UPDATE: Beta is now available for download! Head over to my downloads page, and make sure to report any bugs!
Hello All,
As some of you all may have noticed, I have taken a bit of a sabbatical from modding. I am happy to say that now that summer is here, I'm back to work, and it's time to start expecting some new updates.
The next release of UnitPort, v0.3.0, will move the addon from alpha to beta phase. To give you a vague idea of what this means, exactly, I will put it in these terms (which I find just as amusing as they are accurate): Alpha = Build Up, Beta = Clean Up, Final Release = Give Up. Anyway, the point is that there won't be so much new content anymore as there will be polishing things up. This being said, this is what to expect in the next UnitPort release:
1. A new diplomacy UI, allowing players to make and break alliances. No one is safe anymore...
2. Add some final units. Just because new content won't be focused on doesn't mean that there will never be any new content again. In 0.3.0, some units will be added, and some will be deleted.
3. A general balance pass will be done over all units in the game. This is nothing final, but it will create an outline for what the game will look like. As of now, the plan is to spread out the techs even more, making some techs (aka tech 2) actually worthwhile to focus on and making experimentals more elite and rare on the battlefield than they currently are. Note that, despite these changes, the revamp balance mod will still be almost essential for normal balance.
4. Add in regeneration for all units. I can't go much farther with that one...
5. Fix all the bugs I can find. Duh. The question is not if there are bugs, but where the bugs are.
6. Add tarmacs for all structures. For those of you that don't know, tarmacs are the textures that appear under each structure and look something like concrete. Most unitport structures do not currently have tarmacs.
7. Update the restrictions. Now, I don't encourage playing with restrictions (as you're only limiting your skill at the game when you do), but for those that like to anyway, you will be happy to know that it's finally time to actually make the restrictions work.
8. Descriptions of all unitport units will appear in the Unit Wiki. This takes a LOT longer than you would think, and I a significant accomplishment.
9. Add new advice tidbits for the loading screen. Most supcom2 players don't need to be reminded that experimentals are powerful, and don't particularly care who Brackman is. ("Oh, yes." some of you are saying.) New advice will be added that will, at least, assist new UP players in getting used to the mod and/or help them learn something.
10. Fix up the research tree. If you're looking for a whole new format, you're going to be disappointed. By "fix up", I mean "move around techs that are in the wrong spot".
11. Add in a mysterious new UI which will remain a surprise until release. Mwuhahaha.
Now, most of you probably just skipped all the numbers and are looking for that proposed release date. Well, here it is: my goal is to be finished by the end of July. Yeah, yeah, that may not be as close as I implied, but one must understand that all of those bullets that I'm sure you just read will take a long time to pin down. The balance alone -- even just an initial pass like this -- is a huge task because I have to look at EVERY unit. You all have been quite patient the last few months waiting for a release (or maybe no one cares...but let's not think about that possibility). Wait just a bit more, and you'll be rewarded.
Feel free to PM me or post on the mod thread (or, for that matter, right on this letter/article) with any questions about beta, though I won't guarantee any answers. If you have a crash question/installation problem, then you're NOT going to post here, but scroll up, click on "tutorials" under and to the right of my name, and read the entire crash EAQ.
Make sure to stay posted for future updates about the upcoming release.
ALBINOsnowball
This is great! Great write up! When can we expect the download link?
Sometime around the end of July.
hello ALBINOsnowball, I would like to say excellent job on the updates I really enjoy playing the game but I just would like to ask if there is any reason the updates are causing my nephew and I to play the game that you can check while you are tweaking the game it would be appreciated -it almost always tells us we are desyncing- sometimes we play for about 45 min before it tells us buy we have yet to finish a game.
An examination of your (deplorable) grammar:
- You need a period after the word "updates." If you look it up, you will find that periods are actually used to separate sentences, which might help your writing make sense. Well, it'll at least be a start.
- The sentence "is any reason the updates are causing my nephew and I to play the game" sounds strange for a reason: UPDATES DON'T FORCE YOU TO PLAY. I promise that no matter what the software is, this will hold true.
- The sentence "that you can check while you are tweaking the game it would be appreciated" doesn't make sense. Ironically, this prevents me from making further sarcastic remarks regarding it.
- Punctuation-wise: when you look at someone's paragraph and they're using more hyphens than they are all other types of punctuation COMBINED, there is a major problem (or they're speaking elvish).
