ts Dev.Blog 4 - Above the Ranks (11/14/2011)

[Wallywood]

Hello fans! We’re back again with another Tiberian Sun Reborn update. We're going to start this blog by talking about the promotion upgrades, so let’s get started!

 

[][] = Veteran Rank upgrade * = Elite Rank upgrade

 

GDI

 

Light Infantry

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Bullet speed/range increase

 

Technician

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Faster repair tool

 

Engineer

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Faster repair tool / Faster hacking

 

Disk Thrower

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Incendiary disk

 

Medic

[][] Poison Resistance / Self heal

* Heal radius

 

Jumpjet

[][] Armor/ health upgrade

* Bullet speed/range increase / Radar invisibility

 

Umagon

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Laser Ammo / burn damage

 

Officer

[][] Armor / health upgrade / self heals

* Bullet speed/range increase / Uncrushable

 

Ghost Stalker

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Better Range/Splash / Faster reload

 

Riot Trooper

[][] Poison Resistant

* Incendiary Ammo

 

A.A. Trooper

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Faster rockets / Flak shot

 

NOD

 

Light Infantry

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Armor Piercing

 

Technician

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Faster repair tool

 

Engineer

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Faster repair tool / Faster hacking

 

Rocket Soldier

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Faster rockets/ larger splash radius

 

Chameleon Spy

[][] Fire Resistant

* Shorter knife cooldown / knife lunge

 

Mutant Hijacker

[][] Resistant to splash damage

* Tiberium Ammo for Uzi

 

Confessor

[][] Fire Resistant

* Faster reload / Splash damage

 

Cyborg

[][] Armor / health upgrade

* Major armor upgrade / better ammo / Cannon arm

 

Cyborg Commando

[][] Fire Resistant

* Flame thrower

 

Elite Cadre

[][] Armor / health upgrade / self heals

* Armor Piercing / Un-crushable

 

Toxin Trooper

[][] Fire Resistant

* Blue Tiberium upgrade

 

This is just a general idea of how promotions will affect each unit. Everything here is subject to change.

 

Promotion Idea

We hope to have it set up so, If you reach X promotion for X unit you will somehow be able to go re buy that promoted unit for a price increase.

So lets say I died as a Vet.Rocket Soldier I could either just buy another Rocket Soldier for lets say 300 or I could buy the Vet. Rocket Soldier the price and a half of the reg. Rocket Soldier. So lets then say I took that Vet. Unit and got it promoted to Elite and died. When I come back I should be able to buy the Elite for double the reg. price or buy the Vet. soldier or just by the Reg. non promoted unit.

 

Next up we’ll show off our Limpet Drone. This beautiful little guy was made by Mick. Mick has been helping us out quite a bit lately so I want to throw him a special shout out in this blog

They will be controlled by terminals in the radar towers.

 

Guy_with_a_Wrench has decided to take up selling houses in the TSR universe. Let’s take a look at what’s on the market.

Guy_with_a_Wrench is stilling working on this but I must say, I think this is a very good start

 

We have done the podcast, but due to a few mishaps we are going to have to edit it up a bit before posting, so you can expect that sometime soon.

 

Team Status Update:

 

*Renardin has been very sick lately so let’s wish him a speedy recovery.

*Dark Angel is still working on the Nod Tech center.

*Spice is still working on the GDI service depot.

*OWA joined me and Lord_Kane in the podcast and is now editing it for us.

*Dtrngd has just taken his drivers test so if your in Hungary, stay off the sidewalk !

*GWAW has been busy with school lately.

*CJ and PointlessAmbler have been working on RC 2.1 for APB .

*TheBeerinator has been doing everything except the heavy tank.

*Most the other team have been off in the BF3 war. We're hoping they come back alive.

[Enduar]

Looks pretty good, but the laser ammunition for Umagon is a little strange, if only because she's GDI and her weapon doesn't look anything like a laser weapon.

 

Also to change things up and make Nod a little trickier, would it be reasonable to consider making a final tier upgrade for one of their units a temporary cloaking device? Something that would let them stealth for a short duration of time, perhaps at a penalty to their ability to move quickly (or at all). Something like that would make a unit like the Confessor or another unit very good for guerrilla tactics and exemplify the kind of strategies Nod is suppose to excel at.

 

At any rate, I'm looking forward to how this turns out. Also, is there any word on the ability to "preserve rank" for certain units by paying extra? I'd like to know how that is supposed to play out.

Edited November 14, 2011 by Enduar

[Guest ma1kel]

Awesome blog, nice looking promotion upgrades for most units and nice looking models. How is getting promoted planned? I.e. what are the general requirements to get promoted and how long into the game do you guys think a player will be at certain veterancy levels?

