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Post by buhwhyen on Oct 23, 2011 0:11:12 GMT -5
Bought it off steam. Is pretty fun so far.
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Post by buhwhyen on Oct 23, 2011 10:30:52 GMT -5
Random stuff I read about.. -Power building with 1 or more engineers takes no additional resources. So the rate you spend at just increases, but not the overall cost. -Apparently you can build in a matrix formation with tier 1 power plants and mass fabricators to get the same benefit as a tier to mass extractor, but at less cost and not needing a mass extraction point. EME MEME EME arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=217965-you really want to surround your mass extractors on all 4 sides (homo) cause you get a massive (again homo) bonus to the mass extracted (...yeah). -Power plants can chain explode if placed next to each other and 1 in the series is destroyed. -building mass extractors is good even if you know they'll be destroyed soon. Apparently they pay for themselves in 18 ticks (not sure how long each tick is). |
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Post by feedback on Dec 11, 2011 19:50:45 GMT -5
Currently using Sorian AI v2.1.2 and Duncan's AI fix only. If you know of any other good mods that I should get lemme know. Also on the lookout for more maps that work with Sorian AI.
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Post by buhwhyen on Mar 31, 2012 15:00:21 GMT -5
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Post by buhwhyen on Apr 1, 2012 4:11:09 GMT -5
I'll periodically update this thread with actual information.
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Some differences from other RTS games
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You start the game differently than other RTS games. You start with only an Armored Command Unit (ACU). The ACU is, depending on the game mode, the objective for killing a player. In assassination mode, killing an ACU results in that player losing the game (equivalent to destroying all an opponents buildings in Starcraft, or somewhat similarly destroying a player's home world in AI Wars. The ACU is also a super builder and combat unit. That is, it has higher build rate than normal workers, and also is significantly stronger than early game units (it takes roughly 16 tier 1 tanks to beat an un-upgraded and un-micro'd ACU).
You can "speed build" or assist build structures or training new units at no "additional" cost. So you can have multiple worker assist the construction of a new factory to obviously get it to build faster, but differently than other implementations of assisted building, the overall cost does not change. So if the building cost a figurative $1000 to build, that overall cost would remain the same whether your built it with 1 worker or 20. What does change is the rate that resources are used, which remains proportional to the increased rate of construction.
There are actual super units, referred to as "experimental" units. Each race has their own set of experimental units that are spread out between ground, air, water, and other. Other can include long range artillery, resource generation, or satellite attack/defense systems. Depending on the experimental, sometimes a single experimental unit can destroy an entire army (if the army is not primarily tier 3, or at least containing a significant majority tier 2). They can also be referred to as "game ending" units because some of the bomber or artillery experimental(s) can just kill the enemy ACU without ever worrying about the enemy army.
Building placement matters, and it makes a really big difference. First off, buildings can explode when destroyed. This is particularly important for power generators (economy will be explained later), where if power generators are placed directly next to another, they can cause a chain reaction when destroyed to blow up all connected power generators. However, on the flip side, there are benefits to placing specific buildings adjacent to another. For example, mass storage buildings placed next to mass extractors results in the mass extractor producing more mass per tick. The bonus' are cumulative, so placing 2 mass storage buildings next to a single mass extractor is more beneficial than placing a single mass storage next to a mass extractor. There are many examples of bonus' from placing buildings next to another, more will be listed sometime later.
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Basic Economy
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The economy system is similar to AI wars, where you "pay as you go." So to build any building/unit you pay a mass and energy per unit time cost until <whatever structure or unit> is finished building. This means that you essentially need to balance/optimize your spending vs your income, you should aim to not have a large surplus or deficit. In case it isn't obvious, "crashing" an economy refers to being at a sizable deficit in (usually) both mass and energy.
That being said, there are 2 "resources" in the game. Mass and Energy. Mass is generally your limiting factor in terms of what is easily attainable. You get mass in one of four ways:
1. Mass extractors - the most common way to get mass. These are points scattered around the map where you build a "mass extractor" (abbreviated as MEX). These mass extractors give you a fixed amount of mass per tick (each tick is every ~2 seconds). They can also be upgraded up to twice for additional mass extracted per tick. The amount extracted is 2/6/18 for levels 1/2/3 respectively.
