Before you read any further, No, this does not mean that we're just going to add new defensive structures into the game that are super powerful. That would be easy to do of course, but thats not what we're trying to do with this. No, the term Super Defense is based around the idea that after a certain point a player/enemy base will gain access to a form of "Defense" that makes it much harder to attack in a specific way or fashion.
Lets talk about the O3 and the EF here for a bit shall we? We'll start with the Scrin.
The Scrin are an invasion force. They are not concerned about building massive bases and holding ground, instead their entire army is based around the idea of devouring the enemy as they go so they will not have a defensive super weapon. They are a pure offensive force so it wouldn't make since to have one.
Nod's "Defensive Weapon" is called the Orguss Effect. Basically what happens is once you have a Temple of NOD built all of the stealth Generators will output a "no-fly-zone" Ion Ceiling. In effect if any air units fly through this storm they stand a very good chance of getting destroyed. Ground units are not effected by this power. It leads to a simple case of "Ok, if we don't take that Temple of Nod out we are going to have to hit Nod with a ground attack, air's not in the equation."
GDI's "Defensive Weapon" is something that I particularly find amusing. Once you have the Ion Cannon Control Center built any enemy GROUND units that are seen attacking the base around the Ion Control Center will be targeted by a limited-field Ion Cannon blast. Think of it as the Ion Cannon Direct fire power from the 2nd war. There will not be a blast radius on this shot and obviously if your opponent is a fast moving unit it won't hit either but for the most part this means that your Ion Cannon could potentially defend an entire base by itself from slow moving Avatars and Tripods. This also means once GDI has this up your best bet is to hit them with air or stealth units to get inside the Cannons fire radius.
Earth Federations AW force again isn't going to qualify for a Defensive Super Weapon. We're up in the air about UC if we want to give them one or not. However Seed has always had this kind of thing in it from the original design. The Artimis Shield.
The "how" is still up in the air about this but basically it is going to work like this. The Shield Generator will activate the shield whenever an enemy unit comes in range. This will have 2 effects. Anything that is inside the shield when the effect go's off will be given invulnerability to show that they are inside the shield. Anything on the edge of the shield (the enemy that triggered the shields activation) will have its speed reduced to 5% to show that it is trying to get through the shield.
The Shield will not work against super powers like Ion Cannons. Also again the shield will only work if it can see the enemy comming like aircraft or units. Finally the Shield only works for a certain radius, like 200-700 so once an enemy gets close they can destroy the structure and take the shield down. Again stealth is important here.
I hope you guys see what we're trying to do. Some of these ideas still need to be fleshed out but in the end I think this will add that last level of stratagy that a CNC game should have.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
The Avatar - A change in the game?
The Avatar has always been Nods end game unit. In fact even it's name suggests that it is going to be of a higher level of power than the Scorpion or Stealth Tank. But with all the changes going on in the mod the question of "what happens to the Avatar?" has come up a few times.
And since I'm so close to being done with my changes I though I would jump ahead and do the Legion Avatar before getting to the Operations Stealth Tank or the Homeland Scorpion Tank. Boy was that a mistake.
First we will go over the design. There are going to be two versions of the Legion Avatar, an Assault Avatar and a Heavy Avatar. The names are still a work in progress, but basically the Assault version will have more weapons and speed where the Heavy will have much more armor.
Another nice thing about the Avatar will be it's bonus's. While looking at it the other day Doug pointed out that we should look at what Nod will be lacking in by the time the player gets access to the Avatar and basing it's equipment off of that need. That was a very insightful comment and what path it lead me to was cost. By the time Nod gets to the Avatar the major thing that should be holding it back is a go-to unit that is going to be cost effective as most of your cash will be going to cybernetic squads and heavy tanks. He also questioned the roll of the Avatar in our story. So what I came up with was this.
The Avatars will be limited to 1 out at a time.
The Avatars will be free to build (no cost) but take 2 minutes to build.
The Avatars will be incredibly powerful. These are the units that cause the other world powers to be afraid of Nod the most. If Nod was ever able to come up with a way to mass-produce these incredibly powerful machines then none of the other world powers would stand a chance. It is this reason that the Earth Federation continues to advance it's mecha technology at the break-neck speed that it does and why GDI continues to advance and invest in Rail Cannon Technology (one of the few weapons that have had an incredibly high success rate against the Avatars).
