Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Alpha 82a, a few changes, and a new naming scheme

Ok, so I've listened to everyone on the Mod mini-updates vrs. major updates and almost everyone I've talked to said they want fewer, larger updates. So that's what we will do. Who says we don't listen?

Now, however, as I already have this done, I want to put out a mini-update to the alpha 8. This doesn't add or change anything really to EF, but it does re-work the original armies some to make them work better.

Changes to EF -

Artimis Shield has new special effect (Used one of the Scrinn Shields) and is much stronger now.


Changes to GDI-

Cranes can now build defenses.
GDI BattleBases now get an upgrade to their weapons when the Rail Cannon upgrade is done, their 2 main cannons become Rail Cannons.
GDI Sonic Emmiters now get an upgrade to the damage they put out when the Rail Cannon upgrade is done.

Changes to NOD-

Cranes can now build defenses.
NOD Scorpion Tank now gets stealth, it also keeps it's original cannon when it gets the laser upgrade.
NOD Venom Tank now gets stealth.
NOD Raider Buggies now get stealth.
NOD gets a semi-new unit, the Avatar Prime. It's basically the Avatar with all of the upgrades already on it for a high cost.
NOD defenses are upgraded now when the laser upgrade is done. The Shredder turrets deal a great deal more damage, and the laser turrets deal more damage and can hit air.


Chagnes to Scrinn-

Foundry can now build defenses.
Storm Rider now does not require a landing pad while in the air, allowing you to build as many as you want from a single airpad.
Storm Riders are now cheaper.
Planetary Assault Carrier now has a weapon on it for defense.
Motherships limit of 1 has now been removed, allowing you to build as many as you want. The rebuild timer has been reduced to 50 seconds.
The Armor on all Scrinn units have been increased, apparently EA had them set to paper thin armor levels. WTF?



Here's the mod.


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nreom3zho0g


Also, after this next alpha (Alpha 9) we will be switching over to a new naming scheme. From that point on the alpha after 9 will be named Alpha 0.010A and go from there.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Redesigning SEED, more Xenoforce Reborn Video-casts, and an important question.

First, real quick, Doug has posted a few more video responses to what everyone has been saying about the mod. Very good stuff, I love these types of questions guys.

UC units with a second chance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQ6ZJmCgUE

Better understanding why UC is UC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBtszUbtrHk




Now, right now we are in the middle of discussing Gundam SEED and redesigning the layout so that SEED will feel "better" than it currently does. Honestly, while SEED isn't bad, it just doesn't have the polish that UC and AW have in terms of development. So, since we're working on fixing a lot of the models right now for UC (trying to get the game to let their torso's twist so they can fire and move at the same time) we've decided to go back and give SEED the proper ammount of attention it deserves. With that said, that puts a lot on the table for Alpha 9 to get done before Alpha 9 is released.

The way Alpha 9 is comming, these are the changes that I would do before releaseing it. We would redesign and implement the new design for SEED, we would adjust every model already in the game for fixing the ability to move/fire at the same time as well as fixing the units reaction time/animations when firing. We would implement the Unit Experience System (so units will gain experience for killing stuff). Artimis's building would be resized, and the special effect for the Artimis Shield around the buildings would be changed to make it much better. The Defensive Turret system would get a total-rehaul, giving a few more options to players on what to build and when they are buildable and who can build them.

And thats just off the top of my head. Obviously if I do wait to release Alpha 9 once all that is done we're looking at months of work here and it will be awhile.

So my question is this. Would you guys rather have less, bigger updates or more, smaller updates? Please leave a responce to the question, and after I hear from you guys on the issue we will look at a release timeline for stuff. Keep in mind, if you are actually logged in when you "vote" then your vote will count for more in my mind then an annonymous vote. A name does make a difference.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

More episodes of Xenoforce Reborn Video Casts

Hey guys, Doug has done some more videos for everyone, I highly recommend you watch them.



Now for the videos.

