First I want to thank all of you who voted for Tiberium essence in Mod of the Year Awards, thanks to you this mod made to first 100 and that is quite great success considering the waste amount of various mods in this competition so thank you again for your support.
As you maybe know I'm working on patch now. Most minor bugs is already fixed so only few big ones remains. I want to create bug free version this time and add some tweaks here and there so I will take time for that. Unfortunately time is something I don't have these days, I really have to focus on my personal life issues so the progress on mod is slow. Hopefully things will be better soon so I'll be able to bring you better news about patch soon.
Regarding the patch content I want to discuss more following critical issues:
Some people were not much comfortable with new reaper armed with autocanons and call after return missile version which was also able to attack air targets, so the question is what is your experience with new reaper after month of playing new version? Is he now better or not?
The problem with jump jet trooper passing through barrack roof might be solved with adding rooftop hatch on barrack, so how you like this idea?
I´v fixed the problem with orca minigun turret, so now it works like always should (turning, pith up/down), but I can´t say the same for orca bomber, there is a problem I can´t go over with. So what you think, should I remove this upgrade from orca bomber or leave it´s turret static like it is now? (speaking of orca bomber I´v also finally animated it´s turbines :))
More to come in next news post.
Also don´t miss new version of Rimtech´s Mappack add some time after release v1.4
And there a new article in features section, its actually link to very nice article about Assault Mothership created by Tiberian Videos Productions a group of CnC and Tiberium essence fans, playmsbk, Starfox100 and ik008.
That is all from me for now :)
Carnius
i personally don't mind the new reaper, although it loses its anti-air weapons, it seems to be really effective against ground forces.
Heh, you took my Jump jet Hatch suggestion into consideration. i feel special. :P
what about the Issue of the GDI Disruptor exiting the warfactory?
has it been resolved? i also think GDI Disrupters could be a tad bigger and maybe the Sonic emitter dish could open when it exits the Warfactory. like the GDI titans standing up when they exit the Factory. could add to the Aesthetics.
"The problem with jump jet trooper passing through barrack roof might be solved with adding rooftop hatch on barrack, so how you like this idea?"
sounds good
Much much better o.o, it will go woosh, or it will bump heads...lol
REAPER IS GOOD FOR NOW!!!
The Reaper
I think the rate of fire could be a little bit slower. maybe give the player the opion like the avatar. he can choose between the main weapons. :)
Orca Bomber
I think the mini-gun could be removed completely. He is strong enough as it is.
jump jet trooper
rooftop hatch is a geat idea.
Another idea for the Vertigobomber.
the hack gun should not be able to shoot down enemy air units. It would be better able to shoot down incoming enemy missiles. It could be an upgrade.
Do you like the idea?
You could give the option for the Reaper to have Cannons or Missiles. You could make it an upgrade like the Avatar.
Jump Jet infantry
It´s really a awesome idea the rooftop hatch. But, how like to add the armory as a requirement? Just for balance (the minigun upgrade become almost useless with him)
Orca Bomber
If you want, you can to remove it. Anyway, I liked that upgrade (no waste of bombs with infantry)
Reaper
How like to keep the cannons and make the "mortar" able to lunch missiles, too?
Mammoth MKII
I loved the upgrades, but there is a bug with the anti air railgun: when you force attack, the rail guns attack the ground too and with the rails through the unit.
And can you reduce the cost of the minigun upgrade?
Sorry for my Engrish
the orca bomber is the pillar of my air support! you can't let them remove it!
Well i just reflected some people concerns regarding new reaper, but it seems most people is fine with him like he is now so no change is really needed.
Ok, i will decrease cost of minigun upgrade
Add armory as a requirement for jump jet trooper is maybe appropriate, or maybe not, i will test it for sure.
I would seriously argue against both the cost downgrade and the minigun weapon as a whole. The damage dealt by the orca is already fairly capable against clustered infantry, and the unit is tough enough to take a few hits from anything but heavy infantry AA, which should be its hardest game counter aside from tier three air-to-air.
I advise a compromise between the chaingun and its current iteration. Currently, the orca's prime infantry target is the militant, and other light infantry lacking the health and anti-rocket armor to withstand its attack. Therefore, the chaingun should compliment that by adding point-attack damage to somewhat heavier infantry (such as the nod cyborg units). I propose a less expensive chaingun that fires in fairly damaging short bursts at single targets (with no scatter and a relatively long reload time). This would help amplify the units utility without giving it the capability to overwhelm its ideal counter (larger groups of rocket troopers). Quick bursts could still allow a small group of orcas to easily pick off straggling infantry, or small light targets such as engineers caught out in the open (irritatingly difficult to kill with the orcas default missile armament).
