Other Battleships Antarctica project

[PureOwnage]

I never got an email from you in a LONG time.
Any progress reports?

 

[SerraAvenger]

I hardly have any time due to school tests and stuff.
These two weeks I planned to use for map finishing, so I hope I can hand out new betas in a few days.

Best wishes, Davey

 

[thewrongvine]

Coolio. I be waitin for ye. ... ...


I guess his progress reports would be on the thread now, lol.

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[SerraAvenger]

Big update

God talked to me the other day at our monthly meeting and told me:
Hey, I've played you're map when it'll be finished and I've seen the most imba strategy in the game: A 1k BB with 5 unupgraded Firebolt cannons, a high level slow aura and a great sail. That would be something like 11 k, and could kill every other 1k ship with one salve. Thanks to the hp upgrades and the flare ability, it would even be much more imba - not even Satan and Gabriels CRs could kill it. Then I farmed enough gold to get me a 7k BB and changed to upgraded Energy Torpedoes, that dealt a total of 2k damage every 4 seconds on a range of 1250. That was imba, dude!

Hence I decided to change the weapon system: Instead of globally available weapons, there now will only be ship weapons. That means: Every ship has onbaord weapons that cannot be changed!
Yes, I thought that through. The worst thing on it would be the loss of a little bit of customization - but that is not perfectly true.
Onboard weapons can still be upgraded via items, that eg give a higher damage per shot or a smaller cooldown. What does this mean?
You can perfectly customize your ship by terms of damage, skills, cooldown - but not by the weapon range of your ship.

Some might say that this system would bring less diversity into the game. THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. In maps like battleships CF, all weapons have been perfectly balanced. That means: All weapons are equally strong*. Which weapon you choose in particular is of no interest any more - which makes all the games look quite much the same. All the diversity comes from the ships, but in CF ship skills that are exotic are really weak often. They seem strong, as you play with them against much lower level ships - If you use a 600 damage cannon against a 1000 hp boat, it will look imba. The boat that inflicts the damage, however, would have 3600 hit points. That is only 20% of the hit points. This means: A strong ship wins against a smaller one, but against another big one, the ship is weak again. The only way to win is farming more money, resulting in stronger weapons and being the first one to have a big ship - thus using the "strong" weapons against a much weaker enemy. Which ship you choose in particular is irrelevant.
That is the only way to perfectly balance such a weapon system: Making all weapons feel equal. This means less diversity and discourages special builds.
In order to bring diversity in the game, I want to have every ship require a different playing style - having different skills, abilities and - weapons.

You won't be able to play an EL or a BB like a BS, or a CI like a SY. Every shiptype is unique, has unique weapons and unique playstyles. A SY requires sneakyness, timing - and will you get lots of kills if played well. A CI is a situation ship that will get any SY down. A BB will have to be played with care, being to slow to escape CRs that can focus their damage. Due to its special anti-building missiles, it is able to ruin the other team's towers.

And still, you can specify your item build. Faster weapons or More damage? More ability usage or faster repair? More Speed or more Hp? These questions will be more important now.

*There are a few exceptions, like frag fire or the manifest ( fixed now ).

Please post what you think, Davey

 

[thewrongvine]

Zomg God spoke to you.

Wait, so the "guns" are now like abilities?

I have an idea. I agree with... uh... what God said, people just pick rigged items like in those other BS games. But instead of items that are "unique" items such as in normal magical games like rare and single, items/weapons are more "type" items. Meaning the difference between "Kazuhm's Firemace" and "Steel Mace Crushers" which adds spikes to your mace. Undastand? And it works well for BS because they are ships. Cannon balls can be altered to cool customization while being balanced. Suggestions:

• Regular Cannonball - medium weight, medium damage, standard Pirate shot
• Heavy Cannonball - heavy weight, slow and sluggish, deals heavy damage to hull if hit
• Dual Cannonball - two cannonballs viciously chained together and whirl around lightly in the air when shot, created to chain around the sails and break it
• Harpoon Cannonball - sharp, dangerous harpoon cannonball for hooking on to other ships to pull you to them, or pull them to you
• Shrapnel Cannonball - standard cannonball equipped with explosives that shrapnel around deck
• Flame Cannonball - light impact damage, burns ship over time
• ETC

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[SerraAvenger]

Zomg God spoke to you.

I'm a notorious soliloquist ; D*







*That was a joke.

Wait, so the "guns" are now like abilities?

Hmm... more like ship specific and onboard.
Read the first post of this thread for some sort of explanation.
Have you played CF, eg? Some ships have onboard weapons. In BS Arc, all weapons will be onboard - currently.

I have an idea. I agree with... uh... what God said, people just pick rigged items like in those other BS games. But instead of items that are "unique" items such as in normal magical games like rare and single, items/weapons are more "type" items. Meaning the difference between "Kazuhm's Firemace" and "Steel Mace Crushers" which adds spikes to your mace. Undastand? And it works well for BS because they are ships. Cannon balls can be altered to cool customization while being balanced.

