304 replies to this topic

[predator_bg]

 

 

i did extract the fix rar u linked in ur previous comment
 
now the game crashes to desktop when i choose Thermal General on challenge Mod , and when i load a Nuke General Challenge

It works on my PC. No crash, no intro bug.
 

Is there a way to skip or remove him from challenge mode?

Yes, you can. Extract Campaign.ini (you need FinalBig to open .big files) and edit map rotations.

 

where is the Campaign.ini file ?

 

Search for Data\INI\Campaign.ini in !Contra009Beta.big.

[NapoleonAK]

 

 

 

i did extract the fix rar u linked in ur previous comment
 
now the game crashes to desktop when i choose Thermal General on challenge Mod , and when i load a Nuke General Challenge

It works on my PC. No crash, no intro bug.
 

Is there a way to skip or remove him from challenge mode?

Yes, you can. Extract Campaign.ini (you need FinalBig to open .big files) and edit map rotations.

 

where is the Campaign.ini file ?

 

Search for Data\INI\Campaign.ini in !Contra009Beta.big.

 

Data\INI\ folder is empty

 

there is nothing inside the DATA> INI folder

[predator_bg]

 

 

 

 

i did extract the fix rar u linked in ur previous comment
 
now the game crashes to desktop when i choose Thermal General on challenge Mod , and when i load a Nuke General Challenge

It works on my PC. No crash, no intro bug.
 

Is there a way to skip or remove him from challenge mode?

Yes, you can. Extract Campaign.ini (you need FinalBig to open .big files) and edit map rotations.

 

where is the Campaign.ini file ?

 

Search for Data\INI\Campaign.ini in !Contra009Beta.big.

 

Data\INI\ folder is empty

 

there is nothing inside the DATA> INI folder

 

As I said, you need FinalBig to extract files from !Contra009Beta.big. Contra files are inside those .big/.ctr files.

[UsernameUsername]

Feedback for Contra 009, stealth general:

 

The stealth general's whole gameplay centers around intelligence and counter intelligence and doesn't address situations in which this is completely ignored by either the enemy (not caring, just rushing) and the stealth general not gaining an advantage due to this because there's a lack of units to exploit this knowledge. This needs to be fixed.

 

Issues:

[1] Hold fire option missing on some units

Hold fire is extremely useful for staying invisible. Yet not all defense structures and units have this option but they should have.

 

[2] Hold position for gun buggies and assassins

It's annoying to see these stand-still-to-remain-stealthed units move to make room for own units, allied units or being pushed by enemy units, causing them to get revealed and get shot. Is it possible to get a "hold position" button that immobilizes them and will keep them stealthed at all times while this is active ?

 

[3] Scorpion overkill issue

Scorpion tanks deal a lot of overkill / wrong target / too many shots at same target wasted damage. There is nothing anyone can do about that because even if manually assigning a target the tank will still attack whatever else is in range while the main target isn't in range, wasting shots at wrong targets, standing there with reload time while the actual target is in range. Also overkill damage is an issue with pumping 2-3 additional shots in a target that'd be done with one shot. So there's a fix or workaround needed here by changing something of the design conept.

Maybe stationary mode for Scorpion tanks that enables the powerful shot with long reload time and otherwise they use normal tank attacks

-or-

weapon toggle

-or-

a single seat for an RPG trooper to attack from

-or-

a second type of tank that is the opposite of the Scorpion's design

 

Edit: I think the best fix would be to have the shots jump to close targets like Airforce General's frog bomb upgrade. That way Scorpion tanks can remain with low HP and weak resistances to contamination combined with their overkill damage and long reload time.

 

Edit 30.05.2016:

After looking in the ini files: Upgrading Stealth General's Scorpion tank's turret with scrap crates doesn't just increase it's damage ouput but also increases it's reload time from 5s to 7s and 10s. The dps increase by around +4 dps per upgrade. The design is actually quite good but the flaw is the game that won't allow to pre-select a target, unstealth, fire, restealth so that these units already get in perfect range and attack the desired target. That's the whole issue with handling some of these tanks: having to guess whether or not they're in range and having to spam-click the target they're supposed to attack, hoping they won't just waste their shot on some unintended target taking little damage or being far less relevant. Need a way to reliably pre-set targets, causing units to get in range, without spam-clicking upon reveal.

 

I've experimented a bit with the INI and found a solution to mimic the actual attack without ever starting to attack or breaking stealth. With this dummy weapon for "Hold Fire" units will be able to target other units using the same conditions as the actual primary weapon as well as trying to take care of minimum and maximum range. The additional moduletag changes are still required for not losing stealth and working targeting and weapon toggle.

 

Weapon.ini changes:

;-added this as Scorpion tank's new dummy weapon to replace the old one. This is the unit's new secondary weapon across all upgrade levels.

 

Weapon ScorpionHoldFireSecondaryWeapon
  PrimaryDamage = 100.0
  PrimaryDamageRadius = 10.0
  ScatterRadiusVsInfantry = 15.0
  AttackRange = 150.0
  MinimumAttackRange = 30.0
  MinTargetPitch = -15
  MaxTargetPitch = 15  
  DamageType = ARMOR_PIERCING
  DeathType = EXPLODED
  WeaponSpeed = 600  
  RadiusDamageAffects = ALLIES ENEMIES NEUTRALS
  DelayBetweenShots = 5000
  PreAttackDelay = -1 ; <- THIS makes the unit never attack while it still will try to get in range and aim at the target. The remaining settings are copied from Scorpion tank's primary weapon.
  PreAttackType = PER_CLIP
  ClipSize  = 1
  ProjectileCollidesWith = STRUCTURES
End

 

StealthGeneral.ini changes:

;-these changes belong to Stealth General's Scorpion tank modules

;-added stealth acquire targets setting to the already existing Moduletag_03 to make the unit not only aquires targets in stealth but also immediately attack after switching from "Hold fire" to primary weapon which it otherwise wouldn't do

 

  Behavior = AIUpdateInterface ModuleTag_03
    Turret
      TurretTurnRate = 180
      RecenterTime = 5000
      ControlledWeaponSlots = PRIMARY SECONDARY
    End
    AutoAcquireEnemiesWhenIdle = Yes Stealthed
  End

 

;-also added this new module to make the unit only drop stealth when using it's primary weapon ahead of actually receiving stealth by any source

;-didn't know what re-stealth delay GPS Scrambler has; found 2000 milliseconds across many units so took that

  Behavior = StealthUpdate ModuleTag_Stealth
    StealthDelay                = 2000 ; msec
    StealthForbiddenConditions  = FIRING_PRIMARY
    FriendlyOpacityMin          = 50.0%
    FriendlyOpacityMax          = 100.0%
    InnateStealth               = No
  End

 

;-all of this has been tested and works

; 30.05.2016 end

 

The more the Scorpion tank's turret is upgraded the longer the reload time gets: 5 / 7 / 10s with a slight dps bonus of +4 on average each upgrade. Even though 3/3 experience rank units gain +30% rate of fire bonus (7.7s) and +30% damage (370.5 -> Tank General's Emperor tank has 1300 HP, for comparison)

 

[4] The bio bomb upgrade for suicide units actually harms my gameplay

Bio bomb is an upgrade for stealth general's suicide units that makes them worse to handle. Because they'll reveal themselves when taking damage and because they're not immune to bio bomb's toxins this "upgrade" acts more like a path blocker / unit revealer, helping the enemy to more easily spot and shoot my suicide units. Delete this upgrade and replace it with something beneficial, like the toxin tractor toxin puddle grenade launcher idea or sth.

 

Edit: Replace the upgrade with one granting Gun Buggys the ability to remain stealthed while moving and taking damage, if possible so. This fixes one of the Stealth General's main flaws: Always already being required to have a setup pre-installed instead of being able to actually get into position with units and counter attacks.

 

[5] Jarmen Kell issues:

-attack mode and guard area doesn't work right quite often and causes this unit to stand there, doing noting at all

-the sniper skill resets to full cooldown if it was on cooldown while the unit gained an experience level; it should not start counting again but just tick with the remaining time -> the time reset should not be there

-parasite is kinda useless: If I want I can always just use a radar van to scan an area or place an anti air stealth radar; there's no need for this; more useful would be a target pointer causing a single explosive scud missile strike at that point after some time as the stealth general lacks long range siege units but doesn't lack detection and area visibility features

 

[6] No upgrades within elbrus storm and jammer station

Sadly both of these buildings have no upgrades for certain units. Elbrus launcher should have a weapon switch upgrade for the mobile elbrus launcher vehicle to be able to switch between toxic, explosive and EMP missiles (if that's possible). Otherwise a slight range bonus for RPG troopers is required as assault general's tanks have more range than RPG troopers, causing them to be unable to fire back at these tanks from inside a palace due to a lack of range (possible issue with tank range towards other general's RPG units, too; you'll have to look into this). Jammer station could get an upgrade to allow units to restealth faster (half time until restealth) or that upgrade to make biker units stealthed while standing still or an upgrade to add the suicide EMP effect to saboteur bikers which is missing in their actions list for unkown reasons.

