2298 replies to this topic

[Handepsilon]

"The Soviet nations are still baffled at the decrease of marine life all across the globe. Witnesses claimed to have seen several fishes disappearing out of existence from their very eyes"

[isaac103]

Don't we all wish chronofishing was a real thing?

[TerumasaReal]

Speaking of Co-Op, there are already 12 for Allied, Soviet and Epsilon. Could we know if there will be MOre for them, or just add Foehn ones in the future?

[Solais]

Watching Martinoz' videos about some of those Fan Missions, and man, I'd love some of those to make it into the game proper as Covert Ops missions. With some adjustments here and there, and of course, better English.

[TerumasaReal]

A new defense, Cryomines for Pacific Front has announced not long ago. Could we know which mission will mark its first appearance in campaign?

Edited by TerumasaReal, 01 February 2019 - 02:06 AM.

[BotRot]

I'm not well versed in this, but do all of Yuri's "taunting" voicelines play in Juggernaut properly? After snooping into the map's inner workings, it seems that there are misspellings within ("Tanut" rather than "Taunt"); are these deliberate, or do these misspellings cause some of Yuri's voicelines to not play? 

[BotRot]

In Bleed Red (first Soviet mission), Soviet EVA will introduce Boris ("This is Boris, Comrade General..."), but the voiceline will be cut off early as EVA will announce "Reinforcements have arrived" just a few seconds later.

[BotRot]

Minor issue: Text in Killing Fields is missing a word.

 

Original text: Don't these Watch Towers see your forces....   when it should be  Don't let these Watch Towers see your forces.... 

 

 

If I have the time, I'll take a look at every text in the campaign and see if there are any typos and other textual issues and will compile them in another post.

[TerumasaReal]

Suggestions of Vulture in missions, Death From Above gameplay:

Not long ago I've checked the Soviet mission Death From Above in 3.0, where Latin didn't have Vulture yet, and they were all Wolfhounds. This shows that during the 3.0 period, Vulture is designed to debut in Act Two, that is, in Exist to Exit - now its first appearance time is Death From Above/Lights Out/Attack on Buggy (I personally holds opinion that Vultures in Good Old Times appeared too early, as the Soviet Air Force during the Battle in America was only Kirovs). Affected by this, in Sunlight, the helicopters in the Latin Confederation occupied area are not Vultures, but Russia's Wolfhounds, it needs to be changed.

 

Speaking of Exist to Exit, the text of Vultures in this mission is very similar to the debut introduction. It's better to simplify it in 3.3.5, and add new Vulture's introduction text in Death From Above.

 

For Death From Above, the naval battle at the beginning of the mission was very tricky, and even no any Repair Drones are provided, and in 3.3.4, the Rocketeers who appear from the start were difficult to deal with, often causing all 3 Seawolves to be completely sinked quickly.

 

Mercury Network Uplink is set at the northeast corner of the map, only make the player to get there through the northern waterways, ignoring main enemy operation bases. Unlike other missions that need to destroy a significant building, this design almost blocks the player's possibility to go to the enemy's main operation area, which is a bit "wasted". To make this better, I would like to boldly make suggestions - if reasonable - to change the position of Mercury to the position where Grand Cannon is - on the small island at the center of the main island now (so that Mercury's shield effects will be able to fully displayed), and put one (or some) valuable tech structure(s) on Mercury's current location, such as Tech Military Docks and Maintenance Facility - I think these two buildings will be quite useful in this mission, and reveal their position as well as the southwest Refinery and northern Airfield when map is fully expanded.

 

Then, weaken the defense in the northeast and strengthen the defense in the southern part of the main island, so that the difficulty of the mission will not become too different. If able, making the southern strait defenses very rigorous is also a brilliant idea, so player have to make landfall, to destroy Mercury from the north - and deploy various reinforcements after the player lands, including PsiCorps Troopers: they are currently only able to use for defense.

 

The last problem is that it is after the introduction of the Giant Squid/PsiCorps Trooper & Psychic Sensor that mission mentioned that they are unlocked; however, in fact they can all be built before being introduced; in 3.0, only Giant Squid is like this.

