[WIP] The Realm Community Balance Mod

Tried that already and I still only have partial icons displayed.
Tried also editing the mods.json mount and add the "com.pa.realmmods.rebalance" dir as an entity.

Since theres two mods in the client dir for RCBM - "com.pa.realmmods.rebalance" , "com.pa.realmmods.ui" - Isn't it a problem that the two being read as client or somthing?

No, it should not be.

Make sure that the new com.pa.realmmods.rebalance is enabled in PAMM.

PAMM activated for server/client - Partial icons only.
PAMM activated for server/client + moved com.pa.realmmods.rebalance to client_mods folder and changed contex to client - Partial icons only.

So basicly it didn't work for galactic war so far.

Well as I have said galactic war is the odd one here. At this point I really don't know what to suggest, unless you want to go and mod the enire galactic war to support our units. But that's enough work for a mod of it's own a d given the fact that galactic war is a half done boring mess none from RCBN team felt compelled to actually support it.

That's why it would be cool to run all these balance mod in GW, Since it's getting boring after beating it so many times

Well thanks anyway, I'm not an online player tho.

I feel like this is something we need to take up with Uber. Modding Galactic War could lead to some really interesting stuff.

Also still can't wait to see what ends up happening with multiplayer Galactic War.

Is RCBM development completely non-existent right now, including minor updates to update the unitlist.json for new commanders etc? I would be fine with maintaining RCBM until Uber starts adding new hooks in and the team gets back to updating it if no one on the mod team is interested in doing so.

I'd very much like to update it, but can't until Tuesday due to studies. After that I plan on adding the new commanders and the unit cannon, but that will probably be the last update I do for the current implementation of RCBM.

Just to let people know, the mod has been updated with the unit cannon. I just can't get it to PAMM right now, because for some reason I'm not allowed to update it. The releases are here for the eager:

https://github.com/cwarner7264/realm-rebalance/releases

https://github.com/cwarner7264/realm-ui/releases

I'd also like as many of you as possible to leave me a reply on what would you like to see next in RCBM, what do you like and what not. The current plan for RCBM is continued balancing. I may do some rebalancing, but nothing is set in stone for now.

Additionally I am looking for more people who would be interested in keeping this mod going. Everyone else except me has currently stopped working on RCBM and even I won't have much time after the holidays end.

Seeing how I made an update I should maybe write the changelog:

The unit cannon has been implemented. It is a T2 structure, that can build and load up to 15 T1 Land Units and fire them anywhere in the solar system (for now). It's cost is twice that of the T2 factory and its production cost is 25 metal and 5000 energy. The pods can be targeted and destroyed by flak. The units are fired once every second.

Other changes include some new unit types for several units to give the AI a better idea of what to build and a change in Thumper targeting priorities. The Thumper will still prioritise defensive structures above all, but if none of those exist, it will target units over non-combat structures.

I just pushed the update to PAMM. I've also added you to the PAMM organization so that you can push updates yourself in the future.

TY

So next up I have done a few changes and I'm looking for any input on this.
- I've increased the vision range on Dox to 175 form 90 and their movement speed from 10 to 11. This does look like I'm going down the path that Uber took, when they made dox ridiculously OP, but remember:
* Average vehicle speed is 13, so dox are still slower then vehicles.
* Dox aren't amphibious.
* Bots had no scouting units before.
Additionally the Boom is now amphibious, which increases it's usefulness, I think, and it gives you another tool for land-> water combat.
Observation post (T2 Radar) has been made costlier. It now costs 1000 metal to produce and 2000 energy to run (form 500/1500) and it's health has been reduced to 1000 for 1500. Additionally the cost of supersonic missile defence tower has been increased to 750 form 500 and it's energy drain has been increased to 100 from 10.
The reason for this balance change is the fact that Air and especially the ultra-expensive stealthy, but fragile T2 bombers were too easily countered for their cost by the Observation + T2 Missile tower. The rest of air also suffered similar problems.
Gunships have had their recharge rate increased from 20 to 30 and their energy banks increased from 2000 to 5000 and torpedo bomber as been moved to T2 (where it makes more sense, imo).
Other changes include: Consistency fix for tactical missile launcher: It can now fire at orbital unit. For that reason the umbrella has been made cheaper, weaker and only available to commander, T1 fabbers and T2 combat fabricator.
Battleship flak removed. This went heavily against WYSIWYG and now I am attempting to add back the energy drain of it's main cannons finally making the battleship balanced.

Because I am mostly alone working on RCBM now I have made an experimental branch on github, where you can get these changes and try them out yourself and please leave feedback. Being alone means I have no one to stop me and tell me that a change might be stupid or inadequate, so I'm doing this by feel.

EDIT: Link

https://github.com/cwarner7264/realm-rebalance/archive/Experimental-changes.zip

so i take knight and nanolathe left because of their grief with uber?