2. ACU and SACU - Armored Command Units and Support Armored Command Units. Everyone starts with an Armored Command Unit which also provides mass and energy on top of being a super builder and combat unit. SACU's are mini ACUs, they are a tier 3 unit that essentially can do roughly 80%-90% of what an ACU can do. They also have a static amount of mass and energy generated per tick.
3. Salvaging or harvesting - builder/workers can salvage mass from debris of destroyed combat units and or structures. They can also salvage regular buildings and units (this includes allied and enemy units and buildings), and neutral rocks and trees.
4. Mass fabricators - these are tier 2/3 buildings that "inefficiently" generate mass. I say inefficiently in quotes because it can be worthwhile to build a large number of mass fabricators and power generators because you will overall get a net gain in overall mass income, however, it takes a considerable number of power generators to make this viable and makes you vulnerable to crashing your economy.
Energy is a lot more straight forward. You primarily get energy from power plants, or power generators. The other source is from ACUs and SACUs, but they give (relatively) small amounts of energy.
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ACU
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ACUs, as mentioned earlier are super units that also are the "king" piece, it dies and you lose. ACUs can be upgraded to various effect. Upgrades range from direct combat/survability upgrades for the ACU itself, missile launcher capabiltiy, enhanced build speed, or economy upgrades.
Each race has a different ACU, each with it's own strengths. The Cybran ACU is combat oriented, and can upgrade a personal cloaking field. UEF ACU is the best builder ACU and can be equipped with a nuke launcher. Aeon ACU is tied for having the best economy upgrades, and also can increase it's own sensor radius. Seraphim is also tied for the best economy upgrades, is also a strong combat ACU, and a tactical missile launcher.
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Races
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This will be a pretty vague section, since I don't know too much about the exact differences or advantage/disadvantages for each race.
Cybran
Very strong at tier 1 tech. Their assault bots are probably overall the best tier 1 fighting unit in the game (cheap, good dps, highly mobile and can do crappy repairs on each other). Cybran has the worst shields in the game by a considerable margin. They only have static tier 2 shield generators and no mobile shield generators. And shield radius is small in comparison to other races. Cybran air is decent. They have the best tier 2 gunships (they do aoe damage), but otherwise nothing particularly special. Their navy is overall weak, except for their shore bombarding power. So in a navy vs navy battle, Cybran typically will lose because of inferior units, but if they manage to get naval dominance, they bombard shores better than other races. Their tier 1 ground units (as previously mentioned) is very strong, so much that you can typically skip over their tier 2 ground units and go straight onto their tier 3 ground units which are also really good.
Experimental wise, all their experimentals are really strong. Monkeylord are the cheapest experimental and also are very good at destroying low tier armies. Megabots are really expensive, but can 1v1 any other experimental and are particularly useful for attacking bases from the water because they are so large that they can be above water to shoot their guns while still technically being submerged in the water so they can't be targeted by ground units. Soul reapers (super gunship) are great for destroying ground armies. And they have mobile mega artillery which, if you can get it out, will end the game almost guaranteed.
More later
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Post by buhwhyen on Apr 5, 2012 1:20:55 GMT -5
Random stuff:
-There is no minimap. You have to play the game by zooming in and out. Kinda annoying, but you really don't need amazing reactions to every little thing that goes on.
-Unit movement is not instant. There is acceleration and you do need to turn around (mechwarrior like).
-Air units have fuel, and therefore need to refuel (they don't crash, they just move hella slow when they run out of fuel). Refueling is done via tier 2 ground building or some tier 2/3 navy ships and is done automatically for the most part. Repairs also done at the refueling stations.
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Post by feedback on Apr 10, 2012 22:26:49 GMT -5
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Post by buhwhyen on Aug 10, 2012 18:46:37 GMT -5
Started using FAF (Forged Alliance Forever). 3rd party server and lobby instead of gpgnet and steam. New balance patches and built in mods so there are less desync problems. It's a small download once you have Forged Alliance already downloaded (30 mbs?). It creates its own .exe and other files so you can play both the regular Forged Alliance and the Forged Alliance Forever versions without needed reinstalls/patches/whatever.
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