Leaderboard

We'll remember you when town wins.

Apologies for missing a Thursday. Rest assured that development is making strides. Today I want to give you an idea of what the scripts team has been up to. Development is more than mapping and textures. One must remember the intensive coding that goes into it! Below are some examples. Exhibit A: void Handle_Node_Rotation_Non_Aligned(NodeClass *n, Matrix3D &m1, Matrix3D &m2) { if (!n->Is_Locked()) { Matrix3D tm = n->Get_Transform(); Matrix3D tm2; m2.Get_Orthogonal_Inverse(tm2); Matrix3D tm3; Matrix3D::Multiply(tm2, tm, &tm3); Matrix3D::Multiply(m2, m1, &tm); Matrix3D::Multiply(tm, tm3, &tm); if (!tm.Is_Orthogonal()) { tm.Re_Orthogonalize(); } n->Set_Transform(tm); } } and Exhibit B: void TerrainNode::Create_Proxy_Objects(DynamicVectorClass<ProxyClass> &vector) { for (int i = 0; i < vector.Count(); i++) { Matrix3D transform = vector[i].Get_Transform(); StringClass str = vector[i].Get_Name(); PresetClass *p = PresetMgrClass::Find_Named_Preset(str); if (!p) { StringClass strx; strx.Format("Unable to find preset for placeholder %s.\r\n",str.Peek_Buffer()); OutputDebugStringA(strx); continue; } NodeClass *n = Create_Node(p, &transform, 0, false); if (n) { n->Set_Align_Rotation_Z(false); n->Set_Node_Embedded(true); if (n->Get_Phys() || n->Class_ID() == NODE_CLASSID_TERRAIN) { Matrix3D m1(true); Matrix3D m2x(true); Handle_Rotation(n, m1, m2x); n->Set_Is_Locked(true); Our scripts team looks at this kind of stuff on a daily basis. Without their assistance and expertise, who knows where our games would be. We can't thank them enough for all they do. We'll have more to show you next update! You should know the above scripts is related to this image here. The keyword is scaling. See you next Thursday! [blurb]Apologies for missing a Thursday. Rest assured that development is making strides. Today I want to give you an idea of what the scripts team has been up to.[/blurb]

TP/Neutral Nodlied is never anti-Town. He's always put Town goals before his own. It's to the point where he was willing to sacrifice his win condition as a townie during Death Note to help Town win.

Clearly Jeod has to handicap me so Scum would actually have a chance.

I'd ask if that's your defense, but clearly DK is a better defense right now.

Sure grabbing a ramjet and getting some headshots with it is an adrenaline rush and there's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is the attitude that comes with it. Last time the enemy team got a building crate and made a comeback win, which in turn hurt your ability to killwhore. This time the enemy team was down to their last building so a poll was started to end the round, which hurt your ability to killwhore. You stopped the poll despite multiple people (not just cjx0r) voting yes. You put your own wishes over that of other players.

1. Racism should have been taken care of by you, the moderator, instead of holding onto the log to use as a shield 2. Two wrongs don't make a right, and your beef with cjx0r doesn't excuse using a moderator command without a proper reason (as you said, the poll would have failed, so just let it fail like you did the second time) 3. A year's worth of cherry-picked irc logs is not impressive and hurts your point. Thank you for your reply. *The above points are my personal opinion and don't necessarily equate to other W3D staff opinions

I'm not taking sides in this thread as to keep / remove the restore. I will say to keep in mind that this thread only represents a small number of folks. I don't want to see changes made because a small number of people complain. Kneejerk reactions have brought about very few positive changes IMO.