 

Edit: RPG Troopers should either get an upgrade or right from the start have a main weapon that works exactly as Stealth General's Scorpion tank weapon currently does (Contra 009 Beta): One big shot, that isn't RPG type. This should go hand in hand with a slight range bonus, allowing RPG Troopers to shoot back at any non-siege tank from inside a building. The change from RPG to Scorpion tank shot would allow to bypass Chinese ECM systems which is badly needed to have a chance against the tank general with all the heavy tanks snipers can't seem to take down very well. Basically ECM tanks counter Stealth General's whole defense as neither Stinger Sites nor Tunnel Networks nor Gun Buggys loaded with RPG units can currently attack them and that's all the stationary defense I have.

 

[7] The anti mine vehicle sucks

It really does, compared to Chinese field engineer. It can't gain experience doing it's job, easily takes a lot of damage from almost all sources, can't just be set to guard mode to do it's job and is prone to die while doing it's job while unwatched - not due to enemy units but due to mines / traps it's supposed to counter. Also it can't remove booby-traps from enemy buildings (no GLA unit can - lack !) and can't detect demo general's nuke trap building.

It should be able to gain experience, be immune / resistant to what it's supposed to counter, have more range for destroying these traps / mines and the aura for that should refresh more often. Currently this thing is pretty, pretty bad at it's job compared to the field engineer.

 

Edit: Grant the anti mine units the ability to level up by doing it's job. It's the one thing it's intended for and it's just mediocre at that job so at least allow leveling.

 

[8] Clean contamination doesn't work this way

Each time my main building was the target of a super weapon / general power and was destroyed due to this I can't use this building to get rid of contamination. That concept is flawed. Command trucks suck hard at getting rid of contamination: Limited area, far too high cooldown compared to the effect refresh rate, unreliable "removal" of effects (often remaining mini puddles) - so despite being slow, not immune, having to drive to the center, being area bound and having a cooldown it's still unreliable to clean the contamination...

Get rid of this concept. It doesn't work. Assign a unit just like the other factions. No cooldown, no drive to center to area while being affected by the contamination, no slow, expensive unit for the job, no unit whose job it is to train infantry which it can't do while cleaning contamination due to driving to it's center, no trillion factories just to have some contamination removal at all that *may* work and *may* not get destroyed gamble.

At the very least add a grenade launcer for not having to drive into the contamination -or- add (almost) full contamination immunity. But ideally: Specific unit for that job instead of main buildings / slow, expensive, non-resistant, area bound, cooldown waiting trucks with unreliable removal of effects !

 

Edit:

Factory and Command Trucks need more health (adjust selfheal accordingly) or better armor as they're the only units capable of removing contamination and yet they die to many single super weapon attacks which are THE source of huge area contamination. It starts with Command Trucks not being immune to contamination which they should be. It doesn't help that they're also slow and have to drive to the center of an area to decontaminate it. Neither does it that there are puddles remaining. 3 changes required: 1) High arc grenade launcher (no line of sight required to target area, siege weapon range) do a decontamination grenade; 2) lower the cooldown to at least half the current value because while contaminations are up all my Stinger Sites are useless, all my Sniper Sites are useless and all light units (all buggy based units) take considerable damage, along with all infantry, all other units still take mediocre damage. 3) Add a decontamination gun to the Command truck that works just like the decontamination weapon of the other factions and allow Command Trucks to also gain experience by clearing contamination just like the other units can. If all that is too effective we can still remove things or lower values. But try this.

 

[9] Tunnel things

Why can I camo net every building except the rank 5 tunnel ? Is this intended ?

 

Edit: Rank 5 -> increase health, either grant passive invisibility or Camo Net upgrade, add self-repair of the value that tech buildings get.

 

[10] Rank 5 toxin plane

This is by far one of the worst rank 5 skills in the game. The plane get's shot down so easily and doesn't even get any upgrades by anything (talking as Stealth General only). If it reaches it's target it just damages infantry and light units and that only mediocre while also causing suicide units I might send in there to die / take damage and get revealed and get shot due to that. Just flat out replace that with anything fitting the stealth general. I'd suggest a paradrop with special units, only obtainable this way, capable of climbing and working as a 3-5 man team -> more interesting gameplay than "bomb here" and hope it makes it, while also being not what I need in battle most of the time (I have elbrus launcher and storm - I seriously don't need this).

 

[11] Rank 5 experience level

The experience rank 5 upgrade doesn't grant an initial bonus experience level for the hero vehicle unit "hazael", the angry mob, any suicide unit and their biker versions, any hijaker and saboteur unit (in case that's relevant for bonus HP or something).

 

[12] Saboteur EMP suicide

This tooltip lacks 2 infos:

1) If used directly below an aircraft it will instantly destroy that aircraft (stand inside ground shadow, push EMP suicide = aircraft crashes if it was above you at that time)

2) disables for 45s ingame time

3) this ability is missing on the biker for unknown reasons

 

[13] hijacker

-URGENT ISSUE: often stops for no apparent reason instead of going after the vehicle as ordered ( WTF ? )

-can be run over by vehicles (kinda OK with this)

-too slow to catch up to most mobile units but steathed while running while not stealthed while with bike -> at least add a stand still = stealthed bike option, maybe with an upgrade as the bike often is required

 

[14] Toxin tractor

Due to a large variety of anti infantry options and the fact that there are no upgrades available for this unit except for self-repair I rarely every use it and if then solely for clearing buildings. Maybe an enhanced use could be achieved if toxin puddles could be created with grenade launchers attached to these units rather than having them with a button to create a puddle around them. Could be a basic option, maybe right next to the generic puddles, maybe with a elbrus launcher upgrade to increase the toxin puddle grenade launcher range by x3 or something.

 

CRITICAL BUGS:

-hijacker often stopping with what was ordered for no apparent reason

-jarmen kell not auto attacking / guarding but just standing there, not reacting to anything; also kill driver cooldown resets to full duration on experience rank gain instead of only counting down the remaining time

-building a fake version of the command truck crashes the game with a serious error message, all other stealth general fake units work fine (tested them all)

-angry mob sometimes has 1-2 remaining, untargetable infantry units that can't receive any direct damage (maybe even not area damage) and keeps respawning new members; each individual unit should always be targetable and killable while the mob is alive; one time had an unkillable angry mob that even survived multiple scud launchers on it (including poison) and was unkillable in skirmish

 

Bugs:

-Saboteur (without bike) and hijacker (as biker) share the same hotkey to be built ("E"), with hijacker biker overriding normal saboteur when pressing "E"

-The demo general's nuke trap can't be detected by anything but the Hazael hero unit. Neither the factory built anti mine vehicle nor the radar van nor the radar van's area scan nor the angry mob, who is supposed to detect mines, traps and hidden buildings, which this thing is, can reveal that nuke trap building. I doubt this is intended this way. Just for the sake of testing I also tested other units with some form of detection: deployabe anti air radar, assassin, gun buggy - all of these are incapable of detecting this hidden structure, as intended. Didn't test biker assassin, though but doubt there's something unexpected as it's merely a bike based copy of the assassin.

-Assault general's artillery unit "Katyusha" doesn't create a salvage crate once destroyed (at least in challenge mode); same is the case for demo general's luna long range artillery that's based on the scud launcher and for cyber general's spider tank (not that crab anti infantry thing but that purple energy ball thing)

 

Strange:

-had the challenge mode mission against demo general with me being stealth general and tried to capture his palace; soldiers reported "It belongs to us", yet ownership didn't change, no matter how often I tried. So as long as this isn't intended behaviour this might be an issue.

-Stealth general's angry mob has passive stealth, either without upgrades or due to camouflage without this being stated in the tooltip. Also it has an attack indicator for traps but when clicked they are incapable of attacking it.

-GLA anti mine vehicle built in factory can't remove booby-traps from buildings (with TNT icon), unlike Chinese field engineer who can it; GLA lacks a unit for such a thing

 

Begging:

-Can GLA demo traps when built as single ones also get a circle displaying their area just like the 4x ones ?