The Assault Avatar will be equipped with 3 weapons, 1 of which will always be an EMP cannon. The other 2 weapons will vary based on the Doctrine.
The Heavy Avatar will be equipped with 2 weapons that will vary based on the Doctrine.
So on paper the Avatar looks great. So I sat down and started to work on it. And got my ass kicked.
The Avatar code is one of the most complicated coding jobs done for all the models in CNC3 mostly based around it's "commender" ability. I honestly think this is causing me most of my problems. I do what I have done a dozen of times so far, take the unit, add a new model into the code attached to one of the bones on the original unit, tell the weapon code to use the new model's launch points for firing, and be happy. The problem is the model go's on great but when it's time to use the new models launch points for some reason the game simply won't do it, instead all shots come from the base of the Avatar as if the launch point was under ground.
So what I think I'm going to do here is something that I've not attempted to do before. EA has released a decent mix of existing units in 3DS format for players to look at and learn from, one of which being the Avatar. What I'm going to try to do is open of the Avatar's file and modify the model then re-introduce my modified model into the game using the existing animations. If that doesn't work I will try to make the Avatar from scratch coding wise and only use the existing model as my basis, replacing all of the logic code. Finally, if that doesn't work, well, I'm not sure what will happen. We may not have the Avatar in the way that we want and have to go back to the drawing board again.
Sigh. And I was so excited to show you guys some new pics. :p
And since I'm so close to being done with my changes I though I would jump ahead and do the Legion Avatar before getting to the Operations Stealth Tank or the Homeland Scorpion Tank. Boy was that a mistake.
First we will go over the design. There are going to be two versions of the Legion Avatar, an Assault Avatar and a Heavy Avatar. The names are still a work in progress, but basically the Assault version will have more weapons and speed where the Heavy will have much more armor.
Another nice thing about the Avatar will be it's bonus's. While looking at it the other day Doug pointed out that we should look at what Nod will be lacking in by the time the player gets access to the Avatar and basing it's equipment off of that need. That was a very insightful comment and what path it lead me to was cost. By the time Nod gets to the Avatar the major thing that should be holding it back is a go-to unit that is going to be cost effective as most of your cash will be going to cybernetic squads and heavy tanks. He also questioned the roll of the Avatar in our story. So what I came up with was this.
The Avatars will be limited to 1 out at a time.
The Avatars will be free to build (no cost) but take 2 minutes to build.
The Avatars will be incredibly powerful. These are the units that cause the other world powers to be afraid of Nod the most. If Nod was ever able to come up with a way to mass-produce these incredibly powerful machines then none of the other world powers would stand a chance. It is this reason that the Earth Federation continues to advance it's mecha technology at the break-neck speed that it does and why GDI continues to advance and invest in Rail Cannon Technology (one of the few weapons that have had an incredibly high success rate against the Avatars).
The Assault Avatar will be equipped with 3 weapons, 1 of which will always be an EMP cannon. The other 2 weapons will vary based on the Doctrine.
The Heavy Avatar will be equipped with 2 weapons that will vary based on the Doctrine.
So on paper the Avatar looks great. So I sat down and started to work on it. And got my ass kicked.
The Avatar code is one of the most complicated coding jobs done for all the models in CNC3 mostly based around it's "commender" ability. I honestly think this is causing me most of my problems. I do what I have done a dozen of times so far, take the unit, add a new model into the code attached to one of the bones on the original unit, tell the weapon code to use the new model's launch points for firing, and be happy. The problem is the model go's on great but when it's time to use the new models launch points for some reason the game simply won't do it, instead all shots come from the base of the Avatar as if the launch point was under ground.
So what I think I'm going to do here is something that I've not attempted to do before. EA has released a decent mix of existing units in 3DS format for players to look at and learn from, one of which being the Avatar. What I'm going to try to do is open of the Avatar's file and modify the model then re-introduce my modified model into the game using the existing animations. If that doesn't work I will try to make the Avatar from scratch coding wise and only use the existing model as my basis, replacing all of the logic code. Finally, if that doesn't work, well, I'm not sure what will happen. We may not have the Avatar in the way that we want and have to go back to the drawing board again.
Sigh. And I was so excited to show you guys some new pics. :p
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Why Robotech and not Macross?