In conclusion, your entire post is one run-on sentence which doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense. If you would re-write it so that it can be understood by native speakers of this language (English, in case you hadn't noticed), perhaps you might get a response to your inane post.
i am sorry SC2Bully, I did not mean to hurt any feelings. You are correct in my poor sentence structure, again please forgive me. I was just trying to ask if the multi-player connection to the supcomm 2 game could be looked at if at all possible, because I only have trouble playing the game when I connect to another computer (tells me out of sync, yet I know both of our computers have the same files). I am only asking because I enjoy the mods very much and would like to play them more in multi-player. (p.s. when I play in multi-player without the mods every thing is fine)
OK, fair enough. I apologize for getting worked up, but it doesn't seem fair to Albino to be forced to not only fix the bugs you find, but also decrypt your bug reports. Would you fix yours?
Desyncs are caused by differences between two players' gamedata files. Basically, you and your nephew have done something different when each of you installed the mods. Make sure you both can answer all of the points in question #3 the same way:
Moddb.com
Umm Albino, I have some questions. I don't want to bother you, but can you add that upgrade to the large common, that upgrades VANILLA T1 - T2 - T3 units both land-air-naval for all factions? (Just like the UEF Arty ship to Super Arty ship upgrade) For ex: T2 Pillar gains 2 additional cannons + missiles, Mech Marines got small missile launchers, Mongeese gains additional gatling plasma + 2 small gauss cannon + fragmentation launcher.
Is it possible somehow? You'll be godlike in my eyes if you can do..
Well, the answer is yes, that is possible, thanks to Asdru's Xtreme Wars. The problem is, Xtreme wars only upgrades SCFA units, so other mod units (like the Demon, Crawler, or Rhyolite) would be left with no upgrades, thus creating a bit of a balance issue...
Not really, cause the Vanilla units compared to the Total Mayhem are weak, so with this upgrade they just as powerful as the TM units... Another question , are you going to implement the UEF Thunderstrike and the Cybran Talon (T1 Advanced Battle tank)?
No and no. I'm not putting in the Thunderstrike because it's just too close to the devastator and undertaker to really contribute anything to the game, and I'm not putting in the Talon because it has texture issues (I tried putting it in before...the diffuse ends up having this ugly mesh-y look).
And another question for a restriction.
Can you make a restriction, that locks the research center for 75 research points, but the research converters are accesible beginninig at T1 for 5 RP. This will cause a loong and more decision requiring game, but i'll like it. And prevents the AI to research more powerful units too soon. Cheers.
I'm afraid I need to you clarify what you mean by "locks the research center for 75 research points". Do you mean that you can't get more than 75 research points from research stations at a time?
Ok, I try to compose clearly. I want a restriction, that adds the Research center TO THE STRUCTURE RESEARCH TREE (and the unlocking price is 75 points), and the research converter are unlockable in the T1 Structure tree for 5 points. Because the early enormous amount of resource transmuting for points, Players rethink, what they unlock first, and the chance to the AI can earn new units are slowing down.. Sometimes I really hunger for loooong fights (maybe I'm a masochist or something X) ).
Okay, NOW I get it. Thanks for clearing that up.
It's not a bad idea, but there's just one catch. I can't add any new restrictions. I can tweak old ones, but I can't add anything in. I do like the idea though, I might be able to swap it in at the cost of a different restriction.
No problem, JUST DO IT!
Well, I looked into the whole idea, but it doesn't look like it's going to work. You see, the research table is "run" BEFORE the game actually loads, and this means that I can't customize it in-game. For your idea to work, I'd have to customize the research tree while the game was loading depending on if "slow research" was checked or not. I'll keep thinking about it, but I wouldn't expect it in this release.
Ohh, I didn't knew to that's so hard to recustomize...
If you can't do it, i won't force it..
But sometimes I really want to play some SADO-MAZO match, where unlocking even all T1 units takes an hour or two, depending on the resources..
Hows the new version coming along? Testing or anything I could help with?
Still looking towards the end of July/beginning of August for a release. Nothing to help with at the moment, but once beta comes out I'll definitely need feedback on...well, pretty much everything.
Oh, back to my previouos question, in my opinion, you can modify the 'Slow Research' restriction with the idea I gave...
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I hope it gets released on time because im hyped for it but if its not its not i can wait
I'm still on schedule...just a couple days now.
umm its the end of the month so i guess no update.
well that's a shame
come on just wait im sure they will get the update out soon you just have to wait.
The end of the month in MY time zone is MIDNIGHT on July 31. Right now, it's 12:10 on July 30. That means I still have approximately 36 hours until the end of the month, thank you very much.