Air transport… what’s not to love? If you have liked what you’ve seen in previous videos you should love this. I’ve updated the Guppy Air Transport to support all four of the fundamental resources in the game. That would be Packets / Energy and AntiCreeper / Ore.
With this you can readily handle any crazy map you might encounter. Map maker cut you off from the Ore and lock you on a tiny island where don’t have much room to build? No problem!
First 😀 looking really good. I can not WAIT to get my hands on the editor…. SO MANY CREATIVENESS GOING TO WASTE! 😀
What’s with the sudden change of implication? Your comment here appears both supportive AND degrading. No offense at all but you confuse me a little bit here. A threat/insult and smiley faces plus “looking really good”?
Plus, the creativeness can’t really be wasted considering Virgil makes each game ultimately superior to its predeccesor (the first 2 games are still some of the best I have ever played by the way, Virgil), and considering how much more creative he makes himself look with each update, change, new unit, plot depth point, and every part of everything else
I can’t see a threat or an insult. I see three parts here. “Looking good,” “I want to play with it,” and “the “creativeness going to waste” thing. Considering that he said he wanted to get his hands on the editor, I think he means that the creative talents of the players are going to waste, rather than trying to offer an insult.
That makes sense when you put it that way. In fact, I think the majority of people in the world these days is laced with less creativity. For example, famous art work mostly dates back before our time and you don’t see new creations in museums very often.
I also think that if competitions require more creativity to win, people who lost most of the real official games would probably have more chances to win, because you just don’t see creativeness much in modern times, except for CW. That’s one reason why I love these games: they express creativeness and originality.
Yes, that is correct. I wanted to get the editor because i have so many good ideas i want to put into practice…. i guess i have to satisfy myself with just thinking about it…
Those ore packets are making me think of chocolate for some reason….
Also, this is very cool and I think the Guppies will be a lot of fun to play with.
Really like what you’ve done with the guppy. I forsee lots of new strategies coming into play now. Which is always good.
I’ll assume that you’ve removed the “remote ore harvesting” ability of the harvester though… So now the only way to extract ore is through ore mines. Which is a much welcomed change In my opinion. The remote harvesting did seem a bit overpowered…
But anyway. Keep up the awesome!
First of all: your play-style kind of bugs me. You overbuild at the start, but then underbuild after that. Only two Guppies supplying eight air units?? At least fill your starting island with Reactors and Guppies.
I take it Guppies can not directly gather ore from the ground? That seems like it’s moving backwards a bit, but I love the mobile energy storage concept. So I guess it evens out?
Question about Ore Rigs: do they require energy to operate, or are they a “build and forget” unit?
The game is looking beautiful so far. Keep it up!
Keep in mind that this level was played to demonstrate capabilities, not earn a high score.
First off, it would have taken more time to build all those reactors and extra gurrpies on the first island.
Second the idea behind each clips is clearly not to do the best on a certain test mission. It is what Virgil says it is in each clip, which, in this case, was to show us all what the new modified guppy can do, so I would not be quick to judge his real play style based off of these clips since he was not going to win the level before this clip ended.
Thirdly, I doubt he would be playing for the best time humanly possible if he was telling us about units, abilities, level circumstances, and plans to conquer at the same time he was playing the level itself. Those talks cut into his times when he was not really doing anything in the level but saying somethig important for the demonstrations. (The time for 13:59 on the last clip was something to be proud of if Virgil was trying to win in under 14:00 though (NOT SARCASM))
You’re right about the game is looking beautiful so far.
By the By Virgil, what is your preffered play style?
Considering that CW is built so much with overbuilding in mind, and the way he alternates between task focus, I have the suspicion that V is one of those players that alternate between phases of overbuild and assault, with a preference to fortify their positions . . . just my guess, though.
Perhaps I should be a disclaimer saying that ‘play style is not that of the author’ 🙂
Loving the dynamics that are emerging from these changes. Looks like such fun!
That’s a pretty cool idea, maybe you could have storage units follow the same concept, would be great if you could make a buffer while the guppy does a resupply.
Pretty sure storages will act like that – guppies appear to have many paralells with CN’s on a network – activating the network, storing energy. I suspect storage on a remote network will still charge up. But I don’t think it will usually be necessary, as the guppy is the bottleneck – having storage won’t ever solve guppies running too fast, or not fast enough, to match supply.
As for providing a buffer of their deliveries, well, you already have a storage unit like that. Guppies.
Have one guppy supply a guppy pad very close to the remote network, and nothing else. Use the second guppy to deliver the goods TO The remote network, with an extremely short flight time. This provides the resources on the guppy, and the remote pad, as resources ‘in storage’ to supply that network, while the guppy making long-range hops keeps it supplied.
