Damn it, I really need to start posting here more often.

First I want to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog.  I simply have not been keeping up with my posts like I was supposed to and for that I am sorry.  However I really do have some good news.  I'm posting again!  Thats good right?

On to more important things.  The reason I have not been posting lately is because Doug and I have been hard at work with making some important changes to the EF and with coming up with blueprints to UC/AW/Seed.  Now I know what your thinking, "wait, didn't you already have those?  I mean, we've got the UC update already!  It's 2 posts down!"  Sorta.  The update that was posted here was never posted up to ModDB (see, I do keep some promises) so only a few people have actually played it.  This is a GOOD thing.  After converting UC and AW to the new balancing system a few things stood out to us.  First, AW held up under the new system a hell of a lot better than UC did.  Second of all our Defcon system was simply too archaic to work in this new game system.

You see with the changes that we made in the O3 mod in place the old UC design was simply too constricting.  There were too many "artificial" barriers in place to allow for a fluid UC gameplay to happen.  You HAD to wait 5 minutes to go from teir 1 to teir 2, then another 4 minutes to go to teir 3, then another 4 to go to teir 4, you get the point.  This leads to a very uneventful UC gameplay where the player is constantly on the defensive for most of if not all of the game!

Now I'm not willing to go into detail just yet in what our new system is but I can tell you a few things that both Doug and I have agreed upon that this new system must be able to pull off if it's to work right.

1. The Upgrade Path through the teirs must be fluid.  It must move at the players pace and not at an artificial pace.
2. The Units that a player can choose must be able to be dynamic.  This means that a player must be able to fluidly modify their game-play though the choices of units and that units must actively be able to support one-another if they really were meant to be supported.  A good example of how this would work in game is with the RX-78 and the RGM-79 mobile suits.  RGM-79's are all good and fine but if you have them backed by the RX-78 they could for example gain the ability to call in their own Core Bomber bombing runs!  Hows that for something to watch out for!  Maybe you don't want to have RGM-79's with bombing runs, prehaps your going to focus your forces around Gundam Alex.  Now those RGM-79's are not normal RGM-79's, now they are upgraded to RGM-79D Cold Climate types with improved speed and fire rates!  However if you lose your Gundam you also lose the bonus the Gundam grants, so you better cover those Gundams!
3. The Gundams ARE the Generals on the field.  This means that a single Gundam can turn the tide of a battle by not only being an incredibly powerful and unique force on the field to fight but also by the bonus's it gives to certain units.  The down side to this is you can only have 1 gundam from each Teir (there will be 3 gundams to choose from per teir and 3 teirs right now) so you can only manipulate the force so much.  If you lose your gundam you can however simply rebuild it or choose a different one to go with so your never forced to stick with a specific tactic.
4. It must be a CLEAN system.  This means it must not only be easy to use, not only easy to tell what unit gives what bonus's, but it must also be obvious what is going on in the field.

So you see we do have a very interesting and grand plan in the works.  We should have the final design locked in by Thursday so after that I will be able to give more details.  We also have plans to change AW some and make it not only cleaner but give the player more control over their forces abilities.  But first we have to get UC done.  Who knows, maybe you'll be playing some new UC by the end of Febuary?