Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:12 pm Post subject:
My impression of the current build
Hi, I'm Draconator.
I first heard about this mod in 2010, after playing some time in Tiberan Sun & Firestorm.
I looked into it and I was really impressed from the concepts, and since that day I knew that this mod has a potential.
Last night I managed to download the mod and after some matches, I found things that need to be taken care of.
So first of all, i wanted to start with the capture mechanic on tech buildings - it DAMAGES them, and brings no control for the capturer. It really frustrated me, since I thought it should work just as good as capturing an enemy building, so I dont understand exactly what makes this case to work wrong.
Second - Units:
GDI is really underpowered compared to Nod forces.
For example - a single Goliath is crushed in a matter of seconds against pair or three of Eclipse... even against Scorpion tanks! And despite it's role as a heavy tank, it gets crushed in a matter of seconds. Also, it lacks firepower - it cant manage to even destroy one of those tanks before it goes boom and turret mode is pretty useless since it doesnt make the goliaths harder to hit(like the tick tanks).
Use of the Kazuar - look, I know that you're trying to give the Kazuar more roles but to give him 2 seats doesnt really fit into him. Instead, you could move that feature to the the Hov-vee and give it 3 - 4 seats like in Generals or in C&C 95 and perhaps giving them the ability to have fireports. Also, try instead to raise the cost of the Scatterpack and lower a bit the cost of the Kazuar to give it a rush potential.
MLRS Walker - These guys do really minimal damage to everything: buildings, vehicles and infantry, instead of acting like a normal artillery and wreaking havoc upon units from a distance. Fix it - pronto.
Naval - There's an issue when you try to order a ship to go through a relatively big distance, it ignores the order. But if you order it to move a short distance - it will move. Why should I click more if I want my ship to be in the hostile shores? It doesn't make any sense...
Also, Nod plasma cruisers do minimal damage to vehicles and that kinda ruins it's role.
Third - Ion Cannon: Since it's a superweapon, I thought that why wont it cause more damage to buildings and why it doesn't have a bigger radius like the nuke Apocalypse? Apocalypse can destroy refinery in one hit while the IC leaves only fatal wounds to it.
Fourth - Animations: I know that it's beta, but the deploy modes of the railgun tank and the Goliath are just terrible... Also, when you build a Nod Powerplant, it has the animation of the original TS powerplants buildups.
And the Hall of Faith is the Waste Facility, although i know you have already a new model.
I know that this is beta, and this is the purpose of it.
Take my feedback for your attention - and make the game as it should be.
If you want any creative ideas too, you can contact me.
Hi, I'm Draconator.
I first heard about this mod in 2010, after playing some time in Tiberan Sun & Firestorm.
Hi Draconator, welcome to PPM and thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
Draconator wrote:
So first of all, i wanted to start with the capture mechanic on tech buildings - it DAMAGES them, and brings no control for the capturer. It really frustrated me, since I thought it should work just as good as capturing an enemy building, so I dont understand exactly what makes this case to work wrong.
This is because you have MultiEngineer checked on your skirmish options, that option has been around for a very long time, in the original game and past games also, it's not our fault you've got it set to yes.
Draconator wrote:
Second - Units:
GDI is really underpowered compared to Nod forces.
For example - a single Goliath is crushed in a matter of seconds against pair or three of Eclipse... even against Scorpion tanks! And despite it's role as a heavy tank, it gets crushed in a matter of seconds. Also, it lacks firepower - it cant manage to even destroy one of those tanks before it goes boom and turret mode is pretty useless since it doesnt make the goliaths harder to hit(like the tick tanks).
Balance is the most difficult thing to achieve in a mod such as ours. Westwood themselves had a lot of trouble and clearly didn't go out of their way to fix the balance in Tiberian Sun (GDI was overpowered in Tiberian Sun, at least in my opinion).
A lot of balance changes have been done since the last release cause we all agree that GDI does feel underwhelming, but it's not so much the case now. There is still a lot of fine-tuning that needs to be done, and armour-types need revising. This is an ongoing problem with lots of mods and it does take a lot of work, even though it's not perfect now, I can assure you it's much better than it was in previous builds.
Draconator wrote:
Use of the Kazuar - look, I know that you're trying to give the Kazuar more roles but to give him 2 seats doesnt really fit into him. Instead, you could move that feature to the the Hov-vee and give it 3 - 4 seats like in Generals or in C&C 95 and perhaps giving them the ability to have fireports. Also, try instead to raise the cost of the Scatterpack and lower a bit the cost of the Kazuar to give it a rush potential.
Hov-Vee's, Kazuars and Scatterpacks have all been revised. The Kazuar was given passenger options in an attempt to give it some more usability during a late game and it was a successful move. This is the same case as above though, giving different roles to things to make them unique whilst maintaining balance is hard work.
Draconator wrote:
MLRS Walker - These guys do really minimal damage to everything: buildings, vehicles and infantry, instead of acting like a normal artillery and wreaking havoc upon units from a distance. Fix it - pronto.
MLRS Walker is being revised enitrely, image, role and all.
Draconator wrote:
Naval - There's an issue when you try to order a ship to go through a relatively big distance, it ignores the order. But if you order it to move a short distance - it will move. Why should I click more if I want my ship to be in the hostile shores? It doesn't make any sense...