As for resupply
I was thinking of something like a crate that the guppy could drop off. Then when the crate began to run low on supplies the guppy could refill the crate.
Does there currently exist a unit that can store packets besides the guppy?
Just resupply a second guppy pad that has a near-zero flight route. You got exactly what you need right there.
That’s actually pretty clever, but it takes up extra space. Compressing the guppy to just one section would be more efficient, and likely more cost-efficient. (If you’re just making a container, if wouldn’t have to go through the work of making something that can fly, ya?)
Game-play wise, it’s an interesting restriction, though. Hopefully it won’t re-supply itself with packets, though 😉
First off, very nice and thank you once again for posting another video. I love that ore and energy are both stored and transported by the guppies now, it opens up some more strategic plays that I’m sure can lead to some great interactions with current ideas.
I do have a question, while I understand that bars are almost traditional in CW for showing packets, health, ect. but they seem a bit difficult to find in this iteration leaving at-a-glance intelligence difficult to gather; Would a circle (or half circle as the case may be) work better for this? Would it be possible (it certainly would be pretty) to design the sprites with a circlebar of information in mind, incorporating some of the UI into the game similarly to how Dead Space puts necessary information on the player’s back?
Maybe… but at the standard zoom units at 24×24 pixels bug. Not a lot of room…
What if instead of a bar, you used a circular bar that filled in like an analog dial? (Full circle – 100%)
That might provide a better at-a-glance information, since the bar covers more real-estate on the unit. Also, many units like CN’s and storages, are already circular, so they can be fit into the design of the unit itself in many cases.
That is what I was trying to suggest. Perhaps I should try making Virgil a quick prototype to show?
Rapid prototype made with Gimp by someone who just downloaded it, please excuse lack of quality:
http://imgur.com/LqRRc (Large size)
http://imgur.com/v7KP0 (Approximately standard zoom size)
The bars would have to be highly visible in game, meaning high contrast and larger size (as in the second picture) for this idea to work, though in the end it still may not and but it would make for rather neat aesthetics if it would. Unfortunately, the current system doesn’t seem to work well with standard zoom levels either.
My concern is mostly contrast – on browner terrain, red doesn’t stand out. Green is easy to see, so I think standard bars work for that.
As for aircraft, what you demonstrated is a bit small. Eyes have to focus and lock in order to gain information. You can get at-a-glance easily on many stationary units, but for at-a-glance information on several moving units, you typically have to select one, lock on to it to track it, and evaluate its status. (A type of eye motion called ‘smooth pursuit’.) When the moving objects aren’t moving in tandem, players typically select several units to evaluate in series, two or three, and use those to estimate the status of the rest.
For some units, a ring like this can build into the units – others, like air units that can’t accomodate that shape, it’s probably better to have it float free, and bracket the unit. Otherwise, you run into the aforementioned problem that units are often too small to carry a bar large enough to carry easily aquired at-a-glance information.
Also, to be clear, each of the units you posted in the regular-icon-size image occupy more than 1/4 of a 50×50 image, so they’re quite a bit larger than 24×24.
One is slightly over 30×30, the other is slightly over 35×35.
Virgilw,is this the last game in series or there will be other creeper worlds?
I won’t stop till the Loki are defeated and Creeper is purged from all universes!
that means a cw4 and i’d bet a cw5 in the far future
*dream mode*
a group of humans break from humanity and worship the creeper. somehow, they find a way to be immune to the creeper and even control it. a true battle follows, creeper vs anti-creeper blaster against blaster, mortar against mortar, humanity vs the crazy.
I’d like to see a change in how you build units – just in the UI. I would really like it if you could ‘draw’ them. When laying down collectors if you draw a line it would automatically lay them down as far apart as possible. Same for relays. All other units would fill in as tightly as possible.
Game is looking good – and interesting! Looking forward to it, as usual.
This would be useful in a limited set of circumstance… but still useful from time to time. Irregular terrain, existing structures, future plans… all can make you want to hand place things in many cases.
It’s certainly true – there are a lot of cases where you want to place individually. But I was watching you carefully place collectors in this map and thinking “yeah, that’s what I do – why isn’t it automated”.
This was especially true in CW2, where it seems like many of the maps wanted giant streams of generators. And if you could tear up terrain with the stroke of a mouse, why not fill it in, too?
Thanks for the forum, your time in replying, and the great games!
I learned the hotkeys pretty quickly, and would just click them over and over again. It’s not quite as efficient, but it works.
With reactors and similar, being able to drag place would actually be very useful. If you already have a network down in the area, it would basically give you the ability to ‘paint’ that area with units.