I was originally going to post this week about the progress in Nod. Nod's infantry was just finished about 2 minutes ago and so I'm now on my way to doing their vehicles. After that we need to do the Nod Super Weapon (I'll give you a hint, we're removing the Liquid Tiberium Bomb and putting something completly new into the spot that will not only be cool if it works but it will also give Nod a huge boost into it's economy when it go's off) and I can move on to the 3 GDI superweapons and economy change and then we're at RC time.
However the question of why Robotech and not Macross came up again so I figured I should reply to it. It's a valid question each time it's asked because simply put we're keeping the Gundam aspects of the original mod why remove the Macross aspects?
What it really came down to was what we could use from the Macross universe (and the direction that Macross keeps taking each time it comes out) vs what we could take from Robotech. By going with Robotech we are able to take the Robotech Defense Force, the Southern Cross, and the Robotech Expeditionary Force and use these armies and their weapons in the game. All 3 armies are different, with different types of weapons and different reasons for exsisting. The RDF uses a lot of aircraft and heavy / slow ground units. The Southern Cross on the other hand uses mostly hover tanks and other faster/more effective ground units while using the air units in a support roll. Finally the REF uses elite, advanced technology and is honestly more of an offensive force than a defensive one.
Also we are able to get access to some of the "enemies" of the Robotech series and use them as well. I use "enemies" loosely, maybe opposing force would be a better word to use. Anyways we get access to the Invid, the perfect enemy to pitch against the Scrin in our story. This makes the story Alien Race vs Alien Race with humanity getting caught unexpectedly in the middle instead of the tired "Alien race appears, kicks our ass's, and then we strike back with a varying degree of success," that happens now days.
Macross on the other hand, well, yea.... Macross gives us the same air units from the RDF basically (Robotech does use Macross's animation after all) but then we move to Macross Plus with the YF19 and YF21. These are some pretty cool advanced fighters. Then we go to Macross 7. Yea. Still using the YF19 are you? Thats great. Next we go to Macross Frontieer. Are those Whales they are fighting in space? Ok, that Macross just did a barrel roll in space to avoid getting shot. How they missed something THAT BIG that is flying STRAIGHT AT THEM I still can't understand, but whatever. Someone used a ton of character points there, only explanation.
So thats why we went Robotech. It simply gives us access to more variety. That and the story of Robotech doesn't end with a 13 year old girl in space singing to whales in her birthday suit. Kinda important.
However the question of why Robotech and not Macross came up again so I figured I should reply to it. It's a valid question each time it's asked because simply put we're keeping the Gundam aspects of the original mod why remove the Macross aspects?
What it really came down to was what we could use from the Macross universe (and the direction that Macross keeps taking each time it comes out) vs what we could take from Robotech. By going with Robotech we are able to take the Robotech Defense Force, the Southern Cross, and the Robotech Expeditionary Force and use these armies and their weapons in the game. All 3 armies are different, with different types of weapons and different reasons for exsisting. The RDF uses a lot of aircraft and heavy / slow ground units. The Southern Cross on the other hand uses mostly hover tanks and other faster/more effective ground units while using the air units in a support roll. Finally the REF uses elite, advanced technology and is honestly more of an offensive force than a defensive one.
Also we are able to get access to some of the "enemies" of the Robotech series and use them as well. I use "enemies" loosely, maybe opposing force would be a better word to use. Anyways we get access to the Invid, the perfect enemy to pitch against the Scrin in our story. This makes the story Alien Race vs Alien Race with humanity getting caught unexpectedly in the middle instead of the tired "Alien race appears, kicks our ass's, and then we strike back with a varying degree of success," that happens now days.
Macross on the other hand, well, yea.... Macross gives us the same air units from the RDF basically (Robotech does use Macross's animation after all) but then we move to Macross Plus with the YF19 and YF21. These are some pretty cool advanced fighters. Then we go to Macross 7. Yea. Still using the YF19 are you? Thats great. Next we go to Macross Frontieer. Are those Whales they are fighting in space? Ok, that Macross just did a barrel roll in space to avoid getting shot. How they missed something THAT BIG that is flying STRAIGHT AT THEM I still can't understand, but whatever. Someone used a ton of character points there, only explanation.
So thats why we went Robotech. It simply gives us access to more variety. That and the story of Robotech doesn't end with a 13 year old girl in space singing to whales in her birthday suit. Kinda important.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Slowly coming together.
