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ADVANCED TACTICS DEVELOPMENT MOVED TO SPRING ENGINE.
I have moved all of my development to the Spring Engine and joined forces with a mod called PlanetWars. I've outlined my reason in a comment on the mod profile but basically it's because I'm sick of working in the dark. The documentation for the lua interfaces in Supcom was always poor but I hit the limit of my patience recently while writing some very complex code. From now on I'm only working on open-source projects.
WHAT?
Advanced Tactics as the name implies is a mod to add more strategic gameplay to Supreme Commander. Players will be expected to take and hold strategic locations, gather intel, use terrain effectively and other elements of battlefield management. Base-building will play a greatly reduced role as reinforcements can be dropped into the mission areas at designated landing zones. The short name for this mod is simply AT or SC:AT.
HOW?
To get the mod up and running in the shortest time possible I have decided it will be split into two versions:
Advanced Tactics Basic
The basic version will concentrate on improving strategic gameplay with minimal engine hacking. The focus will be on:
* Adding more intel and counter-intel units and attributes (such as cloaking) already supported in the engine.
* Increasing the value of mass points and hydrocarbon deposits and reducing the efficiency of the mass conversion process.
* Increasing the value of reclaiming. Patrolling for mass (and protecting those patrols) will be very important.
* New maps with strategic play in mind. There will be more 'strategic locations' such as civilian factories that can be captured.
* More effective amphibious units for sea->land assaults.
* Flak turrets to do splash damage as a counter to clustered gunships.
* Bases will be harder to build but capturing civilian and enemy bases will be possible with commanders and supcoms.
* Teach artillery to 'auto-creep' making large seiges easier.
* Teach units to avoid clustered defense turrets while patrolling (ie, go around them).
* Work out which rarely-used units should be buffed or removed (ie, who uses the amphibous tanks, the UEF T4 sub?).
* Commander able to fight more effectively and lead assaults. He is no longer just a builder.
* Better idle unit behaviour. Units will look for things to do rather than 'stand around' (but will also hold ground if ordered).
* Increase the strictness of air-staging requirements to make aircraft carriers and landing pads more valuable.
* More game types such as 'Gauntlet' where one team has to guide their units safely through enemy-controlled territory.
* Games will run slower than SC to reduce 'twitchiness' and allow more time to plan complex manuevers.
* Guard towers with audible alarms to help the player detect when vital areas are under assault.
* Overall shift away from economy micromanagement to allow more time for microing assaults and planning strategies.
Advanced Tactics Extreme
The extreme version will be a full-blown total-conversion with new AI, a new user interface, new gameplay modes (missions). Some features will require an SDK (access to the C++ functions in MohoEngine) so this version will have a much longer development time. It will contain most of the features of the basic version but also:
* More diplomacy options.
* Subcommanders can lead grouped armies and react to changing battlefield conditions. Can be given goals to complete.
* Ability to mark strategic zones on map and set default behaviour for units in that zone (eg. guard, land here, build here, ambush)
* Games integrated into a 'persistent' universe where the results of battles affect a factions overall resources and situation.
* 'Supreme Commander' mode which allows a team leader to oversee team objectives and allocate resources in allied games.
* More exciting game types that could not be done in the basic version.
* Ability to set fixed patrol and attack routes and assign new units to them (kind of like how ferrying works)
* Massive space battles between faction fleets. Interplanetary nukes :o .
* Anything else from SC:AT Basic that requires C++ or a long development time.
WHO?
SC:AT is mostly looking for LUA programmers (or programmers interested in learning LUA) to make this vision a reality. As part of the team YOU will help guide the future course of this mod. After going through the code it appears that the engine allows a great deal of customisation though modification of the Lua support files. If a C++ SDK appears down the track that would be a bonus but there is plenty to get started with right away. We also need 1 or 2 3D artists (must have texturing and UV mapping experience) for some custom units and buildings. It would also be nice to have a web designer (I can provide hosting) and a forum moderator.
Note: 'Ideas people' are NOT welcome. I need people to do *actual work*. We can come up with ideas on our own, thank you.
CONTACT
Website: scat.warriorhut.org (forum coming soon).
If you would like more info email: scat@warriorhut.org
NOTE: For my sanity you MUST include the word 'mod' or 'tactics' in the subject or body of your email or it will be AUTOMATICALLY DELETED.
Articles
I am moving all development to the Spring engine (See comment below).
The current status is:
* Framework: I've rewritten the mod to break it into sub-mods. The idea
is that other mods can use parts of the mod without requiring all of
its features. For example the threat system could be used by another
mod without the gameplay tweaks. The system uses the mod managers
before/after/requires fields to automatically select dependencies. (80%
done)
* Gameplay changes: Most of the gameplay tweaks listed on the forum page are done. (90% done)
* Energy system: A working energy system was written by Scarmouth to
allow 'strategic energy' where defenses and factories require a nearby
reactor to function. Not tested at current patch level (50% done)
* Support AI: Human players can turn on a 'support ai' that makes idle
tanks build and fight. This is working but needs a few tweaks. (80%
done)
* Behaviour system: The basic framework is in place and working to
allow sliders that control unit priorities when idle. The hardest part
was actually the UI elements which can be tricky to place. (40%
complete).
* Threat system: Improvements to the AI 'threat map' that determines
threat levels based on unit type. In other words the danger and defense
of an area or unit is measured seperately for layers air/land/sea and
weapon type missile/nuke etc. (40% done)
* Utilities: A large collection of global functions for Sim, User and Setup that make mod writing easier. (50% done)
It would be nice to have people working on models while I prepare the
framework and AI components but other features really need to wait
until I'm ready. Volunteers always welcome. My time will free up in
January so expect to see something early next year. As you can see from
the feature list this will be an extraordinary mod, practically a whole
new game with features not available in the latest commercial games. So
hang tight and rest assured this is not vaporware or a minor mod.
Advanced Tactics Mod Updates (2007-03-02)
NewsThe SC:AT team has grown to 10 members, mostly programmers but 2 are modellers. I'd like to thank them all for taking the plunge. I've worked...
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Bad news for Supcom fans,
My experience with the Multiplayer Save mod has exhausted the last slim threads of my patience for working on closed-source commercial games. In a nutshell I spend more time trying to figure out poorly documented interfaces than I do writing mod code. Frankly doing complex things with these engines is painful.
I am moving all my development to the open-source Spring engine and joining forces with a project called PlanetWars. I will be spending my time doing the same things I was doing for Advanced Tactics but without all the guesswork. If I don't know how the engine does something I can look in the source code or ask the developers directly. Not only that but the model importers and map makers actually work properly!
Compared to modding Supcom or Dawn of War this is bliss! If you haven't given up on this mod completely keep an eye out on the Spring forums for my future mods.
The lesson for commercial game developers is if you trully want good mods for your games you have to provide detailed documentation and long-term support. Otherwise you just waste everyones time.
So i guess this mod could be dead now.
Not dead, just delayed, again. I am still working alone. I am currently working on my Multiplayer Save mod, Advanced Coop and Advanced AI. I feel these are more useful than another balance change mod given how few people actually play mods online.
Multiplayer Save blew out from being a 2 week side-project to being a 6-month long ordeal (It was a lot harder than I thought it would be).
This is a good tutorial.
Solfire.com
The GPGNet forums are also an excellent place to start.
Im interesseted in learing lua but im in the middle of my 13th grade having my final exams @hand so ill be busy for at least 2 moths or so after that id be glad to help you with this mod which means i would start learning lua ^^
i allready found a couple of tutorials on the SC forum but if you have some other tutorials @hand you could post those links here
thx in advance
Xanthor