One suggestion I’ve seen before, is to click-drag from source to destination, and use pathfinding logic to ‘find’ an optimal path of collectors or relays from point A to point B. For units you don’t have to chain, you can just lay down a solid line.
What does UI stand for?
User Interface
the guppies really came in handy here.
I didnt really understand how the energy guppy helped, wouldnt it be the same as a packet guppy?
I didn’t see it give out any type of packet, but it was green.
It charged up on energy from the northern network and brought it back to the main base. In a way, it is as if the northern base were connected to the southern base so that the collectors and reactors up north could provide energy for the main base.
Energy is like electricity. Note that collectors never send packets to the CN or to storages.
The energy guppy is just like the storage units that already exist. They just charge on one network, and discharge on another.
When you said that you were changing the guppies to an all-purpose unit, I thought that you would change the look and name too; luckily, you did not.
Beautiful. Now to find a way to stop them……
looking very good, cant wait for it to be released :).
What if you allowed the strafers to patrol an area, they neutralize any creeper in there patrol area and can shoot down any spores in there patrol area aswell.
You can mostly do that already. Strafers will fly over an area and only shoot at Creeper when in range. So you can have them watch an area till the Creeper shows up.
ok >_<
I’ve said this on the first vid, but at the end of commenting, so I’ll try again here.
What if you made a VARY evil unit. what it would do is it would act like a spore tower, but it would drop emitters. and to kill it, you have to kill all the emitters on the map.
Sounds like a spore tower where you want to make sure no spore ever hits the ground… as in it would be so bad that you would restart the mission…
I was thinking it would take a lot of time to make an Emitter, and they would be vary weak. so over the course of a whole 30-40 minute mission, it would drop 3-5 emmiters, and it can not be shot down.
Another stroke of pure genius on your part. Impressive move with the merged and new abilities for guppies.
By the way, do you have any plans or ideas to integrate the concept of CW2’s micro-rift or something similar into CW3? On the really, REALLY large maps that I understand this game has, I was wondering if things like instant transport units/structures/something else like the micro-rift would be necessary.
I’ve resisted micro rifts so far… just because things like Guppies provide a more interesting style of game play. But it’s still possible a really expensive portal or something might show up.
m-rift under titan and very expensive
Guppies provide most of a micro-rifts capabilities already . . . . they just require you to invest tactical planning to make them work on a long-term basis, while rifts, once active, are a free pass.
I think that would be a bad thing because that would render the Guppies useless
Make rifts so they use a lot of energy to stay on. Something like you cant have more than 2 on a large map fully with collectors.
They would be used only on emergency situations, or for some aggressive attacks.
Something like a cooldown timmer would be fun too.
To everyone under this thread:
I see the point. Guppies do provide a more interseting style of game play and micro-rifts probably would make this game much more boring. Now that I think of it, instead of just making m-rifts across large maps, I imagine multiple guppies on various flight lengths could cover the maps at necessary landing zones.
In fact, Virgil I now hope the m-rift temptation doesn’t get too overwhelming. I feel the guppies should just act as replacements for m-rifts
I am loving the look and gameplay of the new game. Much like the wait fot CW2 I am probably going to be going nuts for a while waiting for CW3…
I love how as you watch the 3 videos you have posted you can see the game maturing too. The detail level goes up sharply each video. Looks really awesome.
I am an overbuilder by nature and cant wait to have levels with 15-20 guppies keeping everything topped off 🙂
One suggestion for the initial story levels though – make the last few a lot harder, hopefully one that takes a long time. It was a bit of an anticlimax when I made it through the first 13 levels without even having to backtrack in CW 2 and then made it through the rest in short order as well. Give us a real challenge, either in the main story or in some extras. Something like corvus temple comes to mine – one of my favorite maps. (#233btw)
You are a top 1% player…. Most of my messages are complaints that CW2 is too hard 🙂
There will be plenty of options for easy to aggressive play in CW3, though.
It would be nice if double down or some equivalent feature were available from the start. Maybe a creeper multiplier slider, which can use higher values the more missions you play.
Also. Would it be possible for a guppy to carry different resources on its different runs? i.e. Go to a forward base and give packets to weapons, the forward base has an ore deposit, so the same guppy takes the ore back to the CN rather than “wasting” a trip by going back empty.
You mean adaptive or dynamic difficulty settings, growing harder or easier based on player performance?
This requires a way for the PC to judge player performance, and based on different play styles, basing it on a ‘par’ for level times would make it too easy for casual players. Unit losses are acceptable sometimes, and creeper coverage can be a deceptive stat.
No, I meant that when the player starts the game for the first time, he can either set emitters to 1x or 1.5x. Complete the first 5 levels and now he can set it to 2x if he wants, and so on.