IMHO infantry and vehicles should be made as different as possible, not similar. You want them to have different and varied tactics, not be the same things with different models and animations. Okay but why is the difference "completely useless" and "completely broken?" Infantry suck in this game. There's some infantry with cheese potential, but that's it. I actually saw people using Rangers and Home Guard last night probably specifically because I called them out as useless. Guess what happened? I one shot them before they ever even did considerable damage to me. Oh no they did like 2.3 tank shells worth of damage to me good thing I can repair it in 2 seconds with a technician. Autocannon six-wheel BRDM: (You want to remove, or turn into an upgrade option). One of my favourite vehicles Few have discovered that this thing has one of the highest ranges of the Nod weapons. Actually that's my biggest problem with it, and stuff like the Wiesel. On top of just cluttering the space with weapons this thing represents a severe balance issues because such a cheap unit can do so well against such an expensive one. And it all comes down to range. Some ranges just don't even make sense, like the aforementioned BRDM. Why does it outrange tanks? This is such a ridiculous balance issue to even have. Mammoths should outrange everything except artillery, why? Because they're slow and will otherwise get kited. The two biggest reasons the original game's Artillery were overpowered is because the units had the best range and speed combination of any unit in the game. They could constantly duck in and out of cover, or just drive away from you while gunning you down just out of your range. This is actually an old complaint that fell into the back of my mind I had previously brought up to Kaskins. Ranges should be normalized heavily, having all these weird ranges hurts balance immensely. More so than a unit doing a little too much damage for its price tier. The Wiesel wouldn't be half as OP as it currently is if it had 10m less range than your average tank, even with its damage being so ridiculously high. Getting close to an SSM however is pretty hard. Perhaps they could be changed so have much slower missile turn rates and a much higher launch angle, so the 'safe distance' away from them is larger and easier to get into? I think that could be a good change that makes them more interesting, rather than just nerfing them. Yes and no. While they certainly deserve to not be able to outrun tanks, their biggest issue is just being pinpoint accurate with tracking. If they actually had to aim they'd be well worth 1200 credits because they'd not be able to hit tanks at max range anymore. They'd retain their use as great anti building but need to actually be closer to deal with tanks in large part. I don't even think they need a damage nerf as a whole if they no longer tracked because tracking is bullshit. Increasing their price to 3k doesn't actually fix anything, it just delays the game about 5 or 10 minutes more until Nod reaches critical mass on SSM maps. They just need to not track, maybe get a speed nerf even, and I think they'd be balanced. But I do also think they should do less damage to heavy tanks even still. It's something like 200-300 armor damage per salvo which is ridiculous. Two of them can kill a Mammoth before it even gets into range and cost the same as one mammoth, less than some variants.

To sum this whole thing up into one smaller, relatively concise final thing, I'm not actually doing GDI right now because I'm sleepy but most everything that applies to Nod also applies to GDI that wasn't mentioned to be an area GDI is lacking in: 1. There are far too many useless or redundant units. I believe that by combining some of the less useful units together, and on the whole buffing infantry against tanks, the meta can be changed so that buying a Flamethrower is something you do because you're organizing a flamethrower rush, not because you're suffering from alcohol poisoning. 2. The SSM and Pion greatly disturb the balance on any map with large, clear sight ranges, turning almost any map where this is the case into a guaranteed Nod victory. The last game I played featured no less than 8 SSM's all happily pounding away at GDI's tight, defensless base with no counter or reprieve to be had. This happens all the time. I fully believe that if a Nod team used nothing but Wiesels and SSMs, and basic Stealth tanks, their winrate would actually improve on most maps. 3. Banshees and anti tank Comanches have near uncontested dominance in the skies. In conjunction with Nod having quite potent anti air vehicles on their own, this actually has left GDI extremely lacking in the air. GDI has to defeat Nod with weight of numbers because pound for pound, Nod air is just wholesale better. Sensor Arrays are actually quite pricey due to needing near constant replacement at the front line. This all goes back to GDI requiring significantly more teamwork to win, whereas Nod has the tools to allow Lone Wolves to excel, or at least not be a bother to their team. One guy misusing a Shield can easily lose the game for GDI, one guy trying for the sixteenth time to nuke the barracks is probably eventually going to succeed. One guy dicking around in a Banshee can easily destroy 20k credits in vehicles before the GDI team coordinates and ambushes him, and that's assuming they even do that.

I forgot about the air units but as far as Nod is concerned there are three air units in the game. The Anti Tank Stealth Comanche. The Banshee. The useless things. The Banshee is full stop overpowered, it can take on anything. SAM sites, ORCA Fighters, ORCA Bombers (lol), AA Gun tracking actually just misses the thing, it can fly straight into a GDI Chaparral, kill it, and then fly back to base, while the base still has anti air defenses and the Chaparral fired first. Don't tell me it can't do this, I sat there and watched it happen, impotent to stop the raw destructive, unholy demonic power that is the Banshee. Holy crap seriously nerf the hell out of these things. Less ammo, less damage, less speed, right now its drawbacks are minimal. The deadliest thing to a Banshee at the moment is a mix up between the AMX 90mm and a basic GDI Rifleman. AA Specialists don't fire fast enough to kill them. And GDI's dedicated anti air vehicles are awful. The Stealth Comanches aren't particularly good, but they are invisible. Since whoever shoots first wins in an air battle, since once shooting starts you can't maneuver or flee or evade or dodge, or do anything except hope they have less shots than you, or a degenerative muscle disease that causes them to jerk erratically, the anti tank Comanches can prey on ORCAs much like an Eagle does a field mouse. That and they can get close enough to snipe ground vehicles, whereas ORCAs, while certainly powerful offensively, are made out of wet paper, broken dreams, and $5 lobster defensively, meaning a single 600 Credit Wiesel can turn a 2500 Credit ORCA Fighter into scrap metal in about 0.4 seconds. Actually this is more a problem with the Wiesel isn't it?

