Hey, I'm currently working on an MLA subfactions mod. There's currently no plan to do custom modelling or even texturing, but if someone else jumps on the project, that will be added too. There will eventually be 4 subfactions, corresponding each to one of the lore factions. Each subfaction will be assigned 1 commander: Nemicus = Foundation Osiris = Revenants Invictus = Legonis Machina ??? = Synchronous Because the Legonis Machina's name resembles that of the Legion, it will be referred to as the Imperium Machina from now on, with the Imperium being the state and the Legonis being the military; as it is a military state, they are one and the same. It will inherit licenses from the Legion expansion, as I will utilize some assets from it. I have already borrowed the shield generator code from the Legion Team. Foundation is currently playable, sans support for hotkeys or hotbuild. Foundation will continue to receive balance updates and bug fixes. Outline of future plans: Foundation: Repair, high hp/metal ratios Revenants: Reclaim, lower hp, passive regeneration, converting wreckage into units(?) Imperium Machina: Fabbers doubling as combat units (and vice-versa), offensive turrets Synchronous: T1.5, no T2, highly specialized unit roles Each faction will have access to one modified Titan and lose access to another Titan. Foundation: No Ares. Mithras replaces Atlas and serves as a frontline support titan (shields) Revenants: No Atlas. Athena replaces Ares and serves as an intel denial titan (radar jamming, fake unit generation) Imperium Machina: No Ares. Janus replaces Zeus and serves as a transportation titan (teleporter creation) Synchronous: No Zeus or Atlas. Poseidon (maybe other name?) serves as a naval-based fabrication and carrier titan. Current Progress: _____ Thank you to Nicb1, Stuart98, wondible, and others for the help I have received. Thank you to billthebluebot, Nimzodragonlord, Bot 1, and many others for giving me feedback and ideas.
FOUNDATION: ____ ECONOMY: Commander: energy production: 2000 -> 2400 metal storage: 1500 -> 4500 energy storage: 45000 -> 15000 All Factories: 1.2x energy usage per second Metal Storage: metal storage: 20000 -> 40000 Energy Storage: energy storage: 100000 -> 50000 Energy Plant: build distance: 15 -> 10 mesh size: [5,5,5] -> [10,10,11.3] Energy Plant (circle) {new unit}: Same as energy plant, but built in a circular formation. Advanced Energy Plant: removed Font of Creation (new unit): Stationary fabber Cannot reclaim living units* Cannot support items that it cannot build* Does not use energy 150 metal per second 200 range Costs 2000 metal Does not use energy Cannot reclaim living units Cannot assist for things that it cannot produce itself ___ BOT: Dox -> Scamper: No longer attempts to target air Now fires seeking missiles projectiles per attack: 2 -> 1 damage per projectile: 10 -> 15 AoE radius: 0 -> 5 AoE damage: 0 -> 10 range: 75 -> 65 turn speed: 720 -> 150 break: instant -> 150 acceleration: 50 - 20 Grenadier -> Torch: speed: 12 -> 11 fire rate: 0.4 -> 0.3 projectiles per attack: 2 -> 1 range: 125 -> 200 splash radius: 6 -> 0 shot damage: 40 -> 0 shot deviation: 1 -> 0 Targets a location for divine judgement. Divine judgement has a 3-second delay. Divine judgement does 120 damage. Divine judgement has a radius of 3. Spark -> Charge: speed: 14 -> 12 range: 65 -> 75 energy consumption: 200 -> 100 energy usage per shot: 400 -> 200 Splash attack replaced with a chain lightning attack Chain lightning can hit up to 8 times Chain lightning can choose new targets per hit Chain lightning does 128/64/32/16/8/4/2/1 damage Chain lightning has 15/14/13/12/11/10/9/0 chain range Boombot -> Martyr: Hover damage: 600 -> 500 Stitch -> Priest: Does not use energy Cannot reclaim Cannot build Mines cost: 300 -> 62.5 health: 50 -> 75 metal usage: 30 -> 15 range: 60 -> 80 speed: 12 -> 10 Mend -> Bishop: Only builds Passageways (Teleporters) and Shrines (Walls) Does not use energy Cannot reclaim cost: 1200 -> 400 health: 150 -> 300 metal usage: 60 -> 100 range: 75 -> 100 Bluehawk -> Avalanche: cost: 800 -> 500 hp: 200 -> 300 range: 220 -> 235 pitch range: 0 -> 60 yaw range: 0 -> 180 Cannot target orbital units Fires a volley of highly inaccurate missiles Volleys have 4 missiles. Volleys are fired every 3 seconds Missiles