If guppies were able to carry different resources, there would be no need for them to be any 1 of the 4 resource-type-transporting guppies.
For that matter, the CN sends packets to Packet Guppy pads already and I doubt it would do any interesting, logical good for guppies to load up on anything when not on their pads.
As wasteful as it may sound, when it comes to strategy, sacrifices have to be made for somethings. That’s one thing that makes CW games more interesting. And in that spirit, I don’t think it is a waste after all.
On this website called the Total War Center, there’s a forum on a Zelda-game-in-progress that has a list of what to do with the game before release.
Do you think your site could have one for CW3?
Closer towards the release I may do something like that.
Great.
One more thing, Now that we have seen the current structures and weapons for CW3, could you show us the Titans and Orbitals in action? Or do you plan to keep them secret until the game is done and ready for us to play?
No complaints with door #2 and no problem.
I’ll be holding some stuff back… but more will be revealed as well.
Just remove them from the code for that mission, or test version, or do something like that, maybe even add a little bit of code to have a button on the main menu, “video mode” that would keep those from being seen.
It looks better and better every time you preview it!
Also, I’m VERY happy to hear that the campaign won’t have a lot of broken up land like this; I was concerned from the series of videos here that you’d never be in any danger no matter how long you took. heh.
No, these are just test maps designed to amplify certain strategies. They are fun (which is a good thing) but most story maps won’t look anything like this.
looks good!
I think guppies should only be able to transport a resource that has a packet form so if you wanted more energy you should have to be connected to a node.
I like energy guppies, myself. They provide a rather expensive and on-again-off-again way to make use of distance collector networks. Also, it provides options in reinforcing isolated CN’s that have energy problems.
You can take in a packet guppy, which may have a longer route to deliver packets past a CN and to the front line, or you might bring in an energy guppy, allowing packets to dispatch from the CN.
Lastly, I like them because, for the first time, they use two resources – energy and packets – in a different way. 1 energy was one packet, and sending 1 packet cost one energy. Up until this point, there wasn’t a single gameplay mechanic that made the distinction between the two important.
If you have guppies that can do every thing you only need one CN, but if guppies could only bring resources between CNs that would be interesting…
CN’s can dispatch packets without delay from multiple locations, and all they need is a single node connection. They have none of the delay or burst-effect of guppies, but supply instantly, on-demand, from multiple locations, and their source is mobile.
I think CN’s might have one or two advantages over guppies. Guppies will always be a stopgap measure – landlines to a forward CN should always be most desirable – they just function better.
Not that it should always be an option in every circumstance . . . just that circumstances permitting, the network should be the ‘gold standard’.
But for missions like this, it would be really unfair as there is almost no room to build and produce energy
It looks great, I can’t wait! I do have a couple of questions, first, are you able to make “land bridges” with the terps so you can make relay connections? Second, in that northern network, if you put storage there, will the collectors charge them if there is surplus and will they instantly charge the energy guppies when they come for a refill?
Terps can’t create land over space…. they can only raise or lower terrain where land already exists.
Yes, storage pods will charge up when you build a Guppy pad that is in energy mode.
I think he was also asking if the storages would charge the guppy when it picked up the energy
yes, i was wondering if you could put storages on the northern island to store surplus energy produced while the guppy’s away
If you made a terp, could you terraform the unavailable space?
Also, what does the terp do if on a power zone? (if it does anything..)
Last but not least, can a strafer or a bomber have an attacking line clear across the map?
I don’t think that unavailable space is made of tiles, so the terp has nothing to terraform
I think it uses less power for terraformation
They probably don’t have enough ammo, depending on how large a map is.
I hope so
I assume it gets a longer range or uses less energy
I assume so
– No you can’t terraform open space.
– A terp on a PZ gets increased range, operating speed, and reduced energy consumption.
– Yes, you can set an attack vector across the entire map.
will you put these maps in game as tutorials? or maybe bonus missions?
There isn’t anything special about these maps. They were drawn in 5 minutes in the editor.
they still look really fun 😀
You could probably recreate them on your own . . .
Idea regarding terps:
Make it so that to raise land you must first lower some other land, maybe have a “mass” balance or something.
I tried that initially… turned out to be a logistical nightmare for the player and the user interface.
What if it were implemented semi-randomly – land that isn’t being used, somewhere on the map, randomly lowered, when you raised terrain? That would add an element of risk to using the Terrap, in that it might alter terrain that is currently benefitting you.
no that whold be annoying because it might be like i want to make a wall aw man part of my wall just got lower
Now that would bring the game to a whole new level!
Here’s a thought . . . . make terrain a resource. In order to raise terrain X levels, you have to lower it X levels somewhere else, first.