-Please change the scrambler from G-button to C-button (just like on Jarmen Kell) due to guard mode also being G-button. So whenever I miss a click on a unit I want to set to guard mode (press G + click area) it wastes the scrambler ability unintentionally.

-Could we get a hotkey / shortcut button for radar van's area scan ?

-Could we get cooldown time information for everything having a cooldown ? (within the tooltip: "Cooldown: x seconds")

-Add the information to saboteur's EMP tooltip that it lasts 45s ingame time and can instakill aircraft it directly above the saboteur when this is used

-When spawning saboteurs and hijackers with the general power - is it possible to auto-select them for immediate use instead of first having to do that ?

 

About Static game LOD in the options.ini:

-read that setting it to low would fix a crash related to assault general's super weapon (Thread:  http://forums.revora...icgamelod-high/ )

-I set it to low, result: no area indicators animore for anti mine vehicle, command truck etc. -> not recommended setting it to low

-my game has never crashed due to this general or his super weapon with Contra009 and these are the settings of my options.ini for this:

StaticGameLOD = Custom

IdealStaticGameLOD = High

 

Regarding challenge mode and airforce general crash:

I am 100% sure it's related to the AI trying to build something it's not supposed to build.

Units:

As far as I know the current version of the airforce general can't build combat chinooks anymore, yet he has them.

There's some stealth "thing" that reveals my stealthed units but I can't find it with radar scans so it's a permanently flying, stealth revealing drone ?

 

Regarding stealth general:

There's this point in gameplay, always, where I realize I don't have any long range siege weapons to effectively breach inside an enemy base. Maybe I have the intelligence and counter intelligence but there's little advantage gained from that due to a lack of options to make use of that. Aside from hijacker / saboteur / suicide units there's not much to do and those don't really end a battle but allow it to be prolonged, compared to the use of long range siege units.

Neither the mobile elbrus launcher nor the elbrus storm are especially helpful for me as they block my saboteur, hijaker and suicide units while also not having any upgrades or alternate options to make them more effective / support the stealth playstyle.

I'm about to say "I need / want long range siege units", but I don't. I want something that helps me to effectively combat the enemy while using my full arsenal and to keep a true stealth general style gameplay, not turn into a siege general.

 

Sadly aside from spamming the hazael and suicide units there's little to do in that regard.

Rank 5 general Power: GPS Scrambler V2 -> units remain unvisible while shooting but reveal themselves upon taking damage, just like the hazael ?

Rank 5 toxin plane replacer: S-Team -> bunch of individual units (3-5) with unique abilities to harass / manipulate / confuse / create situations ? -> insta-placed napalm / emp / toxin / explosive traps for free but with cooldown, EMP sniper (for units and buildings), close range effective flame thrower vs buildings, grenade launcher causing enemy units to bounce and change position due to that, call in 1-4 suicide planes at position (depending on experience rank), toxin grenade -> anti tank, anti infantry or "balanced" weapon toggle, steal code for one super weapon use (reset owning player's cooldown, gain free use, 8min cooldown), create mine field, heal other infantry in an area around, heal other vehicles in an area around, building repair (faster than normal, if possible) with this unit, knife kill, technology steal (because we're also stealing enemy units quite a lot so why not -> 8min cooldown or sth), call some friends (spawn 1 worker, 1 jihad warrior, 1 sniper with the same experience rank as the spawning person for units able to gain experiencem if possible), dirty bomb -> spawns one that needs to be shot down in time, or else...

Jammer station effect to temporarily EMP only (ground) stealth detectors in a medium to large area (if possible)

Replace jarmen kell parasite with an effect to EMP disable / destroy a detector unit or add that to his options

Charge mode for angry mob to not get annihilated before reaching the target

 

Edit:

Add a Camo Net upgrade for Supply Trucks and Command Trucks, allowing the Stealth General to focus on actual combat units with GPS scrambler. GPS scrambler would then still have a use to make these units not reveal themselves on taking damage as Camo Net does. Don't know how both do or don't work together, though. If there's a conflict then make these units have a personal GPS scrambler that costs more (800 or sth) instead.

 

Eventually add, if possible so, a Rank 5 power that adds a second GPS Scrambler that allows units to be stealthed while attacking but reveals them on taking damage, just like the Hazael, compared to the generic GPS Scrambler that is the opposite.

 

Assassins are too weak versus Tank General's Overlord tank spam (takes an eternity to take them down) and are completely useless against most of Cyborg General's units as these lack a driver and therefore can't be snipe-shot.

Solution: Quad Cannon's upgrade "AP Bullets" should also affect these units to add AP bonus damage to their generic snipe-shots and to add a second attack that's used against non-driver vehicles to attack and destroy them instead of being unable to do anything.

 

The anti stealth stationary platform should get a high attack arc and first get above a target before striking down as buildings block this thing hard and it doesn't do damage to anything but stealth units, meaning that a building will eternally cause the rockets to collide into it with the enemy stealth unit behind, unless another attack angle / more units / building destruction fixes the situation. Knowledge: Does ECM affect this weapon ?

 

The Hazael is too weak. Scenario: Challenge mode, me (Stealth General) vs Tank General (AI), highest difficulty, one experience rank 3/3 Hazael vs one experience rank 1/3, improved propaganda tower buffed Guan Yu (or sth, his super tank). Result: The enemy tank would get healed to 100% before I could even fire the next shot, rendering my "AP" Hazael utterly useless vs that utlra heavy tank which is buffed by a passive regeneration which many of tank general's units can grant. So the Hazael should perhaps gain upgrades for it's main weapon by salvage crates as most GLA units do. There needs to be more of a punch in that shot.

 

Have Jihad Warriors start with the ability "Knife attack" as weapon toggle option next to their generic shotgun as this allows them to guard captured buildings without being auto-retarded and start attacking vehicles. It's also silent -> not revealing themselves.

 

Add an upgrade to the Jammer Station "Masterplan", increasing movespeed of all vehicles by 15%, of all infantry by 25%, except Jihad Warriors who gain 40%. This upgrade should also enable / add a "Get into position" ability for Assassins and Biker Assassins, disabling their main weapon and allowing them to move without losing stealth. Also increases all infantry contamination resistance by 33% If "Get into position" would require it's own upgrade then do this, too.

 

Toxin Tractors: As the weapon upgrade due to salvage crates doesn't do much for them at all have them get a flamethrower as secondary weapon that deals good damage against non-defense structures and area affects infantry while the main weapon can still be used for clearing buildings and more effectively kill single infantry units.

 

The Aladdin is far too clunky to handle. It should be slimmed down a little to match the size of a Quad Cannon.

 

Command Trucks should also be able to train any type of non-biker infantry once requirements are met. That makes it more easy to prepare attacks and gives one more reason to have some of these. It also allows to more easily get the upper hand on enemies playing bad once a good economy has been gained. Yet this doesn't do a thing to counter air units so GLA may be more affected than anyone else by this change. Maybe a Stinger upgrade at the Jammer Station for RPG troopers to switch between anti ground and anti air would be required. Maybe.

 

Edit 30.05.2016:

I think I found a bug for Assault General's T-63 Marauder while browsing the INI files: His main weapon deals 110 damage on scrap upgrade 2/2 which is the same as without an upgrade. This actually lowers his damage output compared to a 1/2 scrap upgrade of the turret. Also the tank's DPS seem too high. An Emperor tank of the Tank General deals around 39 dps without any experience or additional upgrades. The Marauder starts with around 37 dps and is already at around 54 dps with just one scrap upgrade. That seems to be too much.

Edited by UsernameUsername, 30 May 2016 - 06:30 AM.

[B.kano]

1. Why the “F16 XL” aircraft don't get affected with “hybrid engine” upgrade anymore ?? I think this should be back because “F16 XL” doesn’t have any upgrades while ranking up.

2. How the hell can “Blue Lasers” attack demo traps and all kinds of Juhziz's mines ?! if this is intended then there's no need for “ARV”, btw Laser’s “sentry droid” is really overpowered since it can detect all types of stealth units, fast, well armored and armed, to balance this mines and demo traps should be undetectable for it OR remove tank armor from it (like leach's armor).

3. ”Building Mech” (Robots' construction dozer) has a kind of immunity from explosions and bombers, this is a real annoying bug.

5. Some balancing to Robots' super units is necessary like “Seraph” firepower and “Nemesis” armor, both needs to be decreased a bit.

6. I gave the Infantry’s rank 5 bomber (carpet bombing big plane) the “Frenzy” power, the plane turns red that means it’s affected, but it didn’t bring any bonus damage. Also I have tried it on the rest of the generals powers bombers and they didn’t bring any extra damage. This is a bug I guess !