Also, Nod plasma cruisers do minimal damage to vehicles and that kinda ruins it's role.
Again, Naval forces will most likely not make it to the next release. After a lot of testing, we've concluded it's just not enough addition to tolerate all the problems it brought along with it. Maybe in the future, but for now it's a very low priority to even consider reappying navy, with the exception of some campaign missions.
Draconator wrote:
Third - Ion Cannon: Since it's a superweapon, I thought that why wont it cause more damage to buildings and why it doesn't have a bigger radius like the nuke Apocalypse? Apocalypse can destroy refinery in one hit while the IC leaves only fatal wounds to it.
Ion Cannon was revised to do much more damage and area damage than it did in Tiberian Sun. Though it still doesn't do as much damage as the Apocalypse missile does, this is because there is warning before an apocalypse missile is launched, an Ion Cannon is fired without warning, giving a player no chance to evacuate or sell.
By the way, I'm not sure what build you're playing, but the Ion Cannon will always destroy a refinery and a war factory without fail if you aim in the center.
Draconator wrote:
Fourth - Animations: I know that it's beta, but the deploy modes of the railgun tank and the Goliath are just terrible... Also, when you build a Nod Powerplant, it has the animation of the original TS powerplants buildups.
And the Hall of Faith is the Waste Facility, although i know you have already a new model
I know that this is beta, and this is the purpose of it.
Take my feedback for your attention - and make the game as it should be..
Yes, we are aware of all of this. It's because as you said: We're in our beta phases. We still use a few placeholder images, but we are working on replacing them ASAP.
So first of all, i wanted to start with the capture mechanic on tech buildings - it DAMAGES them, and brings no control for the capturer. It really frustrated me, since I thought it should work just as good as capturing an enemy building, so I dont understand exactly what makes this case to work wrong.
Was this in skirmish mode? If so, you probably had the "Multi Engineer" option checked, which makes it so that buildings need to be in "red health" to be captured, otherwise Engineers will just damage them.
Quote:
Second - Units:
GDI is really underpowered compared to Nod forces.
For example - a single Goliath is crushed in a matter of seconds against pair or three of Eclipse... even against Scorpion tanks! And despite it's role as a heavy tank, it gets crushed in a matter of seconds. Also, it lacks firepower - it cant manage to even destroy one of those tanks before it goes boom and turret mode is pretty useless since it doesnt make the goliaths harder to hit(like the tick tanks).
I may be correct about PB4, but the Goliath is superior to the Eclipse in a one-on-one engagement. Simply build more of them, and they'll be more than a match for the Nod Eclipses. You are correct about the deployed mode, however. We realized the grenade launcher was a pretty much useless feature and so it is going to be removed in the next public release.
Quote:
Use of the Kazuar - look, I know that you're trying to give the Kazuar more roles but to give him 2 seats doesnt really fit into him. Instead, you could move that feature to the the Hov-vee and give it 3 - 4 seats like in Generals or in C&C 95 and perhaps giving them the ability to have fireports. Also, try instead to raise the cost of the Scatterpack and lower a bit the cost of the Kazuar to give it a rush potential.
I agree, giving a walker passenger seats is a pretty silly idea, however I'm not so sure it's going to change. I'll bring it up with the rest of the staff, though. Also AFAIK giving units fireports ala Generals or RA2 is impossible on the TS engine, I'm afraid.
Quote:
MLRS Walker - These guys do really minimal damage to everything: buildings, vehicles and infantry, instead of acting like a normal artillery and wreaking havoc upon units from a distance. Fix it - pronto.
This is something that's actually the subject of debate amongst the staff now, as its role is a little odd. In theory the MRLS Walker is supposed to be used as a sort of force multiplier, as it does solid damage against vehicles and can be useful as a support unit in an attack. However, it's short range (for an artillery), inaccurate fire and tendency to hit your own units makes this units place in the mod questionable. We will like see a revision in this unit by the time PB5 is released.
Quote:
Naval - There's an issue when you try to order a ship to go through a relatively big distance, it ignores the order. But if you order it to move a short distance - it will move. Why should I click more if I want my ship to be in the hostile shores? It doesn't make any sense...
Naval units in TS have always been awkward and buggy, and so the decision has been made to just cut them out entirely. We may leave some in as special units in some campaign maps, but this isn't entirely certain.
Quote:
Third - Ion Cannon: Since it's a superweapon, I thought that why wont it cause more damage to buildings and why it doesn't have a bigger radius like the nuke Apocalypse? Apocalypse can destroy refinery in one hit while the IC leaves only fatal wounds to it.
I'm not sure what (if any) revisions have been made to the IC since PB4, but the idea is that the Ion Cannon has the advantage of being able to fire instantly and completely without warning, whereas the Apocalypse Missile gives enemy players ample time to move units around and prepare for the missile strike.
Quote:
Fourth - Animations: I know that it's beta, but the deploy modes of the railgun tank and the Goliath are just terrible... Also, when you build a Nod Powerplant, it has the animation of the original TS powerplants buildups.
And the Hall of Faith is the Waste Facility, although i know you have already a new model.
Again, the Goliath deploy feature is being cut, so there's that. The Railgun tank is getting a new voxel and deploy animation. The Hall of Faith, as you said, is going to get a new sprite, and the Nod powerplant will (eventually) be given an animation. QUICK_EDIT
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My impression of the current build
