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Grugnas

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Posts posted by Grugnas

  1. ===[COMMITTED]=== Spartan Structures

    in Completed Art Tasks

    Posted

    Good job with those builginds, they just look amazing. the rampant plants are a quite neat detail.

    Someone already said that, but decoration shields on barracks wall would be really nice  to highlight its military purpose.

    Farmstead fundation and visual actor have different shapes resulting in an unpleasing overlapping when built.

     

    spartan-storehouse.png

    • Like 1

  2. Monkey Wrench Balance Mod Alpha 22

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    What will come:

    Specialization:

    I'd really like to put the mod a step further by adding a kind of specialization for every class, giving more choices for different situations. Not fully convinced if that may be a good idea because choosing different paths by researching a pair technology where the decision is about further improve  melee / ranged offensive stats and armor / movement speed would also be interesting, still not satisfying though.

    Here is just a specialization example: swordsman-fc.pdf

    Diversify Civilizations:

    Factions may have different traits which should be historically accurate and merge with the current gameplay.

    Sparta women able to increase arrows count while garrisoning a tower and eventually a Civic Center.

    Iberians could have advantage into making corrals.

    Seleucids could choose between army reforms depending of the fortress entity, thus being able to train different type of champions for different fortresses.

    Gaul druids could increase attack speed of nearby units.

    and so on.

    Update to 22.1.4.3:

    What's new:

    Technology:

    Houses:

    REMOVED! Home Garden

    NEW! Pair Tech:

    Home Garden:

    •  Increases houses garrison limit from 3 to 4 and big houses limit from 6 to 8
    • Increases by 20% the population limit given by houses

    Home Harem:

    •  -50% training time for women trained from houses.
    • Increases by 20% the population limit given by houses

    Units:

    The game feels quite frenetic, thus women and all infantry and champion units train slower.

    Women: training time increased from 8 to 10.

    Citizen Infantry: training time increased from 10 to 12.

    Ranged:

    Javelin: Pierce damage reduced from 16 to 15

    Slinger: Pierce damage reduced from 9.5 to 9

    Archer: Pierce damage reduced from 6 to 5

    Citizen Cavalry: training time increased from 15 to 16.

    Archer: Pierce damage reduced from 7 to 6

    Champions Infantry: training time increased from 20 to 24.

    Javelin: Pierce damage reduced from 26 to 24

    Slinger: Pierce damage reduced from 9.5 to 9

    Archer: Pierce damage reduced from 6.5 to 6

    Champions Cavalry: training time increased from 30 to 32.

    Archer: Pierce damage reduced from 14 to 12

  6. 0abc mod

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    thank you for the upload, now i am able to try out the mod.

    Roman army camp gives error and can't be built because of its EjectHealth  and GarrisonHolder components.

    Also I am not sure why but there was a weird bug with women trying to build a grainfield. Despite it was full hp ( 300 / 300 ), it couldn't be gathered and women kept trying to build it as if unfinished.

  8. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted · Edited by Grugnas

    This is a snowball tactic. More units you have, more effective the harrassment becomes. Although the high mobile harrassment power, they can also destroy towers which is supposed to be the only counter to mid-long ranged cavalry.

    Their disadvantage into the slow hunting. The idea with archers is to have a high range support with low mobility ( for infantry) and lack in the economy aspect (they suck at gathering),  i guess.

    EDIT: i agree that the citizen soldier system isn't enough satisfying, it could be extended.

    i.e. there could be gaia settlments to take control of their gaia habitants with at no population cost, enslave them to put them at work.

  9. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted · Edited by Grugnas

    13 minutes ago, DarcReaver said:

     

    I can confirm that ptols may be really op.

    actually this strategy is overkill and OP in early game and counterable by siege towers in late game. an elephant could destroy your siege towers tho.

    The point is that towers with their distance restriction and low damage ( or cavalry with high hp if you like) can't prevent cavalry raids which is lame and let cavalry monopolize the whole game in any phase and state.

