X3M

I remember trying out the OpenRA version of Dune2000. What I remember is that siege tanks had much more attack range. And the projectile looked and sounded differently. But this is all I remember. And it is such a long time ago. I am not even sure if it was really from OpenRA. I liked that long ranged Siege tank.

Have you any thoughts on a tech tree? How will it progress? Sorry to say, the techtree needs to be balanced as well. And this might be the hardest job. Since you introduce a player to a new unit. The mission might depend on that particular unit. And the multiplayer techtree should be balanced as well. I think, the latter is even more important than the single player campaign. Because a new unit might actually be over powered for its first job. Just for the fun of it It is how I introduced some of my units in the past. "o my, we don't have enough resources for dealing with the bunkers. Let's get 1 artillery unit, we know it is expensive, but that attack range of 13 is more than enough to protect it from wandering survivors".

I like your train of thoughts. I like that you also considered balance around resource managment. But also allow for turtling. That is a very awesome approach. I am glad that you called them RTS enjoyers. It is true, campers on RTS are enjoying their line of defence. I had this in Warcraft 2, Starcraft and also in Tiberiun dawn and sun. Would be funny though, if you slip in 1 mission that requires the player to camp first for an hour or something. Like, being stuck in the mountains with limited resources that grow slowly overtime. I did something similar in regards to resources. Although resources were limited. And expansion should be done if you are an agressive player. A turtle player could camp. till the resources were depleted. Then all the forces should move. That kind of deal. That was a so called mission 8 I once made in Starcraft. (It is lost forever ) In short, you could camp with the correct defenders. And for an attack, you could either repair/heal them almost indifinately. And after defeating 1 of the 2 bases, you got that expand. I literly made that mission with the goal in mind. Defeat 1 base, and you could spend the remaining resources entirely on only half your units. As for secondairy objectives. I feel like they should be there from time to time. Especially in later missions. But they should be there for adding a reward for the player, during the mission. Which would help the player. One such secondairy objective was often the capture of enemy structures in C&C td. But the resque of units or whatever, are also valuable options. Unless, you have secondairy objectives being part of the primairy one. Then it is simply all primairy though. Perhaps, when the campaign is almost done. You could test the different difficulties, together with the resource managment. Where on easy difficulty, expansion is not needed. On normal, recommended. And on hard, a nessesary objective. Something like that. It is very hard to achieve though. So, if you manage, you can consider it as a trophy as designer. I will come back later on that editor. I never used it. But you mentioned it by name specifically. Once I have more time. And after playing the mission. I might ask for the other stuff. Wow, you can allow the player to select their start location? That is awesome! I always liked that. Ehm. you mentioned theoratical balance at the end for multiplayer. I meant that theoratical balance is solely based on numbers and formula's. For all the other balances to grow on. An example would be that the bazooka infantry in C&C td costs 300. But testing already showed that they are too weak that way. Practically speaking, they needed more health or cost less. This was even the case for single player. In multiplayer, they are only used as anti air units at the start. They were....tested very late. You can see the result in tiberian sun. Where the Nod rocket soldier has A. more health, and B. costs 250.