So I'm almost done with Nods infantry, most of the units are in their proper positions now. The only thing I have to work on now is what units get what upgrades based on the "doctrine" that is designed into the game.
This of course brings me up to todays post. The 4 doctrines are as follows.
Sector 9 Doctrine
Black Ops Doctrine
Homeland Defense Doctrine
Tiberium Guard Doctrine
As I was working on this something started to become apparent. While we changed the name of the houses to doctrines we were still trying to use the old designs with these new names. Thats just not going to work.
Taking it from a pure outside of the game perspective this is what the organizations are supposed to represent.
Sector 9 are the secret police of Nod. They are the internal check and balance force. They use stealth technology, laser technology, plasma missile technology, plasma grenade technology, and are generally focused on giving slight speed boosts and using cybernetic bodies to complete missions.
Black Ops are a more a loose group of teams that can focus on specific mission objectives. Where Sector 9 has no problem destroying a building to kill a target Black Ops will only kill it's objective and is not interested in collateral damage. They use Bunker Buster Missiles, high caliber machine guns, and sniper weapons extensively. They also use stealth technology to some extent.
Homeland Security are a full military force that are designed around stand up fights. They use plasma grenades/rockets and heavy armor at the expense of speed. They are there to make sure the job gets done and to hold the ground.
Finally Tiberium Guard are more of a research and development team. They use chemical weapons, thermal rounds, concussion explosives, high impact body armor, and extensive use of seige equipment like Mortars to get the job done. If it's an odd or uncommon weapon it was probably developed and used first by the Tiberium Guard. For example, they use concussion explosives on their Scorpion Tanks main cannon, causing infantry that are hit to become suppressed and vehicles to take a slight "pause" before they can move again. Very handy.
So there you have it, once I wrote it out it was easy to see how the upgrades should get worked out. If you have a suggestion as to how one weapon/vehicle should gain an upgrade like my example with the Tiberium Guard Scorpion Tank let us know. Otherwise have a great week guys.
This of course brings me up to todays post. The 4 doctrines are as follows.
Sector 9 Doctrine
Black Ops Doctrine
Homeland Defense Doctrine
Tiberium Guard Doctrine
As I was working on this something started to become apparent. While we changed the name of the houses to doctrines we were still trying to use the old designs with these new names. Thats just not going to work.
Taking it from a pure outside of the game perspective this is what the organizations are supposed to represent.
Sector 9 are the secret police of Nod. They are the internal check and balance force. They use stealth technology, laser technology, plasma missile technology, plasma grenade technology, and are generally focused on giving slight speed boosts and using cybernetic bodies to complete missions.
Black Ops are a more a loose group of teams that can focus on specific mission objectives. Where Sector 9 has no problem destroying a building to kill a target Black Ops will only kill it's objective and is not interested in collateral damage. They use Bunker Buster Missiles, high caliber machine guns, and sniper weapons extensively. They also use stealth technology to some extent.
Homeland Security are a full military force that are designed around stand up fights. They use plasma grenades/rockets and heavy armor at the expense of speed. They are there to make sure the job gets done and to hold the ground.
Finally Tiberium Guard are more of a research and development team. They use chemical weapons, thermal rounds, concussion explosives, high impact body armor, and extensive use of seige equipment like Mortars to get the job done. If it's an odd or uncommon weapon it was probably developed and used first by the Tiberium Guard. For example, they use concussion explosives on their Scorpion Tanks main cannon, causing infantry that are hit to become suppressed and vehicles to take a slight "pause" before they can move again. Very handy.
So there you have it, once I wrote it out it was easy to see how the upgrades should get worked out. If you have a suggestion as to how one weapon/vehicle should gain an upgrade like my example with the Tiberium Guard Scorpion Tank let us know. Otherwise have a great week guys.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sundays post is early this week.
I had a friend of mine pass away this week, he was about my age so it was a little odd. When my grandmother died we all kind of saw it coming days before it happened so it was not a big surprise but this, this was different.
So having said that there has not been much of any work done on the mod the last few days. I'm going to try to get on to it tonight I think, but I wanted to say something that I think needs to be said. I keep copies of the Mod in many different places, I have it on my main computer, my backup HD, my USB Thumb Stick that I keep on my keys, in my Sisters house down the road (which reminds me I need to update that copy at some point, it's almost a year old..) and finally in another state. Yes, Doug has a complete copy of the work. I do not know what his opinion of this is but if something ever did happen to me I would expect him to make what we have done made available to everyone online, open source. This mod started thanks to the original creator making his mod open source when he left and I have every intention of doing the same.