[predator_bg]

@UsernameUsername

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[1] The reason many units don't have a "Hold Fire" option is because it cannot be applied to some of them. Units which use more than one weapon (such as Quad Cannon - PRIMARY (anti-ground) and SECONDARY (anti-air)) cannot have a "Hold Fire" dummy weapon applied without bugs. Once a player switches to the TERTIARY (dummy) weapon, the unit no longer switches to PRIMARY and SECONDARY flawlessly. It would only use one of them at all times, as I remember. Maybe you can find a solution. I tried some time ago and I failed.

 

[2] Maybe. Not sure.

 

[3] Interesting approach. I will apply and test it. The reload time increases as the damage increases. It is intentional. A scorpion can one shot kill a basic tank at 3rd veterancy, so having the same low reload time will make them OP.

 

[4] We have a plan to revise Bio Bomb. Maybe we'll remove it.

 

[5] The Snipe Pilot Crew ability timer resets since Generals. We have no control over it, sadly. Parasite concept may change. I'll look into guard and attack move modes.

 

[6] We'll think about it when we get to GLA.

 

[7] Just made the BTR able to level up.

 

[8] I agree on this one. But we'll get to it later.

 

[9] We may add a Camo Netting upgrade to it. Or something else. We'll discuss it.

 

[10] We'll discuss it.

 

[11] It does not affect suicide and utility units intentionally. We'll think about Hazael.

 

[12]

1) I removed this effect for the Nemesis as it was OP. I plan to review all aircraft and do the same.

2) Info added.

3) It was removed intentionally as players could spam Saboteur Bikers at enemy super units and easily disable them for a long duration. I think about adding tooltip for this.

 

[13] The Hijacker Biker is very unreliable and glitchy at capturing vehicles. We might as well remove it from the mod. We can't fix it.

 

[14] We'll see about it.

 

Bugs:

- Good job on finding a crash causer. I will look into it.

- The GLA Nuke Detonator unable to be detected was reported recently by someone else and I am trying to find why this is happening.

- The bug with Angry Mob is known only for the Demo version so far (suicidal Mad Mob). We plan to replace this unit.

- Tooltips fixed.

- Salvage crates added.

 

Strange:

- You shouldn't be able to capture a Palace in the first place. Strange indeed.

- Tooltip updated. I will look into the attack indicator thing.

- No mine clearers can remove booby traps. It's intentional.

 

Begging:

- About red circle for Demo Traps, maybe in the future. Low priority.

- GPS Scrambler hotkey changed.

- Radar Van Scan hotkey added.

- You have cooldown information on every power's shortcut. If you are talking about Science tooltips, that's gonna take time...

- It's impossible to select units before spawning them.

 

About Static game LOD in the options.ini:

Thanks for the info.

 

Regarding challenge mode and airforce general crash:

I think you could be right. The AI had a team which consisted of Coyote tanks, but as you know, Granger never builds a War Factory on that map. It can't be the Combat Chinooks, though, as he builds and attacks with them. We removed them just in the latest version, but the crash problem persisted before that.

The thing revealing your stealthed units could be the Improved Spy Satellite power (the giant controllable eye).

 

All of the below remarks:

I will share them with Dcesarec (Contra's second team member) and we will discuss them together.

 

Thanks again for the wall of text... ugh.

 

1. Why the “F16 XL” aircraft don't get affected with “hybrid engine” upgrade anymore ?? I think this should be back because “F16 XL” doesn’t have any upgrades while ranking up.

2. How the hell can “Blue Lasers” attack demo traps and all kinds of Juhziz's mines ?! if this is intended then there's no need for “ARV”, btw Laser’s “sentry droid” is really overpowered since it can detect all types of stealth units, fast, well armored and armed, to balance this mines and demo traps should be undetectable for it OR remove tank armor from it (like leach's armor).

3. ”Building Mech” (Robots' construction dozer) has a kind of immunity from explosions and bombers, this is a real annoying bug.

5. Some balancing to Robots' super units is necessary like “Seraph” firepower and “Nemesis” armor, both needs to be decreased a bit.

6. I gave the Infantry’s rank 5 bomber (carpet bombing big plane) the “Frenzy” power, the plane turns red that means it’s affected, but it didn’t bring any bonus damage. Also I have tried it on the rest of the generals powers bombers and they didn’t bring any extra damage. This is a bug I guess !

1. It was too powerful. Air Force has more than enough bombers to choose from at rank 5. Build Auroras instead.

2. I will look into this.

3. We fixed it for the next version.

4. *you don't have a 4.*

5. Agree about Nemesis. Not sure about Seraph.

6. Can't think of a way to fix it. You are not supposed to get bonus damage from bombers anyway.

[UsernameUsername]

[1] "Hold Fire" for units using PRIMARY and SECONDARY weapon slots:

 

 

predator_bg:

[1] The reason many units don't have a "Hold Fire" option is because it cannot be applied to some of them. Units which use more than one weapon (such as Quad Cannon - PRIMARY (anti-ground) and SECONDARY (anti-air)) cannot have a "Hold Fire" dummy weapon applied without bugs. Once a player switches to the TERTIARY (dummy) weapon, the unit no longer switches to PRIMARY and SECONDARY flawlessly.

 

I think I got this fixed, using the Quad Cannon for experimenting. The settings below will add "Hold Fire" and "Fire at will" to the Quad Cannon's command set. Once produced it starts with "Fire at will" active. I tested all it's turrets after swtiching between "Hold Fire" and "Fire at will" on all experience ranks and random amounts of switches, then tried attacking infantry, building, vehicles and an aircraft (flying). All weapons, including DummyWeapon, kept working as intended.

 

 

StealthGeneral.ini changes:

 

  WeaponSet
    Conditions = None
    Weapon = PRIMARY QuadCannonGun
    Weapon = SECONDARY QuadCannonGunAir
    Weapon = TERTIARY DummyWeapon
    WeaponLockSharedAcrossSets = Yes ;This will make sure it doesn't switch to "Fire at will" once a salvage crate upgrades the turret
  End
  WeaponSet
    Conditions = CRATEUPGRADE_ONE
    Weapon = PRIMARY QuadCannonGunUpgradeOne
    Weapon = SECONDARY QuadCannonGunUpgradeOneAir
    Weapon = TERTIARY DummyWeapon
    WeaponLockSharedAcrossSets = Yes ;This will make sure it doesn't switch to "Fire at will" once a salvage crate upgrades the turret
  End
  WeaponSet
    Conditions = CRATEUPGRADE_TWO
    Weapon = PRIMARY QuadCannonGunUpgradeTwo
    Weapon = SECONDARY QuadCannonGunUpgradeTwoAir
    Weapon = TERTIARY DummyWeapon
    WeaponLockSharedAcrossSets = Yes ;This will make sure it doesn't switch to "Fire at will" once a salvage crate upgrades the turret
  End

 

; New Module:

  Behavior = LockWeaponCreate ModuleTag_21
    SlotToLock = PRIMARY +SECONDARY
  End

 

 

Adding the buttons:

 

CommandSet.ini changes:

 

CommandSet Slth_GLAVehicleQuadCannonCommandSet
  1 = Command_FireAtWillPrimaryAndSecondary
  3 = Command_HoldFireTertiary
  9 = Slth_Command_ConstructGLAVehicleFake
  15 = Command_AttackMove
  13 = Command_GuardFlyingUnitsOnly
  17 = Command_Guard
  18 = Command_Stop
End

 

 

CommandButton.ini changes (don't know if I added this or it was already there anymore):

 

CommandButton Command_FireAtWillPrimaryAndSecondary
  Command                 = SWITCH_WEAPON
  WeaponSlot              = PRIMARY SECONDARY
  Options                 = CHECK_LIKE OK_FOR_MULTI_SELECT
  TextLabel     = CONTROLBAR:FireAtWill
  ButtonImage   = SSFireAtWill
  ButtonBorderType = ACTION
  DescriptLabel     = CONTROLBAR:FireAtWillDescription
End

 

CommandButton Command_HoldFireTertiary
  Command                 = SWITCH_WEAPON
  WeaponSlot              = TERTIARY
  Options                 = CHECK_LIKE OK_FOR_MULTI_SELECT
  TextLabel     = CONTROLBAR:HoldFire
  ButtonImage   = SSHoldFire
  ButtonBorderType = ACTION
  DescriptLabel     = CONTROLBAR:HoldFireDescription
End

 

 

 

[2] Jarmen Kell targeting bug and fix:

 

Tried to fix Jarmen Kell's bugged targeting and found the malfunction's reason:

The malfunction happens once Jarmen Kell aquires a vehicle as target while on attack-move or guard area order. The targeting issue happens with and without weapon upgrade. Despite all WeaponSet settings using "AutoChooseSources = [weaponslot] NONE" he still tries to attack vehicles with the "Kill Driver" secondary weapon (even when I deleted the line "PreferredAgainst = SECONDARY HUGE_VEHICLE"). He then realizes he's restricted from doing so, resets, aquires the same target, stuck in an endless loop of uselessness. Conclusion: The WeaponSet setting "AutoChooseSources" doesn't seem to work while a unit follows an attack-move or guard area order, which seem to override or ignore the setting. Maybe "AutoChooseSources" is just for situations in which the unit has no actual orders, maybe it also works while a unit is moving.

