Fey

seems redundant. we can simply upgrade the MCV mid-game using new events, or make the hover version the default on a hypothetical archipelago mission like this. pretty sure we can adapt ConYard animations for different MCV types already, too; it's the Harvesters that are locked in to only one docking animation at the moment energy-based technology, like hover engines, are quite commonplace in this new setting and the main new faction there makes frequent use of such things ^^ so I didn't intend to attach some kind of heightened cost to hovertech units. if anything, The Order's hovertech stuff costs so much in ArkDebut because of their firepower lol

it occured to me that building space on majority-water maps is hard to come by and would be painfully limited. like, look at this... we need space for the buildable areas, the harvestable resources, decorations, all that stuff. how can we fit that in a puny space like this? the top left there makes the issue very obvious: there are shale/flats borders, flats/water borders... but no shale/water borders. if we fix that, we gain a lot more build space on island maps soooo i did some cooking: and now we have shale/water borders, and shale/flats/water borders here's the expanded tileset image with those additional tiles: I'll do up the attributes later. we just have the image for now still, I implemented those tiles' appearances only and here's an in-game test screenshot: we should be able to make much better effective use of the available space thanks to this. no needless two layers of terrain borders. better-looking too, right? form AND function! what? "how does island warfare work in d2k when there are no transport ships"? custom Carryall logic, hovertech, and duct tape. also, I poked PsYcHo about doing up a hovertech MCV. repack it like in ArkDebut, fly it over the water with a light escort of whatever hover tanks are available in your faction's arsenal, and plop it down somewhere new I'm still working on polishing up units' spritesets that PsYcHo generously provided via his voxels, but wanted to post this update since it has to do with the tileset itself. that's all for now edit 5/27/26: island map's drawn up. here's a full map image this map is 110x80. A8V1 is 96x96, which is 9216 tiles as opposed to 8800. and, it has about 3ish enemy bases on it, and this archipelago map is designed for 3ish enemy bases. a fairly close comparison... A8V1 is slightly larger as a whole for comparison, A8V1 has 410 thick Spice tiles and 1108 thin Spice tiles, for a total of 385,600 harvestable credits, and 23 Spice blooms. there are exactly 20 Mining Rig build spots on the archipelago mission, so those could be considered Spice blooms' equivalents so, with another ~86k harvestable resources on the archipelago map, and much less space to build in any one area (because ConYard repacking and expanding, including to enemy islands, is expected), therefore less space to cap out on factories and be greedy before expanding somewhere, it seems my estimations should be on the money. no pun intended

that sounds like an unthinkably difficult challenge, bruc. I'm sorry y'all had to go through that ordeal. I'm really thankful our work was able to accompany you through those times. it means a lot that we were able to make a difference in your time of need. we're gonna keep trying hard to bring the best outta this beloved ol' game and, thanks for reaching out, Cm 😅 always helpful

actually yeah! Danny Danku's working on a new xna client that will allow build queues to be enabled or disabled with a checkbox in the lobby, similar to switching on worms or crates. moving stuff over to skirmish/multiplayer is still a work in progress and rough around the edges due to the nature of differences between single- and multi-player, but yeah, queues are doable already over there I'm not sure there's a forum post about it yet, and I'll direct Danku to this post. if he has an account here, maybe he can reply, himself. otherwise, he links new versions of the xna client over in the Landsraad Discord server, which itself is linked in a post pinned to the top of this d2k section of the forums. feel free to swing by anytime I'll see if I can getcha a link later and edit this post with it if he ain't available edit: I think he can drop by later. I'll leave it to him ^^

Welcome back! Yes, Gruntmods or Dunemaster can handle all the modded missions, but you might need to update your game exe to support certain advanced / recent missions. The advancements Klofkac has made are detailed in his devlog thread over here: Hope that helps!

Klofkac recently added real queueing to the game. I've been asked to add it to SS, so... details below: I guess that's all, so, good luck and have fun!

see you there, mate! ping Fey there anytime, I can help ya set up the following: ah, we've actually got a proper queue now. it's hot off the presses, made more recently than the ArkDebut mission. behold: very customizable. comes with bulk, priority, infinite, and other queue functions I see you created a thread for your new merc / guild campaign, so I suppose that would also be a fine place to discuss it further

they're also the only map the MP boys like to play Habbanya Erg and nothing else. lol me? we've got uncrushable infantry in d2k now. it was done via a really janky workaround during Summers' Solstice's inception, but Klofkac added proper support for it relatively recently. mostly though, I lean on map design for that and just try to leave infantry rock in lots of places sure dude, feel free to hit me up then SC1 still has quite a large following. if you make something for it, I think you can be very confident it will be played