You mean, you have the cannons onboard but can use different cannonballs? This is basically the system I had planned to use: You have your ship with its basic weapons, but you can buy items that increase the damage, add a slowing effect, decrease cooldown etc.

Doing it with cannonballs indeed is some fun idea, especially as we could do the cannon ball consumption kind of thingie :EVIL_LAUGHTER:*




*Just kidding again, obviously. Seemingly, it's time to go to bed. Wish me luck, I'll have a history class test 2mrrw :O

 

[PureOwnage]

I didn't get any testing map on my hotmail....
Send me some testing maps?

 

[SerraAvenger]

I didn't get any testing map on my hotmail....
Send me some testing maps?

There is still lots to do, I can't give out testmaps. Perhaps the day after tomorrow. Perhaps next weekend.

I tried to finish Bs Arc during the winter holidays, but too many things interrupted it.

 

[PureOwnage]

Alright, Saturday EST would be good because I can play a lot of games then

 

[Cpt.Herakles]

Finally here yiha... I hope so much that you can finish it soon in ferbruary otherwise I'll go mad :banghead:

 

[PureOwnage]

My Testing:

The map itself is pretty good and will be really fun!
However, the terrain needs work. At some points, ships get clogged and cause them to slow down. At the cardigan empire, the ships on the left lane. The right lane is fine.
Weapons don't work, (which I don't know why). The upgrading concept it somewhat similar to battletanks. Overall, awesome map. BTW, the starting ship doesn't allow you to revive.

 

[SerraAvenger]

My Testing:

The map itself is pretty good and will be really fun!
However, the terrain needs work. At some points, ships get clogged and cause them to slow down. At the cardigan empire, the ships on the left lane. The right lane is fine.
Weapons don't work, (which I don't know why). The upgrading concept it somewhat similar to battletanks. Overall, awesome map. BTW, the starting ship doesn't allow you to revive.

Thanks alot for your test!
I will check the left line and fix it as necessary!
Wierd, for me they did. You saw the post about that I had only implemented Bombarder and Battleship weapons yet? I hope it was only that thing ; )

Yes, the idea itself is found in battletanks too. My items, however, can be cancelled, and you see how long it will still take.

Thanks a lot for the bug report! It is becouse of the new weapon system; I had to move the ship creation to something a few seconds after Map Start. I guess that the registration happens at map init, so the first hero is not registered. Will be fixed soon. If I happen to add all the weapons next weekend and fix these tiny bugs, a new version will be sent to all betatesters. I've got quite much to do, though - We're having a physical educations test next week and I have to learn quite a lot.

Anyhow, Thanks for playing : )

EDIT:
Main post will be updated sooon. Had it updated, but forward/backward epidemics killed it>_> hence next post....

 

[thewrongvine]

Did I get an email?

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[SerraAvenger]

Did I get an email?

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

I guess?
If you didn't, send me any recent non gmail adress I should send to.

 

[PureOwnage]

Thanks alot for your test!
I will check the left line and fix it as necessary!
Wierd, for me they did. You saw the post about that I had only implemented Bombarder and Battleship weapons yet? I hope it was only that thing ; )

Yes, the idea itself is found in battletanks too. My items, however, can be cancelled, and you see how long it will still take.

Thanks a lot for the bug report! It is becouse of the new weapon system; I had to move the ship creation to something a few seconds after Map Start. I guess that the registration happens at map init, so the first hero is not registered. Will be fixed soon. If I happen to add all the weapons next weekend and fix these tiny bugs, a new version will be sent to all betatesters. I've got quite much to do, though - We're having a physical educations test next week and I have to learn quite a lot.

Anyhow, Thanks for playing : )

EDIT:
Main post will be updated sooon. Had it updated, but forward/backward epidemics killed it>_> hence next post....

Yeah, I have a Health test soon. More maps please . Also, the loading screen looks grainy and needs more detail. Find the latest version of bships ant is covered by the loading bar.

 

[SerraAvenger]

Yeah, I have a Health test soon. More maps please . Also, the loading screen looks grainy and needs more detail. Find the latest version of bships ant is covered by the loading bar.

Detail is not the problem, the quality is. Always keep in mind: Quality = Map Size. Currently, 40% of my total mapsize are the loading screen. That should not increase, but it would with a better resolution or better quality. I tried it.

I think I said it before, but I have a newer version of the loading screen somewhere on my pc where that problem should be fixed, but well the side is down nowadays so well. Perhaps I will ask Sephiroth_VIII to fix it with another address.

Best regards, and I really hope I can bring out more demomaps soon.

PS: Also welcome our newest member, Cpt.Herakles. He's a former clan fellow and a good friend.

 

[PureOwnage]

Did you get my email about the password Serra?

 

[SerraAvenger]

Did you get my email about the password Serra?

Yes. You will get it friday.

 

[thewrongvine]

Non-gmail... [email protected]

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[SerraAvenger]

Sent passwords as required and fixed the terrain bug.
Ships spawned on the left lane for the south empire ( Cargian ) will no longer block each other at the mentioned position.
More updates perhaps 2mrrow. We'll see.