Fast Attack Vehicle – Battle Taxi, takes way too long to reload. T-70 – Remove. Transport Truck – Why does it not have Light armor and 200/200 Health? The deployed thingy that’s actually broken and unpurchaseable. Fine I guess. Six-Wheeled BDRM – Just have the MG variant and the Laser cannon variant. Autocannon could be an upgrade for the base BDRM. BDRM-AT 2 – Fine. BM-24-7 - Remove. BDRM-2 – Remove. M110 Howitzer – Remove. Yeah I know this might get some flak but it’s just a poor unit on multiple metrics. T-90 – Remove. T-34/D-30 – Remove. Harvesters. Can someone actually explain why there’s two? I know it’s thematic and neat to have but it’s just so specialized having two feels incredibly redundant. Mobile Stealth Generator is actually a Gap Generator. This is annoying. Change its name. Wiesel 1 should cost 1000 Credits or have its 20mm Autocannon do about 40% of the damage it currently does to heavy vehicles. Its range should also be reduced about 10m. It’s too fast and kites heavy tanks way too well. Don’t make it slower just make it worse at engaging from the front by reducing its range. SU-85 you know what, I’m just gonna say remove all the WW2 vehicles from the game. They’re *sorta* neat as far as theme goes but they’re all practically worthless, and the ones that aren’t are entirely outclassed by slightly more expensive vehicles. Put them on a specific “early war” map or something where you can only buy T-34s and Crusader tanks and that’d be cool. Having a T-34 in the same battle as a Railgun Titan is goofy, even by C&C standards. ZSU-57-2 can stay though. Bradley is fine. Both are. They’re actual glass cannons. Devils Tongue and Black Hand Flame tank, yeah the BHFT is not in any universe worth its 1600 Credit price point, just gonna say that. I think the Devil’s Tongue should have its price dropped even more because it too is pretty mediocre. Black Hand Stealth Tank should cost 1200 Credits. Infiltrator is fine, but just combine the 700 and 800 Credit ones into one 800 Credit vehicle. Why are Nod Sensors 400 Credits cheaper than GDI ones? Black hand Light Tanks are GARBAGE. They need buffs. Make the laser variant an upgrade of the base one and just combine the two. Shilka is fine but ORCAs are so weak they’re just not ever in demand. Nona exists. No one notices it does. Tesla Tank is too cool to get rid of but it’s not actually good enough to use either when saving a little more money gets you an SSM for you and your buddy. Perhaps drop its price down to a Tier 2 unit as a form of short range artillery fill in support? T-62s are fine. Tick Tanks are okay aside from their guns missing everything due to being so far displaced. I’d rather have a T-62. Phase Tanks are okay? But they feel really overpriced and out of place. Like they should be cheap Tier 2 Stealth and the Black Hand Stealth Tank should be Tier 3. AMX-10RC needs a slight fire rate buff. The Luna exists but it really shouldn’t. The Ontos is cool. The Goliath needs to cost 1500 Credits or have 50% less health.

Basically everything I said here applies to GDI’s direct and indirect equivalents. The issues I have come down to redundancy and splash damage exploitation, so any redundant or overly cheesy GDI infantry gets the same treatment as Nod in my perfect little world. A couple exceptions. Namely, Mobius Suit Infantry should cost 1500 credits. In addition, I’d actually like to see Sydney receive a *slight* increase in damage against vehicles at the expense of being less durable against *small arms fire.* Vehicles are a lot to delve into. One thing I really hate, and probably one of the reasons its so easy to headshot infantry in this game, is how most tanks are hitscan or damn close to it. They also tend to have excessive splash damage and rates of fire, but to be fair that’s just a Renegade feature. The (partial) solution is again, in my opinion, to cull some of the redundant units. Instead of having effectively 9 tiers of vehicles just have four, balance vehicles around the tiers they say they’re a part of. That doesn’t mean only four prices for vehicles, but there should really only be one “type” of vehicle per tier, with two if they specialize enough (like the AMX-10C, it’s an okayish anti tank unit but also ambibious, so it’d be fine to have it in the same tier as a light tank or what have you)

