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View Full Version : Supreme Commander 2: The Expeimrntals preliminary playtest soon


RCIX
03-20-2010, 07:49 PM
Edit: somehow i screwed up the naming, it's supposed to be Supreme Commander 2: The Experimentals. If GPG copyrighted that, then i'll use Supreme Experimental 2 :D

Edit2: the mod is now online, you're welcome to give it a (skirmish) whirl if you want. Scroll down to install instructions to get the link. Hopefully, if i can get anyone to agree to play tomorrow (hint hint), we can do an online playtest.

Note: many thanks to fud (for pointing me in the right direction for Research) and Machater (for helping me get mods to work with his instructions) on the GPG forums!

Ok, i'm going to have the minor and major land assault experimentals rebalanced (prototype balancing of course) and ready for tomorrow, and i want to make sure people think i'm going in the right direction. Thus, if you're interested in playtesting my mod, please post at what times you'll be available tomorrow (i'll be ready starting at around 2 west coast time), and i'll pick a time to host which will let as many people play tomorrow as is possible.

Before opening SC2, download the mod from this url (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tndtzlnl3jw), unzip to a directory you can find later, then go to:
[Main drive letter]:\Program Files (x86 if you have 64 bit)\Steam\steamapps\common\supreme commander 2\gamedata\
and rename lua.scd and bp.scd to lua.old and bp.old . Now, copy my lua/bp.scd replacements into this directory. This will mean you canot join any non-playtesting-for-this-mod games again until you move my lua/bp.scd files out and rename those other ones back to scd files.

At the prescribed time, open supreme commander 2 and search for passworded games. Enter sc2expmod as the password (if you don't intend to install the mod, DO NOT JOIN! it will just cause headaches for me). The game name will be "XvsY no air exp mod test" (slightly shortened if that doesn't fit, but it should)



In the mean time, here are the changes i've made to the minor assault experimentals (see http://supcomdb.com/sc2/unitlist for a list of units stock stats to compare to)(still working on the stats for the major ones):
Megalith II new stats
purpouse blurb: Fast and reasonably armed, designed as an all-around army unit on a large scale.
10 RP cost
900 mass
3960 energy
180 second build time
main weapons DPS: 450 (inaccurate + splash, 1 900 damage shot every 2 seconds)
secondary ones DPS: 150 apiece
AA weapons: 25 apiece (12.5 damage 2 shots a second, left range at 32 for now)
direct fire weapons range: 48
new speed: 3.5
health: 15000
vision: 48
regeneration: 35

Fatboy II new stats:
Purpose blurb: Focused long range firepower. Slow but capable of cracking defenses.
10 RP cost
800 mass
3130 energy
180 second build time
main weapon DPS: 400 (3 266.667 damage shells every 2 seconds)
secondary weapon DPS: 75 apiece (3 16.667 damage shells every 0.667 seconds)
health: 15000
vision: 64
range: 64
radar: 100 (added radar)
regeneration: 25

new urchinow stats:
Purpose blurb: Designed to get in and hammer an army in close combat, but some of it's weapons are wasted on single targets.
10 RP cost
1000 mass cost
4200 energy cost
180 second build time
new speed: 3
health: 18000
weapons range = 32
main weapon DPS: 400 (1 400 damage shot each second, inaccurate and a bunch of AoE)
secondary weapons DPS: 100 apiece (4 25 damage projectiles each second, accurate)
artillery weapon DPS: 200 apiece (fires 2 600 damage shots every 6 seconds, medium inaccuracy)
vision: 32
regeneration: 30

Edit: i've completed prototype balancing for the King Kriptor, C. Rex, and Universal Colossus, here are the changes i've made:
King Kriptor new stats:
purpose blurb: heavy weaponry for blasting through bases and armies alike.
30 RP cost
6000 mass
24000 energy
780 seconds build (that would be 13 minutes unassisted)
102000 health
3 speed
hand cannons DPS: 300 DPS apiece (1500 damage every 5 seconds with an AoE of 4)
gauss cannons DPS: 100 DPS (1 100 damage shot every second)
artillery DPS: 100 (400 damage every 4 seconds)
missiles DPS: 150 (8 112.5 damage missiles every 6 seconds)
death damage: 15000
regen: 100 (down from 143) (to make it less able to ingore weapons)
missiles get 64 range, everything else 32
64 vision

