Author Topic: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS  (Read 20451 times)

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Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Yup. We're using type 5 beams, a new feature(that I really ought to make a post about the possibilities of, argh) Asteroth put together largely to help me ditch certain problems with how Type 4s pick their target point. The new type 5 pulse cannons have actual cones of fire that are not dependent on target size or position, which produces a very natural effect compared to how type 4's miss factor works.

I made a comparison clip some time ago about the differences, with a type 4 on the left side of the screen and a type 5 on the right, and while there's still some room for improvement with the 5's dynamics(much of it on the table side with my own tunings) it doesn't make me pull my hair out like the type 4's very deliberate looking misses do.

The pulse cannon beams and turrets have flags and settings that together should make them only fire when the turret is pointed at a target, emulating type 4. I believe it was Asteroth's intention that type 5 can replicate most behaviors of other beam types. But something squirrely is happening that is letting them fire sideways sometimes, just not predictably enough for me to build a useful isolation for yet.

Anyway. I should probably wait until Talhydras finishes overhauling everything else's turrets and picking out new sounds for the sterpulse and stuff, but the dogfight in this run was too cool not to post.

Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
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Offline Trivial Psychic

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Thanks for the explanation.  I caught sight of the new Type 5 beams when I was verifying which beam type was the fire-down-normals type, and was quite surprised to see it.  I saw that 'programmable slash pattern' capability, and just now had an idea.  If they ever get damage decals to work with beams, you could arm a ship with a series of custom slash pattern weapons, fire them in sequence and have them write a message on the hull of a ship.
:jaw:
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Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Well! Since last update the SCP got unstuck and pushed out RC1, and Talhydras has mostly finished the marathon textures, so I'm doing my best to actually push through the test prep tasks that I intended to get done months ago.

But, the intention is to take advantage of and test various 21.4 features, and a new one slipped in near the end, the better nebula options from Asteroth seen in the recent Fate of the Galaxy update post. I've never been a big fan of nebula levels, but the new system can look very pretty, so I decided to deploy it in Finding Sanctuary. Here's a quick run of the current version:

Also on display here is the Theia, one of the new replacement TEI fighters I've talked about recently. The Theia takes over for the Aurora in most places where the latter was used, and is a relatively lightly armed fighter with intensely powerful afterburners and engine overclock. It's the only thing that can keep up with the powerful burners on the superfighters. I was afraid it wouldn't really have a good niche in the fighter roster until playing it here, where the speed is really palpable and useful despite the lighter firepower.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
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Offline Trivial Psychic

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
That last Nahema kill with the missile swooping in right in front of you was awesome!
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Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
As I rode the tail of that missile the one thought running through my mind was "hm did I make this fighter too fast?"  ;)
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Another weekend, another video and assurance that things are coming along. It was my intention to get the mod out testers along side the engine release candidates to help ensure a more stable 21.4, and we've not yet gotten there yet... maybe this week? Maybe? Depends on how good I am at managing my sleep schedule probably. But the effort to get there is serving that original purpose, at least, with a few bugs uncovered and reported this week. Nothing that roadblocks continued development, thankfully.

This week most of my work went into adjusting and updating The Dragon Awakes, AoA mission 2. This is one of those missions that back in the day was a real trial by fire, the first indication that this Blue Planet thing was going to ask perhaps more of me than FS1 or FS2 really ever did. Survival was hard, excellence was harder, and it was a real blood pumping and memorable moment. I cherish the memory of sweating bullets, wondering why this Darius guy thought a 12 dragon ambush was a good first combat encounter, and loving Al'Fadil for saving my ass.

But with years of replay, and all the upgrades we've given the GTVA, even with their souped up lasers those dragons just can't really threaten me any more if I bring the right weapons, and that's a bit sad. So like with Forced Entry and A Time For Heroes in R1, I've give the shivans a little help from FRED and I can once again sweat bullets, cheer Al'Fadil, and mourn Lieutenant Wilhelm Nehru. I look forward to hearing back from you after you fight for your very lives, every one of you.

No video of that, to keep some surprises. But know that if it's too hard, or too easy, it's going to be difficulty level responsive... and if you want to see it all without playing on insane, there'll be something in the tech room for you.

Instead, have a video of the shiny A Time For Heroes. Of course, after taking it I, as always, noticed a few things I need to fix or can improve, so it might still be a little tuned up in final, but the spectacle here still manages to make me stop and watch and the TEI texture upgrades certainly don't hurt.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 
Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
God, nothing is so beautiful as watching that Juggernaut burn to nothing under righteous fire. :P

 
Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
On a second note: I was finally able to play and finish Warmachine. And no surprise, it's great. It's getting a permanent addition to my FS library.

It actually fixes the balancing on the Vishnan missions I find, since you're able to deal with fighter swarms and special objectives like sniping the SCv's reactor with beam missiles rather than waste time for a proper aspect lock.

Forced Entry and other large scale battles are well balanced on medium. Plenty of stuff to blow up, but plenty for your wingmen and capital ships to do as well.