I will put it in my todo list. Although, it is one mission. I understand you need proper feedback on it. Since I did one on Barkhan, why not. Right now, I am in a flow, right before a very busy month. So, earliest would be December I think. Would love to poke around. But it is new territory for me. Still, it is similar to how Forge looked like. So a traditional editor. I will find my way. (I mis Forge) I got some insights on balance. It can be a tricky thing. There are several steps (not in order). - Theoratical balance; all designs follow the same formula. This formula is based on the combat mechanics. Unique to every RTS. All numbers that I like to crush. - Practical balance; some designs might be a bit too unique, or are part of a group of similar designs. Uniqueness means less choice. And it depends on how it can be countered, thus a buff or nerv would be required by mapping the RPS between designs. Practical balance is also depending on a map layout. Personally, I like adding new units to cover this section. Or redesign others. - Skill balance; due to certain players being extra good. Some units might be overpowered. If they are bad in the hands of noobs, you are all good. But if they are also good in the hands of noobs, they certainly need a nerv. - Single player balance; can often be different than the multiplayer balance. All steps are important. Most discussions appear around the practical balance. But their true roots are in skill balance. I had one a couple of days ago about the new axethrowers and archers in the remaster of WC2. The skilled player felt it was too powerfull for now for him. He mostly plays chokepoint maps. Yet the balance that Blizzard had in mind was for the single player campaign. The balance that YOU pick, is YOURS. You can ask for Feedback from others. But YOU as the game designer are never wrong in this for YOUR own game. Meaning, no matter what I or others throw at you. The decision is yours. You need to feel comfortable playing your own game. Well, having said that. Consider Feedback as advice. And you can organise advice. So, if you want to collect the massive feedback in landsraad. Perhaps make a simple tickbox poll. Not sure if it is possible. But a table per unit design would be usefull for you. The columns could be: cost, health, damage, firerate etc. While the rows cold be: way to low, to low, good, to high, way to high. People could change the tickboxes. Maybe prepare an excel file with this and some explanation. Firerate....i know it as Rate of Fire, Cooldown, DPS. Well, people gave it all kind of names. But make sure that you and the one filling in the questionaire are on the same wavelength. Because some think of Rate of Fire as Cooldown, yet they are each others opposites. Rate of Fire in physics means, the rate, on firing. Thus higher is faster. Cooldown is the time between shots. I don't care if people still get it wrong and strongly believe they are right, just make sure you are on the same wavelength. I also spotted time between shots, this is good, there is salvo. I could explain to you in a PM/DM how salvo balancing works It is theoratical though. Well, cheers, X3M

Looks awesome... ... Went back to the start... watched the video... Wow.... Went back to the start again. Read it all. This is a remarkeble work dude!!! Many of us must have dreamt to be able to such a thing like what you did. You got an entire new theme to it all. Although, dark and purple is in these days. Yet, you just did it. My hats of for you. And your sister, she did an awesome job on the tileset etc. I couldn't help, but chuckle at the voice lines. Still, you got your own voice lines. Consider the chuckle as a nod to a job well done! I love to crush numbers. Care to share the stats you are using for your designs? Once you are done with the campaign etc. Would love to play it, if you know what I mean.

Another 4 years later. Working on something for a RTS tought me even more. Alas, that project is dead or a scam. 2 years ago, I finished a research of 2 years. Where the health to damage ratio had to vary for the individual unit designs. The conclusion is that games like Starcraft and their design choices started to emerge. While most argue that Starcraft might have been a stack of lucky accidents. I do see a patern in the numbers. I even got a formula for it now. I wanted to use this new knowledge in an upcomming game. Together with some other calculation mechanics that are unique to RTS in general. It would have been refreshing for the players for sure. Alas...dead or a scam. Perhaps... someone is interested. I just wanted to share this with the remaining visitors of this forum.

Not sure if anyone here is still around to discus the "remaster" and thus "rebalance" that got applied by Blizzard. Bloodlust sure is as intended now. And the archers/axethrowers have been buffed in a strange way. Axethrowers can reach the level that the old Rangers had. And the true Rangers now only deal 10% more damage in comparisson. There is more to talk about.

Ah yes.... 7 years later. Here are some changes, not chronological though: They added heroes. 5 each faction so far. It will be 6 soon. For money. They reduced the size of infantry, systematically they are now half that of a vehicle. Ingame money crate collection is no longer a tap, but a wait instead. You can upgrade this with a skill card. They changed the skill points into skill cards. For money. They did a lot of balance updates. At one point, they added a lot more upgrades per unit. For money. Premium can only be bought. For money. Re-roll keys, so you can exchange a bad crate opening. I was part of the Youtube program for 2-3 years. Since I was not allowed to share promocodes on a regular basis. I didn't grew my channel that much. Due to intensifying of my work, I had less time and energy for making video's. I finally managed to get my streams working. But it seemed to be too late. Eventually, I was not part of the Youtube program anymore. This demotivated me more. Also, my clan was hardly playing. I changed clans, and voila, the old clan suddenly lost half its members. Not sure yet if I ever return. One last time, I streamed with a promo-code that I asked for a special event. "my last stream". It got me 40 new subscribers that unsubscribed in the 2 weeks after. Just indicating how toxic the greedy community is. Now my number of subscribers remains stable between 1290 and 1300. I play a lot of other games nowadays. I play for fun. I stream for fun. I am not going to be a lackey. So, I have yet to see if I ever return. It has been fun though. But it is repetetive now. My current mobile game is Call of Dragons.