 

In the last blog it was mentioned that the team had some ideas for a rank retention system, could this possibly be done by having a small percentage of the XP you earned during a game carry over into the next one? It could be more modest than paying cash to get your previous game's rank. Albeit they're completely different systems.

Edited November 15, 2011 by ma1kel

[Enduar]

I'm pretty sure he mentioned in an earlier blog that you would have to earn rank every match, which is pretty reasonable. Equal playing grounds for both new and old players, that way.

[Guest ma1kel]

it was stated in the previous blog that "We're also thinking about implementing a rank retention system. If you’ve earned a rank, there may be a way to retain that ranking by spending a little extra cash. This will reset each round, of course." From which I think they're talking about buying the same rank had the previous game. I'm not completely sure though, might be wrong about that.

Edited November 15, 2011 by ma1kel

[Guest Generalcamo]

Perhaps if you capture the civilian tech armory, that was in TS, you could have the oppurtinity to go into the building, and come out veteran.

[Enduar]

Hm. Neutral, capture-able tech where you can pay to rank up? That sounds pretty good, but the cost sure would need to scale up for better units. I can only imagine the horror of a fully ranked Cyborg Commando or Ghost Stalker.

[Guest ma1kel]

Hmm as an alternative I would have it give out a small amount XP instead at a certain rate to the team that captured the building, being capturable one team can have a bunch more inside of the building to get promoted but when another team captures that same building later they might have trouble getting infantry inside it,

 

It would also remove the iinsta-veterancy while I think giving out a XP at a certain rate would make the tech building have more worth longer into the game.

Edited November 15, 2011 by ma1kel

[Mick]

Only noticed it now, does the latest script allow infantry to be rendered uncrushable by vehicles?

[Guest Generalcamo]

If it works like AR's tech system, it would be possible. The one in TS only promoted you to veteren, not elite, therefore making it useless after one rank.

[Guest Loyal2NES]

I think the idea behind rank retention was that you'd be able to keep your rank on death.

[Guest ma1kel]

There's a tt.ini or hud.ini setting to give a skin type the property to be uncrushable, at least there was in early versions of scripts.dll. I think I saw some code in the 4.0 released source code that could set a property for an infantry unit to be uncrushable, although I can't remember that for sure.

 

@Loyal2NES: Ah I see, that makes a lot of sense, The promotion systems I've seen on the engine stayed during the whole game.

Edited November 15, 2011 by ma1kel

[Enduar]

I think having to enter the veterancy building and utilize it directly would be better for gameplay. Teams who wished to benefit from it would be forced to defend it if they wanted to maintain the advantage, and particularly on larger maps it would make for an interesting strategic point of interest. Something to make the map seem less barren and add another "hot spot" for combat outside of bases, choke points, and Tiberium Fields/harvester routes. Adding a few neutral defenses to the structure would make things even more interesting.

 

Of course, this has more to do with mapping than the core game mechanics themselves.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Enduar

[Wallywood]

Only noticed it now, does the latest script allow infantry to be rendered uncrushable by vehicles?

Yes, we can make units uncrushable. We're not entirely sure yet if we can add that the uncrushable part as a ranking thing. We're going to try to get it figured out.

 

As for the re-buying your rank thing. That is still being worked on but I'm pretty sure it will not be a capture able tech building. We're hoping to have it show up on the side bar somehow.

 

If it works like AR's tech system, it would be possible. The one in TS only promoted you to veteren, not elite, therefore making it useless after one rank.

I'm not sure what your talking about. TS had two rankings the little [][] was vet. and the star * was Elite. And AR doesn't have a tech system.

[Guest namechanged]

Perhaps if you capture the civilian tech armory, that was in TS, you could have the oppurtinity to go into the building, and come out veteran.

I never saw one of those, ever.

Medic

[][] Poison Resistance / Self heal

* Heal radius

So then the medic will be like APB's medic when at Elite.

Edited November 15, 2011 by namechanged

[Mick]

http://cnc.wikia.com...Civilian_Armory

 

It's a well known structure. I don't remember it being useful by default, unless of course you had a habit of tinkering with the rules.ini file.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Mick

[Guest r315r4z0r]

I got a few questions. Some of them might not exactly partain to the info in this blog though:

 

1. Is there a difference in the repair rate between the Technician and the Engineer? Or is the only difference between the two classes just the ability to hack structures?

 

2. With the inclusion of a repair tool, is it possible to heal other infantry or vehicles with it? Or is it restricted to structures only (like it should be?) This also applies to the MRV. Also, will the MRV be able to heal structures like it did in the last release of the private beta? It wasn't necessarily easy or convienient to do, but it was doable. I hope that gets removed as well.

