mattywise

Now would be a good time I think to ask for suggestions for what to do with the Epsilon Miner.

Through copious testing, we have determined that stealthed miners are both imbalanced compared to other miners, and it is far too time consuming to destroy them in a non-short game.

We would like to make it unique, but still be able to counter Terror Drones. Chrono Miner teleports to lose the Terror Drone and War Miners can easily destroy the Drones.

Keep in mind that we want a unique way of allowing the miner to counter the Drones, so no weapons/teleporting obviously.

Could perhaps give it the ability to grind drones giving you half the cost of a terror drone in return, fits in with yuri tech, counters drones, adds to your funds (which is the point of an ore minor) and not too outlandish.

as for the air pad ideas, I still like the idea of the MIG and giving each faction an air pad (graphics for each are exceptional) just perhaps diversify further the units you already got fitting with the themes of their respective factions i.e make the MIG armoured powerful but slower than other pad aircraft's, make starflare's exceptionally quick but less powerful and perhaps give allies a light aircraft (harrier) a medium aircraft (black eagle) and bomber aircraft (barracuda) which I realise is what you do have but just diversify them more.

Here's a map I worked on a bit when bored since last year

Still working on it, so whoever I somehow insulted, please don't kill me

Slightly different than what we have in mind for 3.0.

Slightly as sarcasm or slightly as in close ?

It looks cool! probably a bit more than they had planed though. Although i suppose if they wanted to they could use the idea and slowly add more and more nations to the game even if they dont use exactly the same ones as you picked out. Massive overbalance between allies and soviets most prominent of which making iraq an allied nation all of a sudden :S

got bored at work today and started to think of ideas for the next mo game -as you do- and i had a brainwave for the potential expansion of superweapons in combat.

(@Alien55234 we had a conversation about MO 2.0 in the bugs & suggestions thread a week or 2 ago and i was giving a semi praising semi critical review of it, in the long run i loved and still love it and 99.999999% sound that it is a better game in every which way than yuri's revenge the only niggles i havnt got over yet are the kirovs and game speed be good to have a speed in between 4 & 5 since the new 5 is radically faster)

So here are my ideas for a new way of doing Superweapon Battles, Each unit has a 'Nuclear Building' which is required to build particular nuclear units, it must be fairly large and diverse looking. The idea of having a building which the units depend upon allowed me to reign in my ideas by still keeping them powerful but also keeping them expensive and allowing them further limitations. Each Nuclear Building is followed by the two Nuclear Units it can create.

Allies:

Airstrip
Description: basically a runway with a couple barracks sized buildings attacched to it and maybe a tower or something to keep it looking diverse.
Requires: Aircraft Headquarters + 1 support pad and a Battle Lab.
Cost: $2000
Special Abilities: Can repair Planes so long as you have a Service Depot.
Used to build: Nuclear Bomb, Aeroprisms.
Power Usage: 1000

Nuclear Bomb
Description: A Large Plane equiped with a the biggest bomb. should have more armour than a barracuda but less than a kirov and be about as quick the airplanes used for paradrops and also have 2 small machine guns as a very light defence.
Requires: Airstrip
Cost: $2500 for the plane + $1000 to rearm
Damage: Bomb-About the same as a Demolition Truck, Machine Guns-Each the same as on the old Nighthawks
Special Abilities: Can Drop the bomb at any site by double clicking the aircraft
Potential Drawbacks: Can only build 1, Takes 7mins & 30 secs to rearm, will automatically drop bomb when and where it is destroyed, if airstrip is destroyed you will loose this unit.

