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a.fake.name

Posted 05 March 2015 - 09:13 PM

My thoughts on unit size (for foot mobiles any way) are thus:

Allow the building of all sized units, it provides choice to the player and a better variety.

Worlds like Kamino could have HUGE formations on ground maps (ditto abandoned droid foundry worlds) at the start of a map.

I think the ground research tree needs updating as well.

Rough outline of my concept is this:
You start out being able to build various sized units, nothing too big.
Only the first rounds of ground upgrades are avalible at start, and you must then upgrade your formations (research) to unlock the next round of unit upgrades.
Preexisting units should be upgradable.


Also, add ground units for all the snubcraft ingame, or the ones with atmospheric capability, and allow LAATs to upgrade into stormtrooper transports and Assault Transports.

Those are supposed to be combat vehicles after all, so it seems silly to not use air power.


megabalta

Posted 29 September 2014 - 11:28 PM

It's actually because of balancing. I've lowered the health of all troopers and remade most of the base weapons to be more realistic (twice the range, twice or more times the firing speed, 4 times the damage for explosive weapons etc.) . E.g. a deployed EWEB team of 2 guys is able to slaughter platoons of rifle troopers without heavy weapon support if not flanked, a single Plex trooper with the help of his team mate (who has a passive auto-reload ability) is able shoot a LAAT out of the sky in 3 hits (thats about 10 seconds, and the Plex has 6 torpedoes in the clip). 4-8 of those guys in a single squad could blow up everything in a jiffy, which would make the AI spam them and win.


Hanti

Posted 29 September 2014 - 09:40 PM

 

First of all, I chose a way to go. There were two choices, conventional rts or tactical rts. Conventional rts is more about managing resources and building stuff, which is nearly completely absent from the ground battles in EAW, so I chose the more tactical approach. As someone wiser then me once said: this game will never be Company of heroes, but I'm sure it can get at least closer to it.

(...)
 
3. </GroundCompany>   the unit you buy on the galaxy map, and deploy in a land battle, here you can mod what elements make up the company, the name, the price, the info text files location etc.
 
To alter unit composition you just have to mod the <Company_Units> line under </GroundCompany> in the units xml, and the things you write there will hopefully show up in the game. It's not a bad thing to use the <Is_Homogeneous>No</Is_Homogeneous> line, if you use separate types of units.
 
<Create_Team_Type>The_A_Team</Create_Team_Type> is the reference to the container.
 
<Max_Squad_Size>x</Max_Squad_Size> line makes the teams (containers) the size of x guys/vehicles.
 
So what the game does is it takes x guys from the <Company_Units> line, and puts them into a team (container), then takes another x guys and puts them into the next team, and so on.
 
And here comes the first problem: what if I'd like to make more than one type of squad (container) in a single company?
I'd like to do this to make say a squad with 10 lasergunman, and two teams of 3 missile guys per team.
Or I'd like to do this to make a command squad with a special ability, and 3 normal squads with no abilites.
I have seen a "summon" ability in Alliance mod, which can summon a big pile of "reinforcement" units, but I'd like to avoid such wizardry for now.
 
Any ideas to solve this, or other technical questions about modding ground battles are welcome.

 

 

I just wonder why you try to have different number of soldiers in squads. 3 or 5 people squads will be misused by the AI vs. 8-9 soldiers squads.

AI will send those squads without support and they will be easily annihilated. If you want "the other side" do the job right, just give it similar strength autonomous units.

I will do it that way:

 

<GroundCompany Name="Imperial_Stormtrooper_Group">

<Create_Team_Type> Stormtrooper_Team </Create_Team_Type>
        <!-- 6 squads of mixed composition, 8 soldiers in each -->
        <Company_Units> Stormtrooper_Commander, Stormtrooper_Sergeant, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Medic</Company_Units>
        <Company_Units> Stormtrooper_Sergeant, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Sniper</Company_Units>
        <Company_Units> Stormtrooper_Sergeant, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Heavy</Company_Units>
        <Company_Units> Stormtrooper_Sergeant, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper</Company_Units>
        <Company_Units> Scout_Trooper_Sergeant, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper, Squad_Scout_Trooper</Company_Units>
        <Company_Units> Stormtrooper_Sergeant, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Stormtrooper, Squad_Shock_Soldier, Squad_Shock_Soldier, Squad_Shock_Soldier, Squad_Shock_Soldier, Squad_Shock_Soldier</Company_Units>
        <Max_Squad_Size> 8 </Max_Squad_Size>

</GroundCompany>

 

[just an example]

4 squads of riflemen (one command with medic, one with sniper, one with heavy blaster aka machinegun, one only blasters)

1 squad of plex soldiers plus some blasters as anti-infantry defense

1 squad of reconnaissance (troops with better sensor range + longer fireing range)

 

Cheers


megabalta

Posted 26 September 2014 - 09:51 PM

It's part of the plan. Arrow23s and Heavy Trackers are planned to be used as command vehicles, with the sole purpose of carrying and protecting a commander and to give officer bonus to the units. Repulsorlift II and Assault repulsorlift II units have the Freerunner basic model with 2AP+1AM guns as a heavy weapons repulsorlift craft for the purpose of protecting the troop transports. Repulsorlift III and Assault repulsorlift III units have the Freerunner 2 with heavier weapons for the same purpose, whereas Repulsorlift III unit also has the Freerunner APC model stripped of its guns as a troop transport. These units will use the Bantha 2 and the A-A5 as light combat support vehicles with the ingame purpose of mobile repair platforms and maybe for capturing turret emplacements. I'm planning to cut stationary repair "turrets" from the game.