 

=> Failed attempts to fix this:

-added "AutoChooseSources" for PRIMARY, using FROM_PLAYER FROM_AI FROM_SCRIPT

-deleting the line: PreferredAgainst = SECONDARY HUGE_VEHICLE

-"AutoAcquireEnemiesWhenIdle = Yes" changed to "AutoAcquireEnemiesWhenIdle = No"

-WeaponSlot-locking to PRIMARY slot (as expected disabled all other special abilities but didn't find a special way to enable them to get a workaround for the issues)

=> Achieved fix:

-changing "Kill Driver" from MELEE damage type back to KILL_PILOT; This causes Jarmen Kell to ignore Vehicles again while on attack-move and guard mode while he's still able to kill vehicle drivers that way

 => With this Jarmen Kell doesn't get stuck in a loop of uselessness.

 

After the damage type change from MELEE to KILL_PILOT:

Because of the new damage type I checked for conflicts in the Armor.ini. Turns out there are none, mostly, and existing issues can be solved by adding the missing line of text to certain armor types. After that everything works as before.

 

 

Armor.ini changes:

These armor types have MELEE damage set to 0% but DEFAULT to 100% while lacking a KILL_PILOT entry, causing "Kill Driver" to use DEFAULT damage values and treat them as targets with the new KILL_PILOT damage type while before with MELEE damage type they'd be invalid targets:
[1]
ChinookArmor
CountermeasuresChinookArmor
ChinookArmorWithRadar
InvulnerableArmor (ARMOR = DEFAULT 1% for this one)
BikeArmor
RoboticTankArmorCybrUpgraded
MicrowaveRoboticTankArmorCybrUpgraded
RoboticTankArmorCybrUpgradedMineProof
AntiAirVehicleDrone
AntiAirVehicleDroneCybrUpgraded
NemesisArmor

This can be undone by just adding the line

Armor = KILL_PILOT 0%

to each of them as this line is missing by all of them.

------

[2]
BattleBusTruckArmorPlusTwo
Armor = KILL_PILOT    100%
Armor = MELEE           0%
-> Battle Bus with full armor wasn't a legitimate target for Jarmen Kell's "Kill Driver" before the change, now it is.

Interestingly the Assault and Demolition General's Battle Bus have a "KillSelfPilotWeapon" module installed, reacting to MELEE damage that they're immune against, which means they can't be attacked by that weapon type and also can't receive any damage by it.

Without causing any issues you could either set KILL_PILOT damage to 0% for this unit and it's 2/2 upgraded armor state, disallowing Jarmen Kell to use "KILL DRIVER" -or- allow MELEE damage type (Assassins attacking vehicles damage type), eventually triggering the "Kill Driver" effect at low HP. Your decision.

----------------

These armor types were allowed targets before but no longer are:
[1]
BeetleMineArmor

This armor type has a 0% damage entry for KILL_PILOT and SNIPER but for DEFAULT 100% while MELEE isn't defined and therefore uses DEFAULT 100%.

No issues here. Either adjust KILL_PILOT or SNIPER or add MELEE = 0%, depending on who you do or don't want to allow attacking this.

------

[2]
AndroidArmor (DEFAULT = 100% / SNIPER = 40% / KILL_PILOT = 0% / MELEE not defined -> uses default value which is 100%)
-used by Cybernetic General's Terminator, Cylon and Cyborg Commando

Now I didn't know if "Kill Driver" was ever allowed to target infantry so I went for a test: changed HumanArmor to be 100% affected by KILL_PILOT damage type. Turns out infantry is still a restricted target so I assume this neither is nor ever was an issue as all of the affected units that use this armor type are also infantry. So "Kill Driver" was never and still isn't usable against them. No issues.

----------------

All other armor types have identical damage values for the two damage types MELEE and KILL_PILOT either due to the DEFAULT setting or due to being defined with identical values for the same armor type. So there are no issues for the remaining armor types unless DEFAULT, MELEE or KILL_PILOT changes are made, causing different bahaviour from previous MELEE settings.

 

Side note: While browsing INI files I found the "AwardXPForTriggering = [value]" setting which awards Black Lotus experience for performing the "Cash Hack". I thought of adding this to Jarmen Kell's "Kill Driver" ability with an experience value equal to a generic infantry unit: AwardXPForTriggering = 8 (Chinese Red Guard value). Also this setting actually solves one problem that was mentioned somewhere before: Units would gain experience too fast by performing special abilities.

 

 

 

 

 

UsernameUsername:

-Could we get cooldown time information for everything having a cooldown ? (within the tooltip: "Cooldown: x seconds")

 

 

predator_bg:

- You have cooldown information on every power's shortcut. If you are talking about Science tooltips, that's gonna take time...

 

Actually I was refering to all tooltips: General power and unit abilities. Super weapon countdown timer info in the building's build button tooltip, too.

 

Curiosity test: When does a unit count as garrisoned ?

Result: Inside any building (means: inside any civilian building, inside GLA Palace, China bunkers etc.) but NOT inside any unit (means: not inside Stealth General's Gun Buggy, not China's inside Listening Posts, not insisde Overlord or Helix bunkers etc.). Because garrisoned units gain +33% range and +25% damage I wanted to know for sure when units are affected and when not.

 

Question :

Does this bug still exist ? => VIDEO

Will test later when I have time for that. Curious atm.

 

Idea:

An idea I've been kicking around are Demo General's traps: Would it be possible to upgrade his traps with a module or design them in a way that they will constantly renew themselves after going boom ? I mean, unless an actual anti mine mechanic would be used to get rid of them. So instead of just bombing the area, using infantry because impatient plus it's cheap or sending fake units the intended anti mine and anti trap mechanics have to be used ? Had this idea when I saw GLA building holes after the actual building was destroyed.

 

Begging:

GLA Palace needs a firing position update for two things:

1) to be able to attack with full power in all directions (some corners only allow 1 of 5 men to return fire at an attacker)

2) to make sure the full attack range is used: Have units return fire from the building's borders and not from points within the building further away from it's border, reducing range for defense

The GLA Palace is currently like a bunker with weak corner defense, allowing only 1 defender to return fire. 2 of 4 corners work fine. Needs that defense capability for all 4 corners and maybe the middle parts in between.

 

Bullshit:

I noticed that Black Lotus' "Cash Hack" has the identical icon as when ordering her to capture the buildings which is confusing as these two options are completely distinct from another and shouldn't share the same icon. So I made a cursor animation that I'm not allowed to upload here, says the error. So here's the link: CashHackCur.ani

 

Bitching:

The Stealth General is far too easy to counter with contamination and ECM systems and his Assassins are awful when facing anything but infantry.

1) Contamination:

-affected workers outside easily dead

-affected Stinger Sites useless, affected Sniper Sites useless

-forced to move and reveal defensive Assassins and Gun Buggies out of contaminated area before they die / are destroyed

 

If I get a ton of fragile units and bad, clunky options of dealing with contamination that are also unreliable then allow me to at least have something for research to increase resistance to contamination for my units.

Also there should be an upgrade to render Gun Buggies immune to contamination. They're already fragile, required to stand still and can't be positioned without losing stealth. At least allow them to stand still then while not being hit directly.

 

2) ECM systems counter RPG Troopers, Stinger Sites, Tunnel Networks, Gun Buggies' RPG Troopers and Rocket Buggies while also being able to disable Scorpion tanks attacking them. That the base defense is more of a laughable excuse than an actual useful thing for Stealth General is pretty clear. So let my units deal with this at least. Grant RPG Troopers a weapon of the kind which the Scorpion tank has so that they may use it to fit their role and kill tanks, even if there are ECM systems. Just as a thought: Palace, important, RPG Troopers, ECM tank.

