TA : Factions

File Information

Description

"Total Annihilation : Factions" is a game for the spring engine and is based around expanding the ARM vs CORE gameplay by adding two new factions, CLAW and SPHERE, reworked balance and new mechanics.

It should favor small to medium battles and micromanagement rather than exponentially growing economies and massive clashes.

you can post feedback and suggestions on the spring forum:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24489

----------- Gameplay notes / hints (comparison with the typical TA-derived games) ----------

--- commanders
- each commander has 3 distinct upgrades with unique visual and attributes
- commanders can be respawned, for a price (respawner pad can be built by any constructor)
- commanders no longer have a huge death blast
- commanders have unique weapons instead of the 1-hit-kill dgun
- commanders morph one of their weapons into a torpedo launcher while underwater
- no decoy commanders

--- economy
- economy scales smoothly, advanced metal extractors provide about 3 times as much metal/s as basic ones
- metal makers have been disabled, but all commanders give +4 M/s
(you can no longer grow your economy exponentialy without grabbing more land)
- construction units build faster than usual when compared to commanders
(commander should be fighting in the front line, not cowering on the back of the base)

--- ARMOR vs HITPOWER
- Light (L) (takes full dmg from all sources)
- Medium (M) (takes half dmg from light hitpower weapons)
- Heavy (H) (takes half dmg from medium hitpower weapons and quarter dmg from light hitpower weapons)

(throwing a mass of light scout ships against medium and heavily armored units should fail miserably)

- you can view the armor type and weapon hit power on the tooltip

- SPHERE's unit shields protect only the owner, take 2x dmg from paralyzer weapons, and regenerate 2%hp/s at the cost of 4%hp E/s
(they take dmg according to the unit's armor type, for now)

- all ground units have 600 LOS and aircraft have 720 LOS (there is no distinct radar and sonar LOS) (has LOS widget)

- it has most land, air and some sea units for CLAW and SPHERE

- no effort yet into AI compatibility, but it does seem to work with RAI

- for now, it has no mine-layers, no nukes, and no vulcans (does have berthas though)

************************** PATCH NOTES ****************************

2013/03/17 ------------------ NOTES v0.51 ----------------------

- fixed some bombers that were dropping two bombs instead of one
- fixed torpedo fall speed for torpedo bombers
- improved accuracy for artillery cannons in general

2013/03/17 ------------------ NOTES v0.5 ----------------------

--- balance

- CLAW construction units can now build wind generators like they should
- made level1 units in general a bit more cost-effective compared to level 2 and 3
- made bigger (more expensive) resource generators a bit more cost-effective than smaller ones of the same level (ex: level3 big fusion vs level3 small fusion)
- made CLAW "knife" a cheaper/faster scout kbot
- made SPHERE "Rock" a bit tougher
- made SPHERE "Bit" a bit tougher, faster and cheaper, but has less range
- units that have both high mobility, durability and destructive potential had their costs increased

--- new units

- added CLAW "Grunt" : level 1 Infantry kbot
- added CLAW "Gemini" : level 2 Medium Missile Turret
- added ARM "Duster" : level 1 Light Artillery vehicle
- added SPHERE "Slicer" : level 1 Medium Assault kbot
- added SPHERE "Pulsar" : level 2 Shielded Heavy Support Tank
- added CORE "Heater" : level 2 Heavy Assault Tank

--- animations / effects

- improved loading/unloading animation for transport ships and hovercraft (looks less buggy, although a bit slower)
(sadly, there seems to be a spring 93.1/2 engine bug : ship transports can't load units)
- improved animations for SPHERE "Bit"
- improved death animations for some aircraft (more flying debris, yay!)
- fixed weapon blast sounds for some units (Viper and some SPHERE units)
- fixed wreckages for some units

--- other

- some compatibility fixes for the new spring version 93.x
- updated tooltip to show transport capacity usage ( size% / mass% )
- adjusted collision volumes for many units

2013/01/17 ------------------ NOTES v0.4 ----------------------

--- fixed bugs
- fixed air units getting stuck on factories and air repair pads
- fixed flak cannon shots not exploding at target range when they missed
- fixed units ignoring bad target categories (some missile units were prioritizing ground instead of air)
- fixed target point for aircraft plants, shipyards and commander pads
- fixed opal sphere not being targeted by units that don't attack aircraft
- ajusted collision volumes for many units

--- visuals
- slightly improved models and animations for ARM "Jeffy" and CORE "Weasel" and restored its build menu picture
- slightly improved models for CORE commanders
- slightly improved model and animations for CORE "Krogoth"
- improved some wreckages
- removed excessive sideways tilting from hovercraft
- decreased water splash particle emissions for hovercraft

--- balance
- reduced acceleration on hovertanks
- arm_jeffy and core_weasel are more durable, but have reduced firepower
- combat aircraft are less cost-effective except for bombers
- air transports and radar aircraft are cheaper
- increased range of radar units in general (except advanced radar kbots and vehicles)
- commanders cannot be captured nor reclaimed
- most upgraded commanders are a bit stronger and more durable (except the heavy ones)
- fixed cost of arm and core lev2 spy kbots
- reduced cost of fusion power plants
- shifted power and range from CORE "Krogoth"'s head laser to the arm cannons
- increased durability and adjusted costs for transport ships and hovercraft
- air repair pads now float when built on water
- fixed build speed and cost for claw_adv_vehicle_plant e claw_adv_shipyard

--- new units
- added SPHERE "Probe" : level 1 Scout Aircraft
- added CLAW "Spotter" : level 1 Scout Aircraft
- added SPHERE "Meteor" : level 2 Shielded Heavy Gunship
- added CLAW "Massacre" : level 3 Heavy Plasma Mortar
- added CLAW "Nucleus" : level 2 Heavy Riot Kbot
- added CLAW "Mega" : level 2 Heavy Riot Tank

--- interface
- restored widget to change metal extractor construction spots to positions that maximize output (by Niobium)
- added widget to display metal extractor output before deployment (by Evil4Zerggin)
- fixed tooltip widget to hide unused weapon slots instead of showing "No Weapon" and to display energy cost of weapons

--- license
added a LICENSE.txt, which basically says other modders are free to use everything except CLAW and SPHERE units

2012/12/30 ------------------ NOTES v0.3 ----------------------

--- unit changes
- several changes to unit costs and attributes, made combat aircraft in general a bit less cost-effective
(i'll be more detailed about these kinds of changes when the game becomes more stable)
- fixed claw_ravager and arm_bolter's build picture
- fixed sphere_adv_vehicle_factory's wreckage
- fixed description on several units and weapons

--- builder's operations cost energy
- reclaiming features and wreckage works gradually instead of when it ends, and costs 10% of their metal content
- repairing units costs 20% of their energy cost (was 0%)
- ressurecting units costs 100% of their energy cost (was 50%)
- capturing units costs 100% of their energy cost (was 0%)
- reclaiming units costs 50% of their energy cost (was 0%)

--- visuals
- glowy particle effects are shown when reclaiming ends (gadget by Beherith, tweaked by Jools)
- added load pictures with useful information

--- widgets
- added widget to make units hold fire when ordered to cloak (by Quantum, Jools and Niobium)
- removed unused or not working widgets