Aeroprism
Description: Should look kind of like a mig with the weapon of an aeroblaze attached underneith, could have the speed of a harrier and armour of a mig and come in packs of 12 in column or row formation which the ai decides randomly. They come from outside the playing field and fire down a heavy barrage of powerful that destroy tanks and infantry if hit directly or land very close by but do limited damage to base defences and structures perhaps if the attack is in column formation and all attacks hit their mark they should put a construction yard down to yellow on the life bar but if they attack in row formation then they can hit a variety of buildings taking weak structures and arments down to red on the health bar but doing very little to the tougher ones.
Requires: Airstrip
Cost: $2000 for first attack, reduced to $500 for any following waves and a waiting time of 4mins 50 secs
Damage: Should rapidly fire prism blasts only one or two tiles in front of the aircraft and the blasts should carry on for the length of two/three power plants doing light damage to tough buildings heavy damage to the weakest buildings but not destroying them and destroy any units that get caught in the storm should take 2/3 direct hits to take out a battle fortress.
Special Abilities: Appears from outside the map so they can not be targeted prior to assault.
Potential Drawbacks: Armour is not all that heavy and is thus manageable for most base defences although the numbers are quite large for such a destructive weapon they can be easily reduced, the assaults can be stopped by taking out the airstrip, the styles of the attacks are random meaning they can come at any angle in either row or column formation making them very difficult to predict but also to control.

Docking Station:
Description: two wooden piers stretching to the sea from the land quite long and 2 tiles apart with a small boathouse and radar on shore.
Requires: Naval Base, Service Depot, Battle Lab
Cost: $2000
Special Abilities: Only building which can repair the Nuclear Submarine so long as their is a Service Depot under your management. Halves the time taken to restock ammo for Nuke Sub if the submarine enters it before its next attack.
Used to Build: Nuclear Submarine & Chrono Frigate
Power Usage: 100

Nuclear Submarine
Description: Massive Submersible about 2 tiles longer than a aircraft carrier and 2 tiles in width, only surfaces when attacking, using its special ability or at the docking station however it can be seen moving about the battlefield as it should have a fine strip of green smog protruding from its rear wherever it goes and a dark shadow of its presence will appear on the surface of its current position. Should have around perhaps even more armour than a centurion and the speed of a destroyer and fires dual missiles alike a boomers but bigger. Has range similar to that of an aircraft carrier give or take a couple tiles.
Requires: Docking Station
Cost: $2500
Damage: launching two missiles at a time it should put a construction yard in the orange verging on red after one attack but has very limited area damage unlike the standard nuke with no toxic aftermath instead it releases a red glow which has no effect on tanks but all infantry nearby instantly start running around on fire until they burn to a crisp. Also contains dual short range torpedos that always hit their mark and kill all animals in one shot but are nothing special against other naval ships.
Special Abilities: If you click this unit twice it will surface and for 3mins reveal every submerged unit on the field however during this time it can not move or attack and should be well defended. Can also half the time it takes to rearm by stopping by the Docking Station. Can Launch 1 missile at a time.
Potential Drawbacks: Can only have one of this units on the field at a time, although it is submerged it is never truly invisible to the human eye but units will not automatically fire at it, after fireing a set of missiles and submerging again it must wait 6 mins before it can attack again with 2 missiles and 3 mins to attack again with one and must stay surfaced for one minuit after attack, missilles are fast and rise up into the air and off screen then come back down onto the enemy base but they are lightly armoured and if your base is rammed with flak canons they are possible to destroy, these units fire slowly so are vulnerable the moment they rise to attack, although they remain on the battlefield even if the submarine pen is destroyed they can no longer fire missiles upon the land until it is rebuilt but can release any missiles that it has already been armed with.