C. Rex stats:
purpose blurb: fast and armored enough for getting into and stomping around an enemy base but sort of lacking in weapons compared to others
25 RP cost
2500 mass
13000 energy
50000 health
5 speed
main weapon: 1250 DPS (250 per fireball)
plasma grenades: 780 DPS (just double damage)
replaced missiles with:
Golem Tactical Anti-Air Missile Launcher
fires 3 200 damage ground-to-air missiles (retooled versions of the regular c-rex missile) every 4 seconds. 48 range.
Flamethrower range boosted to 32.
regen: 150
vision: 48

Universal Colossus stats:
purpose blurb: capable of hitting single targets with frightening firepower, but very expensive. Tractor claws assist in attriting army units.
35 RP cost
7550 mass
32000 energy
11:30 buildtime
165000 health
2 speed
laser weapon: 2000 DPS
hand weapons: not touched (i haven't the faintest how it determines how long to wait between grabbing units)
regen: 90
64 vision radius (48 when in water)
48 range

I think that's major enough don't you?

Buttons
03-20-2010, 09:46 PM
So whats your over all objective. Are these small tweaks or are EXP's now double their normal strength?

Are they closer to the EXP's of FA?

Personally I thought it was boring in FA because once a experimental was finished all other units were obsolete. Often all one had to do is click and forget, and the EXP could eat it's way though whatever the opponent threw at it; usually leaving with more health than it started with.

RCIX
03-20-2010, 10:22 PM
Closer to FA. Minor ones you can still get fairly early game, but not really before 10 minutes. Major ones shouldn't come in before 30 minutes.

GamingGodX6
03-20-2010, 10:23 PM
Personally I thought it was boring in FA because once a experimental was finished all other units were obsolete.

What you just said just screams inexperienced newb.

RCIX
03-20-2010, 10:41 PM
What you just said just screams inexperienced newb.

Keep it on topic...

Anyone wanna help playtest? that's what the post is about :)

Latrodectus
03-21-2010, 02:26 AM
What you just said just screams inexperienced newb.

I think he meant as far as ground units were concerned. And that was pretty much true, experimentals ate up ground units like nothing, and you couldn't possibly produce ground units fast enough or efficiently enough to kill experimentals.

RCIX
03-21-2010, 03:02 AM
Please see my edits for all the changes i've made so far, and also to download the mod.

...

is anyone interested in helping me with the playtest?

Edit: also, can i get someone to cross-post this over to the GPG forums in the http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=43294 thread? I don't post there but i do a bit of lurking (so i can monitor the results on both sides). a link is sufficient. I know it may not make some of the people (read: veteran modders) happy, but i seem to be the only one focusing on what modding abilities are available and using them while everyone else is headbanging trying to get a mod manager or at least hooking back. I intend to fill this modding gap as well as i can, at least until a better solution is found. Which means i need as much feedback as is possible :)

Aesir Rising
03-21-2010, 06:49 AM
RCIX sorry I'm not looking to help you test, but rather asking if you can help me with something...

Can you tell me or link me information that explains wtf I need to do to repackage a .scd? It might be 7-zip settings (probably are based on what I read) that are giving me problems though I'm pretty sure the last time I touched 7-zip settings was late 2005. Are you using winrar or another archiver? What OS?

Either way, simple text edits to unit blueprints, and then trying to repack, results in either SC2 failing to run or none of the expected changes in game are reflected.

In return I'll cross post for you.. do you want this topic linked over there? Also, one day you need to dish on who it is that is gunning for you on that side.

RCIX
03-21-2010, 04:25 PM
Ok...

Thanks to Machater for these (i got it from one of the modding investigation threads, see the first post on http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=43172&start=125 for the source):
* Take a program of your choice (perhaps 7-zip or winRar, duncane claims only winrar works)
* Grab a copy of bp.scd (if you're modifying unit stats) and lua.scd + uncompiled_lua.scd and back them up
* Now take another copy of those SCDs, and unzip them to separate directories. Make a copy of the uncompiled_lua directory and in the command line, run a del *.bp /S on it.
* Take the SCDs you unzipped, and copy the BP directory back into bp.scd, and uncompiled_lua_2 (or whatever that copy was named) directory into lua.scd, both with a compression of "Store".
* From there, put these SCDs aside. Then make some changes to some files inside of a proper directory structure (drawing on uncompiled_lua for BPs), and copy this directory structure into the proper SCD file.

Running Windows 7 Ultimate X64 with WinRar.