Do you plan do leave that instant charge from airbase to strafers and bombers? The way it is now you can just spam it till you run out of resources.
I really like what you did with guppies. Some way to put energy and ore processing on remote locations would be great too.
The airbase has to charge over time. The difference between this model and the CW1 model is that resources can be requested while the aircraft is in flight.
Not about this video, but have you considered a leveling scheme where upgrades stay on next missions. They should be bought by XP or something else.
I do like playing side missions with bonuses, something like SC2. You have the option to play the history right away or go for some side quests to grab some bonuses.
Yes, I have considered tech being something that is carried over…
Say, if it takes a lot of creeper to escape isolated land spots with open space surrounding them, why is there anticreeper on the open space in the clip?
Some of the bombs fell just outside of the land (into space).
By the way, there is this really old war/strategy/conquest game I am familiar with by the Command and Conquer company in the Tiberium series called Tiberian Sun that strikes me a quick question about this game.
In TS, resource-gathering units called harvesters collect tiberium and deposit it into refineries and then into tiberium silos when the refinery is fill to the max. However, it gets deposited into one silo at a time in the order of which they were built from oldest to latest until all silos are full and harvesting stops until tiberium either gets spent, silos get destroyed, or more silos are built. when more tiberium gest spent, silos drain in the order of which they were built from latest to oldest.
The question: Should storage units in CW3 fill up with energy one at a time in the order of which they were built and drain in the opposite order and function in all the other ways that tiberium silos do? In the clip, they seem to fill up all at once and not one by one.
The storage units are modeled like capacitors. On the same network they become “one”.
I think you should either give the emitters some anti-air capabilities, or perhaps create a new creeper structure that allows them to shoot down guppy and other aircraft. Perhaps either requiring the original landing structure to be rebuilt, or allow it to regenerate a ship but uses a lot of energy/ore. That way you can help disrupt air superiority on some of the maps to force ground assaults or other change in tactics.
I will likely implement Air Exclusion zones. These areas would not allow aircraft to deliver their weapons or for Guppies to land.
I think limiting the player’s air superiority is a good idea.
Perhaps some sort of creeper atomizer that creates some sort of “cloud” of creeper that damages the aircraft. This could either be just marked as a zone your air units will pathfind around or it could be something that you dont know its there untill its too late for your air units. And about the 2nd idea of mine perhaps it could be some sort of “fog of war” where if you have a unit in range of the cloud you can see it.
Somone had mentioned warp rifts, the thought of using them as a weapon intead of what the guppies do comes to mind, like draining said lakes, place the warp in the middle and warp A transports contents of creeper, good or bad to warp B where u probably have defenses to deal with said contents of the lake at a relative speed. just a strange and interesting idea imo lol wonderful job so far if it came out as is i’d buy it
Not a bad idea for a Titan weapon…
What if instead of the weapon being something the player can use what if its a weapon the creeper can use… Maybe that idea but only creeper can go through it and the exit is invisible, although youd be able to tell where it is once creeper started coming through. So in a sense this would bring back the “capping” of the sources of creeper but this would be fed by a pool of creeper that is fed by an emmiter.
what if you could have a machine that attracted/repelled the emmitter to another area, like pulling an emitter to a nullifier. not sure how that would work with the power zones.
no offence but i would think it would rather be a orbital thing, because i can imagine a giant ship shooting (orange and blue) portals onto/into the ground, but can’t imagine building something in creeper which, in the previous games, destroys everything it touches.
just my two cents
(and i’m sorry, bu the portal joke had to go there)
Question, has a final color been decided for the Anti-Creeper? This clip plus the others show a change for each one.
I like to try new things during development. So I wouldn’t call anything final just yet.
have you ever thought about getting your games into the indie humble bundle? Your games are all great and this could be a good point to spread them 🙂
That requires linux support… And you can thank Adobe for dropping linux support in AIR (that knocks out CW1 and CW2). However, Unity is adding linux support in Unity 4, so game 3 stand a real chance of being available on Linux… at which point more doors open up.
Could you add an option to use the old textures for creepers, units, explosions, and so on? i kind of don’t like the new look of the game :/
creeper emitters*
Not likely something I will do… but if I add custom graphic support in custom maps someone else could do it.
Having seen clips with only one Command Node in Each so far, how would it be if at least one future clip showed multiple CN’s in action on the same level?
This way, we may have an idea when to employ either a seperate network, or a fleet of guppies, or both for that matter.
Yeah, I’ll show a couple of CNs at some point.
Awesome!
In creeper world 1/2 you could build infinite ammount of weapons which would cause masive lag. Could there be amount of weapons you can build? Like first you can build 10 units , then you would have to build some kind of storage,and you can have 20 units now!
