463 replies to this topic

[Martinoz]

or use Civilians as another human shield, there are a lot of them in the town you start at.

But yeah, I'd also call for having a detector unit somewhere. A Tesla Trooper would be nice, especially at Easy.

No, simply no. I won't use the civilians to check every spot on the map secured because Speeder forgot to put Tesla Troopers ;s

[Graion Dilach]

*snip*

I woulda expect an official bugtester having more insight on these, then. Because I'm repeating the Ares situation every third day in this board. Not to mention, that you coulda really realize that you can't just feature freeze the entire project for save games, push it up then restart the process due to the features implemented since that freeze for the non-MO mods.

[Solais]

Well, to be honest, I have to apologize for that one, because I do remember reading somewhere that you were hoping to get more people with this mod getting a public release. I just wondered if it was still possible to divide work between the members, since it seems that MO is like the "showcase" mod for proving Ares' worth. I also did not know that there were only two people working on Ares, it really seems like a community effort (which should be).

[Graion Dilach]

Yea, I was more harsh too, sorry, but yea, growing tired of all this savegame-cryout. Ares is a community effort (there are already 5 past developers!), but there aren't many coders among the modders. Yea, MO is the showcase mod, no doubt in that and MO already got the benefits of such *khm* AttachEffect *khm*. What most people don't grasp is that savegames can't be just simply reenabled and such because of the constant evolution, and every new feature might just break savegames again.

 

While MO is the showcase mod, it's not the sole client and coders also have a life. Progress on savegames always happen as one step at a time, but it's slow and modders doesn't really care about it, tbh, because most of them ain't plan to mindrape the players via campaigns.

[Solais]

The thing is, that I actually know a few coders, but they are all busy with other projects, and it really seems like coders are hard to come by. I myself only know a little coding, as I'm more of a designer (at least in training). Maybe it could be advertised on the MO twitter and FB that the Ares team is looking for help? (If it's not already advertised.)

 

Lovasmidas: Be glad, The Gardener mission doesn't really work with cheats, the Tsurugi doesn't want to get affected by them. Now trying to not get my only GGI squished.

 

Edit: And "The Lunatic" mission is completely impossible with cheats, because they crash the game when certain events happen (allied units dying by trigger). It would only work if the god mode is turned off before these events, but then all the terror drones that jumped on Volkov futile-ly emerge out of his ass, killing him. So be really really glad!

Edited by Solais, 25 December 2013 - 06:54 PM.

[lovalmidas]

Yeah, there is a possibility that using cheats in tailor-made missions will either break it or crash the game due to unexpected wtfs.

 

Goshdarnit, just face the missions like a man!  

Edited by lovalmidas, 26 December 2013 - 05:22 PM.

[Solais]

Sorry, but I had to give away my man license so I can see the story.

[lovalmidas]

You could have went with "But I am not Goshdarnit."

[Solais]

...

 

Goshdarnit!

 

 

Btw, I'm really liking the story so far, it's so complex, and I love that there are uneasiness between the factions too, instead of them being a united force, like in RA2. I mean, sure, RA2 had their own infighting too (while RA3 basically strived on it), but it just seems to be better executed here, with similar, but different agendas clashing, politics, power grabs, whatnot. Not to mention, I like how there's -something- in the background, that there was -something- between RA1 and MO, stories never told, affecting the present. It's like a prequel hook.

[Solais]

Sorry for the double post, but uhm...

 

Why are there two Malvers in Epsilon Mission 11: Singularity? Sure it's called that, but I don't think it refers to that...

 

 

On the other hand... this mission is goddamn mindnumbing. Even with cheats it took forever to do (not to mention I lost just on the doorstep of the Driller, because of a Borillo squishing my units ), like two hours, and all that pandering to the units, mindcontrol this, release that, aarrrgh! This is one of those missions that's just so long that it takes a physical toll on the player. Jegus.

 

The only good design decision regarding this level is the infinite Ivans. That mechanic could be used on other levels as well (hint: Human Shield).