 

3) Assassins:

Assassins are odd and should be considered for redesign. Basically they're awful when facing anything else than infantry. They can attack vehicles, yet they aren't allowed to attack most of Cybernetic General's ground forces or hero vehicles that every general has. It takes them ages to kill the driver of even the most poorly geared and unbuffed Overlord tank - so long that this tank would run them over if it would just keep driving in their direction because despite being able to attack tanks they don't get the AP-Bullets upgrade that most other units get. The "WeaponBonusUpgrade" module remains unused for them.

 

4) No upgrades:

Neither Elbrus Storm nor Jammer Station offer any Stealth General related upgrades which is bland.

 

What I don't understand is how the Jammer Station's special effect should be useful other than making sure the enemy units stay there for a while.

 

Edit:

Regarding Cybernetic General's explosion immune Dozers:

Cybernetic General's Dozers are immune against Airforce General's Aurora Bomber bombs, JSF area effect bombs and the Super Bomber's bombs. For unknown reasons. Did quite a lot of testing, made one mistake but so far: EXPLOSION damage type doesn't seem to be the cause for 0% damage by these units as Stealth General's Terrorists, that use this damage type work just fine. I tinkered with all weapon settings, too, to no avail. I'm clueless what's the cause for that. Will test to add EXPLOSION damage type to the Dozer's armor list next and see what happens. Adding "Armor = EXPLOSION 100%" to their armor setting didn't do anything. Then it hit me: They're HOVERING. That has to be the issue. Bombs try to hit the ground and for some reason that doesn't affect the hovering Dozers.

Yupp. That did it: Changing their locomotor's lift value to 10 allows to hit and damage them again. I still don't have a clue why F18 could attack them but bombers couldn't. With this hover height it's starting to look odd once the Dozer moves across water etc. Model edit required that raises it's position somewhat to compensate. Edit again: I misread. Thought that was still an issue :\

 

Question: Currently being Airforce General vs Superweapon General. Superweapon has the Antares shield system unit and SDI Cannon. I can't damage these things because of the shield and missiles / bombs being shot down. Even if I send in all different kinds of air units at once on a single unit on a suicide mission they can't penetrate that shield / get any weapons to hit and damage that unit. Pave low doesn't work either. How the fuck am I supposed to proceed if no matter what I send in in which amounts doesn't deal any damage ? All of Airforce General's superweapons and bomber shortcut powers included. Ok got it: Fly through the shield and attack. How does this work out in multiplayer with multiple of these things one after another ?

Edited by UsernameUsername, 06 June 2016 - 10:58 PM.

[predator_bg]

[1] I followed your instructions and still, the problem is not fixed. It is not so obvious with Quad Cannon, because it can still shoot with the PRIMARY. Although, it will have less range. Test it on Hazael. You will see, once holding fire, then firing at will, Hazael will stop using SECONDARY (anti-infantry).

 

[2] Nice, thank you for that.

 

Question :

Does this bug still exist ? => VIDEO

Will test later when I have time for that. Curious atm.

It still exists. I doubt we can fix it. You can see it with anti-air units in Contra. When you pick an air target, the unit will automatically switch to the anti-air weapon, which has more range. At least TOWs do not attack aircraft in Contra, so that bug does not happen with Humvee/Valanx.

 

Idea:

An idea I've been kicking around are Demo General's traps: Would it be possible to upgrade his traps with a module or design them in a way that they will constantly renew themselves after going boom ? I mean, unless an actual anti mine mechanic would be used to get rid of them. So instead of just bombing the area, using infantry because impatient plus it's cheap or sending fake units the intended anti mine and anti trap mechanics have to be used ? Had this idea when I saw GLA building holes after the actual building was destroyed.

Should be possible.

 

----------

 

We are currently testing Quad / AT / Howitzer Defense Sites for Stealth. It is an okay solution until we get to revising Stealth.

 

Regarding Cybernetic General's explosion immune Dozers:

It was fixed by using a normal locomotor for ground movement and a hover locomotor for water movement.

 

Question: Currently being Airforce General vs Superweapon General. Superweapon has the Antares shield system unit and SDI Cannon. I can't damage these things because of the shield and missiles / bombs being shot down. Even if I send in all different kinds of air units at once on a single unit on a suicide mission they can't penetrate that shield / get any weapons to hit and damage that unit. Pave low doesn't work either. How the fuck am I supposed to proceed if no matter what I send in in which amounts doesn't deal any damage ? All of Airforce General's superweapons and bomber shortcut powers included. Ok got it: Fly through the shield and attack. How does this work out in multiplayer with multiple of these things one after another ?

Antares shield is impenetrable. However, it is not always active. AI activates shield automatically. Human player has the option to do it automatically and manually. You need to attack when the shield is reloading. Antares vehicles are limited to 5 at a time. Super Weapons General can in no way have constant shield defense all around her base at all times. In such cases, attack consequently and use powers one after another.

Edited by predator_bg, 09 June 2016 - 03:30 PM.

[Futurehero]

Hello, this is my first post here but I've tried  contra back at 008, and now that I have played 009 I can honestly say I'm amazed how much work has been put into this game.  This mod is in my opinion better than Petroglyph's Grey Goo in its mechanics. 

I wanted to give out some feedback and ask for some tips. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, as I might just be bad at this game, but here goes:

 

-Mechanized General feels a bit too strong, or maybe he just has too many options. He doesn't feel like he has strengths/weaknesses, but rather a whole breadth of options .  His early vehicles are really fast and pack a good punch, and he has better infantry than most, AND he has T1 stealth bombers, AND he has stealth Patriots. His theme seems to be fast but fragile units, but his 2 epic units seem a bit overkill. Also, the cyborgs he drops as a general power seem a bit too strong. I dunno, maybe he's actually the weakest one and I don't know his weaknesses, (maybe clue me in) but I think some of the things he has could be spread around to SW General or Laser and he still would be good.

 

-Super Weapon General seems really weak. Her style of play seems to rely on turtling and base-creeping, while using stealth bombers to pick of arty's and key base points, but I find this style of play doesn't really work in Contra, since getting promotions fast is a key factor in winning games and her slow style means I get rekt vs both the AI and my friends, while I have no problems beating her.  Again , clue me in if there's something I'm missing.

 

-Similarly , Nuke General also seems a bit on the weak side. Having no base defenses is cool, but the massive amount of collateral damage his units can inflict is not. Having to research all those upgrades, and still risking your armies cause your nuke tank hunters fired a shot at a Technical rushing past them feels a bit too crippling. Not being able to field mixed infantry/vehicle armies till propaganda center, not having a mobile Prop tower, he has a lot of drawbacks, but other than the Tank Hunters, I don't see anything he has that Flame General can't equal.

Edited by Futurehero, 13 June 2016 - 02:34 PM.

[UsernameUsername]

I've set up a shoddy looking, bland website for storing some Contra related stuff.

2 things there:

1) Black Lotus' Cash Hack cursor animation (don't know yet how to add this into the game)

2) An icon that replaces the "Knife" attack of Superweapons General's Col. Burton with that of a Pistol, Splinter Cell themed (along with some sound effects that may or may not be used in the game depending on if this makes it).

 

Link

 

I've been testing that "Hold Fire" with the Hazael and indeed it's secondary fails when the primary is locked and vice versa. Quad Cannon, however, works due to same firing ports or however it's called. So anything attacking the same kind should also work. Edit: Haven't tested it's anti air range though.

Edited by UsernameUsername, 15 June 2016 - 03:32 PM.

[B.kano]

I have noticed 2 issues which are probably bugs:

1. when need-to-deploy artillery units are firing and ordered to fire a target which isn't in it's firing range, they become unresponsive to any command (neither "stop" nor "move" nor "attack") and keep firing automatically on they were firing on, until ordered to fire at a target which is in their firing range then they become responsive.

2. Zhu Rong's thermobaric shot issue: when given Frenzy, only the first impact get extra damage not the big blast too !

 

A question: why did you remove the speedy lined laser general's power from laser general ?? it was very useful.

 

-A "Hold Fire" button to "Yan Wang" would be great.

Edited by B.kano, 19 June 2016 - 01:50 PM.

[predator_bg]

Hello, this is my first post here but I've tried  contra back at 008, and now that I have played 009 I can honestly say I'm amazed how much work has been put into this game.  This mod is in my opinion better than Petroglyph's Grey Goo in its mechanics. 
I wanted to give out some feedback and ask for some tips. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, as I might just be bad at this game, but here goes:
 
-Mechanized General feels a bit too strong, or maybe he just has too many options. He doesn't feel like he has strengths/weaknesses, but rather a whole breadth of options .  His early vehicles are really fast and pack a good punch, and he has better infantry than most, AND he has T1 stealth bombers, AND he has stealth Patriots. His theme seems to be fast but fragile units, but his 2 epic units seem a bit overkill. Also, the cyborgs he drops as a general power seem a bit too strong. I dunno, maybe he's actually the weakest one and I don't know his weaknesses, (maybe clue me in) but I think some of the things he has could be spread around to SW General or Laser and he still would be good.
 