Well, you could build as many units as you had space for. And lag is a function of the hardware the game runs on. Some machines can handle a fully packed map with no lag.
Hey Virgil, in the first CW3 clip, you said something about packet speed upgrades in your network. How do you employ faster packet speed in this installment?
Also, considering the most recent 2 clips are test maps that you tell us you created really fast, is time too limited to create a full size map without the gaps to make a test clip of?
If so, no problems really since these clips still help us get the point so to speak. And I also wonder what upgrades and abilities are granted to units in Power Zones that we haven’t seen already?
I know the mortar launches more bombs and a longer distances, the shield has a bigger radius, the pulse cannon can machine gun nearby creeper, and the strafer gets 2 times as much ammo for each munitions load and shoots 3 at once, thus by extension, mathematically gives it the “Power of 6” as I like to think of it (2×3=6).
And I know you said some other things about what other units can do in the PZ’s in blog comments, but I rember the first 4 units better because they were actually demonstrated throughout the clips. Do you think that you could show us what the other units can do in the PZ’s in future clips, or will they be held back like, as I presume, the Titans and Orbitals will be?
If the answer is option 2, I for one can wait and I guess it will mean not spoiling us too much, if at all.
Loving all progress by the way.
I just mean that I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to make a really nice custom map. I just drew something fast to show a concept. I don’t want people to think these maps are something official or the best they can be.
As for everything else, many things are in flux but all units get one ore more boosts when they are on a PZ. I’ll wait till later to give all of the exacting specifics.
As one other person said…I think you should release these test maps as side missions with no effect whatsoever on the main storyline.
I must say I am a little confused by the idea of not having much room to build in this clip? What do you mean exactly by that since there is quite a bit of empty space on the Home island (where the CN is) after storage pods are built and there are only 4 reactors which are on the Northern island?
I get what to do if there is very little space to build out, but how does it work out Here? would it have taken too long and too much energy to build reactors on the Home island? Was it more cost-efficient to build collectors on the Northern island along with the 4 reactors which frankly don’t seem to take up much room? By the way, I get how the energy guppy helps when it brings back all that energy.
Although, I do see the need for more energy for the 1 packet guppy. Also, I am not denying your point and concept in the least; I am just a little bit confused, that’s all.
Again, progress is freaking awesome!
I think the point is that the new guppies let you operate without having to pack your home island like a box of dominoes in order to have the resources for an assault.
It’s not impossible to mount an assault with only the home island and only packet guppies, but you wouldn’t have bombers, and it’d be a rough ride.
What the new guppies provided enabled a strategy that let him sprawl out with collectors instead of turning the home island into an experiment in spatial awareness, as well as bring bombers to bear, to establish that foothold.
Do the guppies still carry 150 of whichever resource? I actually tried to count how many packets the first guppy was loaded with at the very beginning just now, and although I didn’t get an exact number, I think I got substantially less than 150.
Some more questions:
How much anti-creeper does each bomber load up with to get max?
Same question regarding strafers and energy?
How much energy does each weapon need to be at max?
How much health does the Nullifier (and other weapons for that matter) have?
Does it need as many packets to fully charge as it does to build it?
How much energy can a Command Node and storage unit hold?
By the way, I frequently think things through in logic, math, science, and other things that may be necessary just because I am a rather analytical person and I was curious and had these questions to ask. And you know how in CW2, unit energy, supply and health was numerically displayed, and displayed by a bar in CW1?
Well now I’m thinking it would help if both are displayed in CW3. I know they do that in the Starcraft games and when I did the first 2 games (Original and Brood Wars) The bar and numbers helped me keep track of them (but mostly the numbers).
Number bars at the top of the screen would be indicators that could lie to you – either that or they’d put up as many bars and numbers as CNN’s nightly news hour.
I’m pretty hopeful that we’ll be able to select a CN for specific resource information on that network.
These values may all change a bit before release… so don’t get too wrapped up in the current numbers. As such, it doesn’t make much sense for me to detail them all currently.
You can count all these things out for yourself if you get bored sometime during the game.
Another question I just now had: If a guppy landed on a power zone but its pad wasn’t built right on the PZ, would it still benefit from the PZ’s power?
I’m curious about this one, too . . .
It doesn’t get a bonus currently…. but I suppose I could make it have a greater connection distance.
so if the guppy lands on a PZ, it will get a range boost?
what happens if the pad is built on it, does it get a capicity boost?
can you command a guppy to land on its own pad?
I want to see ‘the beam’ in action.. can that be i the next video?
Beam?
Particle beam, presumably?
Which was shown in the first video, by the way.