Notes: be sure to follow these instructions exactly. There may be one or two unnecessary steps but i'm not sure what this are, and this method does work :)

If you're modfying a BP file, be sure to grab the entire containing folder of BPs. This is because an entire directory needs to be either compiled or uncompiled, or it blows up as explained on that page (maybe in a different post).

If you forget to make a backup and your mod blows up, then have Steam verify the integrity of cache files and start again.

Arrecoolast
03-22-2010, 09:01 AM
Sounds nice mate. :)

Aesir Rising
03-22-2010, 10:32 AM
Thanks RCIX for the link/reference re: zipping. I'll give 7-zip a couple of more shots using different compression settings, but I guess I'll cave and use winrar for this purpose. Thanks again.

DrSuperGood
03-22-2010, 11:28 AM
Any idea if these mods are multiplayer compatible or if you will get banned from multiplayer for mismatching data?

I would not mind playing enahnced AI mods or mods with better defensive buildings.

JEWNICRON
03-22-2010, 02:12 PM
gave it a few skirms to test it out against hard computers,

megalith II: pretty good, I'm still disappointed at the laser damage though, the monkeylord is rolling in its grave, you consider at 150 dps, a typical upgraded unit with over 1500 health will take over 10 seconds for the laser to kill it, by that time the main cannon will have plowed through whatever it was trying to kill.

The new C rex is a real stud, able to actually reach and demolish armies now, as well as wipe out buildings. Coupled with bomb bouncer this thing can do work, and it's incredibly expensive price makes it well balanced.

Buffs to Urchinow are also grade A. Could kill about 20 tanks at a time with all tech on.

To answer Button's concerns of making them too powerful, they still go down pretty easily when they're focused, these changes just give them a damage output that puts them on or slightly above the level of equal mass of assault bots or tanks or gunships.

RCIX
03-22-2010, 03:12 PM
gave it a few skirms to test it out against hard computers,

megalith II: pretty good, I'm still disappointed at the laser damage though, the monkeylord is rolling in its grave, you consider at 150 dps, a typical upgraded unit with over 1500 health will take over 10 seconds for the laser to kill it, by that time the main cannon will have plowed through whatever it was trying to kill.

The new C rex is a real stud, able to actually reach and demolish armies now, as well as wipe out buildings. Coupled with bomb bouncer this thing can do work, and it's incredibly expensive price makes it well balanced.

Buffs to Urchinow are also grade A. Could kill about 20 tanks at a time with all tech on.

To answer Button's concerns of making them too powerful, they still go down pretty easily when they're focused, these changes just give them a damage output that puts them on or slightly above the level of equal mass of assault bots or tanks or gunships.

Yay my first good review! :) With the megalith lasers, i interpreted them as being more of a lighter secondary weapon, designed to help attack units and round off it's complement of weaponry. I could give them more of a "starring" role though if people like that idea...

@DrSuperGood: as long as everyone has it, though at this stage i'd recommend no air and/or naval to ensure people get a chance to use them at least until i get to the rest of the experimentals.

JEWNICRON
03-22-2010, 08:00 PM
Yay my first good review! :) With the megalith lasers, i interpreted them as being more of a lighter secondary weapon, designed to help attack units and round off it's complement of weaponry. I could give them more of a "starring" role though if people like that idea...

I envisioned the lasers as being the unit killers and the main cannon as being the shield/building killer, but as it stands the lasers don't ever kill anything, they just dribble over one unit when the main cannon was gonna kill it in one shot anyway. But I can see the megalith being OP as hell with it's long range if the lasers do too much damage, I'm not sure about it. Maybe increase their dps to about 175-200 would be good, or just add a 3rd one. I would be fine with it as merely a tool to finish off what the main cannon couldn't kill in one - two shots, but they never attack anywhere near the target of the main cannon.

RCIX
03-22-2010, 08:32 PM
but they never attack anywhere near the target of the main cannon.

Ah, i can fix that. They have "PrefersUniqueTarget" set, so they'll try and target something the main gun isn't.

JEWNICRON
03-22-2010, 10:42 PM
Ah, i can fix that. They have "PrefersUniqueTarget" set, so they'll try and target something the main gun isn't.


This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for the purposes of nuking say a structure or a commander etc having them focus fire would be preferable

RCIX
03-22-2010, 11:00 PM
Hmm, i dont think i can get both behaviors.

In any case, we shouold continue discussion in the main project thread, so as to not clutter up the forums with unnecessary ones.