-Super Weapon General seems really weak. Her style of play seems to rely on turtling and base-creeping, while using stealth bombers to pick of arty's and key base points, but I find this style of play doesn't really work in Contra, since getting promotions fast is a key factor in winning games and her slow style means I get rekt vs both the AI and my friends, while I have no problems beating her.  Again , clue me in if there's something I'm missing.
 
-Similarly , Nuke General also seems a bit on the weak side. Having no base defenses is cool, but the massive amount of collateral damage his units can inflict is not. Having to research all those upgrades, and still risking your armies cause your nuke tank hunters fired a shot at a Technical rushing past them feels a bit too crippling. Not being able to field mixed infantry/vehicle armies till propaganda center, not having a mobile Prop tower, he has a lot of drawbacks, but other than the Tank Hunters, I don't see anything he has that Flame General can't equal.

- Cybernetic General has his weaknesses. It's low range of stealth detection, ECM vulnerability and inability to face hordes early game. His Stealth Patriots are getting replaced with two separate defense structures in the next version. They were shown in one of the latest updates. We will be nerfing Nemesis. Seraph/Nemesis combination is too powerful. The Cylon drop can easily be stopped if your opponent has a few anti-personnel vehicles ready to stop them. Also, they give much experience when destroyed.

 

- As Super Weapon, I advise you to rush early game. It depends on the map, but if your opponent has a secondary resource, go for it with one Dozer. First, build a Patriot, then support it with an Ion Defense. It really helps get en early advantage. While your enemy tries to drive you away from his side, you will have your base secured and more developed. If you get rushed, Security Systems are a necessity. Later in game, you are supposed to build lots of defenses. If possible, use Dozer to build defenses closer and closer to the enemy base while defending it with other units (especially if you can afford Antares shield generator). That will ensure your victory.

 

- With proper unit control and good formations, he's not as self-damaging as your describe him. Isotope Stability is enough to stabilize your forces. Avoiding radiation is easy with micro-managing. With infantry, it's a bit harder. Radiation Defense at rank 3 is cheap and offers a good advantage - radiation is never against you. Mixing infantry and vehicles is very acceptable early game. It's kind of like chess. You have to bring Nuke Hunter in front to deal with Scorpions and bring Battlemasters in front to destroy Toxin Tractors. It is very effective. The main difference between Nuke and Flame is that Nuke's units are faster and deal damage faster (nukes) while Flame's units are slower and sustain damage over time (flames). Kind of like Cyber vs. Laser.

 

While this works against human players, the story is quite different vs. AI. I didn't take AI into account when analyzing. AI does not use tactics. It just spams units forward and does 10 clicks per second.

 

Some people may not find it comfortable to play as a given general as each general has a different play style. We, the three remaining developers, have similar skill and we often play online. If we spot a balance problem, we try to fix it. And we currently have some in progress.
 

I've set up a shoddy looking, bland website for storing some Contra related stuff.
2 things there:
1) Black Lotus' Cash Hack cursor animation (don't know yet how to add this into the game)
2) An icon that replaces the "Knife" attack of Superweapons General's Col. Burton with that of a Pistol, Splinter Cell themed (along with some sound effects that may or may not be used in the game depending on if this makes it).
 
Link
 
I've been testing that "Hold Fire" with the Hazael and indeed it's secondary fails when the primary is locked and vice versa. Quad Cannon, however, works due to same firing ports or however it's called. So anything attacking the same kind should also work. Edit: Haven't tested it's anti air range though.

Thanks for 1) and 2). They might be useful. Quad Cannon "works" because both his weapon slots have a weapon capable of firing at ground and aircraft. When you reproduce the weapon slot bug and the slot freezes to PRIMARY, you will notice that the broken Quad Cannon has less range vs. aircraft than a proper Quad Cannon. And you can see a visual difference: The broken Quad Cannon's projectiles have a curved trajectory (which we use for anti-ground projectiles) and the proper Quad Cannon's projectiles have a straight trajectory (for anti-air projectiles).
 

I have noticed 2 issues which are probably bugs:
1. when need-to-deploy artillery units are firing and ordered to fire a target which isn't in it's firing range, they become unresponsive to any command (neither "stop" nor "move" nor "attack") and keep firing automatically on they were firing on, until ordered to fire at a target which is in their firing range then they become responsive.
2. Zhu Rong's thermobaric shot issue: when given Frenzy, only the first impact get extra damage not the big blast too !
 
A question: why did you remove the speedy lined laser general's power from laser general ?? it was very useful.
 
-A "Hold Fire" button to "Yan Wang" would be great.

1. This is a bug which will be fixed in the next version.

2. It's impossible to fix this because of the way thermobaric explosion works.

 

That general's power was removed by Creator because Laser had too much attack powers. Removing it is supposed to force the player use his tanks more as this is a general focused purely on assault. We haven't thought about re-adding it lately, but if we ever do, it will probably require more than one unlock point.

 

I'll test Yan Wang with "Hold Fire".

[anguel]

hi, i've been playing contra for years now (and have been following your amazing works through time)

 

actually i love to play flame general, hes unit are quite nice (sometime rather weak but that not the point here)

 

well i do have a small problem with hes super weapon "atmospherical lens" in my opinion, its useless (or have a VERY limite use)

 

im on a challenge race with flame an ddoing all general, wow, i wished many time that my SW, could save me somehow ...

 

i was laughing ... (or i was mad cant remember) when the lens tryed to chase a demo bike ...

 

for me to make this SW usefull, it would be to drop like a huge firestorm, in point of impact, at least i could clean out some tanks and defence !!

Edited by anguel, 15 July 2016 - 12:08 AM.

[anguel]

here is a small bug i found jsut 1 hour ago long explanation short story

 

can build on mamooth tank "dragon tail" then "bunker" (so 2 upgrade)

 

(here is a video of it)

 

 

in the exact same bug (couldnt reproduce it in video but took screenshot)

 

 

 

hope that can help

Edited by anguel, 15 July 2016 - 12:56 PM.

[predator_bg]

Thanks, I've already fixed the bug. Atmospheric Lens is not weak. The damage is high and the duration of attack is long. You have to think which is the best target for it, though. Immobile targets such as buildings are preferable. Just about any place where buildings and slow units are the only targets.

[UsernameUsername]

Ok... I don't know how or why I got that fucked up but:

 

To make a unit aim while stealthed and attack the target it's aiming after toggling from "Hold Fire" to it's weapon it needs 3 steps:

 

Step 1) to make the dummy weapon capable of targeting units as the main weapon would copy the main weapon's settings and add:

 

PreAttackDelay = -1 ; <- THIS makes the unit never attack while it still will try to get in range and aim at the target. The remaining settings are copied from Scorpion tank's primary weapon.
PreAttackType = PER_CLIP ; <- It seems it doesn't matter whether it's PER_CLIP, PER_SHOT or PER_ATTACK

 

Step 2) to remain stealthed while aiming with the dummy weapon while becoming visible when attacking

Add a stealth module to the desired unit. The GPS Scrambler or any other stealth applying effect will work with the settings made there without anything further required.

 

  Behavior = StealthUpdate ModuleTag_Stealth
    StealthDelay                = 2000 ; msec
    StealthForbiddenConditions  = FIRING_PRIMARY
    FriendlyOpacityMin          = 50.0%
    FriendlyOpacityMax          = 100.0%
    InnateStealth               = No
  End

 

This will then be used by the game even if the unit receives stealth from the GPS Scrambler and causes the unit to stay stealthed while aiming with the dummy weapon and to reveal itself when firing it's primary. It's also possible to list more than one weapon by, for example:

StealthForbiddenConditions  = FIRING_PRIMARY FIRING_TERTIARY

 

Step 3) to have the unit aquire targets while stealthed use "AutoAcquireEnemiesWhenIdle = Yes Stealthed" within the turret module:

 

  Behavior = AIUpdateInterface ModuleTag_03
    Turret
      TurretTurnRate = 180
      RecenterTime = 5000
      ControlledWeaponSlots = PRIMARY SECONDARY
    End
    AutoAcquireEnemiesWhenIdle = Yes Stealthed
  End

 

=> This works great to drive by, unstealth, hit different targets within range and quickly restealth compared to as of the 008 version: pre-positioning the units, spam-clicking the target, hoping they'll attack it and not being able to aim while stealthed. With this the tanks will be able to aquire targets while stealthed and attack whatever they're aiming at on enabling the main weapon again. Due to the non-firing dummy weapon with the main weapon's values it's also possible to aim at a specific unit with proper range etc. Unstealthing would make the units attack that picked target then. If the "Stealthed" entry is missing this will require an extra click and drive by attacks aren't possible anymore while stealthed because targets won't be auto-aquired anymore then while stealth persists.

