[WIP][Server] Orbital Warfare Overhaul

Yeah now it looks more ''bulky'' much better Also that render looks phenomenal, good job

I don't know if this has been reported already, but is this "Game starts in: undefined" error normal?

I get this error every time I use this mod and press "Start Annihilation."

Thats normal even in vanilla PA. DW about it. The match starts shortly after anyway.
I get this all the time in vanilla games.

Ok so I've been convinced to go continue work on my first rendition of the Anti Orbital Lance. Thought I'd give you guys a preview of what I've been doing.
(Maya render of the model so far)



Everything is subject to change here. For example i'm not sure about having the vents where they are at the moment and may replace them with pipes (move the vents to somewhere else on the model).

Anyway as usual let me know what you guys think of the progress so far. Any constructive criticism as usual is always appreciated.

I may not add too much more detail to the Lance model. This is because I took a look at the PA Holkins model and realised that most of the building details are in the textures and not the model itself. Heres another render just to show what I mean.

(Nothing in this image is to scale necessarily)

I made the commander model quite a while back, but I don't think I ever showed it off.I am planning on making a custom commander for every dev in the team. Don't know yet if we will allow everyone to use these comms or just limit the three custom comms to their respective devs.

EDIT:
Don't worry if we decide to limit these commanders, as I will undoubtedly provide some for you guys whether it be through this mod or an extra commander mod.

First of all... I love this mod... I have a hard time playing without it now.

I get this same error... which I never get without the mod. I know it does not effect gameplay, but it is a minor annoyance. If I uninstall the mod, the correct time countdown is displayed.

I know it's not our mod, because I play without our mod sometimes and I have never not gotten it, even in vanilla.

You lost me here... you are saying you know it is not your mod causing the message because you don't get the error when you play without your mod? I am honestly confused. I also do not get the error when I am using vanilla. Do you get the message with the mod?

lol, sorry was rushed. I get the error message with and without vanilla. I have never played a game where I got a countdown instead of undefined, server mod or not.

Makes much more sense.

I will do some more testing. It is possible that PAMM or something else is causing it.

Again... love the mod.

One quick question for you... to use this mod in a multi-player game, does everyone need to install the mod... or just the host? I am sure this is the same for all mods, but I am somewhat new to exploring the available mods.

Thanks

That's good to hear!

If they want to see the proper unit icons, they need to download our unit icon mod. Otherwise, they don't need to download anything unless they are the host.

Let us know if you come across any balance-related issues. We're gonna push a big build adding new models and cool new PFX within the next few weeks hopefully (and maybe some animations!) so we can see about getting recurring balance complaints looked at. So far most reactions have been mixed (some people saying something is OP some saying the same thing is UP) so it's still kind of hard to say. We're waiting on more playtesting.

We will be playing it tonight, I will let you know how it goes. So far it only seems OP against the AI since it doesnt use it... but that is to be expected.

FYI - I tested vanilla and then installed PAMM and then slowly installed various mods 1 by 1.

I can quite confidently say that the mod causing the "undefined" launch message is the orbital warfare icon mod, based upon the following testing:

If I install any other mod, I do not get the message (tried about 10-12 other mods).

If I install just the orbital warfare mod (without the icon one) I do not get the message.

If I install just orbital icon mod, I immediately get the error.

If I install the orbital icon mod with any other mod, I immediately get the error.

As soon as I uninstall the icon mod, the error ceases.

Not sure what is causing it, but it is definitely coming from the icon mod.

That is good to know, I'll look into it for the next release if I can. Thanks!

Thanks for taking a look at that. This issue has been reported quite a few times, although I never found out what it was a result of. Didn't actually consider that it may have been the icon mod causing the issue.

We played quite a few games tonight - and the mod did not seem too over powered to us. While the new orbital units are powerful, the cost and new anti-orbital cannon seem to provide a good balance.

When cracking area where you can't just sent your land troops you often find setting a base to that area difficult. On other RTS this are is normally island or something, where you would have to transport your units. Less skilled players often stop transporting their land units and use other mecanics.

Why this doesn't feel to happen in PA is becouse transports are not really needed, becouse of the T1 Air Fabricator. Normally you would have to first build T1 land fabricator, build transport, move fabricator to transport, fly transport to area, unload transport and then you can finally start building. In PA you just select T1 Air Fabricator and build where ever you want, even on other islands. This is the thing what makes invading other land masses within a planet so easily accessible, even without the existance of the teleport. You can easily build bases to other islands and landmasses, where you do not have direct land contact with.

One problem with PA planet dynamics is establishing a base to other planets land. The frustration people face is often similar to that in all other RTS-games, how to transport and build base on other planet. Now mecanisms are: build transport and send fabricators or build orbital fabricator and build teleport to other planet. These mechanism are either microdemanding or build-option limiting. Even using the teleporter requires like seven different clicks and phases, before you have any units on land. That is too much to be user friendly and easy to implement with limiting

For building on other planet being as easy as it is building on other island, we should use similar way to make it easy. Make T2 Air Fabricator able to go on orbit and fly to other planets. This will make building a breach to other planets very easy and very little micro requiring.

Why don't you just use an orbital fabricator?

Well, orbital fabricator allows you to build teleporter, but not base. If you want to build a base by using orbital fabricator, the process is as follows:

1. Select orbital fabricator
2. give command to move another planet
3. que teleporter
4. WAIT
5. select teleporter
6. link teleporter
7. send units
8. make sure you sent fabricators
9. WAIT
10. select fabricators on another planet
11. start building.

This time-consuming and focus-demanding process is the reason why we do not see people building too much on other planets where they have established teleporters. Players do not often want to commit themselves doing this and find themselves busier elsewhere, especially becouse you want to multitask during waiting periods, but then you might not optimize your build order either.

If your T2 Air Fabricator could move to another planets, process would be as follows:

1. Select T2AF
2. give command to move another planet
3. que buildings and start building.

Much easier to learn and use. These is less different phases and checklists to follow. Difference is crucial for gameplay.

If you use transport to move fabricators, phases are as follows:

1. build transport
2. select transport
3. load unit
4. que unload to another planet
5. WAIT
6. select fabricator on another planet
7. start queing buildings and start building