Edited by Solais, 27 December 2013 - 03:26 PM.

[lovalmidas]

The Malver in the Allied base was not supposed to be there. When I designed the mission, I subsequently placed debugging Malvers to test out specific portions of the mission. Then I would remove all of them. Somehow, this one... survived that apocalypse.

I have fixed it for the next patch.

Singularity is one of the hardest non-base-building missions in MO3.0 Act I, if not the hardest. Especially if you take it on a Medium. Don't even mention Mental...

[Martinoz]

The Malver in the Allied base was not supposed to be there. When I designed the mission, I subsequently placed debugging Malvers to test out specific portions of the mission. Then I would remove all of them. Somehow, this one... survived that apocalypse.

I have fixed it for the next patch.

Singularity is one of the hardest non-base-building missions in MO3.0 Act I, if not the hardest. Especially if you take it on a Medium. Don't even mention Mental...

Thank you for a Chinese massive spam of reinforcements 0_o

[lovalmidas]

Don't mention it. Consider it a late Christmas present from me.

[UprisingJC]

The Malver in the Allied base was not supposed to be there. When I designed the mission, I subsequently placed debugging Malvers to test out specific portions of the mission. Then I would remove all of them. Somehow, this one... survived that apocalypse.

I have fixed it for the next patch.

Singularity is one of the hardest non-base-building missions in MO3.0 Act I, if not the hardest. Especially if you take it on a Medium. Don't even mention Mental...

O_o? Did you mean that the Malver in the Allied base should have be removed ?

Well a few hours ago I tried this stage again and get my access to the allied base easier and faster because of that Malver. I made him get into the Stallion and then that chopper flew away from the allied base to the border. I let all my troops except crazy ivan(I made him move within the range of the deployed sniper's shoot lol) get on the chopper and ended up landing on the bottom right of the whole map.

Edited by UprisingJC, 28 December 2013 - 02:24 AM.

[dirkjake]

Alright, I have played through some missions on easy level (because I am such a noob), and overall I really enjoyed them. Some comments on them: (spoiler ahead)

 

Allied:

1. Red Dawn Rising: the first half is just perfect and reminds me of the RA2 opening. I struggled a bit since I was not familiar with units. (I also feel that defense structures are weaker than in RA2?). The second half is quite tedious attacking the Soviet base. Overall, this is an amazing one.

2. Eagle Fly Free: it's quite tricky on the first half. It's my first time learning that guardian GI can out-range sentry guns. After that, it is straightforward.

3. Road Tripping: a straightforward mission. I really like using the Stormchild.

4. Heaven and Hell: more like just hell, until I realized I needed to use a lot of auto-heal to deal with Tsivils. It's tedious using hit and run again and again though.

5. Bad Apple: I was lucky finding the barrack before landing troops on the main continent. The timing part is fun, and I almost ran out of time. After that it is not difficult.

6. Beautiful Mind: The first part is a challenge because there is so little time to reach the beacon. The rest of the mission is also difficult as the AI throws a lot of things at my base, and I need to destroy Iron Curtain and the amplifier in limited time. I think this is the mission that introduces a lot of more challenge than the previous ones and I like it.

7. Hammer to Fall: the desolators... trial and errors for the win...

9. Zero Signal: I decided to rush my force onto the north side. Siegfried is amazing and I love that he can out-range tesla coil. After 7 tries, I have managed to reach the Soviet main base and destroyed most of its production buildings. It's really fun mission.

11. Panic Cycle: I LOVE this mission. (ok well I just really like using Siegfried) AI just throw so many things to kill the MCV and the Battle Fortress. Even after establishing the base, AI won't stop (damn the Nuwa Cannons). It's reasonably challenging for the 11th mission.

12. Sunlight: the best mission of the Allied. Epic naval battles with a lot of resource. Killing all the Kirovs is always satisfying.

 

For allied missions, the difficulty for Easy is perfect, and they have a lot of variety.

 

Soviet:

1. Bleed Red: a good introduction mission. Capturing the Allied barrack makes it more flexible how to finish the mission.