do 320 damage each ___ VEHICLE: Ant -> Histericlese: cost: 150 -> 140 health: 250 -> 235 Inferno -> Crusader: cost: 225 -> 135 range: 20 -> 30 damage: 100 -> 10 firing arc (yaw): 45 -> 30 firing arc (pitch): 45 -> 30 speed: 10 -> 12 acceleration: 180 -> 360 Spinner -> Elysian: cost: 160 -> 120 range: 120 -> 100 damage per projectile: 25 -> 40 fire rate: 2 -> 1.5 Skitter -> Oracle: Radar does not use energy Radar applies to underwater units too speed: 25 -> 20 vision: 200 -> 125 radar: 200 -> 300 detection: 200 -> 300 Leveller -> Zealot: health: 1500 -> 1650 range: 120 -> 110 fire rate: 1 -> 0.5 projectiles per attack: 2 -> 10 damage: 300 -> 120 splash radius: 3 -> 5 splash damage: 300 -> 30 yaw rate: 30 -> 25 yaw firing arc: 0 -> 40 Vanguard -> Paladin: cost: 1500 -> 1600 Repairs units within 40 range for 80 metal per second Does not use energy Radar removed Sheller -> Schism: damage: 400 -> 80 splash radius: 15 -> 3 Projectile travels much faster on average (difficult to quantify) Projectiles release a damaging field. Fields last 5 seconds. Fields deal 12 damage every 0.25 seconds. Fields have 20 radius. Fields deal 200 damage on expiration. ___ AIR: Icarus: removed Hummingbird -> Lightning: move speed: 90 -> 95 turn speed: 270 -> 220 aggression distance: 50 -> 55 acceleration: 90 -> 50 breaking: 30 -> 15 Bumblebee -> Thunder: damage: 75 -> 25 ammo capacity: 425 -> 400 ammo usage: 75 -> 100 Attacks leave mines that deal 50 damage mine AoE: 10 -> 15 Mines last for 3 seconds. Mines only do 25 damage if killed before triggering or expiring. Phoenix -> Omen: Omnidirectional Targeting cost: 820 -> 574 health: 300 -> 450 vision: 150 -> 30 range: 120 -> 80 fire rate: 3 -> 0.5 damage per projectile: 150 -> 200 AoE damage: 10 -> 200 AoE radius: .75 -> 1.5 speed: 80 -> 112 rotaation speed: 270 -> 720 acceleration: 80 -> 400 break: 80 -> 400 Kestrel -> Redeemer: Additional weak anti-air weapon (equivalent to 2 Hummingbirds, but 60 range instead of 100) cost: 600 -> 900 health: 300 -> 500 fire rate: 4 -> 2 range: 80 -> 72 damage per projecitle: 20 -> 30 projectile velocity: 150 -> 75 projectile lifespan: 2 -> 4 Angel -> Saint: Does not use energy Missile interception removed cost: 5500 -> 550 health: 1000 -> 700 speed: 30 -> 60 range: 120 -> 80 ___ NAVAL: Barnacle -> Vicar: Does not use energy. Cannot reclaim. Cannot build. Group preference changed to back. health: 500 -> 1000 Narwhal: Group preference changed to back. speed: 9 -> 10 Barracuda: removed Halcyon (new unit): Tanky low-range hover unit. Only attacks submerged units. 350 range Sonar. Orca -> Oathkeeper: Both normal weapons removed. Fires barrages of 6 missiles, doing 75 damage each, every 2 seconds. Missile hit rate is lower at max range. Can only target watersurface and ground. cost: 600 -> 650 health: 1500 -> 1800 range: 180 -> 125 Stingray -> Borealis: Rapid-firing anti-orbital and anti-air unit with 250 (massive) range. Does 1200 DPS split on up to 25 different targets. Cannot target ground, naval, or submerged units. Requires 2000 energy per second to maintain weapons. Kraken -> Riptide: range: 150 -> 170 Main weapon fire rate: 5 -> 4 ___ ORBITAL: Solar Array -> Prelate: No energy generation Repairs units within 250 range for 400 metal per second Does not use energy health: 1000 -> 500 speed: 10 -> 40 acceleration: 10 -> 40 break: 10 -> 40 ___ TITANS: Atlas -> Mithras (currently underpowered, probably) 3.0x health Earthquake attack removed Mobile Shield Generator Bombards nearby units with highly inaccurate AoE; obliterates Dox; nearly useless vs t2 units Ares: removed ___ OTHER: Wall -> Shrine: Repairs allies within 25 range for 1 metal per second Teleporter -> Passageway: Does not use energy cost: 800 -> 1600 health: 9750 -> 14625 Rapture (replaces Halley): 2x effectiveness (1 Rapture = 2 Halleys) *needs testing cost: 40000 -> 60000
Have you considered just giving each faction one style of Commander i.e. all Imperial Commanders are Legonis Machina, etc.
I was originally planning to do that, but it would leave no vanilla MLA commanders left, and I realized that there's an extreme imbalance in the quantity of commanders of each type. On the other hand, there are so many raptor commanders that I could easily split off half of them as vanilla MLA while allocating the rest as Foundation.
