What Blows you Away?

[4xC]

More of a social interest topic than a constructive development topic, I am making this to hear what really blows people away about CW3.

We already have a topic for favorite parts, but this is for what really gives the WOW! factor of CW3. (I favor the CRPL weapons in the campaign sector, but what gives me the WOW! factor for one is the fact that every flying unit was designed with a cockpit making you think that humans are flying them when they are actually FULLY AUTOMATED (same deal with CN's)).

Don't just say what your favorite part of CW3 is, say what suprises you in a positive way, what makes you think "WOW, this is AMAZING!", what has been a strongly plesant surprise when you first heard of it, what blows you away, what is awe-inspiring, etc. Does that make sense?

[arandomhalo]

Does it count if it was also in CW1?  What blows me away is what originally drew me to the game - how creeper moves.  It looks like a fluid, but I recall Virgil saying that it is actually modeled after heat flow.  The fact that he can perform those calculations at 30fps, render them smoothly, and display it in a way that is immediately intuitive to the new user blows me away.

[planetfall]

I followed most of the development, so I already expected nearly everything in terms of base mechanics. Though when guppies were first announced something inside me went "squee!"

There were also some custom maps (cough THE CRAWLER cough) that did "blow me away," and I don't just mean that they were impressive...

[Relli]

The pure scope and power of the CRPL language amazes me. And it just feels so easy to use, for me. I mean sure, I have trouble now and then, but then Virgil comes along and adds some new function to it to make it that much more powerful. Every time he adds something new, I get an echo of that original feeling, and I love it.

Incidentally, Virgil himself shocks and amazes me. He works so hard on these wonderful games, and when it's finally done and it's finally out...he starts working so hard on improvements, bug fixes, and new features. And through all this he has the time to read through these forums and personally assist the people having trouble. I've seen it countless times, and each and every time, it blows me away.
Virgil, your hard work and devotion to this game and its community is truly an inspiration. Thank you.

[Flabort]

+1 to what Relli said.

And also, the amazing map makers blow me away.

[knucracker]

(Looks over shoulder to see if there is someone else named 'Virgil' standing behind me).  Thanks for the kind words... I don't think I fully deserve them, but thanks anyway :)

As for those things that look like cockpits on the air units , they are actually sensor observation and communication domes.

And the fluid/heat thing... yep, in the very early days I wasn't thinking about fluid flow at all.  I was thinking about heat flow through a metal plate.  I'd seen CA simulations done for lots of things, but never to create an enemy in a strategy game.  So, off I went.  In the very early things I wrote for CW1 the creeper was red and when the units fired the terrain would 'cool' off and make a blue patch.  There was also no terrain elevations, everything was just flat.  I then added 'insulators' that would degrade (those became walls), and eventually wanted permanent insulators that had an overflow threshold... that idea became terrain levels.  At that point, I went 'duh'.  Bring up the credits in CW1 and look at the screenshots...  you'll see images from those early experiments.  Why does this all come to mind again?  I'm at that exact same stage in a new game... (and no, I'm not going to talk about it yet :) )

[Xeneonic]

The heat flow part does make sense more than a fluid. The center can be 200 levels high and the outline half a level. Water/fluid would distribute itself rather quickly and thus would sooner be 20 levels center and 18 outline. This would obviously make things much harder for the player to alleviate as it feels like a tsunami is coming at your cannons instead of a reasonably slow trickle. Presumably though, very thick fluid is what I always assumed it'd be rather than water, for the reasons that it expands slow. Another theory I had was that the maps were absolutely immense, so that 1 cell of 200 levels of water would actually be several hundred kilometers.

But yes, heat makes a lot of sense as the initial concept. It would of course not work out well if it was just heat in a level with no oxygen (Asteroid) and it would dissipate much faster on a frost level. The enemy is creeper and it consumes pretty much everything, it's an most truly vicious weapon. It's quite hilarious that it actually doesn't devour terrain. Perhaps coating everything with sand/mud/grass makes it immune to creeper \o/

My wow factor would definitely be how creeper, the main enemy, can be manipulated in such way to make it much more or less threatening. Such as that campaign map with the "Magnet" circling around your planet. Suddenly the enemy you're fighting confidently for a very long time suddenly needs a whole different approach.

[weekendgamer]

I agree, the step from such an abstract a model as heat flow to a new kind of enemy for an RTS game is very "wow" indeed.

My favorite part, the part that blows me away the most, is how Virgil took all the complaints of an "insta-win" button (Thor) in CW1, addressed them and somehow managed to balance it out by giving us an even stronger enemy that totally fit the plot and made the OP Thor still need strategy.

[4xC]

(Looks over shoulder to see if there is someone else named 'Virgil' standing behind me).  Thanks for the kind words... I don't think I fully deserve them, but thanks anyway :)

As for those things that look like cockpits on the air units , they are actually sensor observation and communication domes.

And the fluid/heat thing... yep, in the very early days I wasn't thinking about fluid flow at all.  I was thinking about heat flow through a metal plate.  I'd seen CA simulations done for lots of things, but never to create an enemy in a strategy game.  So, off I went.  In the very early things I wrote for CW1 the creeper was red and when the units fired the terrain would 'cool' off and make a blue patch.  There was also no terrain elevations, everything was just flat.  I then added 'insulators' that would degrade (those became walls), and eventually wanted permanent insulators that had an overflow threshold... that idea became terrain levels.  At that point, I went 'duh'.  Bring up the credits in CW1 and look at the screenshots...  you'll see images from those early experiments.  Why does this all come to mind again?  I'm at that exact same stage in a new game... (and no, I'm not going to talk about it yet :) )

Not fully? I thought you were a one-man team. (Except for other key officials like Grauniad)

I am amazed that you made the "sensor observation and communication domes" look like cockpits. (they look more aerodynamic than I ever gave any automated designs credit for; I forgot, for instance, that although the predator drone lacks a cockpit, it still looks. (and obviously is) )aerodynamic.)

"A new game" you say?  :o

Watch yourself, some CW-crazed fan is likely to bombard you with spam, questions, praise-outbursts, etc. now that you just gave it away.

Count yourself lucky I am one of your series' rational-headed supporters. ;D :-X