What really is impacting the UC units.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjAhhM2Tuy4


The Gundam UC list

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBbcN1bdx4w


What Gdi, Nod and Scrin are good for???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5oU3TkjDNU


Will Nod, Gdi and Scrin be axe in the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bs4tQPZoDw


Nod, Gdi, Scrin and what we have done for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwODVZ4RVcY

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Round 2 of the Alpha 8.

Ok guys, here we go again. Sorry for the one upload connection, my internet is acting badly today so this is all I was able to upload. Here is the Alpha 8 mod.


Mediafire : http://www.mediafire.com/?gmmkmj1mcki


Doug has done a few more videos for everyone to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg92_jPz0ZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONosUbDKnak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jck9d3rqosA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hP6bFx9QnU




And here is the list of changes to the game between the old and the new Alpha 8.

Fixed discriptions on almost everything.
Fixed requirements on everything, now it's clear what is needed to get different units.

Fixed RGZ91's Command Set.

Fixed GP03's rocket pod attack from 4 seconds to 40 seconds.

Fixed button icons for a few untis.

Fixed Artimis! Now the Artimis system for SEED does 3 important things.
1. Artimis is used to research the launcher packs for the Phantom Team units.
2. Artimis is used to call in the Arc Angel, which is used to build Gundams.
3. Artimis is used to call up the Shield Generator System. This grants a shield to every non-defensive building on your side, giving them much more life.

Fixed the Arc Angel. Now when you deploy it it lands from space and takes a full 30 seconds from when it starts its landing until it actually is useable. The reason for the delay is because of the Arc Angel Bomb that people were doing, using it to just wipe out the enemy. This gives the enemy a chance to at least respond to it before it becomes a true threat to them.

A few other balancing issues were done also.

Enjoy the mod guys. I'm gonna take a break (lol) from coding for the next few days before jumping into some other stuff. Alpha 9 will bring a few more interesting twists to the game, and then if nothing pops up we will be off to a new faction!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

a problem with alpha 8

So it didn't take long for the issues to arrise from alphtha 8. The biggest being the war factory upgrade messup (oops) for aw and seed. I will take a good hard look at the code today and re-release an alpha 8b on Sunday to a few different locations for people.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The time has come

Well, 2 hours late, but it's still Friday so I'm technically still on time!

Enough of the wait, we now have for you all Alpha 8.  

I'll just go ahead and post the links up here.  Then, while you download, if you want to read after you'll see how many things have been changed since Alpha 7.

Please keep in mind that this alpha is not perfect, there are still some bugs and things that need to be worked out (the most glaring to me off the top of my head is Artimis still doesn't do anything and the RGZ91 is using the Gundam Airmasters command set)

Mediafire :

http://www.mediafire.com/?zjqjrdg5jy2



One big note on a change.  In the game you can build the War Factory at the beginning.  But as units were added in and time went on we realized quite quickly that the War Factory's build list was becoming huge but most of it was grayed out during actual gameplay.

So our fix to this has been the following.  Once you pick a timeline from the main command center (or a resource pylon) the corisponding flag will become lit up in the War Factory.  By clicking the flag the buildings command set will change to one that has the units that that Timeline has avalible to it.  

Ok, now that that's out of the way, what was changed that took so long you may ask?

First of all we have the AW timeline in the game.  That's an entirely new army for everyone to play with!  The way they work is based around land bases that come out of the War Factory.  These land bases have the ability to deploy units out of them from the upgrade pannel on the land base, allowing you to move and fight while building units!  Also because it's not a building you can take a landbase out to the middle of nowhere and just start pumping out units.  This gives AW a huge mobile base advantage. 

Now you may also notice that AW doesn't have many units.  Well, your right, they don't, but what they do have are gundams.  Each Land Base can produce a single gundam of it's type at a time (so the Airmaster Landbase makes Airmasters).  But then the Gundams themselves have the ability to make and deploy Bits.  These units are a more generic level unit that use the same weapons and have some of the same abilities as their Gundam masters.  So the Gundam X Bit can also fire it's Sat Cannon along side with the Gundam X.  That's a LOT of Sat Power.  