 

In all, the most fundamental thing is the official design ideas, which shall be respected. All of which are just suggestions for improving the play experience.

Edited by TerumasaReal, 17 February 2019 - 02:08 PM.

[Petya]

Death From Above used to be easier, when the player had access to Wolfhounds. Then for whatever reason they were replaced by Vultures. The mission was kind of designed around the use of Wolfhounds and I presume that the mission was barely touched after the retcon (just the usual post-production changes, where certain elements are just completely ignored, in this case the impact of the removal of the Wolfhound, which was just huge). In all fairness I think that mission has become awful, when Wolfhounds were removed, but the incoming forces weren't balanced around their disappearance. Back then I had no issue with the mission even on mental, but at the moment I am happy if I can survive the beginning of it on Normal.

 

As for Sunlight: technically speaking the LC presence in that mission is limited to a single outpost. Wolfhounds there are mainly for being the sake of difficulty, so that Thors can't really steamroll that outpost that easily.

[TerumasaReal]

Oh, another improvement I must say - Soviet mission Peace Treaty really needs to add more difficulty changes.

[BotRot]

Oh, another improvement I must say - Soviet mission Peace Treaty really needs to add more difficulty changes.

If you were asking for specific changes (like for example, spawning an air armada or all out assault by AI on final 5 minutes on Mental), I think the straightforward nature of the mission aside from mostly starting money should be maintained, as it is after all the 5th mission in the Soviet Act 1 campaign. 

[SuperSnivy]

In "Stormbringer", when you destroy the mind-controlled Soviet base, Yuri himself appears and dismantles the Psychic Beacon that controlled said base.

 

The problem I have with this is that after Yuri dismantles the Beacon... he just stays out there in the open, unable be damaged by anything the player has, and there is no explanation whatsoever behind this. Yes, it makes sense that Yuri can't be killed for plot reasons, but it doesn't make sense that the Allies can't even try to kill him.

 

I think Yuri should either leave after getting rid of the Beacon, or some kind of explanation should be given as to why he can't be attacked (some kind of subtle mind control that makes nearby units not want to attack him, maybe?).

[TerumasaReal]

 

Oh, another improvement I must say - Soviet mission Peace Treaty really needs to add more difficulty changes.

If you were asking for specific changes (like for example, spawning an air armada or all out assault by AI on final 5 minutes on Mental), I think the straightforward nature of the mission aside from mostly starting money should be maintained, as it is after all the 5th mission in the Soviet Act 1 campaign. 

 

Changes to existed missions should be cautious, apparently, but.. the Peace Treaty does need to supplement difficulty changes. It can be proved that Peace Treaty has no differences in any difficulty except for the starting credits and the four Abrams in the first phase, through my checking. The attack intensity of Americans after the Psychic Beacon is built is the same regardless of the difficulty, this is obviously abnormal. What's more, there used to be a lot of co-op missions with little differences on various difficulties, but in 3.3.3, they become "truly easy in Easy", not to mention that the mission that needs to supplement the difficulty changes is now only this one, it may be not a too difficult or inappropriate action.

Edited by TerumasaReal, 17 February 2019 - 02:18 PM.

[TerumasaReal]

In "Stormbringer", when you destroy the mind-controlled Soviet base, Yuri himself appears and dismantles the Psychic Beacon that controlled said base.

 

The problem I have with this is that after Yuri dismantles the Beacon... he just stays out there in the open, unable be damaged by anything the player has, and there is no explanation whatsoever behind this. Yes, it makes sense that Yuri can't be killed for plot reasons, but it doesn't make sense that the Allies can't even try to kill him.

 

I think Yuri should either leave after getting rid of the Beacon, or some kind of explanation should be given as to why he can't be attacked (some kind of subtle mind control that makes nearby units not want to attack him, maybe?).

Really? when I play, he'll still leave as before. Maybe this is an accidental bug?

[TerumasaReal]

Just now got new information from Ollerus, all Adepts since Memory Dealer will be replaced by Elites. Therefore, what I said about that in Ghost Hunt becomes reasonable now.