Death is not an easy thing for some to deal with. I think I take it better than most, I have not been busy being sad for my lost friend but in trying to make others who also lost said friend feel a bit better. Shit happens and then you die, but I believe everyone who is living hopes to leave some sort of lasting impression upon this world before the end, it is one of the fundamental things that we as a society seem to strive for. If it happens to me so be it, but maybe someone else will see what we have done here with this mod and get into modding on their own because of it. Maybe they will start tweaking the settings to fit their own tastes. And maybe that will have an effect on someone else, you can see the butterfly effect here.
Because in the end that is all we have. The Butterfly Effect. And twinkies. Those things last forever......
So having said that there has not been much of any work done on the mod the last few days. I'm going to try to get on to it tonight I think, but I wanted to say something that I think needs to be said. I keep copies of the Mod in many different places, I have it on my main computer, my backup HD, my USB Thumb Stick that I keep on my keys, in my Sisters house down the road (which reminds me I need to update that copy at some point, it's almost a year old..) and finally in another state. Yes, Doug has a complete copy of the work. I do not know what his opinion of this is but if something ever did happen to me I would expect him to make what we have done made available to everyone online, open source. This mod started thanks to the original creator making his mod open source when he left and I have every intention of doing the same.
Death is not an easy thing for some to deal with. I think I take it better than most, I have not been busy being sad for my lost friend but in trying to make others who also lost said friend feel a bit better. Shit happens and then you die, but I believe everyone who is living hopes to leave some sort of lasting impression upon this world before the end, it is one of the fundamental things that we as a society seem to strive for. If it happens to me so be it, but maybe someone else will see what we have done here with this mod and get into modding on their own because of it. Maybe they will start tweaking the settings to fit their own tastes. And maybe that will have an effect on someone else, you can see the butterfly effect here.
Because in the end that is all we have. The Butterfly Effect. And twinkies. Those things last forever......
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The work on Nod continues.
So the other day on the Mod DB website I asked for some ideas from you guys on new names for the houses of Nod. Our old names were the Templars, the Sisterhood, the Assassins, and the Inquisition. While I am sure there are a few out there who like these names I just never cared for them that much myself. After getting a bit of feedback from Doug, Kunaiswarm, and a few others these are the names we have come up with, each with a brief description of what the player can expect from going with this house/branch. Oh yea, and we have changed it from a "house" to a "branch" from within Nod.
Sisterhood is now Section 9 Security.
Section 9 Security is an experimental research and development branch of Nods Military. They are the counter-espionage force of Nod, designed to hit hard, fast, and first. Their technology includes extensive use of laser weaponry along with some limited use of cloaking technology and plasma missile technology.
Assassins are now Black Operations.
Black Operations, or Black Ops are more of a loose group of teams within Nod than a solid branch. This fluidity allows the Black Ops to conduct missions that can not be linked back to Nod directly. They use extensive use of cloaking technology along with weapons that do pinpoint damage. For example, a Black Ops unit equipped with a missile would use a Bunker Buster missile which is designed for armor penetration and not collateral damage, meaning these missiles are more powerful against a single target and do not do splash damage.
Inquisition is now Homeland Defense.
Homeland Defense is the military might of Nod. These are the forces that the world sees at large in Nod Controlled areas. In third world countries, towns that have been over-run by bandits and warlords are offered protection by Nod's Homeland Defense. It is the Homeland Defenses Cyborg technology that is sold to the wealthy and powerful people of more prosperous nations as protection. In game this means the Homeland Defense units are focused on power and toughness, taking a direct approach to enemy encounters. They make extensive use of plasma missile technology.
Templar are now Tiberium Guard. This is the main defensive branch of Nod, but more than that these are the support and relief troops that are sent into areas that have already been liberated by Homeland Defense. They focus on medical and armor technology, picking this branch will grant the players units additional armor and health along with things like protection from Tiberium. Some of their units even give up speed for additional armor, for example the Avatar will give up 35% of it's normal movement speed to gain 50% additional HP making it a great mobile defensive unit.
Let me know what you think.
Sisterhood is now Section 9 Security.
