Game play suggestions

suggestions for game play

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
William the Conqueror
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:27 pm

Post by William the Conqueror »

It really needs settings for hotkeys, so people can customize better.

VVP
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Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:17 am

Post by VVP »

First, I want to say thank you for making this. I'm having so much fun playing these games again.

Some suggestions

-Waypoints - I know they were an ra2 thing, but I always liked to use them to send units to a certain spot in a certain way that wouldn't get them killed.

-Home button - A button that sends your view back to the construction yard.

-When you bring up the menu and hit quit, maybe add a verification "Are you sure you want to quit?". Had a game end prematurely when the quit button got hit accidentally, OOPS.

-I just noticed that damaged units are visible behind the fog. The smoke they give off isn't hidden by it.

If these things aren't implemented, I will still play this game and tell people about it. I think it's awesome and I absolutely love it. Keep up the good work!

rb10c
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:02 pm

Post by rb10c »

Waypoints was in Tiberian Sun, so we're okay there (for the EA haters).
Waypoints would be a way to stop tanks crashing into trees, which is unfortunately frequent with this AI, but Sleipnir said AI is high priority.

Backspace drives you back to the con. yard.

Fog- good point. I hadn't noticed. I'd like an option to turn it off.

Exit verification- hadn't noticed. Good idea.

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riderr3
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Post by riderr3 »

here are list of some useful(maybe) suggestions:

-checking for (stable)updates from options menu. it can be useful - update client without checking them on site and install
-able to deleting one/all replays from replay menu browser
-able to see unit firing range by pressing special button on keyboard
-more exact info when putting cursor on energy bar, example: "Power Output 50/100" (mean 50 is used and 100 in stock)
-add "Controls" to "Options" menu. there been list of used kbd/mouse buttons and redefining them
-screenshot button(F12), and a folder with screenshots inside OpenRA directories. example - running OpenRA on Ubuntu OS in fullscreen, screenshot can not be taken correctly. anyway, there is many upper buttons on keyboard stays unused
-pilots must be catapulted (sometimes) from shooted planes (done)
-Soviet unit - Phase transport(unit from RA expansion). vehicle with rockets and shroud ability, carrying 1 person
-Allied unit - Heli carrier(its a hidden RA unit). navy carrier which can carry up to 6 helicopters, and can charging weapons for them
-napalm bombs from plane(CNC mod) should be dropped from 2 planes(cause them not very powerful)
-custom skins for menu,bars,loading screens, etc.
-able to build fake buildings, both in RA(Allied) and TD(NOD). mainly in MP games its really useful sometimes
-AI bots must tactically capture and secure oil rigs, and other buildings
-scrolling in building menu. this is because soon there be many buildings/units and all stuff can not fit in the bar
-harvesters/ore trucks must little explode after destroy

Kashi
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:55 pm

Post by Kashi »

Hi there, just arrived freshly. I played a few games already, moslty RA ones so I'll stick to commenting on that. For my suggestions I take the 20110306 testbuild as reference. And sorry if I end up repeating suggestions. I did skim through this thread but I'm sure I missed some statements.

First off, I do like the fact that you try to improve the gameplay by rebalancing the two factions. I do however somehow miss a "vanilla/vintage" button in the game menu that lets you play with unchanged unitstats and compositions.

[Keys] Starting off at the menu I can agree to some of the stuff others said, especially a way to manully assign keys for the game would be neat (normaly I use "R" for TS, ended up queueing like 150 radar domes on my first game. Took some time to unqueue them :p).

[Tech levels] Also tech levels would be nice. Not like the bazillion levels in RA, but something like Radar Tech - Tech Center Tech - Superweapon Tech

[Commando limit] I know it was great to spam Tanyas in RA, but maybe you should make a button in the game menu that limits the number of commandos to one per team. Buff up their abilities some if need be, make them stand out (maybe with an increased pricetag).

Now on to the units.

