Operation Market Garden mod for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

0 comments by Doink9731 on Jul 1st, 2011

This shoutcast was recorded 2 weeks ago, so some of the things that are talked about are fixed, and internal testing has begun.

We highly recommend you take the time to let the HD (720p) stream load and watch it that way!

Posted on behalf of OMG shoutcaster FatalSaint.

Prepare your brains for the most informational shoutcast you have ever seen in OMG! Big things are happening and big things are coming and you will learn all about it in this shoutcast!

A couple of weeks ago Draygon, one of the database coders in OMG, asked me a question; "Can I come co-host with you in a shoutcast, I have a few announcements". I was intrigued to say the least and as I have talked to Draygon about coming on my show for some time, I took the offer without any hesitation.

The next couple of days we planned the shoutcast, and compiled information; much MUCH more information then you can shake a stick at! This shoutcast right here is my biggest PR attempt yet, and as it is I put in a bunch of time to add the little features- it doesn't look like much but I can assure you I put a lot of work into this.

If you have no interest in watching the shoutcast, all the information you could ever ask for is coming up, however if you don't want to read it all, just take a look at the shoutcast itself. It contains every single ounce of information as well as nifty effects, zoom-ins and PiP, just to make it a bit more interesting to keep your eyes entertained while your brain copes with the announcements.

Doctrines/Offmaps

Obviously, one of the key components of the mod is Doctrines Abilities. It has taken us, admittedly, a lot longer than it should have, but they are finally here. We have chosen to release doctrines in a tier-by-tier basis. So for those of you who haven't been keeping up with the news of the forums, Tier 1s are to be released soon. The doctrine design guys have worked hard on these to come up with unique abilities for each faction/doctrines. We have chosen to release them tier by tier so that we can hopefully make the needed balance changes to these as we see how they play out. If we were to release all 5 Tiers for every doctrine all at once, we would undoubtedly have some very unbalanced abilities, and that is what we are trying to avoid. Now with everything, there is a certain way that we have envisioned it, and while we hope that it comes true, there are things that we may not have seen that will be considered OP or unbalanced. We will work hard to fix these issues and balance them out as soon as they are noticed. We will be relying heavily on the community to help us with the bugs and the balance issues as they arise. A key thing is that for those units that are unlockable by T1s you will see them disappear once T1s are released to the public and you will have to unlock them. Units that are unlocked in later tiers though will not be locked down until we release the coinciding Tier for them.

Offmaps in OMG are going to be done differently than in any other mod you have seen. You will have to unlock the ability to purchase them via the doctrine abilities, and then you must purchase the use of these through the company builder. Most abilities will have a max of 3 uses (max of 3 purchases) and will cost you munitions to use them. So players will have to choose to spend the munitions wisely. We hope that by doing this we will not see a huge game breaking change with the addition of the offmaps and feel that it will please both those players that want to see them introduced to the mod, and those that feel they should be left out.

Momentum Changes

Many players complain about the way our current momentum works. Either it is too long to many or too short to others. So with WarCP3 momentum will be directly tied into our war map. Simply, its one of 2 new systems, all others that we go live with will most likely just be remakes of the current ones. Basically, the currently "global" momentum will only be used for telling the system when the war "end of game" timer needs to start e.c.t. ready for a new reset. When you go into battle, you will instead be part of a "mini war" game. Each war has multiple "mini wars" or "territories". You can decide whether you want the defense timers or not by selecting which "territory" to play in. If I'm an allied player, and I fight in a territory allies hold, then I must wait for axis as they will have the extra few minutes to ready defenses. Vice versa, if I play in an axis held territory, I get the upper hand. A neutral territory will be meeting engagements as normal.

The defense timers themselves however can also be offset. We will be adding in additional configuration options for automated random changes to the system as well as static area's; for example an area which gives one side an upper hand (something like an extra few pop per player). This won't be hidden in the lobby and it's up to users if they choose to go into those rooms, however there will be positives playing an handicapped match. If you win, you may earn additional momentum than normal. This idea will be immense and probably continuously developed as and when Lee gets time or the mod popularity drops.

Ladder

With the completion of WarCP3, there will be another system to follow. Since we have started, OMG players (and Devs) have wanted some sort of tourney/ladder system so that we can have an organized ranking of players, if they so choose. That system is coming. Our new ladder, (the design can be found HERE!) will bring a new competitive play style to OMG. Players are not required to play in this, as it is an opt in system. Players will have to find teammates to register with and we will have a single player ranking as well as the team rankings.

RB changes

The way RBs work currently gives you negatives for 2 resources and positive for only one. The new system (the second of the 2 new ones) will be done on a slider system. A player will not be affected by negatives unless they choose to invest heavily in single resources. We feel this will give players a greater feel of control over their resource spending. A general idea of how this will work for those who haven't seen it can be found HERE!

WarCP3

WarCP3 is being worked on (hopefully) as we speak. It will be released in a relatively soonish time period. Many of the things that we have done at OMG so far have been "patched" together, so we have many convoluted coding bits that have been all thrown together to work as you currently see things. With WarCP3 it has given Lee a chance to break all of that down, and basically build everything from the ground up again. This should make things work more efficiently and in some ways be simpler. New interfaces will be introduced with WarCP3, an example of what you will see is here (show SS's). The Dev team has taken into consideration all of the suggestions that were thrown into the WarCP forum, many of which will make it into the new WarCP, some though will not make it as we deemed them not needed or impossible to do. So look for this to be released soon and with it will come the new RB system.

Banning

The banning system will involve multiple stages and will not be by-passable. Members who continually harrass or break the rules can expect to be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Donor Perks

OMG is run off of donations, we have for the most part been able to keep the server up and running for the almost 2 years we have been running on donations alone. Lately we have seen these drop off and some Devs have come out of pocket to keep it going because we love the mod and don't want to see anything happen to it. We would like to be able to keep funding it off of donations, and feel that the TS tag and new channel are not enough for those that choose to donate money to keep the mod running. Now obviously we know that not all of the players that play the mod are of the age that they have their own bank accounts to be able to donate, so for those players we thank you for just playing the mod and keeping games going. For those that do contribute to the upkeep of the server we have gathered together a list of perks that you will get when WarCP3 is released.

• Public achievements list and sig images; if you are not a donor only registered users can see your achievements
• A notepad that keeps notes (persistently) on whatever you like, units, company build, player strategies, etc
• Advanced/extended Stat Page
• Donor Only Boards (private to Donors only for one, other 2 open to Dev team
• Free naming of 3 units, pre- Vet 4 per war
• Exclusive Donor only skin (predetermined unit for each faction)
• Reduced availability on one unit, once a day
• Alpha testing access (first to test the new builds and tiers of doctrine abilities)
• Free starting VPs per war (5?)
• Donor High-Vet list. In addition to the normal vetted units list in the statistics, Donors would have their own list of highest vetted units (seen by all, not part of the expanded stats page)

Shortly you should see a subscribe button go up on the front page next to or under the current donate link. The subscription amounts will be $5, $10, $15, and will be monthly. So you can donate a single amount and get the perks for a month, or you can subscribe and get them for a longer period of time. The donor perks are only for those that donate, even the Dev team will have to donate to be able to receive them so there will be no freebies just because we are on the development team.

All the information in this post and shoutcast is subject to change.