But that's not the major change.  The true major change to the game has been work on the UC timeline.  Now it spans from 0079 through 0093 (instead of 0079 to 0083) giving you a TON of units to play with.  Now, not everything that is in the Gundam Cannon is in the game (it would take too long and would start getting redundent if we tried to do that) so if your favorite unit didn't make the cut for the Alpha 8, I'm sorry but this list is what it is.  But don't fret, we still have to go back and redo the Spellbook powers (one noteable thing that needs to change is that we still have the spellbook power for Gundam Murdock.  As Gundam Murdock is now IN the game as a buildable unit this needs to be removed.  I plan on replacing the Murdock power with a GP00 power later, but I just ran out of time so didn't get to it.)

What units does UC now have avalible? Here are the Teir breakdowns.

Teir 1 - 0079

Uniques : RX78 Gundam - Guncannon Prototype - Guntank Prototype

Mass Production : RGM79 - RGC80 - Guntank


Teir 2 - 0080

Uniques : RX-77-3 Guncannon - Gundam Alex - Gundam Murdock

Mass Production : RX-77-D Guncannon - GM Sniper


Teir 3 - 0083

Uniques : GP01 - GP02 - GP03

Mass Production : GM Custom - GunCannon Mk II


Teir 4 - 0087

Uniques : Psyco Gundam

Mass Production Uniques : RX178

Mass Production : GM III - Guntank II


Teir 5 - 0093

Uniques : Nu Gundam

Mass Production Uniques : RGZ-91

Mass Production : Jegan


Now after looking at this list you may be saying to yourself "Holy crap that's a lot of UC power".  Well, it is, but keep this in mind.  When you upgrade to a new teir some of the old stuff from the previous teirs becomes locked out.  For example, when you go to Teir 4 and gain the ability to build GM-III's you lose the ability to build GM-Customs and RGM79's.  You may be saying to yourself "big deal, why would I want those older units?  Isn't the GMIII much better?"

Well, it is and it could potentially not be.  The RGM 79 has the advantage that when you start out with it its using a balistic weapon (a machine gun).  You have the OPTION to upgrade it to a beam rifle if you want.  However doing this affects all RGM 79's, not just the one you upgraded, and while beam weapondry is stronger than balistic weapons for the most part, sometimes it's not the case.  An example would be Nu-Gundam.  He gets to use some of his funnels as a shield that protects him from enemy beam weapondry.  But the shield isn't as effective against balistic weapons, so the unupgraded RGM 79 would do more damage to it than the GMIII.  However, for the most part, the GMIII is a stronger unit.


So now, what I need from all of you is playtesting.  I need feedback on what things need changing (and I'm sure there will be a nice long list) and what things work well.  Please email these findings to azuza001@hotmail.com

And finally, I want to say thank you to all the people who have been donating models to me in the last few months.  Smoth and Keyboard have been particularly helpful, and with out everyones help this project wouldn't be where it is now.  Thanks guys.


Alpha 8 Teaser


Just a teaser pic for the 8th alpha.  Nu-Gundam is comming for you.  We're still on track for tommorow.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Alpha 8 will be out soon!

Well, not a lot of work has been done on the game this past week, but that was to be expected.  Starting this thursday night I will be on vacation and will be able to devote most of my time this week and next week to getting the 8th alpha out for everyone to enjoy.  

We're putting a lot of work into this, adding and updating new models, getting special powers and abilitys in play, in all getting the mod into a good state.  I would dare say we're almost done with the Earth Federation by the end of this next week (as far as units and gameplay go's, not as far as balancing, animations, upgrades, and abilities).  I know it may seem to early to talk about the 9th alpha when the 8th isn't really out yet, but the 9th won't be as big of a jump in features as the 8th has been, so hopefully after this it won't take as long to get to the next set. 

I'll keep everyone posted!  Keep your eyes open.