Section 9 Security is an experimental research and development branch of Nods Military. They are the counter-espionage force of Nod, designed to hit hard, fast, and first. Their technology includes extensive use of laser weaponry along with some limited use of cloaking technology and plasma missile technology.
Assassins are now Black Operations.
Black Operations, or Black Ops are more of a loose group of teams within Nod than a solid branch. This fluidity allows the Black Ops to conduct missions that can not be linked back to Nod directly. They use extensive use of cloaking technology along with weapons that do pinpoint damage. For example, a Black Ops unit equipped with a missile would use a Bunker Buster missile which is designed for armor penetration and not collateral damage, meaning these missiles are more powerful against a single target and do not do splash damage.
Inquisition is now Homeland Defense.
Homeland Defense is the military might of Nod. These are the forces that the world sees at large in Nod Controlled areas. In third world countries, towns that have been over-run by bandits and warlords are offered protection by Nod's Homeland Defense. It is the Homeland Defenses Cyborg technology that is sold to the wealthy and powerful people of more prosperous nations as protection. In game this means the Homeland Defense units are focused on power and toughness, taking a direct approach to enemy encounters. They make extensive use of plasma missile technology.
Templar are now Tiberium Guard. This is the main defensive branch of Nod, but more than that these are the support and relief troops that are sent into areas that have already been liberated by Homeland Defense. They focus on medical and armor technology, picking this branch will grant the players units additional armor and health along with things like protection from Tiberium. Some of their units even give up speed for additional armor, for example the Avatar will give up 35% of it's normal movement speed to gain 50% additional HP making it a great mobile defensive unit.
Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
SEED - The straight forward aproche.
Sorry for the late post, it's taken me a few days to get my thoughts together on the following subject. So, having said that lets take a look at SEED as an anime and see how this would work as a RTS shall we?
Gundam SEED is the story of a young boy who finds himself on a neutral colony in space during a war between the Earth and the Space Colonies. At first it seems like its going to be a reboot of the original story but it's far more than that. Soon the young boy finds himself in the cockpit of the Gundam Striker, the 5th prototype Gundam being developed on the colony, as it is attacked and the other 4 prototypes are stolen. Worse, he finds that one of the thieves is his long lost childhood friend. I can't imagine pitching this idea and keeping a straight face but apparently someone did it and did it well enough that it got made. Bravo random japaneese dude.
So what this really comes down to is a show with lots of "basic" mobile suits and a few high performance prototypes constantly fighting against each other. As the story continues people switch sides and new sides are formed which does not help our situation at all.
So what does all of this mean to you guys and the Mod? It means that we have potentially many different units to pull from but in the end with us only choosing units that would have been part of the Earth Federation, what exactly qualifies? And where do you draw the line? There are so many different Daggers and Windams, what ones do we go with? And the many MANY different Gundams and Mobile Armors... you start to see the problem.
In the end there are 2 major timelines from SEED that can be worked from, CE71 and CE 73. CE71 was the year of the Dagger where CE 73 was the year of the Windam. If we go with CE71 you have the Strike Dagger, Jet Dagger, Launcher Dagger, Dagger L, Jet Dagger L, and Doppelhorn Dagger L. If we go with the Windams of 73 you get the Windam, Jet Windam, and Doppelhorn Windam.
Units based on the Strike Daggers (Strike Dagger/Jet Dagger/Launcher Dagger) are teir 1 units that fill the basic attack/basic air unit/basic artillery positions. The Dagger L's would be the teir 2 units with the units following a similar pattern (Dagger L for basic attack / Jet Dagger L for basic air / Doppelhorn Dagger L for basic artillery). Finally if we did add the Windams in as the teir 3 units they would be the Windam/Basic Attack, Jet Windam/Basic Air, Doppelhorn Windam/Basic Artillery.
So thats our basic units setup. So far what we're looking at are 3 frontline, 3 air units, and 3 artillery units. The army so far is looking like a straight up fighting force. Where do the Gundams fit in?
I think how we should do the Gundams would be elite units that you can call on to support your forces in game. These units would be 1 time builds, built from a different structure or maybe summoned in using a support power. When I say 1 time builds I mean you only can have 1 on the field at a time. So what Gundams can we use?