The Orca Bomber could benefit from much the same modification; however, its addition would only minimally aid the unit, as it already has the AOE damage needed to obliterate large groups. High damage single target armament could indeed aid the unit, but it would seem the alpha damage of the bomber would suggest it to be more beneficially applied firing and reloading, rather than applying ammunition from a secondary armament.
On the subject of the reaper cyborg: The reaper's autocannons fit the unit well. They compliment the other units effectively, and fit the damagetype intended succinctly. However, the previous rocket weapon seems to have fit the unit better: Nod lacks heavy anti-air infantry to a great degree, and adding it to the reaper would help benefit NOD's cyborg game. I would strongly recommend rearming the unit with its rocket arsenal, both to benefit the units long-term appeal (single-man infantry squads are very highly vulnerable to snipers and other high-end anti-infantry) and to benefit the symbiosis between the two cyborg infantry units. In addition, the reaper cyborg would help supplement NOD's late vehicle game by adding an infantry-based line of defense to the cobra artillery and avatars wielded by a tier three nod player by applying mortar slow-skills and capable anti-aircraft fire, as well as a different armortype than the other units implied.
Finally, I propose two further modifications, one trivial and one less so. Firstly, I would advise that the cyborg chainguns are currently too powerful and slow-firing after the beam upgrade: this makes them effective weapons to be sure, but they lose utility against larger groups of weaker infantry, something NOD already experiences. A larger clip of weaker beams would help keep the cyborg competitive against tier one infantry, particularly black hand or militant troops, and also help keep the weapon akin to it's chaingun equivalent from a lore perspective: a chaingun should likely remain fast-firing, rather than transmute into a slower-firing armament. The second change proposed involves the NOD scorpion tank, and is primarily a model concern. A not insignificant quantum of the NOD arsenal appears very similar in frontal profile: the APC, Devil's Tongue, and Scorpion tank share nearly identical grinding systems attached to the front of the vehicles, with the Devil's Tongue and APC further similarized by having even the same number of said systems (this is significantly mediated by the fact that these two units can burrow). I would argue that this makes profile recognition significantly slower concerning these units (I have a similar criticism of several GDI units, but it is somewhat more difficult to combat). I would advise a modification wherein the front of the scorpion tank is outfitted with a more prominent frontal armor plate, moving the grinders to a smaller and lower segment of the frontal chassis more befitting of a unit that can not in fact burrow.
...The significant bulk of this criticism, I'm afraid, is squared towards the NOD side. I've directed the majority of my analysis toward them at this point, and I intend to refocus towards the other two factions in the coming days. Thank you for your consideration.
-B. Moore,
RIT Game Design and Development
I think it should be required for jumpjet. They make some GDI missions too easy. Also make a pain for skirmish.
I like the idea about the Hatch in the barracks.
Reaper seems fine like it is.
Orca Bomber is also fine with static minigun.
Hope it helps
Regarding the Orca Bomber minigun, im fine with it's removal if that how it is.
I like the idea of the Reaper starting with the missiles & web launcher but with the option to upgrade to autocannons & mortar.
I liked the previous Reapers, but this ones are ok to. It it a good idea to make a rooftop for barracks!
On the final scrin mission if you have the Assault Mothership out you can't trigger the final objective and for some reason once you summon it you can't blow it up. =/
I purpose a compromise, change the mortar to an AA missle with an upgrade of sorts on the unit itself
Loose the auto-cannon on the orca bomber but up its durability a bit, tired of bombers not returning to the pad to rearm
I think it would be nice if the gattling guns on the Wolverine rotated also the jumpjet trooper has voices from the orca bomber and the jumpjet trooper.I mean the jumpjet trooper has more than enough voices for the cnc 3 unit.
Also the crate pickups more than often have a huge chance to give a flame Tank, Predator, Beam Cannon, APC, and Scorpian Tank. And a low chance for a pitbull.
But all in all this is the best damn mod I have in my mod folder. And I have a feeling it will for a long, looooong time. Good job.
I love the reapers autocannons. <3<3<3
I think the Orca bomber should keep the minigun and I think the fix with the jump jet trooper is fine.
I like the Reaper as it is now, its an awesome counter to large groups of riflemen :). And the Orca bomber... I honestly didn't notice that the minigun didn't rotate, but then again, I wasn't looking either, so yeah.
The only thing that I have to suggest is for the Nod bomber: Napalm bombs? It would keep in with the feeling of Nod weapons, and then make it upgradable to tiberium-based explosive.
Keep up the awesome work!
There should be a choice between the scattering rockets and the cannon.
The reaper is just a iconic Nod cyborg which i would really wish to see as he was in firestorm, altough he could be a bit bigger than he is right now, since his size almost matched with the titans of the gdi.
Anyway, keep the great work up!