Noone really left at least not officially, in fact Knight explicitly told me that he still likes RCBM, but they do have their own grievances with uber and I don't blame them for not wanting to work on anything PA related. The bottom line is that I am currently taking care of RCBM mostly alone, but everyone form the original can jump in and start working on it.

i might be overestimating the engine since i am simply not a modder but in all honesty i find a bit petty to eventualy abbandon the possibilities of the engine "just" (i know easy said) because of issues with some of the original creators at least afaik ...
it would be just such a massive shame realy ...

The problem is with the engine and the creators. Uber are not supporting it in the way the initially promised. Just look at the unit cannon. So much wasted potential there, as it was made with minimal amount of effort required. Same goes for the orbital radar who can either work or don't, there are no middle settings, no room for moding. And there are plenty others: naval, teleporters, orbital, even some ground units. Everything seems half done and there is only so much one can do improve on that.

i see ... the question however is how much they can realy invest at a time to improve on moddability ... as i see it PA still has a number of building sites to be finished that are or might be of higher priority ... galactic war needs dire improvement there is content and features missing to help make multiplanetmatches more dynamic, ui needs some improvement just to name a few among with ballance and optimisation of the already existing content ...
what exactly is your gripe with the unitcannon? because honestly i can see why they made it the way it is and i dont realy disaprove of it ..

Just to be clear, I don't speak for anyone other than myself in this post.

The thing is, yeah maybe it is a little petty in a way, 3-7 years ago I probably could have pushed past it.The funny thing is that I'm probably the least happy with this outcome. In the lead up to PA's release I was down right excited, I'd finally have a game/engine that I could really do the kinds of things I wanted just like I could with SupCom/FA's Moho Engine after the false starts that were SupCom2 and KnC. I was so excited I started working on models in earnest about a year before PA's eventual release and ended up with quite the catalogue of models. Finally after a few years of "aimless wondering" as it were I had a direction, a goal in a way.

And to have to make the choice of staying the course in a potentially stagnant environment where I don't feel welcomed or abandoning something I love doing and was excited to get back into after a few years was not something I took lightly. Unfortunately actions taken and decisions made by Uber were the tipping point. Frankly I found it incredibly petty that I had posts made towards me from Uber staff that amounted to a smear campaign meant to undermine my presence on the forum and that initiating discussion of that action resulting in the locking of threads instead of discussion. This was, of course, only one instance out of several situations that happened to myself and others.

This was compounded by the fact that the Engine itself leaves a lot to be desired still, and maybe Supcom has just left me spoiled a bit but that the same time it's hard to argue in favour of the engine when it can't can't run FX on individual Muzzles, so that if you have a weapon that alternates firing from 2 different barrels the FX will always appear on both barrels. Again, this is only one example of many.

In the end I had a choice to make with both outcomes being fairly negative. Technically I still have a small spot of hope that I'll be able to return to PA once there are enough benefits to offset the negatives but so far I'll say that it's not looking good, the Unit Cannon might be in the game now, but like I concerned about before, Uber has taken the path of least resistance tried to wedge it into the current "Meta" instead of trying to "meet in the middle" and make adjustments to both the Meta and the Unit Cannon's Mechanics to properly implement it. This understandably doesn't speak well for for PA as a standalone game and PA as a modding engine to me but I'll still wait a bit more before totally writing it off.

Instead I've been focusing more on applying my 3D skills to the realm of 3D printing, exploring options that simply weren't feasible for me back during my BlackOps days. All of us on the BlackOps team would have loved a Basilisk or Goliath Statue/Figure, but back then getting something like that made up could easily cost many hundreds of dollars, just for a single one, never mind the entire team or anyone else who might have wanted one! But nowadays the Technology is better than ever and there are more platforms available. With this I've actually experimented and progressed to the point where I've actually completely remodeled the Basilisk MKII from the ground up with 3D printing in mind and I am eagerly waiting for the first prints to get to me(darn customs and holiday shipping).

Is the choice I made the "right" one? Hell if I know but I can say that so far it wasn't a wrong one either. The Agency from working on my own projects "from start to finish" as it were has been pretty empowering and I've been feeling pretty good about myself which has been a nice change of pace from the last couple of years and that alone is a worthwhile outcome in of itself regardless of what lead up to it.

For now I'm still mostly lurking, seeing how things progress and working on my own stuff stuff in the meantime until something comes up that results in a decision being needed. In the meantime I'll still keep working on my own projects. I've accomploshed quite a bit with my 3D printing adventures thus far;

My original Torrent Mech available as a small Figure or a larger Multi-part Kit


Custom add-on parts for 1/144th Gundam Model Kits


Micro Army (usable as 6mm Wargaming pieces and more)


And I've got more I'm working on;

A 10-peice modular SMG kit for 1/144th Gundam Model Kits


Additional designs to the Micro Army Line and even waiting to receive the first ever Basilisk MKII Figures.

You can also check out my thread in Unrelated or follow me on Flickr to keep up to date with this stuff. Heck, just a couple of days ago I sold my first print from Shapeways which was a pretty good feeling even if it took a few months to get there! xD

Mike

if what you do is fullfilling to you than that is the right choice if it even helps you financialy even better!

i guess then all i can say ... all the best for the future!