 

3. With Umagon's "Laser" bullet upgrade, doesn't that turn the rifle into a hitscan weapon? I thought you were trying to avoid those types of things?

 

4. I think you should also consider something like a speed boost for Cyborgs after reaching a certain rank. Would that be viable?

 

5. How are limpet drones going to work? Will they be player controlled? What function will they provide? In TS they slowed down enemy vehicles and let you see what was going on in an enemy base. Other than slowing down a vehicle, how will you translate the spying ability of the unit into FPS form?

 

6. What do you mean by "Blue Tiberium Upgrade" for the Toxin Trooper? Does that mean Blue Tiberium rounds? If so, will they be explosive?

 

7. Speaking of Blue Tiberium, will harvesters that collect it turn into demo trucks?

 

8. When you say "Armor Piercing Rounds" do you mean that they will directly inflict damage on enemy health bars (and skip right over damaging enemy armor?) That would make units incredibly powerful because they would virtually be doing double damage.

Edited November 15, 2011 by r315r4z0r

[Enduar]

I should have made it more clear that my response to the capture-able armory structure would be an addition to the existing veterancy system, as a way to more quickly gain rank. Not to replace the system. Mostly it would just be a neutral structure for mappers, nothing the core game depends on.

 

Also, I think the armor piercing rounds will likely bleed over into health, not ignore armor completely (I think there's some units in APB that behave similarly. Medium Tank, I believe?).

[Wallywood]

Looks pretty good, but the laser ammunition for Umagon is a little strange, if only because she's GDI and her weapon doesn't look anything like a laser weapon.

Also to change things up and make Nod a little trickier, would it be reasonable to consider making a final tier upgrade for one of their units a temporary cloaking device? Something that would let them stealth for a short duration of time, perhaps at a penalty to their ability to move quickly (or at all). Something like that would make a unit like the Confessor or another unit very good for guerrilla tactics and exemplify the kind of strategies Nod is suppose to excel at.

The Umagon laser shot fits, and No to the Nod cloaking thing.

 

Awesome blog, nice looking promotion upgrades for most units and nice looking models. How is getting promoted planned? I.e. what are the general requirements to get promoted and how long into the game do you guys think a player will be at certain veterancy levels?

 

In the last blog it was mentioned that the team had some ideas for a rank retention system, could this possibly be done by having a small percentage of the XP you earned during a game carry over into the next one? It could be more modest than paying cash to get your previous game's rank. Albeit they're completely different systems.

The way the promotion system will work is. Points and kills will go to your "Rank points" once a certain amount of "Rank points" are acquired you will be promoted. Each unit will have a certain amount of "Ranking points" to be promoted. As for reset each round thing I talked about before, that applies to the Retaining aspect we hop to be able to apply.

 

I think the idea behind rank retention was that you'd be able to keep your rank on death.

Yes and no . We hope to have it set up so, If you reach X promotion for X unit you will somehow be able to go re buy that promoted unit for a price increase.

So lets say I died as a Vet.Rocket Soldier I could either just buy another Rocket Soldier for lets say 300 or I could buy the Vet. Rocket Soldier the price and a half of the reg. Rocket Soldier. So lets then say I took that Vet. Unit and got it promoted to Elite and died. When I come back I should be able to buy the Elite for double the reg. price or buy the Vet. soldier or just by the Reg. non promoted unit.

 

So then the medic will be like APB's medic when at Elite.

Yes in a sense

[Guest APB_ICE]

I also think that Umagon getting laser ammo is... strange. Instead, why not give her armour-piercing incendiary ammo? That would be much more believable.

Plus, laser weapons are mostly used by Nod, while GDI is more conventionally-based, railguns, Ion Cannons, and Firestorm-walls notwithstanding.

Edited November 15, 2011 by APB_ICE

[Wallywood]

I got a few questions. Some of them might not exactly partain to the info in this blog though:

 

1. Is there a difference in the repair rate between the Technician and the Engineer? Or is the only difference between the two classes just the ability to hack structures?

Yes, Engineers repair faster

2. With the inclusion of a repair tool, is it possible to heal other infantry or vehicles with it? Or is it restricted to structures only (like it should be?) This also applies to the MRV. Also, will the MRV be able to heal structures like it did in the last release of the private beta? It wasn't necessarily easy or convienient to do, but it was doable. I hope that gets removed as well.

It will only repair Buildings and the GDI service depot and Nod MRVs will only repair Vehicles

3. With Umagon's "Laser" bullet upgrade, doesn't that turn the rifle into a hitscan weapon? I thought you were trying to avoid those types of things?

No it will not be hit scan as a laser. It will be a bit more damage to Vehicles and Infantry and add burn damage.