    • Haha 1

  10. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, DarcReaver said:

    Because AoE II out of the AoE game series is the only community I'd consider to be competitive. And this is because AoE II is a great game with many nice game mechanics and a lot of strategical and tactical depth PLUS various options to micro. So you're playing AoE 1 I suppose?

    please consider also starcraft 2 which is imho a superb game :P

    I played AoEII in my childhood, a lot in single player only.

    Despite some tactical sneaky built barracks (AI likes a lot to build stuff in most disparate zones), i can't see the deal into control the wide map (matter of fact most of times AI build walls even faster than i could remember LOL) and i have the feeling that its not worth to use villagers to build mills far away from civic center in order to hunt deers.

    There are tons and tons of techs to research but I can't see concrete differences between civs if not for some and perhaps not very relevant civ bonuses. Also,  I am skeptical on considering most of those technologies useful in a competitive environment ( i talk not knowing the competitive scene tho).

    • Like 1

  11. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

    What is the problem with counter system?(I'm not speaking  of old version - the hard counters)

    The real question is, what's the problem with a not-counter system?

    Quote

    Fastest click wins - In many RTS games, it isn't the player with the most intelligence or the best strategy that wins, it's the player who A] knows the proper order of actions and B] carries them out the fastest. People that practice a general procedure that is usually rewarding and know keyboard shortcuts should be slightly advantaged, and they will still be required; but, the if the opponent recognises their 'cookie cutter' gameplay, they should easily be able to outwit them by identifying and countering the unoriginal/over-used tactics with an effective counteractive strategy

    I feel somehow offended as experienced player.

    the A) point feels like   "just because i can use multiplication which is fast thus stupid, i feel smarter by sum all its factors instead."

    With experienced i mean that i repute me smart enough to spend time playing the game and invent/emulate strategies in order to assimilate their strong and weak points and manipulate them depending on the situation. As long as the base start is the same (let's say i have to train X women to sustain economy for an Y strategy), perfection comes with practice, thus I can abuse of the imbalanced features or try to find an alternative to op stuff if i am fast enough.

    I challenge you to do engineering stuff without a machine doing "repetitive daily" math for you.

    Although tactic meaning, countering is mostly made by balance.

    Quote

    Single path to victory - It seems to be a trend that games cater to a specific strategy that is frequently used to attain a victory. That could be rushing, turtling, booming, etc. We recognise these are valid ways to win a game, but we will attempt to not favour one over another. Players should be able to successfully use (and adapt/change) any strategy to achieve a victory.

    That's what personally I am trying to achieve with Monkey Wrench Mod.

    There isn't any advantaged strategy as long as there is another one able to erase another strategy advantage.

    1) Formations fix in my opinion should have the max priority because those are an already implemented feature and could even be improved.

    A formation lock system would finally set a junction point between battalion addicted and micro-management fanatics.

    2) a simple balance would make online players happier. ( is this a bad thing? i see many people saying that's not important. Can you then justify all the recent complain on the forum please? Words won't calm down them and me neither )

    I want you to know that some people stopped to play this game because of the balance. Yes, people leave because of balance. Are you really sure that balance is not important even at this stage? that sounds kinda hypocrite from SP players and uncaring from "the guy in charge" who i guess want people to actually use his code and numbers, producing the exact opposite result.

    Making mods in order to balance the game ( monkey wrench included) is stupid as long as their main target are online players and most of people online or doesn't care at all or won't invest their time to download something they will use 1 or 2 times per month.

    3) indeed gameplay can be improved, but please bear in mind that there is already a lot of not optimized stuff already. Thus a temporary balance and some civ revision would already improve the game. Indeed there is really the need of a lighthouse as reference to consider variants and additions to the already existing content, there is a lot of redundance into playing different civs and this goes fare beyond the balance. That's a matter of decision power,  proper motivation and, actually, real interest on the gameplay subject.