Chrono Frigate
Description: Looks like a destroyer and is the same size as one but instead of an osprey it has two prodtruding chrono canons! Has the same speed as an Aegis Cruiser armour is a little bit greater than that of an ordinary destroyer. Its range is double that of a chrono tank.
Requires: Docking Station
Cost: $1750
Damage: Damage is dependent on how many other Chrono Frigates you have attacking the same target, one chrono frigate can instantly make any unit that costs up to $1000 dissapear If there are two of such units attacking then any unit up to $2000 is completly chorno'd out and if you have 3 of these units then any unit or naval building up to $2500 will be instantly whiped off the map and if you use three of these units you can whipe out any naval superunit at 10secs however a single chrono frigate can not destroy naval buildings or have any effect on any unit that costs more than $1000 and even 2 chrono frigates have no affect on units above the price of $2000 or buildings.
Special Abilities: If double clicked it can chronoshift itself plus any adjacant units anywhere on the battle field but will be destroyed if placed on land and if you take longer than 30 secs (reduced by 10 secs for every other chrono frigate involved) to decide on a spot your units will be chronod out however you can cancel this by clicking on the frigate again. Note in chrono shift mode all adjacant units are invulnerable and imbilized. You may build up to 3 of this unit. Can Repair at Naval Yard, after it is built is has no ties to the docking station.
Potential Drawbacks: Can not see submerged units, can not attack with any other weapon, takes the same amount of time as a chrono tank to recharge, Possibly the weakest superunit in terms of overall danger but with abilities unlike any other naval unit.

Area 51
Description: Appears to be a giant bunker with the number 51 etched into the top with a gian garage like door for letting out the freaky projects that go on in there. Appears to have a small gap generator and radar scrambler on roof.
Requires: War Factory, Spy Satalite & Battle Lab
Cost: $2000
Special Abilities: Generates a very small gap on radar alike a mobile gap generator but a tiny bit smaller and is also stealth thus it can't be seen unless enemy units are right next to it. If destroyed leaves a large toxic waste area
Used to build: Champion Tank & Freedom Tank
Power Usage: 800

Champion Tank
Description: Appears to be what you get when you cross an iron dragon with an abrams tank but this unit is more lethal than both with the speed of a grizzly tank, the size of an apocalypse tank, the range of a prism tank and with armour that rivals that of a centurion it will be a unit not to mess with.
Requires: Area 51
Costs: $2000
Damage: has a gun which takes 2 hits to destroy ALL standard base defences, 4 hits to destroy ALL standard buildings and 5 hits to destroy a construction yard, nuclear building. contains a mini ifv type gun on its rear end which can be garrisoned by any unit and will be affected in the same way as an ifv however unlike an ifv it does absolutely nothing if left ungarisoned. This unit destroys all infantry and tanks in one strike.
Special Abilities: if clicked twice it will first evacuate any garrisoned infantry and if clicked whilst ungarrisoned it will self destruct causing explosion large enough to wipe out all immediate units including your own. Its armour is also part of its special ability as it is unaffected by anti tank weaponry and receives the same amount of ordinary armour as a centurion. Once build they do not need the Area51 Structure.
Potential Drawbacks: Only one of these units can be built at a time, getting to click happy could result in your opponent detonating his own unit, they are expensive, destroys allied units when it self destructs.

Freedom Tank
Description: Take the gun off of an apocalypse tank then put a elongated defenders gun in its place then add a spinning gap generator with a radar scrambling pole extruding from it and there u have it, the freedom tank. This tank is as fast as a mirage tank and can also change shape to look like a tree, this unit also has the range of a sniper but has very little armour (only as much as a terror drone perhaps less). Once built they do not need the Area51 building.
Requires: Area51
Cost: £1800
Damage: Destroys all tanks from sniper range in one hit combined with its ability to blend in with the tree's it makes for a deadly ambush weapon however it is inaccurate when attacking infantry so doing so could lead to nothing more than revealing your position.
Special Abilities: When double clicked this units gap generator and radar+scrambler will spring into action although it will not be able to attack or move for 7mins whilst in this mode it does reveal every single stealth unit or structure on the map and negates the effect of gap generators for 3mins however more than one these tanks can not do this within 10mins of another. Also 5 of these units can be built at one time.
Potential Drawbacks: They have very weak armour and are very vulnerable to infantry and base defences if they get too close, also when not deployed these units can be detected on the radar.