4. I think you should also consider something like a speed boost for Cyborgs after reaching a certain rank. Would that be viable?

The way we're doing the Cyborg is he is basically going to be like a walking Vehicle. He will probably remain slow.

5. How are limpet drones going to work? Will they be player controlled? What function will they provide? In TS they slowed down enemy vehicles and let you see what was going on in an enemy base. Other than slowing down a vehicle, how will you translate the spying ability of the unit into FPS form?

This is answered in the Pod cast.

6. What do you mean by "Blue Tiberium Upgrade" for the Toxin Trooper? Does that mean Blue Tiberium rounds? If so, will they be explosive?

Yes, and Yes. Along with the poison effect it will deal if your hit without armor it deal explosive damage as well.

7. Speaking of Blue Tiberium, will harvesters that collect it turn into demo trucks?

Yes, we will have it so harvesters will collect blue Tiberium but it will only give you more credits. Probably will not blow up like a demo.

8. When you say "Armor Piercing Rounds" do you mean that they will directly inflict damage on enemy health bars (and skip right over damaging enemy armor?) That would make units incredibly powerful because they would virtually be doing double damage.

It will deal more damage to vehicles.

Wish you could have asked these for the pod cast

 

I should have made it more clear that my response to the capture-able armory structure would be an addition to the existing veterancy system, as a way to more quickly gain rank. Not to replace the system. Mostly it would just be a neutral structure for mappers, nothing the core game depends on.

Nope still probably not going to happen that way.

[Guest CYBERMAN]

I like what i see. Man Reborn is steamrolling!

[Guest ImperialKaskins]

I see the kitchen reminds me of The Sims series. Looks great overall for such a fast progress.

[Guest APB_ICE]

Guy_with_a_Wrench has decided to take up selling houses in the TSR universe. Let’s take a look at what’s on the market.

 

Man, this Port-A-Shack looks awesome! Comes with furniture, a full kitchen, free electricity... It even comes with a vintage TV and an old satellite dish, lol! :biggrin:

 

Looking forward to the deluxe version. :emot-dance:

Edited November 15, 2011 by APB_ICE

[Raptor29aa]

Excellent blog it answered most all of my questions... except one.

Umagon's elite status as a laser sniper, will that involve red tracer rounds? A custom beam-like shot? Or some sort of glowing red effect on the gun meaning laser is now added?

 

P.S. I'm excited to see an automatic marksmen class that can burn infantry... :emot-dance: mu ah ha ha ha.

[Wallywood]

Excellent blog it answered most all of my questions... except one.

Umagon's elite status as a laser sniper, will that involve red tracer rounds? A custom beam-like shot? Or some sort of glowing red effect on the gun meaning laser is now added?

Yes we will make it like a laser beam look. but she will not be a sniper

[VERTi60]

I would like to see more secondary weapons unlocked just like the cyborg with his canon arm. Anyway, nice to see Wally keeps with the blargs. Let's see for how long though

[Guest ma1kel]

I think having to enter the veterancy building and utilize it directly would be better for gameplay. Teams who wished to benefit from it would be forced to defend it if they wanted to maintain the advantage, and particularly on larger maps it would make for an interesting strategic point of interest. Something to make the map seem less barren and add another "hot spot" for combat outside of bases, choke points, and Tiberium Fields/harvester routes. Adding a few neutral defenses to the structure would make things even more interesting.

 

Of course, this has more to do with mapping than the core game mechanics themselves.

 

Yeah that would be the best, I figured your veterancy level would stay for a whole rank which is why I thought Generalcamo's suggestion wouldn't be as nice as a continuous small stream of XP to the whole team. If the veterancy only lasts till you die, which is what actually is being implemented, the idea of having to enter the building is better.

Edited November 15, 2011 by ma1kel

[Wallywood]

I think having to enter the veterancy building and utilize it directly would be better for gameplay. Teams who wished to benefit from it would be forced to defend it if they wanted to maintain the advantage, and particularly on larger maps it would make for an interesting strategic point of interest. Something to make the map seem less barren and add another "hot spot" for combat outside of bases, choke points, and Tiberium Fields/harvester routes. Adding a few neutral defenses to the structure would make things even more interesting.

 

Of course, this has more to do with mapping than the core game mechanics themselves.

 

Yeah that would be the best, I figured your veterancy level would stay for a whole rank which is why I thought Generalcamo's suggestion wouldn't be as nice as a continuous small stream of XP to the whole team. If the veterancy only lasts till you die, which is what actually is being implemented, the idea of having to enter the building is better.

This idea would water down the Vet system and make it way to easy to rank up and OP for units like commandos.

[Guest APB_ICE]

I still say that armour-piercing incendiary ammo would be much more believable and logical than "laser" shots.