MDUs are planned to be used as heavy combat support vehicles for multiple stationary tasks, which can be chosen by building specialized "turrets" on top of them. I'm thinking of a repair platform, a camouflage net with radar scrambler for mobile artillery base purposes, mobile shield emitter, AA/AM/AP turret etc.

So light and heavy combat support vehicles will differ very much according to plan.


johnchm.10

Posted 26 September 2014 - 06:30 PM

http://starwars.wiki...wiki/Freerunner

 

I almost hate to say it, but I think a re-tooling of the Freerunner might be the best option.

says here that if you were to strip the big guns and leave only the AP guns, you'd be able to move 8 troopers and a bunch of cargo, or figure 10-12 troops and no cargo.

right off the bat, this gives you options to turn it into a better APC than the Arrow-23, given that this APC can move more troops.

In theory, it could also allow you to have a good command and control vehicle. replace the cargo compartment and heavy guns with CC4I gear and 5 operators including the Officer in charge and you have a good C/C vehicle.

or get rid of most or all the guns and you have a potential Medical Vehicle or Engineering Vehicle. the gunners could be replaced by medics or technicians and the seats could be replaced by Litters, with medical equipment as cargo. or have the replaced gunners be Technicians and fill the cargo space with repair gear. obviously in the mod this would just be a passive Area Effect special

 

additionally, the Freerunner looks better than the MDU


johnchm.10

Posted 23 September 2014 - 03:16 AM

Fair point Yeah, I only put it because of the firepower it packs. The next offical pr version apparently cuts down on the upgrades. Obviously I've no way of saying how much. If we want to use the MDU or a similar vehicle, I recommend that we keep it to 3 variants. Basically, a troop carrier with a E-web, a recon vehicle with enhanced LOS and an E-web, with either a scanner like one on the Heavy Tracker, or a deployable LZ, and a combo repair vehicle and ambulance. I figure that 3 variants is enough and that there are enough vehicles thst can run Anti Tank operations

megabalta

Posted 22 September 2014 - 07:04 PM

There could be 3 of them, I'm not against it, testing the balance will say the final word.

This is the B-wing cockpit isn't it? It's a strange one. I've never seen a model of it however. I'll try to keep the 3 level upgrade system, I don't like stat only upgrades, and I'm already having problems with some of the units (namely artillery), because I can't find a suitable upgrade to them. Wish there'd be a similar submod for spacecraft, so the two could be merged into a unified thing. I think it's just more satisfying for the player to actually see something new if he/she upgrades a unit, and not just hitting the upgrade button every 2 minutes until the unit is maxed out to lvl8. Plus cutting hundreds of upgrades would be a major lag reducer.

The stryker concept is actually the basis for the mobile infantry units (lightly armed apcs and heavily armed semi-apcs/light tanks). The MDU is an easy choice for a support vehicle, because it has a readily available model and xml to mod. Yes I'm thinking on modeling some new turret like support buildings to build on top of it. Whatyouwantittodo ideas are welcome.


johnchm.10

Posted 22 September 2014 - 02:43 PM

1. fair enough. although I feel that a Flight of 3 might work better than an Element of 2. and it might be possibly more canonical (the Rogue Squadron games. probably the only nintendo games i will ever miss. seriously, its been 2 console generations. its time to bring it back)

2: also fair points. and if you ever decide to add a 4th level, you won't have much work to do. this might be a good alternative to the Tachyon based on Firepower. or a Gunship.

3.If you haven't already, looking at the Stryker Armored Vehicle might help you get ideas for the MDU. and are you going to modify it visually?

 

ah. good. grenades are important.


megabalta

Posted 19 September 2014 - 10:03 AM

Questions are always welcome.

 

1.Unit healths and hardpoints (damage, shot count/sec, range, blast range) are being modified quiete extensively to be more "real". The airspeeders main purpose will be to eliminate aerial threat of gunships and bombers. Bombers are a minimum of 4 times faster now, but have less health, and gunships (also with less health) movement will be like a slow airspeeder instead of hovering in place. To counter these units, airspeeders will be superfast (thus somewhat uncontrollable) when moving (with hunt ability), and lethal (very high accuracy) against them. So a pair should be enough of them to do the job.

2.I want to use units of the strict civil war era seen in the original movies (with some extension), which is around 6-10 years. Upgrade system is based on three levels:

lvl1.base units from the clone wars and imperial era

lvl2.civil war units and upgrades (movies)

lvl3.advanced units and superweapons at the time of Endor and a bit beyond

As far as I know V wings got into service a lot later, so I've decided to go with the tachyon.

3.I'm planning to go with the MDU as heavy support vehicle, although I'm thinking on some new build options for it.

 

I did exclude the modded weapon stat sheet from the xml, because its WIP. Grenades are already fixed to work and look like real life grenades.


johnchm.10

Posted 19 September 2014 - 07:47 AM

so I finally got around to downloading that spreadsheet you put out a while ago.

I realize it's a work in progress, and most of it does in fact make sense, but I do have some questions

1: for the air-units, assuming I'm reading it correctly, you only have a single pair of aircraft per group. obviously the Gunships have this in Chih's submod, but even the Lighter Speeders like the T-47. are you really intending on having only 2-ship Elements, or am I reading it wrong?

2. why the Tachyon? The V-wing Airspeeder from the OG Rogue Squadron Game and Dark Empire seems like a better option, as in theory it has better armaments

3. some of these vehicles i am not familiar with like the "heavy support vehicle". are these placeholder lines or do you have a specific vehicle

 

other than these questions, I have to say, outstanding job

 

oh, almost forgot, grenades in this mod are kinda screwy with their range. you might wish to change their projectile type to a Rocket with a small actual projectile with no guidance, and a smaller explosion/smoke trail, with of course reduced damage. unless you can figure out how to fix the range issue


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