Basic Rifleman - They suck ass die fast and are free. They also murder aircraft. But everything does. Sharpshooter - Not actually terrible. Rather good, I’ve killed a few higher tier infantry with them before. Shotgunner/Anti Tank - Yeah they suck ass, honestly. Mostly because of their really short range. But they’re a free unit so they should. I still have an issue where baserape can occur where the barracks and warfactory are down and the opposing team just spams air units or artillery and refuses to actually end. That’s more its own problem, but having free infantry that can actually pose a realistic threat to air would be really nice just to punish killwhoring. Engineer - Yeah they’re engineers. Nothing to say here. Here’s my suggestions, for infantry just in general. - Anti Infantry/Support 300 Credits Your guys focused on killing infantry, with some ability to damage buildings and minimal anti tank capabilities, be it low damage or short range. - Anti Tank/Support 400 Credits Your guys that can kinda do some damage to tanks but not a ton. Like the Anti Tank Rifleman. - Anti Infantry Specialists 600 Credits Black Hand Elite (the AK-103 is stupidly powerful), and their ilk. - Anti Tank Specialists 600 Credits Nod and GDI both need a mid tier dedicated anti tank infantry. I suggest the Melta for Nod, as it stands the thing is neither strong enough nor on a soldier durable enough to even attempt to engage GDI tanks. - Elite Infantry 1000/1500 Credits Officer – Price increase to 300. Durability increase. Grenader – Price increase to 300. Give SMG, reduce grenades to 15/15 instead of 40/40, reduce blast radius AND infantry damage, increase anti tank and building damage so that they can actually damage them. Increase price, obviously. Red Tide – Price increase to 300. Give them a rifle that doesn’t suck too, so they don’t have one gimmick which is sneaking into a building and instaggibing it with their anti tank grenades. Nod Tank Crew – Remove. Nod Rocket Soldier – Price increase to 400. Give them a big range increase and damage increase to tanks. Right now they’re really great at one shot body shotting infantry, and sniping defenses. That’s it. Nod Flamethrower 1 & 2 – Combine into one unit at 300. Anti tank Rifleman – Price increase to 400, get rid of the scope too. It just makes purchasing actual snipers pointless outside of Sakura. Red Tide Firewarrior – Remove. Nod Fanatic – Price increase to 600. Chem Warrior 1 & 2. Combine into one unit at 600. Red Tide Sharpshooter – Remove. Black Hand Sniper – Price Increase to 600. Petrova – Price increase to 1000. Melta – Make them either more durable or more damaging to vehicles. Maybe both. Also price increase to 600. Stormtroopers exist. No one would cry if they were removed. In fact I’m sure almost everyone reading this forgot they were even in the game. Ballistic Sniper – Remove. Black Hand Machine Gunner – Make him better at engaging infantry, honestly. Some better armor against small arms fire would probably help. Field Engineer – Shouldn’t have proximity mines, should have extra explosives, make them very durable against explosions and they can have a niche as field mechanics who don’t die to stray HE rockets. SBH – Price increase to 600. Reduce alt fire damage against vehicles and/or increase ammo cost to 25. Anti Air Specialist – Price increase to 600. Reduce damage against vehicles by 50% (assuming you actually buff anti tank capabilities of other infantry to compensate for a specialist not actually specializing) Nod Black Hand Elite. A better anti infantry unit than the 200 credit more BHMG. The AK-103 is busted and makes Patch look like a bitch. Consider removing. Black Hand Designated Marksman – remove. Sakura – Fine. Raveshaw. Needs to be 100% more durable against tanks and the railgun should deal 50% more damage. Consider giving him an EMP grenade. Mutant Raveshaw – Should have its price increased to 1500, frankly. Mendoza. Needs to be more durable against vehicles. Comissar is a gimmick anti infantry specialist but doesn’t have any real use outside of its EMP grenade, which should probably be given to a unit that can make use of it, like Raveshaw. I appreciate the teamwork potential, but I see maybe one person use them a week, once a game, and usually because someone is camping a tunnel with a Zippo, not to actually deal with a tank horde or something since the Commisar isn’t in the slightest durable or useful against tanks not right next to them. Suggest removing. Really huge balance suggestion that affects way more than just Technicians. Make multiple repair sources give diminishing returns. Repair stacking extends the duration of games MASSIVELY, and can actually reward teams for bunkering effectively in their base. Sappers and Pioneers could probably do with their stuff costing like 10% less. Tank Commander 1 & 2. Eh. They’re okay where they are probably. Shock Troopers shouldn’t have unlimited ammo that’s just stupid. And should have about 50 more armor I think. Lancers are niche and that’s okay. I would like them to have 25% less bullet drop, however. Some maps make using them almost impossible due to their range limitations. They shouldn’t one shot a building at full health though specifically because of the rare but possible chance GDI gets a Lancer spy crate.