Well, from the original show the first 5 prototype gundams were built FOR the Earth Allience so arguably even though 4 of the 5 were stolen if the EA wanted to build more they could have, they had the plans after all. That would give us the Duel Gundam, Buster Gundam, Strike Gundam, Blitz Gundam, and Aegis Gundam. We could also argue for the Calamity, Forbidden, and Raider Gundam but to me these always seemed like they belonged to Blue Cosmos and not the EA.
Out of the 5 original Gundams not all are going to make it, simply put we have to take things from a gameplay standpoint and I'm not going to put every gundam avalible in (we still have some to grap from 73 afterall). Out of the 71 series the ones that I would say "Yes, you should be there" would be the Strike Gundam, the Duel Gundam, and the Buster Gundam. These 3 units actually fit with our inital setup, with the Duel Gundam being the frontline unit, the Buster being the artillery unit, and the Strike being the air unit. The Strike continues to gain favor due to it's flexability allowing it to switch to artillery or front line with it's other forms to further it's position.
With the jump to 73 though we have a different issue. The Earth Allience did not use very many Gundams in its defense in this war, not ones that were truly theirs anyways. They did use the Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia. As these units were stolen from Zaft and held by the EA for quite a while it's arguable to say that if they wanted to the EA could have produced them as well. As such for the second teir of elites these would be the 3 that I pick. The Chaos abviously takes the slot as front line fighter, the Gaia takes the slot of air unit. The problem is with the Abyss gundam. As we don't have water as a transversal item (meaning you can't go in it thanks to the maps) the Abyss's armored mode is less that useful. However the argument could be made that we can modify it and make it's armored mode into a sort of stationary defense turret with long range having it fill the artillery slot.
Also these units help flow into the final class of units, the Mobile Armors of the EA. These bad boys are the Gells-Ghe, the Zamza-Zah, and the Destroy Gundam. I don't have to explain to you why these guys are picked. One downside to these guys are they would be VERY expensive to put onto the field, but they will be worth it.
So thats the basic forward facing design that I have come up with from watching the show and looking at the units. 9 basic units that each fill a basic roll and 9 elite units that will be able to stand against at least half a dozen units on their own (basic units that is, don't expect a Strike Gundam to take on GP03).
But wait! What about ORB and the Justice and Freedom?! Well, thats an interesting situation. I would like to put them in but really where do they fit? The Justice and Freedom never worked for the EA. Orb however DID at one point (even though they did it at gunpoint so to speak). This would fall into the "Addititonal Support" aspect of SEED. I know I want an ally system of some sort in there, where a player can choose either ORB, Three Ship, or Blue Cosmos to gain additional units. How this is going to work though has not been worked out. I'm thinking it's an additional defensive structure that will be built that will give "summon" powers to gain additional support.
ORB will grant the player access to the Astrays, the Murasame, the Strike Rouge, and the Akatsuki units. Three Ship will only give you access to the Freedom and the Justice. Blue Cosmos will not give you any additional unit types, but instead will give you additional units in the form of the teir 3 units. This means as Blue Cosmos you could attack an enemy with 4 or 5 Destroy Gundams at once! (Talk about power....)
So thats my thought process. Tell me what you think.
Gundam SEED is the story of a young boy who finds himself on a neutral colony in space during a war between the Earth and the Space Colonies. At first it seems like its going to be a reboot of the original story but it's far more than that. Soon the young boy finds himself in the cockpit of the Gundam Striker, the 5th prototype Gundam being developed on the colony, as it is attacked and the other 4 prototypes are stolen. Worse, he finds that one of the thieves is his long lost childhood friend. I can't imagine pitching this idea and keeping a straight face but apparently someone did it and did it well enough that it got made. Bravo random japaneese dude.
So what this really comes down to is a show with lots of "basic" mobile suits and a few high performance prototypes constantly fighting against each other. As the story continues people switch sides and new sides are formed which does not help our situation at all.
So what does all of this mean to you guys and the Mod? It means that we have potentially many different units to pull from but in the end with us only choosing units that would have been part of the Earth Federation, what exactly qualifies? And where do you draw the line? There are so many different Daggers and Windams, what ones do we go with? And the many MANY different Gundams and Mobile Armors... you start to see the problem.
In the end there are 2 major timelines from SEED that can be worked from, CE71 and CE 73. CE71 was the year of the Dagger where CE 73 was the year of the Windam. If we go with CE71 you have the Strike Dagger, Jet Dagger, Launcher Dagger, Dagger L, Jet Dagger L, and Doppelhorn Dagger L. If we go with the Windams of 73 you get the Windam, Jet Windam, and Doppelhorn Windam.