Armoury
Description: Warehouse stacked to the brim with goodies.
Requires: Barracks, Radar & Battle Lab
Cost: $2000
Special Abilities: All infantry within a large radius get increased fire power and fire rate. Creates a nuclear explosion when destroyed although no toxic area appears the effect is similar to a nuclear sub missile in that the area glows read and all infantry burn.
Used to build: Thunder Arrow, The L.A.W.
Power Usage: 80

Thunder Arrow
Description: This is a man with a very good plan, moves so fast even attack planes would struggle to get a lock can dig into ground and fire an anti tank mortar at incoming enemies in large groups, moves with main weapon on back so as to keep moving quickly has about the same armour as a navy seal and can swim and fire his mortar but no c4.
Requires: Armoury
Cost: $1700
Damage: Main weapon is a weather altering canon which when fired causes a lightning storm over the unit he has targeted also note that he is impervious to the storm and the storm itself effects half the area of the usual catastrophic lightning storm and does not scramble radar but leaves this unit stunned for 5mins. The mortar which can only be used when this unit is at sea or dug in is a long range bomb which does a manageable amount of damage to a large group of in come soldiers but will destroy nothing in only 1 or 2 shots apart from maybe a couple terror drones, has no affect on buildings though.
Special Abilities: can dig in and launch a mortar. Can swim Does not rely on Armoury once build.
Potential Drawbacks: as a lone ranger this unit is simple enough to destroy with tanks, although he is fast he is not as fast as a terror drone and is prone to sniper fire also can only fire his main weapon when he is within 6 tiles of his target.

The L.A.W
Description: The L.A.W is the heaviest infantry out there appears to be nearly identical to guardian gi but is even slower and much more heavily armoured. Takes 3 hits to be killed by sniper due to new heavier armour but has half the speed of a guardian gi.
Requires: Armoury
Cost: £1600
Damage: when it is mobile these unit has an automatic rocket launcher which quickly fires destructive rockets at a single tank, aircraft or naval unit to do destroy them within 6/ shots depending on the armour of the unit (can be greater than 6 shots in special cases) when dug in it has a the latest model of the L.A.W which is fires an anti structural rocket, with range just short of a snipers it has an ammo of 2 rockets each one capable of destroying any single building including super weapons but only brings construction yard to one bar of health (nothing a couple harriers cant sort out so long as they can reach it) once its fired its load however it must wait 4 mins for reload but can bipass this by getting more from the armoury.
special abilities: digging in to use new L.A.W siege weapon. Very Slow, 2 can be built at one time however.
Potential Drawbacks: with great power comes a great lack of speed, although this unit can waste any building and resist 3 sniper shots it inst actually fast enough to escape 4 sniper shots making it easy to destroy when against an allied or epsilon opponent. Does not reload if armoury is destroyed.

well there u have it, decided to leave it at allies for now and will keep the other ides to myself but this stuff should keep u guys dreaming of your own ideas for new superweapons even if they are not included in the new game, if people actually like these ideas then i will conceded to you my ideas for soviet weapons such as 'napalm strike' and 'Red Bomber'(who's power lies more within their ground forces than the allies) and yuri ideas (any ideas i have had for these guys are very far fetched not got much on these yet really). MAJOR APOLOGIES about the length but once i started i just had to finish took me like 2 hours!

getting a new custom built pc next month with a budget of little over £1000 ($1618, €1161) maybe a couple hundred over if im lucky, be good to trial it on that and see if the laggy start persists but I think your right it probably is my laptop.

any tips for things to include would be handy, I have someone giving me advice on the video card and am getting a quad core processor that's all I currently know for certain im going with at the moment.

Ok, well its good to hear Boomers are back at least.

