Sunday, May 15, 2011

The next internal alpha should be avalible soon.

Hopefully by next Sunday what you will be doing is not reading this blog but instead testing out our first internal alpha. I've finished with Scrin and GDI and now only have NOD to retool. When they are done I will be posting a link on here (but not MODDB) with this new alpha that is retooled/rebalanced for the original 3 armies. Depending on the feedback from this we will continue with our plans to rebalance EF-UC with this system along with starting work on EF-AW!

GDI's issue was simple, they needed more units to feel like a true military force. They needed variety and options that were there in the lore of CNC but not in the game. This has been fixed I think.

Scrins issue was equally easily seen. They needed more focus on tiberium (which is why they are there to begin with right?) along with a more unique army setup. Again I believe this has been accomplished.

NOD is different. They are a religious organization with militant overtones that are not afraid to use whatever WMD that they can get their hands on. How does this play out in the game? Well, NOD as it stands doesn't have much of a "religious" feel to it in the game. They really feel like a copy of GDI. So how do we fix this? This isn't as easy to do as one would think. We need to inject not with the ability to gain resources in an additional way along with Tiberium Gathering while still focusing on their main three bullet points.

1. They are a religious group.

2. They are a militant force made up of fanatics with little real training.

3. They supposedly control the majority of the Tiberium harvesting operations around the world.


So how do you convert these things to an army in game? Good question. This is what I've come up with. As far as the religious aspect I'm going to make structures that have religious meaning not only cost less but also produce cash. This means the secret shrine and the temple of nod will make you money and cost less than they used to. Also, the Stealth Generators are going to be renamed "Stealth Shrines" that will not only stealth themselves along with other buildings but produce cash. This will make them very valuble to the NOD player for obvious reasons.

Next I will make the refinerys cost less/take less time to build. This will show that NOD is able to deploy refinerys and harvest at a much quicker rate than other armies due to their experience in this field.

Finally, their lower end units will cost less and have worse aim than their GDI counterparts. This is to show 2 things, one NOD generals put the untrained in rolls that are not very costly to NOD if they screw it up but at the same time their lack of training makes them not as effective with these pieces of equipment. However as a NOD unit gains experience they will also gain accuracy. This shows that the in-field training pays off. If they can survive it that is.

What other ideas do you think should go into NOD with their design to help them better fit their history and help them stand apart from GDI? Let me know your thoughts.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to know that EF faction changed?

Anonymous said...

So if you finish Nod before Sunday will you release it before then or will you wait until Sunday?

azuza001 said...

The ef faction hasn't changed yet.

I will release the internal alpha 10 as soon as its done, I won't wait until Sunday if I finish it on Saturday.

Nod probably won't be getting many changes as it seems that many don't really care about them as an army. :p. Go figure lol.

Anonymous said...

Yay cant wait