Units based on the Strike Daggers (Strike Dagger/Jet Dagger/Launcher Dagger) are teir 1 units that fill the basic attack/basic air unit/basic artillery positions. The Dagger L's would be the teir 2 units with the units following a similar pattern (Dagger L for basic attack / Jet Dagger L for basic air / Doppelhorn Dagger L for basic artillery). Finally if we did add the Windams in as the teir 3 units they would be the Windam/Basic Attack, Jet Windam/Basic Air, Doppelhorn Windam/Basic Artillery.
So thats our basic units setup. So far what we're looking at are 3 frontline, 3 air units, and 3 artillery units. The army so far is looking like a straight up fighting force. Where do the Gundams fit in?
I think how we should do the Gundams would be elite units that you can call on to support your forces in game. These units would be 1 time builds, built from a different structure or maybe summoned in using a support power. When I say 1 time builds I mean you only can have 1 on the field at a time. So what Gundams can we use?
Well, from the original show the first 5 prototype gundams were built FOR the Earth Allience so arguably even though 4 of the 5 were stolen if the EA wanted to build more they could have, they had the plans after all. That would give us the Duel Gundam, Buster Gundam, Strike Gundam, Blitz Gundam, and Aegis Gundam. We could also argue for the Calamity, Forbidden, and Raider Gundam but to me these always seemed like they belonged to Blue Cosmos and not the EA.
Out of the 5 original Gundams not all are going to make it, simply put we have to take things from a gameplay standpoint and I'm not going to put every gundam avalible in (we still have some to grap from 73 afterall). Out of the 71 series the ones that I would say "Yes, you should be there" would be the Strike Gundam, the Duel Gundam, and the Buster Gundam. These 3 units actually fit with our inital setup, with the Duel Gundam being the frontline unit, the Buster being the artillery unit, and the Strike being the air unit. The Strike continues to gain favor due to it's flexability allowing it to switch to artillery or front line with it's other forms to further it's position.
With the jump to 73 though we have a different issue. The Earth Allience did not use very many Gundams in its defense in this war, not ones that were truly theirs anyways. They did use the Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia. As these units were stolen from Zaft and held by the EA for quite a while it's arguable to say that if they wanted to the EA could have produced them as well. As such for the second teir of elites these would be the 3 that I pick. The Chaos abviously takes the slot as front line fighter, the Gaia takes the slot of air unit. The problem is with the Abyss gundam. As we don't have water as a transversal item (meaning you can't go in it thanks to the maps) the Abyss's armored mode is less that useful. However the argument could be made that we can modify it and make it's armored mode into a sort of stationary defense turret with long range having it fill the artillery slot.
Also these units help flow into the final class of units, the Mobile Armors of the EA. These bad boys are the Gells-Ghe, the Zamza-Zah, and the Destroy Gundam. I don't have to explain to you why these guys are picked. One downside to these guys are they would be VERY expensive to put onto the field, but they will be worth it.
So thats the basic forward facing design that I have come up with from watching the show and looking at the units. 9 basic units that each fill a basic roll and 9 elite units that will be able to stand against at least half a dozen units on their own (basic units that is, don't expect a Strike Gundam to take on GP03).
But wait! What about ORB and the Justice and Freedom?! Well, thats an interesting situation. I would like to put them in but really where do they fit? The Justice and Freedom never worked for the EA. Orb however DID at one point (even though they did it at gunpoint so to speak). This would fall into the "Addititonal Support" aspect of SEED. I know I want an ally system of some sort in there, where a player can choose either ORB, Three Ship, or Blue Cosmos to gain additional units. How this is going to work though has not been worked out. I'm thinking it's an additional defensive structure that will be built that will give "summon" powers to gain additional support.
ORB will grant the player access to the Astrays, the Murasame, the Strike Rouge, and the Akatsuki units. Three Ship will only give you access to the Freedom and the Justice. Blue Cosmos will not give you any additional unit types, but instead will give you additional units in the form of the teir 3 units. This means as Blue Cosmos you could attack an enemy with 4 or 5 Destroy Gundams at once! (Talk about power....)
So thats my thought process. Tell me what you think.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)