What if you have builded small outpost with mortars and stuff,suddenly they run out of energy,but all the guppies very ” busy ” and they wont make it to that island in time….SO here is my idea if they run out of energy you could double click on unit and it will open option bar, option-activate reserve energy supply,energy bar will fill up again,and by doing so-buying some time for guppies to arrive
Sounds like that takes some of the challenge out of energy management….
…And challenge in management when it comes to strategy/war/conquest games is pratically HALF THE FUN!
Yea, on the weapons tab between mortar and strafer, there is a beam tower.
oh wow…im an idoit 🙂 i would still like to see it used at some point in the next video though.
if a building is built in the EXACT middle distance between 2 command nodes, but still reaches both, which CN will supply it with packets?
The game would probably default to right-left / top-bottom rules of some sort.
It would be the first command node that was built.
the least travel distance i presume.
exact middle same distance
It would most likely default according to direction.. Basically with something like this one of the CN’s will update first and therefore supply packets first. The only thing I can think of that is like this is a game called minecraft where often things in a NE direction (I believe its ne) update first.
Well, I must say, after migrating to videos from screenshots, i’ve learned at lot more about what’s being developed and how the game feels.
My favourite parts so far are the guppies and the terraformers (terps?). Building your own base on high ground by expanding the terrain while the creeper sits in a pre-made hole is an amazing thought.
Could you do a video demonstrating the uses of terraformers very soon?
Also, in map generation, would it be possible for an emitter to be placed on top of an ore deposit, so that, when destroyed, the ore rig then receives a boost from the resulting power zone? If so, what would that power zone give it?
You should be in luck tomorrow… I’ll be doing a new video and one of the things shown in more detail will be the Terps.
Ah, many thanks, I’ll look forwards to it.
Will there be Energy > packet or Ore > AC buildings in CW3? Or will the main ship be the only thing capable of doing that?
I love the guppies, they unlock a lot of interesting gameplay. I hope they stay as the replacement of micro-rifts :B
Speaking of Micro-rifts, it was talked about earlier how they won’t be included in CW3. Will there be a reason for this, plot-wise?
In general, the CN’s are the places raw materials are turned into the arsenal of freedom.
Yes, there’s a good lore reason MicroRifts are out… as is Planerary Rifting in general.
Say. I was thinking more about what could make the CW3 particularly good and I noted that in each of its predeccesors there was only ONE specialized defensive weapon and I thought that this game could do with MULTIPLE KINDS of special weapon defenders.
In CW1, there’s SAM vs. Spores that originate offscreen
In CW2, there’s Phantom Coil vs. Phantoms that originate from destructible gateways onscreen
So far, CW3 has “Particle Beam vs. Spores that originate from destructible Spore Towers onscreen”
However, I just had an idea for an advancement in Special attacks and defenses. What if the Creeper had a structure that could attack with a Creeper Worm, Mole, Gopher, or some other kind of SUBTERRANEAN enemy and the humans would need some kind of special defense weapon to destroy the underground menace?
I got the idea from the game I once mentioned “Tiberian Sun” (TS) where the evil NOD forces could send infantry into the heart of GDI bases with Subterranean APC’s, or launch suprise infantry attacks with subterranean Devil’s Tongue tanks that were equiped with flame throwers.
Come to think of it Virgil, I kind of now forsee a unit with the power to temporarily stop Creeper emitters from functioning properly that which was another inspiration from TS’s E.M. Pulse cannon that could stop vehicle movement.
By the way, the humans I think could probably need a unit that could actually DETECT the underground creeper unit before the new special weapon could kill it.
The main Idea behind all of this is this: I thought the CW3 game could do well with more than one special defense weapon.
Subterranean enemies are notoriously difficult to get correct. The main problem is making sure they don’t sneak up on the player and cause all kinds of frustrations. But, I will be experimenting with something like them.
As to the frustrations, maybe the sunterranean enemies could just pack as much creeper as a spore each, and detonate upon impact of structure like the spores and travel just like them, except they would be under the ground.
Again the only solid point is this: CW3 could be even better than it already is if “special defenses and units” had more to them than just spores, towers, and particle beams ALONE.
Quick question: what tells you the network’s energy collection rate like it tells you in the first 2 games?
I see the amount of energy in reserve, but I do not see what tells the actual rate of collection.
He will add numbers soon
Another thing: do ore mines not require energy or power to operate in this game like the rigs do in CW2?
If not, no complaints at all, just curious.
Mines do not require energy to operate (at least not yet). This seems to be the best choice so far.
Considering that the Guppy has different energy values in each clip, I take it a final packet cost for it has not been finalized yet? Or has it?
It’s been getting cheaper… though the costs of everything will be settled during the final play testing.