3. Happy Birthday: after having Morales killed by dogs so many times, I've decided to not moving him until I clear out allied forces and buildings surrounding the Alamo and until I use spy planes to reveal the path Morales would take. A fun mission to play nonetheless.

7. Idle Gossips and 8. Death From Above are excellent. 

11. Unshakable: this is it. This is the most frustrating missions because there are so many things going on and some many things that can fail. It took me 10+ times to finally finish it. It took me 5+ times to reach the construction yard. My problems were that I lost so many troops during the first Chinese wave before reaching the con yard, and that Morales' specialty in killing my own troops (and if I sent him in front of my force, terror drones always killed him). Even when I capture the con yard, it's very difficult defend my base and the seismic stabilizer, especially when the HUGE Chinese troops arrive. Finally, I used more and more micro-managing my force very carefully so that I have more troops when I finally reached the con yard. With more troops, Morales, all the Wolfhounds, and later Norio alive, defending my base is much less difficult. I love the challenge, it is fun, and it made me very happy when I was finally able to finish it.

12. Dragonstorm: another epic missions. A lot of enemies to kill. 

 

Soviet missions are more difficult than those of Allied. I personally enjoy base-building missions.

 

I have not tried Epsilon missions yet. But so far, I really enjoyed most of the missions. Thank you, all people who are working on this wonderful mod!

[lololala1245]

How can i get to allied radar in Epsilon mission 11 ?

[lovalmidas]

The opening to the Allied side are marked by barrels (don't expect your team to pass through walls, or the center ). If you can figure out how to breach them, you will find the next steps quite obvious.... maybe.

HINT: There are three openings to the Allied side, of which one of them must be accessed from the Allied side.

Edited by lovalmidas, 29 December 2013 - 06:24 PM.

[NHunter]

Epsilon co-op 01 is a real mood-killer. those dogs are damn nasy and you even can't have them killed...

 

Soviet co-op 01... Well, so far my and my friend's attempts to beat it have failed - the furthest we got is the bridge with SEAL(s). But I think I have an idea how to advance a little bit further... As for the part we've completed... Its hard. very hard. Especially that damn IFV with machine gun patrolling the bridge.

 

And in both missions, the difficulty is amplified even more due to the fog of war. How can I avoid enemy units if I can't see them until the moment they attack?

 

Oh, and Allied 03... by the time I got my untis tagged, MCV was already forcing its way though the enemy defenses... Maybe a short time before it moves? Or slow it down as it moves really fast... I suppose, I mustn't even dream about being able to control it, though...

[Solais]

Or make it being controllable because otherwise it's STUPID! Who drives that, some drunk idiot??? Seriously, sometimes these missions are just hard because of incredibly stupid reasons. Like Peace Treaty. And many others.

 

I'm really starting to think the difficulty as a bug in this game. Not a feature, it's a bug that must be fixed. At least on Easy. Even Graion said it, it's not Easy, it's Simplified. I mean, shouldn't a member of your team would be a great piece of feedback? Because you can say all the excuses "oh you need to do this and that" to the public testers, it doesn't matter.

 

Good design is not about how the creator of the maps do the missions. It's about a fair challenge to all kinds of players. Not too easy, but fair and most importantly -FUN- challenge. Which currently MO is not, with the exception of a few. (Also, it gives me a splitting headache. Physical weariness, as I mentioned it before.)

I mean even this game got an Easy mode that can be beat by the not skilled.

Edited by Solais, 29 December 2013 - 09:53 PM.

[Petya]

I have to agree with them. Some of the missions are unnecessarily hard and dumb. Like Soviet coop 1. That mission doesn't require any kind of skill, yet it is hard and dumb. Attack on buggy is another badly designed coop mission. The player has to destroy fragile Bomb Buggies for at least 30 mins. Then later it turns out that the mission isn't over yet, because you have to destroy more buggies. Lolwut. First reaction of the players would be this: that's enough *quits*. What I want to point out that some of the missions are just unnecessarily hard.