 

Elite will become a PC+HQ unit lorewisely, SC won't have any bald heads at all (future Elites in Lizard Brain can be considered as borrowed from PC+HQ). Real "Epsilon Adept" (not PsiCorps Trooper) will only be kept in Taciturn, Conqueror and Awake and Alive.

Edited by TerumasaReal, 18 February 2019 - 02:56 PM.

[Damfoos]

Uh but why? Elites are meant to be elites, to be extraordinary versions of something, and this just makes them regular Yuri army members.

Edited by Damfoos, 18 February 2019 - 01:47 PM.

[TerumasaReal]

Uh but why? Elites are meant to be elites, to be extraordinary versions of something, and this just makes them regular Yuri army members.

I think this is to clearly define when Adepts should appear. They are currently to be mixed with PsiCorps' Elites, which is a bit odd. Adept is a very early unit (appears in Archetype), representing the oldest technology of PsiCorps. Guess that, they are really thirsty to train and upgrade all of them since Bran research base is retaken.

 

Now that we can assure that Scorpion Cell has originally no bald heads, and now the SC bald heads in Ghost Hunt are replaced (and locked) by Elites, whose presence can be explained by the fact that they are provided by PsiCorps. Lizard Brain's bald heads can be explained in this way too.

 

As for why HQ's bald heads will be replaced together, I think it is affected by Unthinkable. In this mission, changing Adepts to Elites can help naval defense. Later, MM might thought that since Adepts appeared in Act One many times, in Act Two, they should "go to retire" - oops, as I said before. "PC & HQ can be counted as one group, unlike Allied and Soviet subfactions, so HQ Adepts could also be upgraded".

 

However, I feel that this change might cause great controversy, apparently. Even myself was confused about that. 'Cause the official description says: "The Elite force of the Epsilon Army, Adepts who have attained further psychic power and who have proven their worth to Yuri himself. Assigned to the PsiCorps, they represent some of Yuri's most powerful agents", this change will conflict with the design, unless rewrite Epsilon Elite & Adept official description completely.

 

 

Edited by TerumasaReal, 18 February 2019 - 03:28 PM.

[PACER]

 

Uh but why? Elites are meant to be elites, to be extraordinary versions of something, and this just makes them regular Yuri army members.

I think this is to clearly define when Adepts should appear. They are currently to be mixed with PsiCorps' Elites, which is a bit odd. Adept is a very early unit (appears in Archetype), representing the oldest technology of PsiCorps. Guess that, they are really thirsty to train and upgrade all of them since Bran research base is retaken.

 

Now that we can assure that Scorpion Cell has originally no bald heads, and now the SC bald heads in Ghost Hunt are replaced (and locked) by Elites, whose presence can be explained by the fact that they are provided by PsiCorps. Lizard Brain's bald heads can be explained in this way too.

 

As for why HQ's bald heads will be replaced together, I think it is affected by Unthinkable. In this mission, changing Adepts to Elites can help naval defense. Later, MM might thought that since Adepts appeared in Act One many times, in Act Two, they should "go to retire" - oops, as I said before. "PC & HQ can be counted as one group, unlike Allied and Soviet subfactions, so HQ Adepts could also be upgraded".

 

However, I feel that this change will cause great controversy, apparently. 'Cause the official description says: "The Elite force of the Epsilon Army, Adepts who have attained further psychic power and who have proven their worth to Yuri himself. Assigned to the PsiCorps, they represent some of Yuri's most powerful agents", this change will conflict with the design. After all, Yuri's direct pro-guands is PsiCorps, HQ is just a special division used for Antarctic defense and partial support PC's battle, seldom witness major battles, their status may not be so high. If the PC and HQ are treated the same by Yuri, the distinction between PC and HQ will become meaningless.

 

Anyway, giving the specific official design is now necessary...

 

 

The answer is trivial. What is the vehicle unit first introduced in Memory Dealer?

[TerumasaReal]

Mastermind. Well, I've seen a define that normal Adepts are sacrificed for making Masterminds, based from its official description. Hmm, this answer is adorable, and also acceptable.

 

Despite of the "artificial brain" mentioned in Memory Dealer text conflicts with it.

Edited by TerumasaReal, 18 February 2019 - 03:25 PM.