    • Like 3

  14. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    1 hour ago, LordGood said:

    A room full of people debating with an empty chair. I'd love to take gameplay lead myself, with the team's blessing of course. I'd certainly be neglecting the art department more than I already am in that case lol

    Although there isn't any official  position for that ( despite i guess there are entire teams dedicated to that aspect of the game in AAA afaik ) i guess that it is a shared feeling that there is the need of a guide who doesn't go on with "self conclusive experiments"  but has the common sense to change things with criteria in foresee of  future sure changes.

  16. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    39 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

    The game is spam an massive army and win.

     

    Basically yes because units are easy to train and sometimes happens to fight never ending battles because units are easy to be replaced in late game in "mainland like" maps at advantage of civs which take thr most of the advantage from building barracks.

    Actually natural counters remove the need of introducing odd explicit counters, between units at least ( i'd like to see such bonuses while using formation rather than plan introduction) .

    Managing resources could be more crucial. Taining and building time(thing that perhaps in delenda est is too strong, at least for infinite time to build grainfields) reduction perhaps would promote different approaches to the mere e units spam wars.

     

    • Like 1

  17. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Zeta1127 said:

    Perhaps an increase in training time is necessary in order to slow down the game a bit. But other than that, formations with bonuses to adequately portray ancient warfare, food trickle and other bonuses from the Corral, and proper naval combat are all that is needed at this point.

    I agree,  the game is already too frenetic while managing army at moment and perhaps an overall build and training time reduction would be really nice.

    • Like 1

  18. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted · Edited by Grugnas

    @shieldwolf23, my friend. What you are asking for is a totally separate game which would require much more time than what it already requires.

    I am sure that offline players will be more than satisfied with campaigns implementation ( whenever they will come ) because they reproduce historically accurate events with perhaps already built cities in games where hopefully quests will be introduced:

    • build N temples
    • trade  X  amount of resources in Y minutes
    • build a Wonder before the enemy get TOT population.

    Which is different from having something like a Tribute resources per house, a totally new talent tree and something that could somehow also affect multiplayer game and that perhaps make no sense atm.

    But yes,  something  risk-like  with Simulated battle in random generated maps and an economy system oriented to upgrade your army ( maybe civilization has something like that? i never played it ) mode would be also fun.  ( still this sounds like a total different game too )

    • Like 3

  19. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    As long as single players don't care about balancing, all I can tell you is that a proper diversifying of the civs requires time and testing ( thing that actually lacks in svn ) with no need to add new redundant content with just more exotic actors ( me in first line have been really impressed by Kushite actors and would like to see them in main version [ e.g. i don't know why ptol nubian archers changed skin color from black to white ]) .

    Probably the first step would be to let technologies occupy the mid row of the production queue panel because pair techs are a couple only ( 1 actually ) in order to give modders more room for more technologies in already existing buildings.

    Everyone wants more contents.

    AI simply emulate a human player, thus the rules that apply to single player is a natural consequence of a proper tested working "formula" in online matches. The main concerns about balancing is that monotone strategies kill the fun and totally obscure already existing stuff like palisades, walls and towers that may have a more relevant role in any level of skill.

    Beyond the fancy effect, having more buildings/units/technologies available during the game would make the games ( intended like diversity between different matches ) more fun and would let not 1, new civ, but 10 already existing civs benefit from it.

    So, why is there a need to add more fancy stuff if the one already implemented doesn't properly work and that may even have counter-productive effects?

    Basically most of the already existing civs are just "fancy looking" because they are bound to the phase 3 convenient rush and to the "common for all" build order.

    There isn't any official mod ( made of fact i started my own balance mod which is already difficult to try online ), just fan mods due the flexibility of the engine.

    Delenda Est is an interesting mod and, sadly, a huge lose for eye-candy seeker players, but arguing on a flame thread because of a modify decision in an alpha stage game is quite time wasting if not useless because someone should foresee changes, especially if those kind of changes aren't new paper.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  20. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted · Edited by Grugnas

    the reason why I don't get what you are talking about is because in order to play a game, you have to be at least two players.

