)
Heya i have another question, i try to make a metalworking facility, and i need liquid metal for that. lava would be fine if it could flow and have the rocks removed
sadly, it can't so can someone with water editing skills help me out on making realistic 'lava without rocks that flows slowly' ?
i'll vote Adun then, it has a way more adventuristic feeling then symbiosis. i kinda changed my mind about it: actually symbiosis would be good for a FFA match or some sort of fortress battle as the light really devides the map in sections. Adun feels more like an RPG type of map that incorporates farming xp and brutal tank in forest battle badassness. it needs some more open plains though.
i'm not a professional terrainer, but maybe you could raise the height from the decals a tiny bit? as far as i know you can double click a doodad and there select rotation scale variation and that sort of stuff, height amongst them. It could very well be you tried this already though ^^
well that's probably all i need to know ^_^ thanks everyone, i lurked the google results but found nothing informative so i'm glad there's a helpful community such as this one to help me out :)
ooooh shiny! symbiosis looks absolutely stunning, Temple of Adun looks terrific and Flowing Heat looks brilliant ._. are you sure you can't choose all three? xD i tihk i'd vote symbiosis, the colors made me do it, Though I don't know the project you're working on (i'm new here) i assume it'll be very special and different. Because i think symbiosis would be a bit too shiny for a melee-like type of map. if it's a mode slightly similar to melee you should take temple of adun, flowing heat is really nice too but adun has a nicer feel to it (maybe because protoss relics are less violent then burning magma)
yet again thanks :) i suppose making a map diagonally mirrored would be work-intensive, or can you select terrain diagonally as well, just as you can paint disgonal cliffs and such?
0
I think that you should only increase speed and turn rate a little, but boost titan engines alot that way ships still feel epic in normal combat, but can use titan engines to speed up (acceleration should be small though) and then going to your base will go very fast, but you won't get overpowered close combat. Also, disabling titan engines in combat isn't nice, all ships are equally fast so you can be hunt down for eternity. if you enable titan engines but the damage taken will be doubled or tripled it will mean strategic HP-watch and you can get away easier.
the rest sounds nice though, i'll play this once in a while and watch the improvements :)
ah yes that first point is pretty weird xD had that too though i forgot to mention. and even though sounds may sound awesome, 1. space is space, no sound in space 2. with this many weapons firing this many things with 6 ships the sounds are a pain to listen. I approve of the rest :)
0
First off, hands down to the epic battlecruisers in this game, and the turret placements attached to it, at first i was just astonished. after that i noticed the game needs quite some improvement, here's what i think need to be done:
- More interesting map: add some space stations along the way that produce vespene gas for you to use on certain upgrades/weapons.
- Adjust creep pathing: right now they all go in a straight line towards the base, since you need to farm them for money you stay there as well, i think it would make greater gameplay if the move around the edges of the map as well, a bit like in star battle.
- Randomize creep pathing: i think this would make the game more fun as fighters will occasionally advance or retreat because the opponent has less or more of them on that lane. also you won't be able to sit bakc and relax and enjoy the standard income, you need to work for your money with the shifting frontlines. for example make 5 paths, 8 groups that should spawn, and let them spawn wherever they like on the 5 paths.
- make the game faster!: i know that 2 mile long battlecruisers have a hard time accellerating to great speeds, but the game is very slow, the titan eengines aren't very titan as i only see a slight increase in the horrendous movement speed. i think they should have more power, acceleration can stay low but i'd like to speed up more if i use titanic engines so it doesn't take 3 minutes to get back to base.
- make easier selectable emplacements: i find the turret hardpoints pretty difficult to select, especially the small ones. make buttons on the ship to select hardpoints.
- make superweapons!: i think you should use the 2 templar > 1 archon code for a 3 large points > 1 ultimate frontal death ray or something type of weapon. for example you can combine 3 wraith bays for a wraith fleet bay creating 6 wraiths instead of 3 (same with viking and merc viking) at a cost, or combine 3 heavy siege tanks for an awesome splash damage Magnetic Accelleration Cannon of some sort. the possibilities are endless.
- new small weapons: in the games i have played i have seen the basic sentinel weapon, and then upgrade to autocannons and missile launchers and their heavy variants, thats it. I don't know if there's anything beyond that, but the game is over too fast for those weapons to be bought. the missile launchers are currently vastly superior due to the range. i think there should be a bit more weapons, and I have thought of a new small weapons system: you start with a sentinel, then you have 3 upgrade paths: damage, range, fire rate. it doesn't increase the range/damage of the sentinel, but it gives you a new weapon in that upgrade path. for example the first range upgrade would be a 25 range weapon with the same dps (a light missile launcher?), the first fire rate upgrade has the same range but increased fire rate (obviously) for 50% more dps or so, and damage just deals 50% more damage. then you can upgrade for a second time, so you can go pure damage, or for example range/damage. and so you design your very own turrets for your own gameplay. every combination has a different ability/effect, for example some weapons can have splash damage, bouncing, void ray like damage increase, the current over charge/emp missiles abilities, ignore armor, extra damage against shields, Damage over time debuffs, speed debuffs, that sort of stuff. sentinel costs 50, first tier costs 100, second 250, third 500 (not more than three tiers so you don't need THAT much new turrets made, and you shouldn't be able to buy it anyway, then the game would be going on way too long.