Stuart has fixed this as of yesterday. As of today, I have implemented orbital, which should be fully functional now. The only Foundation unit that will definitely be added, that has not been implemented yet, is the Ragnarok and the Font of Creation, the Foundation fabrication structure. edit: forgot that I also need to add in the unit cannon
Foundation is now essentially "complete". I need to figure out how to get buildbar tab selection hotkeys working, and to figure out how to get hotbuild2 to stop hating the mod. Foundation may get some decent balance changes though.
Made some new changes to Foundation. This is v1.08 Dox -> Scamper Ant -> Histericlese Grenadier -> Torchbearer Spinner -> Elysian Skitter -> Oracle Kraken -> Riptide (this actually happened a long time ago, but undocumented, and without a name change) some other misc. changes that are mostly cosmetic too Also upped Foundation Spark's movement speed back from 10 to 12. The Torchbearer and Elysian were also in v1.07, but with highly-flawed projectile effects.
Stuff changed for v1.10: Hummingbird -> Lightning Bumblebee -> Thunder The Lightning is marginally faster than the Hummingbird, but has a much slower acceleration and turn rate. Otherwise, it is statistically identical to the Hummingbird. The Thunder drops mines that last 3 seconds. As opposed to the Bumblebee storing up to 425 energy and using 75 energy per shot (5.67 shots per volley), the Thunder stores up to 400 energy and uses 100 energy per shot (4 shots per volley). The initial projectiles do 25 damage (compared to 75 damage per projectile for the Bomber); the mines have 50% more AoE and do 50 damage. If a mine is killed before it triggers or expires, it only does 25 damage. The mine trigger radius is 5 units, while the projectile AoE is 10 units (same as the normal Bumblebee) and the mine AoE is 15 units. It is therefore possible for a unit to be outside of trigger radius, but still in the mine blast radius when it either expires or is killed. If a mine expires, it still does the full 50 damage. I also made some changes to the UI that borrows more code from Legion; as a result, Nemicus is now purple in lobby select, and it is clearer when this mod is present! On the other hand, I believe I have broken the player ready up shading in the lobby, so I'll have to fix that somehow. I might also write a Python script to convert any Hotbuild2 settings to one that also works with Foundation (and in the future, Revenants, Synchronous, and Imperium Machina too). I don't currently use Hotbuild2 myself though, so I might need some help testing this. ________ Followup on some of 1.08's unit changes: The Scamper has a much slower rotation rate than the Dox, so it cannot dance effectively vs enemy Dox projectiles. On the other hand, it shoots homing projectiles that have a small AoE. For this reason, the current system of Dox vs Dox wiggling is ineffective vs the Scamper, and players should approach the Scamper more like they would approach a low-health Spark. Single-target damage potential of the Scamper is slightly worse than that of the Dox, so it is somewhat worse at harassment. The Histericlese is similar to the Ant, but with marginally lower cost and health. The Elysian has a slightly lower range than the Spinner (basically the old pre-buff Spinner range), a slower fire rate, more damage per projectile, and is cheaper. The Oracle is slower and has a lower vision radius than the Skitter, but it also has a respectable 300-range energy-free radar, and its mine-detection ability is also extended to 300 range (as opposed to 200 vision/detection for the Skitter). The Riptide is similar to the Kraken, but with slightly better anti-sub weaponry and slightly worse anti-surface weaponry. The Torchbearer has a much higher range than the Grenadier (125 -> 200). However, its projectiles also travel extremely slowly and have a much lower splash radius. As a result, it is effectively unable to hit anything that is not stationary. Low DPS, but very good at sieging metal extractors and defensive structures. Basically the only harassment unit that Foundation currently has that is better than an MLA counterpart at its role.
Made more changes for v1.15 EDIT: Summary of v1.15 changes: Sheller -> Schism: damage: 400 -> 100 splash radius: 15 -> 3 Projectile travels much faster on average (difficult to quantify) Projectiles release a damaging field. Fields last 5 seconds. Fields deal 20 damage every 0.25 seconds. Fields have 20 radius. Fields deal 200 damage on expiration. Spark -> Charge: speed: 14 -> 12 range: 65 -> 75 energy consumption: 200 -> 100 energy usage per shot: 400 -> 200 Splash attack replaced with a chain lightning attack Chain lightning can hit up to 8 times Chain lightning can choose new targets per hit Chain lightning does 128/64/32/16/8/4/2/1 damage Chain lightning has 15/14/13/12/11/10/9/0 chain range Torch now functions differently: Targets a location for divine judgement. Divine judgement has a 3-second delay. Divine judgement does 120 damage. Divine judgement has a radius of 3.
v1.16: Zealot splash radius: 7 -> 5 Zealot splash damage: 50 -> 30 Schism incremental damage: 20 -> 12 Schism initial damage: 100 -> 80 Crusader range: 40 -> 30 Crusader firing arc (pitch): 45 -> 30 Crusader firing arc (yaw): 45 -> 30 Mithras renamed to Themis Themis shields actually work now v1.17: Paladin renamed to Templar due to the fact that a Legion unit is already named "Paladin" Avalanche projectile duration increased from 4 to 4.5 seconds to accommodate the range buff they received in v1.15