Also be nice to see USA, USSR & Psicorps with unique units that basically sum up their faction types e.g. ussr with a clever, moderatly powered and heavilly armoured with some nifty gadgets like anti rocket rockets or something and maybe provide ussr with a brutally powerful tank in both power and armour that sacrifices speed and arial defence systems and then give yuri a light fast unit that could maybe manually make units go crazy like the chaos drone and is also invisible on radar and causes a powerful explosion when destroyed

***bug***
finally played the game today was good in the first match but took really long to start up a skirmish game and I think the money multipliers on the computer are either to large or just that they overbuild

I say this because it was one of your maps whereby the only way to attack your opponent was via one bridge, navy or sky this is the kind of map I like but once I took out the bridges, the naval yard and controlled the sky's then the computer just overcrowded his area with tonnes of units which became cannon fodder to the massively impressive although brutally inaccurate battleships.

I was America my opponent was USSR, on this map the only issue was the 10min loading time which could be down to my poor quality laptop. (Was a medium enemy and it took my 50mins to wipe every scrape of him off the map was impressed by the cleverness of the ai in some situations, and excuse the large amount of time it was my first hack, those new defender tanks not really sure on their names but they are stealth with a big gun on their faces, they ROCK at killing spiders)


The next bug is a real one though the game crashed in my third test of the game, learning from my first game I decided to start with 0 units in my 2nd and third to speed up the loading process and in the game of the actual crashed i was south Korea allied to USA against USSR and north Korea (all ai's were easy enemy), i decided in this game to go to my partners base at the start to reinforce him as in the second game we were actually *rushed* by kirovs against medium opponents (computer got them to fast and they move WAY to fast) but in this game against the easy opponents we had just fought off 2 double doses of kirovs with my ally loosing his construction yard and the only way i kept mine was to rush build guardian gi's, and yeah very shortly after that the game just stopped, its always been laggy at the start but never just stops may be to do with the unit sizes or massive troop counts and effects.

sorry if this is over detailed just thought id throw in every little thing. another question though was it the fact that I started each game with $20k spending that caused the enemy to build kirovs so fast and units in ridiculous amounts, the allied ai seems not to be as clever as the soviet one but doesn't overbuild from what ive seen or is it just because he is allied and thus doest get the same bonuses as computer ai.

apologies again for writing very large emails i get a little pen (or keyboard) happy but to summarise my experience of the game, tonnes of stuff to improve tactical play in all departments, very balanced which is key when looking for a decent mod and on top of that a mod which is still being monitored and improved kind of like an oasis in the desert really as most people have gone for the more modern generations now, never see anyone online have to play via LAN for a good battle.

Top 5's
most impressed by:
The battleship, both graphically and as a weapon this unit rules the sea.
The balance, as I said balance is key when finding a good mod.
Faction uniqueness, further increasing the differences between each nations really improves the amount you can do with the game
Graphical destruction effects, seeing my opponents units being destroyed has never been more fun and seeing my own die has never been more devastating
The introduction of the federal and time machine units which adds a whole new dynamic to the way maps can be played and even built in the future.

some little niggles I found (in my *personal opinion)
Kirovs are unrealistically fast even though ra2 made them slow it was for a reason A. they ARE slow and B. having something like that available to you in masse with no drawbacks is more effective than a nuke silo, weather control device or psychic dominator.


An ai isnt a great ai if it has to cheat to win although im aware the yr minors also cheated i know that they don't use half as much as they bring in its just so they can keep up with a constant amount of attacks and pressue which increase with each difficulty level, just sayin.
Additional airpad looks ugly when not adjacant to an airforce headquarters might do to make it a requirment
Not really much else so ill put in a final 2 petty things alike the one above to make 5 xD


Slow startup and game load
russian tank armour may be just a bit too good and while american troops are extra ordinarily fast they could do with a smaller speed increase and a bit of an armour increase, leave speed to the koreans.

finally just a thought of creating 3 ultimate factions that can use all sides unique units and get all bonus' just call them Allies, Soviets and Yuri, on top of that you could give them all a major economical boost like the give the allied faction double income on all ore brought in, soviets half price all units on top of bonus' and lastly give yuri 10x the amount of usual gold produced by putting a unit in the grinder. thats just a thought, dont expect it to be acted upon i just like putting my thoughts out there xD

Final Verdict: Almost perfect