Select the palace. In there you can select the Death Hand. Then click anywhere on the map.

Oh, a new windows is the issue then. You need to wait for some time until Windows 11 is accesable with the Gruntmods edition. PS. Microsoft does shady things.

I strongly suggest you delete the game (and keep trying). You are not playing the most recent versions and are hoping to do something that is waaaay to outdated. Then, if you realize that you are doing something completely silly. Try, the Gruntmonds edition. This version works on windows 10 for certain (seeing as how I could play it in some of my recent streams). And if you have windows 11. My condolences. But I am sure it will work there as well.

22 years later. Sorry for bringing this up. But I am curious as of how to get this one through the intended means.

Please.... Please mention that awesome ini file to everyone that allows people to change the resolution. Heck yeah!!! i got 4K EbfD now

It is....KEK.... time. Meaning, downloading it right now and going to test how it works on my system. If all goes positive, I will celebrate. Edit: The game works. That is great. The issue is with the resolution. I got a 4k screen. Perhaps you can add in an option to "stretch" the whole deal? Stretching seems to work best. It would be included for certain ways of recording or streaming as well. My Tiberian Sun games went super good with a stretch. Well, keep up the good work!

You could post it here. If you are still willing.

Funny, Soon I willl return to the game as well. I got all kind of noob tactics against the AI. - Quads for harvester raids. They are fast and anti vehicle. Use them to scout and kill enemy harvesters in the fields. Run away from any enemy units defending the harvesters. But they can fight the faster raiders/trike's with ease. - Missile tanks for carryall removal. This way, the harvesters can't be lifted up and placed down in a fast fashion. - If you are a heavy camper type. Sonic tanks in front, followed by 2 rows of combat tanks, followed by 2 rows of siege tanks and missile tanks. And move them forward to the enemy 1 row at a time. The width depends on the path. But 7 is really the maximum. Meanwhile, build a new steamroll wall. - The multiplayer spam seems to be trooper/quad/combat tank, plus some starport reinforcements. - Atreides....get that Napalm!

During Covid. I didn't play it....but now after Covid.... I returned to Minecraft. That game....has changed in those 3 years.

Certainly going to use your version, once I get to Dune2000.

I am certain now that people want to see real stuff and progress on a game development. I edited the title and this post. No one cared anyways. Which is actually a good thing this time.

Not sure what you are talking about. A re-balance is my goal. But only for custom made maps. As if they are single player missions. I will be using the lessons I learned from balancing other RTS games. Either way, the re-balance that I have in mind will mostly increase the damages of the archers axethrowers and the destroyers. Yes, this is where it all started. They felt so weak in custom maps. And in the single player campaign, you really only use them when you camp. And the upgrades take a lot from your treasure chest too, if you are to use them. A total of 11600 for the orcs and 11100 for the humans. Melee is only 6800. And another 3000 to 4000 for the magic. Also, the towers seem to be to weak in their health status. Other than that, I already took a look at how I could make more faction differences. The boost is not much on the archers and axethrowers at first. From 6 to 10 piercing. But with this, they are immediately on par with the melee units. And are now a valid support option. They get the job done. The axethrowers exchanged 2 piercing again for more health. And their regeneration is much more valid now. While they can get bloodlust. This effect is often only used against gryphon riders. So, the berserkers are stronger in their primairy role this way. The archers in theirs that of extra dps. The upgrade costs of both go down a bit. Not much, but noticable, so an archer/axethrower rush is now a strategy too. The towers get more health, all of them. The costs of the upgrades are also a bit different. A major difference is the astetics of the towers, where the orc variants look like they are still made of paper mache. And so, thus they are still made of paper mache. Their health boost is less, but get more damage in return. As for the grunt and ogre, I give them an extra 2 basic damage, and 50% more armor. The upgrades on armor remain the same. But the damage upgrades are slighlty cheaper. The costs of the grunt is 800 and the Ogre is 1100/100 The destroyers, I made no differences. The damage goes from 35 up to 56. This due to their cost. The battleships are almost perfectly balanced. Had to reduce their health from 150 down to 140. This means that the number of shots needed to take one down with a destroyer, goes from 8 down to 4. The dragons and gryphon riders.... well, practically speaking they are a yes/no unit. And mathematically speaking, they were perfectly balanced already. Seeing as how the AA units play a bigger role now. The dragons and gryphon riders are less viable in their roles. Still, I need to look into the magic stuff for rebalance. But I suspect, the archers/axethrowers are going to be needed more than ever. In contrairy than the mages/death knights. Catapult and Ballista.... well, I love adjusting them. But it turns out, these are perfectly balanced to begin with. And with the towers getting their health upgrade, it would be more viable to get them too. Since I love adjusting them, I decided to only adjust the Ballista, giving it more attack range, while reducing the damage. The upgrade costs for this one increases. The 2 units that still need to be looked at are the submarine units and the magic casters. Chances are, they get a higher cost due to being able to cast magic. I am going to include the magic as a double DPS system. I simply need to calculate it all. And yes, some magic is stronger than other magic. So, I need to let loose my "choice" math. I will only explain if asked though.