 

I really don't know how I fucked up that hard explaining that at first and why I didn't list all the other relevant stuff.

 

Anyway that's how stealth becomes more fluid for hit & run.

Edited by UsernameUsername, 12 October 2016 - 04:35 PM.

[Rudi5]

Hello all,

 

some quick things I noticed while playing the 009 BETA version:

 

GLA AI is very weak. They also don't seem to attack much. Setting it to a higher difficulty level doesn't seem to do much?

 

USA Robots AI is very (or maybe a bit too) strong in comparison with other AI's, followed by China Flame. I also think the USA Robot's mobile superweapon is a bit too strong, well versus GLA anyway. They also get this Cyborg commando that lands from a pod, also extremely hard to kill!

 

USA Laser units produced by the war factory seem to literally get stuck in the factory when produced. This causes extreme lag and the AI can't attack because of it.

 

GLA can build these obstacles. Unfortunately they are a mere distraction for the enemy instead of defense, unless its intended to be this way?

 

Thanks.

 

Anyway. My thanks go out to you guys for creating this mod. It really brings a new experience and type of gameplay no other mods seem to bring. I also noticed that it hardly ever lags (unless created by bugs in the mod or maps with poor AI design).

[predator_bg]

AI is glitchy, but it gets slightly better with each new version.

 

I agree that some general AIs play better than the others. I'll work on it.

 

USA Laser AI stuck units is caused by a bad script. I fixed it.

 

Obstacles are best used by and versus human opponents. AI does not know where to build them and how to combine it with units.

 

Thanks for the kind words. We'll be releasing a second Beta version soon, so stay tuned.

[UsernameUsername]

Thanks for the release of the new version Contra 009 Beta 2 and thanks for the Radar Van's "R" hotkey for shortcut usage.

 

Bugs noticed so far:

-Stealth General hotkey issues:

 -> Howitzer & Azarakhsh share the same hotkey "Z"

 -> Jarmen Kell & Biker Hijacker share the same hotkey "J"

-defeating Flame General brings up his correct text but the wrong audio; maybe when losing to him it's wrong too; have to check that

-the Stealth General's AI doesn't make use of the new defense structures (doesn't build any defense)

-Jarmen Kell's targeting still isn't working; I'll look into the armor files. It's most likely using DEFAULT values for units he's not allowed to attack but has damage percentage values above 0% for or maybe some other weird bug.

-Stealth General's new defense structures Quad Cannon and Anti Tank Cannon lack a proper Camo Net model

-Stealth General's new defense structure, the Howitzer Position always uses the Camo Net model, with and without Camo Net upgraded

-Stealth General's (probably all GLA's) Terrorists lose their CommandSet once Camouflage has been researched at the Black Market and can no longer be controlled properly (Fix: StealthGeneral.ini -> Object:Terrorist -> remove the obsolete CommandSetUpgrade module; probably necessary for all GLA factions)

;only Stealth General seems to be affected after looking at the .ini files
  Behavior = CommandSetUpgrade ModuleTag_ComSet01
    CommandSet = GLAInfantryTerroristCommandSetUpgrade
    TriggeredBy = Upgrade_GLACamouflage
  End

-Ratel II doesn't get the +1 experience level bonus from Stealth General's rank 5 science that adds +1 experience level to most of his units initially (intended ?)

-fake Gun Buggy: can still gather Salvage Crates and gain experience ranks from them; can probably also collect supply crates

-fake Rocket Buggy: Palace upgrade not applied

-fake Radar Van: stealth missing, Camo Net model missing, Palace upgrade not applied

-fake Aladdin: can't fake attack

-fake Ratel II: can't fake attack

-fake Hazael: can't fake attack

-Stealth General's BTR-50 (anti mine vehicle) is the only vehicle incapable of creating a fake version of itself

-bug: Sometimes ECM disabled units permanently lose their stealth after gaining normal status again; sometimes ECM permanently alters a unit's color

-bug: Losing an Oil Refinery and then regaining control or having it destroyed and capturing it again after it respawns doesn't reduce the vehicle and aircraft production costs anymore (at least on the skirmish map I was testing that: El Scorcho (4))

-don't know if intended or not and why: just the area effect of Tank General's ECM units disables Stealth General's Radar Vans and reveals them to the enemy, without them being actually targeted or hit by something or revealing themselves by doing something

 

Weird:

-I noticed some stuff I don't think is intended:

1) Infantry General's sniper infantry one-shot my Quad Cannon vehicle, as well as my Jarmen Kell on a 3/3 experiene rank each

2) stepping on a single non-EMP mine with Jarmen Kell killed him instantly (as Stealth General; forgot vs which General that was, just remember the event)

 

Other issues:

-Hijackers often just stop after having received their orders for no apparent reason

-using Airforce General's pilots in combination with vehicles sometimes causes them to becomes passengers instead of granting that unit experience; they sometimes just won't go to the airfield unit they are ordered to due to pathfinding issues; Pilots can get inside Pave Lows and any other of Airforce General's controlable air units but not inside Comanches

 

Questions:

-Any thoughts about a more active role for the Stealth General than cowering behind defense and standing somewhere, waiting for things to happen while the enemy may do other things somewhere else ?

-Throughts about this Issue: Hijacking + GPS Scrambler = turret units lack "Hold Fire", attack everything in range with no control to stop them from doing so, killing themselves due to their own stupidity and lack of control. How about adding an inactive stealth module to all USA and China units that don't already have stealth which allows them to attack without losing stealth but in turn they'll reveal themselves when taking damage ?

-Is it possible to grant a choice of installing either a stand-still but remain stealthed while attacking OR remain stealthed while moving but reveal when attacking stealth module per unit by installing an upgrade ?

 

Edit:

In the General challenge as Stealth vs Superweapons I was able to capture he Strategy Center and I think that was one of the things that shouldn't be possible.

Also I noticed that while Saboteurs can climb mountains they can't just use their EMP suicide on such a spot but will try to get on even ground again, don't know if that's intended that way.

Killing Stinger Site soldiers shouldn't grant any bounty value. Otherwise it's a farmspot that can result in an abuse of this game mechanic.

Area effect update frequency of anti mine vehicles should be faster so that it's still possible to die to demo traps but not to virtually drive onto melee range mines and trigger them anymore.

Edited by UsernameUsername, 07 January 2017 - 11:19 AM.

[predator_bg]

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Thanks for the detailed feedback once again, UsernameUsername.

-I will fix hotkeys.

-Flame General audio will be deleted from Challenge screen.

-I didn't notice targeting problems with Jarmen. He was sniping infantry one after another independent on Snipe Vehicle ability.

-Reported bugs about new defense structures are not actually bugs. Camo Net has no effect on model appearance.

-Terrorist CommandSet will be fixed.

-Ratel II experience will be fixed.

-Fake units will be fixed.

-ECM disabled units is a bug that cannot be fixed.

-Oil Refinery bug is known. If I can't fix it, I'll remove Oil Refinery respawner.

-ECM's missile jammer radius disabling radars was intended. But we'll discuss if it should remain or not.

 

-China Sniper damage will most probably get reduced, but not too much. He's meant to be good against light armored vehicles.

-I will look at Jarmen Kell's armor against mines and decide whether it's good or not.

 

-Not sure about what causes Hijackers to stop. But I'll take a look.

-Air Force Pilots entering as passengers is not fixable. I will try to fix pathfinding issues.

 

-I have Stealth General in the to do list for the next version. I'll work on some of your suggestions.

-About GPS Scrambling USA and China units. I'm afraid this change can make those units overpowered. Imagine if the player has control of a few overlord type tanks which sneak inside enemy base undetected (or come out of a sneak attack behind enemy base) and start attacking base buildings. If the enemy has no radars there at that time, he won't even know what's going on. It's going to be weird and seem like a bug.

-As far as I know, stealth choices can't be granted by an upgrade.

 

-Propaganda and Strategy Centers are capturable now.

-I don't know if Saboteur suicide is intended to be that way. It's not important.

-I think there's no way to disallow Stinger Site infantry from giving bounty.

-We will test mine disarming effect update frequency.