1200 resources in Starcraft for Siege Tanks? 💀 ik range is, like, the most powerful stat, but doesn't that just mean you gotta mess with how the economy works so the player's income can keep up with that kinda inflated price? my father likes to play on easy mode just to blow stuff up, and aarmaageedoon says my missions are "too easy" even with multiple restarts 😆 can't please everybody I'm not the worst at d2k, and my focus is on mission or campaign design - player versus AI - so my process is testing crap on hard mode / fastest game speed, then scaling it down for normal and easy modes. it matters for the maximum difficulty since players on hard are looking for a challenge. it should be both fair and engaging. normal and easy, those are where some theoretical scaling should suffice to nail the target difficulty as long as hard mode is done up nicely the metric I look to primarily for determining if a mission is balanced how I want it is how long it takes me to complete it, including compared to its neighboring or counterpart missions. players will inevitably have a variety of experiences, but how closely in time it takes for me, knowing them in and out and optimizing for them, to complete them does a lot to illustrate the sum of whatever balance decisions I made for them already that doesn't mean I don't consider how things might work out in a hypothetical multiplayer game though. I passed an MP compatible version of my stuff over to the boys, and some unexpected metagaming came out of it, like... walls and concrete were useable. lol micro potential is a big deal in determining units' viability. take Blink micro for Stalkers in SC2 for example. you can have a unit with relatively weak stats, but with good player control, it dominates. over here in d2k, in ArkDebut, the Keravnos Laser Tank's shield system has revealed some interesting interactions already and suggests great micro potential. needs more testing. there are innumerable complex interactions in RTS, even in a simple one like d2k. makes theoretical balance pretty messy when the rubber hits the road wym money maps? like, macro-heavy, macro missions? there are a lot of differences between how macro and micro missions need to be designed and how a player will use units just thanks to that fundamental difference. or do you mean how the resources are painted on macro missions? at some point we get more into mission design theory as opposed to unit balance theory 😛 different things

I dunno, mate. maybe it's just cuz I'm a hands-on learner, but I've played KKND and this still sounds both overcomplicated and oversimplified at the same time... there are so many more factors that define a unit's strengths or weaknesses there was one concept you brought up that's particularly comprehensible to me though 😛 how I tried to balance the Summers' Solstice campaign was through units' roles, or functions as you put it, as opposed to on an individual basis. so even if we've got some new stuff here or there, they fall into certain categories and their strengths and weaknesses are representative of the category they belong to like Shock Raiders, for instance. fast, high damage, low durability. excels over open terrain, swarming targets. bad in head-on frontal assault. very similar to Quads, Raiders, Flame Tanks, other stuff like that even that example accounts for movement speed, effective weapon range, and other stuff like that too though. not just health and damage a lot of theory falls apart in practice, I've found. you know what they say: in theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. in practice, there most certainly is a difference 😆

it sounds a bit too basic to really work out ^^ there are so many other factors to consider in a unit's power. maybe as a starting principle, but certainly not as the core of balance decisions and whatnot do you have some kind of example to showcase the success of this method? a practical example, not... not more math

try running a game just against AI via CNCNET. that might rule out if it's display issues, renderer problems, etc... I also recommend ensuring you and your son have the same game version. Gruntmods and Dunemaster are the two nowadays, and if one doesn't appear to be working for you, try the other it's also worth noting that due to the way the Mission Launcher works, if either of you have run modified single-player missions via the Mission Launcher, it could result in desyncing issues in multiplayer. a fresh / separate install specifically for multiplayer would prevent any related problems I hope that helps!

lay it on us, brother 👀

you'll wanna open C&Cnet, which you'll find in your d2k directory with any modern install package, and then you can run skirmish games from there. IIRC you just click the mini-map image in the C&Cnet lobby to choose which map you wanna load note that due to how the Mission Launcher works, replacing files and such, if you're encountering sync issues with a friend while trying to co-op, consider using a fresh install for the C&Cnet stuff. even if windows isn't being a jerk and preventing the Mission Launcher from properly restoring files after single-player missions, C&Cnet can sometimes give folks trouble anyway if the Mission Launcher was used at all. why? 1998 game voodoo, I guess anyway, hope that helps!

ah, no worries! take your time I'm just doing spritework in the meantime lol. nice to hear from ya though, X3M got that Railgun Tank sidebar icon sorted the other day, but like the Kovi and Castle it doesn't have a place in any tech tree just yet. I DID intend for it to be a unit for the native rival faction to the Aether Knights, but it's a really cool new unit and the AK need something in the Autogun Tank's spot in their tech tree, sooooo I might just put it there. I've got other ideas for that other faction lol oh yeah, Shotgunners were in the Summers' Solstice campaign and will remain the Light Infantry-like unit for the smugglers and mercenaries in this campaign. they have more impact against light armor, albeit only slightly, than the former standard Riflemen. their area-effect, while larger as well, is nowhere near that of Grenadiers or Siege Tanks when trying to determine why exactly the Shotgunner is so superior to the regular Light Infantry, it has to do with their method of dealing damage. they don't actually have higher DPS than Riflemen with that small exception of more oomph against light armor. it's just that they deal their damage sooner, meaning they're more likely to eliminate threats sooner. Riflemen might need another shot or two Trikes' rapid fire attack works because it has the speed to compensate. it gets on top of stuff, eats it, and can leave just as quickly. since infantry are slower and tend to be stuck in the fight, a bursty damage model lends itself very well to the weakest infantry unit the Shotgunner becomes the player's standard infantry on S03V1 and on. both they and Grenadiers can be compared on this mission, and I'll link you to this vid from Felix where the action starts if you want to check it out for yourself, Summers' Solstice is in any regular d2k install with gruntmods or dunemaster nowadays... although I did do a small mostly-cosmetic update to backport a bunch of features Klofkac added for this campaign after its completion, including a new spirteset for the Shotgunners. more details about that are in... this post here ^^ hope that helps