By the way, question I still have that is in one of my previous comments that has so far been unanswered: How do you employ packet speed upgrades? Wil it be offscreen like in CW2, or onscreen like in CW1 (building unit).
That reminds me, will there be something like the CW2 tech domes in CW3? I actually don’t care whether they are or not but I will say in CW2, it was and is sometimes a hassel to build a bunch of tech domes and then have almost no choice but to replace them with reactors because coincidentally, I often ended up researching all upgrades before ending each level. Then again, the hassel could have been necessary to make it clear strategies have drawbacks as well as advantages; and that would ease my feelings about doing SO MUCH with the domes.
None of the above is in any way a complaint of any kind. Frankly I CAN’T complain since I totally HEART games revolving around strategy, war, management, and conquest. That’s why I often play the strategy games at AddictingGames.com. In fact, if it wasn’t for that site, I possibly never would have followed up on your series considering I possibly never would have HEARD of it!
FREAKING AWESOME!
I would personally like to see packet speed handled differently, with the packet needing to pass through the speeding structure to be accelerated, to make early building more strategic, and making it more difficult to build them effectively later, as a trade off for having more surplus energy to do so.
Good grief, that was a long sentence.
perhaps the relays could give the packets a speed boost. relays currently don’t have much use except spanning moderate gaps, with the speed boost they could be used like a “packet highway” speeding much needed resources to the front lines.
i think it would be cool to see upgrades for individual units. like the pz but instead of staying on an area the upgrade stays with a unit. the upgrade could be “purchased” from the unit menu. some upgrades could be faster firing rate for blasters, increased energy production for collectors, or faster packet speed for relays.
The longer the sentence, 42ah42, and the longer the comment, the more necessary stuff gets relayed through the web to Virgil. Besides, people tell me my words are big (I take no offense to that), and I like to make all of my comments on this blog count, so that’s why I practically write a speech-giver’s lines with most of my comments considering how long I typically make them.
See how long THAT sentence was? Nothing to be ashamed of. And that idea of yours as to how to handle packet speed: as the Spanish would say “Es muy interesante.”
The upgrade system is still being designed…. but it’s going to be a surprise and very cool if it works out the way I think it will.
Random idea about speed upgrades: You could build some sort of “speed node”, when a packet travels through a speed node it will gain a temporary speed boost and after a few seconds the packet will return to it’s normal speed and will have to pass through another speed node to speed up again.
Oh, and one more thing: Local storages. Will anything like that be in the game? I think they could compliment the guppy really well.
I would’ve posted something last night, but i thought no one would ever see it, but i see that more comments are up so im gonna try here!!!
I saw something in the comments about spore towers and came up with an idea simular to that..
4XC mentioned all but 2 spore possibilities.
destructable spore tower on screen but calling in spores from off screen and spores coming from 1 location on the map, but no spore tower.
Will this be ANY WHERE in the game?
I would LOVE to have spore towers on screen but spores coming from the edges instead of the tower itself.
You could probably add it to the editor rather quickly.
If spores DID come from off the screen as you suggest, I think we would all go through the confusions and hassels I imagine most of us went through in CW1.
What I mean is in the first game, even though time was displayed as to when the spore attacks would commence, there was no telling how many spores there were beforehand, AND it was trickier to pinpoint where the attacks would come from.
In CW2, it was more manageable since we knew exactly how many phantoms would attack and where they would come from. This way we knew how many phantom coils we should have before destroying the gateways that phantoms originated from.
If spores originated offscreen in this game, I think it would be harder to defend ourselves from their attacks since their origin locations would be more unpredictable.
So I ask you Sweetdude 64: what is it about offscreen spores that you want? Nothing personal by the way.
On the other hand, with on-map spore towers we have the issue we did in cw2. If you can get enough phantom coils in range of the gateway, but not a nullifier (think bonus level 2) the gateway is as good as destroyed, that is, ineffective. This would be particularly bad for spore towers halfway between the player and the emitters. The larger an area that spores come from, the harder they are to contain. I do agree though, if a spore tower shoots from offscreen it should tell you which edge.
what about having so that the CN can send out unlimited number of packets/AC (as long as you have enough) but collectors and relays have a limit to how many packets/AC they can transport so that you have to have more than just one connection between the CN and far of areas and the packets follow the path of lest resistance.
could be interesting to have to build more of a network not just so as to have a backup line if the creeper comes to close or you are a little unlucky with spores but also to have a better/more efficient flow of packets/AC.
I like the idea of relays conducting packets more quickly than other units. More complex than that could be lots of micromanagement.
I just noticed, What’s that “Edit Map” button?
The maps are editable because of the Terp, so that is likely what its purpose is for.
That’s the map editor for making a custom map.
the guppy looks so fun and its kind of cute how it just goes back and forth