    None forces you to use the same build order, but as long as it is the most efficient way to win, there is always a human player who will use it and people "hungry" for win who will copy (basically like in any rts).

    As long as none prevent you from "sim city" around in offline, I can't see the point.

    If you mean that some players want some construction and economical "more oriented" game ( let's say like roller coaster tycoon, sim city which aren't rts at all ),  I can only guess that that's not the way the game meant to go at first by judging the fact that the game was actually developed from an AoE mod and not from a sim city mod.

    Still nothing prevent a "Second" Justus ascension with enough time to make a conversion mod in such a way.

    As said, most of "online" players (if you want to) talk about simple number tweaks that can be done in hours  with the ability to change the game experience, completely different from new content that may require much more time.

    Don't want you to think that our "wishes" conflict, but you should consider to watch things from a realistic point of view.

  21. Really?

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    i guess that there are enough civs to have a variegate styles for all of them in the limits of the RTS genre.

    Probably using a relative movement speed makes the code easier to maintain even if i'd have some critique about it because it is supposed to be used for vision range also ( for example it would make sense to make difference between units and building classes instead of referring everything to the "primitive" unit / structure template which is probably ugly ).  ( i am still trying to improve my communication skills :P )

    • Quote

       

      • Online/competitive (classic RTS):   streamlined gameplay with a focus on balance
      • Offline/casual (2017 RTS):               focus on a large diversity of options and possibilities, aesthetics, expanded gameplay, buildings, units and beautifications, no limts (even if it seems pointless to the competitive gamers, they should just stick with classic RTS mode)

       

      Im sorry but i have to say that this totally makes no sense for many reasons:

    • This is a game and, just like any other game, it is made of numbers. Far away from a visual novel.

    • gameplay somehow implies balance.

    • i thought that delenda est and other mods focused on aesthetics and "gameplay design".

    • I still can't understand the difference between competitive online gameplay and casual offline if not for some aesthetic ( i take starcraft 2 as example) and some content relative to an hypothetic storyline.

    • I guess that skirmish cavalry spam wins in offline games too.

    • Online keeps the game alive as long as you have friends to play the game with.

    • Online players have to deal with frustrating mechanics almost everyday because OP tactics get viral.

    basically someone could just let women deal 100 hack damage and let any civ being able to train any unit from any building. there you go with the possibilities :P

    Most of the balance discussions focus on taking the most of an already existent content and make it enjoyable without pretend too much ( which is kinda easy to do as long as the game is not finished ) from devs that perhaps have to deal already with not content relative stuff.

    Knowing how players approach to the game is also a good inspiration for new possibilities/choices,  based ofc to a previously taken way.

    • Like 3

  24. Monkey Wrench Balance Mod Alpha 22

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Hannibal_Barca said:

     

    Should be fixed:

    • Archer elephants should not be limited to 1 without barracks. I know barracks are usually built but you cannot make barracks compulsory for elephants from elephant stables

    that's something i didn't understand how to fix.  Elephant archer template inherit cavalry archer template but it removes cavalry class though.

  25. Monkey Wrench Balance Mod Alpha 22

    in Game Modification

    Posted · Edited by Grugnas

    There was a feeling that mauryan elephant workers have a never unleashed potential due the long time required to train them from civic center resulting in a bottle neck when boosting economy, now mauryan elephant workers can have a proper role into economy aspect.

    Carthage, with their spear champion and limited embassies seemed to not benefit at all from the mercenaries advanced rank and feel a bit weak, thus now they have an extra boost with increased embassies limit and higher rank mercenaries.

    Update 22.1.4.1:

    • Mauryans can't train elephant workers from civic center anymore
    • Elephant worker can build basic civic and economy structures and research economy technologies
    • Elephant stable available in village phase
    • Embassies limit count increased from 2 to 3.
    • Carthage now can research a technology to upgrade mercenaries to Elite rank.
    • All embassies share same cost and build time now.
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