- more creeps: in the singleplayer you get more and more units coming at you and even new ones. i would like to see this happen late game too in multiplayer. it gives us more money for more expensive upgrades, gives a bit of variety too, and might potetntially get dangerous. The star bases would need some defense cannons (with 1 minute respawn or so, because then if a massive wave suddenly appears all hope isn't lost) so they won't get swarmed by a wave of creeps.
I think this would improve voidcraft greatly and might make it way more fun than ship battle which i personally dont find all that interesting, but is still featured.
0
I really like the latest installment with the vehicle deck. however I think the beginning form could be a tad stronger, you are hero player units after all, so why can't you take on 2 creeps at once? and the missile launchers are pretty darn powerful: fire on the move, no lock on time, and hit multiple enemies, the missile launcher can even deal triple damage to single units if there are no others around. i had my tier 2 unit filled with 4 missile launchers, upgraded them a bit and everything fell under my onslaught. they greatly win over the cannons that have lock on time and then only single target damage (the first cannon with splash barely deals damage and can be dodged) AND shorter range AND can't be fired on the move. i think you should buff the cannon, nerf the missiles, and increase player hitpoints by about 20-25% the utility weapons like point defence turret seem fair.
I have one other complain about the new installment, i can no longer upgrade energy or other stats. i'd like to be able to fill 1x1 spaces with metal for hit points, heat sinks for movement speed (or place engines) and energy lines (that can't be built on) for extra energy, (only small amounts because they're 1x1, that means 64 per buildsquare) because i run out of medication energy way too fast. and this way you'll have nice stuff to do with leftover small bits of space! They wouldn't cost supply btw, just space and minerals( and maybe gas) that would automatically reduce the amount/size of weapons you can place too so invincible destroyers wouldn't happen. for now i have a lot of space left though, so increasing the turret size would help, or reducing the build space to 6x6 maybe, that would balance it out.
I know VoidCraft is your main focus now and i really love the giant spaceshipness but it's a bit too slow for my taste, this is more fast paced and really alot more fun, though your giant starship with hardpoints achievement in VoidCraft is really great (though Missile launchers are op there yet again xD)
0
thanks for posting a list of things that i should probably listen as well, your tastes are very alike mine :3 except for that i love to listen old 30's music and big band from time to time, fallout.3's background musics make me happy :)
0
The bands i listen to are:
Dream Theater (oh you stupid idiots, sending Mike Portnoy away when he just wanted a break after 25 years of non-stop action)
Iron Savior (Underrated german power metal band)
Masterplan (generally awesome, especially Sail On)
Sonata Arctica
Avantasia
Savage Circus
Nightwish
Hammerfall (just the instrumental pieces like Something For The Ages and In Memoriam)
Soul Sanctuary (pretty new band, pretty awesome debut album, expecting alot from these guys!)
Scar Symmetry
Bullet For My Valentine (not really THAT into screamo, but from time to time it's nice)
StormWarrior
and further i like some songs from Metallica, Solar Fragment, Breaking Benjamin, The Killers, Muse, 3 doors down.
And now for something completely different:
My favorite songs to play on the piano are
Nocturne op.9 No.2 by Chopin,
Maple Leaf Rag
Moonlight Sonata
And i write rock/techno/metal/classical crossovers :P
0
Problem is that i am a horrible noob at lighting settings and what not I'll do my best though, have to get better somehow, best way is to keep trying.
0
default waters should have some texture roughness too, for their waves.
0
i did i can make it look like a big red plateau of 'metal' if i'd want but it still has a feeling as if it's highly polluted water when i try adding a flow direction.
This would probably help, i 'll try making the lava really shallow then, no flowing stuff then until someone decides to make a custom model and i find it xD (i'm horrible at any programming/modeling)
0
Heya i have another question, i try to make a metalworking facility, and i need liquid metal for that. lava would be fine if it could flow and have the rocks removed
sadly, it can't so can someone with water editing skills help me out on making realistic 'lava without rocks that flows slowly' ?
0
i have settings on ultra and all the water has different flowing angles and wave height/reflection (different default settings)
0
@Victiln: Go
i'll vote Adun then, it has a way more adventuristic feeling then symbiosis. i kinda changed my mind about it: actually symbiosis would be good for a FFA match or some sort of fortress battle as the light really devides the map in sections. Adun feels more like an RPG type of map that incorporates farming xp and brutal tank in forest battle badassness. it needs some more open plains though.
0
i'm not a professional terrainer, but maybe you could raise the height from the decals a tiny bit? as far as i know you can double click a doodad and there select rotation scale variation and that sort of stuff, height amongst them. It could very well be you tried this already though ^^
0
well that's probably all i need to know ^_^ thanks everyone, i lurked the google results but found nothing informative so i'm glad there's a helpful community such as this one to help me out :)
0
ooooh shiny! symbiosis looks absolutely stunning, Temple of Adun looks terrific and Flowing Heat looks brilliant ._. are you sure you can't choose all three? xD i tihk i'd vote symbiosis, the colors made me do it, Though I don't know the project you're working on (i'm new here) i assume it'll be very special and different. Because i think symbiosis would be a bit too shiny for a melee-like type of map. if it's a mode slightly similar to melee you should take temple of adun, flowing heat is really nice too but adun has a nicer feel to it (maybe because protoss relics are less violent then burning magma)
0
@Victiln: Go
yet again thanks :) i suppose making a map diagonally mirrored would be work-intensive, or can you select terrain diagonally as well, just as you can paint disgonal cliffs and such?