Pondering about the upgrade balance now. Seeing as how lower damage value's have more of a percentile increase than higher damage value's. Should I make upgrades cheaper when the units get less of a percentile bonus? And would it only be the damage? Or should I include the armor changes as well?

You didn't see the topic? If you are talking about the discussion in the comment section of that video. I am sure it is lost now in the numerous comments. Great to hear it was your gameplay that they watched. I think you made a typo. 0 armor takes only 2x amount of damage from bloodlust. Another trivia: If the armor equals the basic damage. And you apply bloodlust. You get once more that basic damage. If no piercing damage is present. You can go from 0 damage to any damage that the basic damage (and armor) are. And this is a factor "infinity" Either way, thank you for repeating it all once more. The link you provided. Has some mistakes from time to time. But also some very cool and vital information as well. The level 1 defence of a footman is 2, not 4. This is in the section of fighting towers. Seeing as how the information is given. I assume it had to be a knight instead. Which in this case would indeed make sense. I love how the Axolotl's guide shows a 3 wide forrest (top to down) act as only 2 wide in regards of sappers as well. And in some places you can chop 3 wide in 1 go as well. That is very important knowledge. I spot some more mistake(s) though. If it is your website, want me to PM them to you instead?

Trying to put together an Excel sheet that calculates the costs of the units in the game. Now that I got the splash factor included. And also the yes/no usage of farms... The following units get to the same costs so far: Grunts/Ogre's/Catapults. And this surprised me. But the axethrower is still of. And the following factors here might be the case: - Factoring in anti air capabilities. Is it a +50% weight? +100% weight? What did they use? - I have several ways to calculate the weight of support and/or meat units. Maybe I shouldn't? And simply use a hard factor of 50% on structures?

Here some sad news though. Most websites displaying unit statistics, give 0 armor to all flying units and oil tankers... But the original game has: - 10 armor for oil tankers. - 5 armor for dragons/gryphons. - And 2 armor for zeppelins/flying machines. Also, the wood cost of an oil tanker is often mentioned to be 250. But we all know it is only 200. And the oil cost of the subs is 900, not 800... The gold cost of the demolition units is 700, not 750... Why do they keep making these mistakes?

O wow. So 25% is first calculated. Only afterwards the armor subtracted. This is Veeeerrrry interesting to know. Also interesting to know is that if you don't deal damage with splash... whatever unit is in the splash radius. Will simply stay there unprovoked. In other words. You can only provoke units by dealing damage with splash. A ballista or catapult doesn't have armor. So for battling these with splahs, armor is simply not included anyway. As for my theory on having to deal damage. I am going to do one more test... An archer with 0 damage, and an attack range of 15. 3 results from this test: - An attack range maximum is 15 on the archer. However, the +1 attack range upgrade does increase this with 1. So an attack range of 16 can be done too. (I honestly don't understand how I didn't test this for the past 3 decades...) - As for provoking. Even with 0 damage, you still will provoke an Ogre with an Archer. This because the attack is directly. - As for having different ROF on archers, one standing close and another far away. They keep the same ROF, the ROF is therefor separate from animations. Is there something else that I forgot to test here?