The only things I noticed that were bugged is the Lucifer's health depletes too rapidly on easy difficulty which triggers a fail state as it jumps, in addition to the Miranda jumping in late to the party on the Sathanas mission, its dust in the wind before it can even jump. Maybe custom health values would fix this, but otherwise WM is consistently winable on higher difficulties.

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Glad to hear all that, manwiththemachinegun. The vishan missions especially, I've gotten a lot of feedback that even in 1.1.2 they're pretty frustratingly hard, so r2 is buffing vishnans again, mostly in mobility since currently they're solidly less mobile than the GTVA.

We've also done some work on the Lucifer mission. It may be the most rough mission, quality wise, still, but I think it'll be a bit more consistent anyway. It's a bit of a difficult mission for us to deal with, Talhydras would quite like the Lucifer to have it's classic invincible shields back, regardless of the reasons BP has for it not having them there, but that makes adapting a mission that requires the Lucifer to be decisively vinced rather challenging. We've tossed around some ideas on how to square those two goals but they involve enough fredding that I'd rather just make new missions instead of doing that, so the version in the next release is rather much a compromise.

For the Sathanas, I thought I'd done it before 1.1.2 but perhaps not... in either case, the version in the next release resorts to some staged guardianing to keep the sath alive long enough for everyone to get their lines. IIRC the version you see there already has 20% more health than a retail sath and I just couldn't bring myself to pump it up any further. This mission too could benefit from a deeper rework, get some more escort craft in, maybe get that sath beam hedgehogging and rolling around so the player has something to do, sniping beams constantly instead of kicking back to watch... but again, fredding time is finite, alas.

Glad you enjoyed, and I hope you'll be able to check out r2 when it's finally in the wild.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 
Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Yeah, I had to try a few strategies, but for the current release, clearing enemy fighters and spamming the Vishnan beam missiles with your wingmen was enough for me to disable the Lucifer with about 30% hull consistently on medium. I haven't tried doing the reactor strategy.

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Real quick folks, there are many shiny things to share but right now I have too much of a headache(unrelated to modding) to pick any. Suffice to say Talhydras and Kestrellius have made many pretty things.

That aside, my check list to getting a test version out is very short, and I want to get at least *some* testing in on the RC4 that should be coming out this weekend before it's finalized, so, going to try very hard to make that happen. I've made a test application sheet of sorts, very few questions, it just makes sure I don't lose anything. I'm pretty sure some people offered last time I mentioned it who I can't find any notes about, so, hence the sheet.

Click here if you want to test, especially in the next week.

I'll try to post some shinies tomorrow or monday, too.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
 :rolleyes: I should stop talking about things I intend to do, it rarely works out well.

So a general update, especially for folks not on discord. The attempted sprint to the finish ended up kind of burning me out on fred and a few other tasks, and I still haven't quite managed to pour myself back into it fully. I've not been disengaged from Freespace, nor fully from warmachine, just from the stuff that really needs it before we release.

A release to match 22.0 is the goal now, though it remains to be seen how practical that will be. If you're interested in testing it when it's ready for another round the link above is still a good one.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 

Offline Iain Baker

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
I'll be free for playtesting from about the middle of next week once I'm done playtesting Reunion Act 2 :-)
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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Still looking forward to it!

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Universal Truth was playing too slow again so I attacked FSO performance again.
I optimized the game so hard that I got invited to the SCP, and broke UT. Random freezes make it completely unplayable now.
I know what day it is. These are not jokes.
I'm working on ways to fix it. Ways besides reducing the pew pew.
More when I next remember to post.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 
Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Never sacrifice pew pew.

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
I'd just like to confirm, now that it is april 2nd, my last post is in fact all true.
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Well! This weekend I was able to submit code that, if and when it all gets merged in, will make Universal Truth not have a 'your computer must be no more than this powerful to play' sign on it. Unfortunately that means that 22.0 won't be a stable we can hard-target for R2, but hopefully 22.2 will be. I won't use that as an excuse to put something out though, if it's ready but it has to run on nightlies so be it.

In doing this I set up a version of the mission that has the AI take over while I watch. This has helped identify a number of other issues, AI and otherwise, and is generally fun for me to watch.

Here's a clip, sorry for the low audio.

Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 

Offline EatThePath

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Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Some long needed triage of priorities has let me refocus my efforts on an achievable goal list, and over the past week I've been able to cross at least two thirds of the goals off that list. 

I also got an engine change in that lets more overlapping instances of a sound play. To test it, I busted out one of our old partial missions... and for extra fun, stuck Nyctaeus' latest monster in there.


And with many things being locked down and most of my long teased lighting and rendering changes finally in nightlies, I figured it was time for yet another Isen Defense upload.

« Last Edit: April 17, 2022, 11:02:45 pm by EatThePath »
Name your damn turrets and sounds! Numbers alone aren't helpful!
"if disco is dead then I am the laser lich"
"...[Warmachine] keeps changing as fast as EatThePath can force the engine to do his dark bidding..."

 
Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
That looks pretty nice  :yes:

Btw, how did you get these icons on small ships into place? Wasnt able to find it on the wiki