[Volkov] Others suggested to change the soviet commando to Volkov, maybe with Chitzkoi as subcommando. I like the idea. Volkov is just a name, depending on the mission he appeared on he had different abilities, and since it was singleplayer WW could go wild with his abilities. Just do the same. The unit is there, but you changed the stats of many other units in RA as well, so why not his? Make him a tankbuster ineffective versus infantry and buildings, sorta like an anti-Tanya. If eed be Chitzkoi can take that role as a secondary. Or think of something cooler and whackier.

[Chinook/APC] Looking at the units that were swapped around between allies and soviets I can guess why you gave the allies the Chinook, but the allies do rely more on infantry than the soviets do and the APC is, frankly speaking, the better transport out of the two. Not because of weapons or armor, but for the fact that it travels on land. It doesn't need the precious seconds to hit the ground before letting out the infantry and it doesn't suffer from the easily placed AA ground defense in your Mod. With allied troops moving about fast the ranger is the only proper alternative to take inf with you, other than crawling along with them as the walk. Soviets on the other hand have to wait for their mammoths anyways, so the airbound Chinook seems to be a better choice for them. They can have their infantry walk with their armor and Choppers do offer the possiblitiy to attack from an unportected side with infantry only.

[Hind/Yak] As for the Hind, I do see how Hind and Yak kinda hit the same role, making one obsolete for the soviets (I kinda feel that the soviets only got the Yak for SP missions anyways). If the soviets were to use an AI unit you should use the Hind though, and maybe use the Yak for a support power or something of that kind. Or maybe decrease the Mig's missile damage vs. buildings and make the Yak a light bomber. Allies do have many excellent ground base AI units, so there is not as much of an imminent need for the Hind on the allied side. Maybe even remove the Rocket-soldier from the soviet building-list to increase the Apache's survivablity versus mixed groups of soviets, as long as the removal doesn't affect the Soviets' ability to fight tanks earlygame too much.

[MGG] There is indeed a problem with the MGG with your new shroud, especially since units in range fire at the units under that shroud regardless. However, the GG does hide what units you're collecting at the end of your base, even to spysats. Now if your units/buildings under the GG/MGG shroud would not be automatically attacked by enemy units and base defenses and if the MGG shroud would not be revealed by your regular units (save for the spyplane, a proplerly placed radar dome and maybe one or two dedicated unittypes) that would be another deal. Imagine a bunch of shrouds rushing into your base through the front door to reveal a bunch of rangers with Tanyas and engies, or a track of demotrucks (if they ever got in). Your shroud would even support that effect versus soviet players since they only notice the moving shroud when it gets close to one of their own units or has been revealed by a spyplane.

[MRJ] Tricky that one. How about a EMS like ability that shuts down targetting systems of rockets coming too close, exploding them prematurely? Both sides have units that make heavy use of rockets, and Allies could make their units Mig/Apache-proof either till the MRJs are killed or for a short duration of time, if you want to make it a "weapon" that has a short duration and a cooldown.

[Engineer/Mechanic] There is a Renegade mod now stanadone game out called APB in which players new to RA regularly try to repair vehicles with Techs/Engies (which is, of course, quite futile). While the idea in itself makes sense I do not like the idea of both factions being able to repair in the field and, more importantly, for free. If you want to increase the battlefield value of the engineer besides saving your buildings and stealing enemy ones, give them the ability to detect and maybe even clear mines. Maybe the ablity to place sandbags or something like that. I can only think of implementing the Mechainic the way it was done in RA, maybe with a little more effective range. They should help increasing the surviablity of Allied tanks, especially any Rangers, Artillery and Light Tanks that you may (still) be fielding.

[Paradrops] It would beinteresting to assign units to a paradrop, maybe by buying them and sending them into the airfield. Once the Paradrop is ready the units are picked up and flown into the enemy territory.

I'm currently thinking about suport powers that could be added, but since I offered to play with a friend I guees I'm off for now. Hope this didn't gett too tl;dr

P.S.: If anyone could drop me a hint of where to find the help file for the editor I'd be gratious, maybe I just overlooked it.

P.P.S.: Open RA needs moar Chronotanks. Yeah, that had to be said :V.

beedee
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Post by beedee »

Kashi wrote: First off, I do like the fact that you try to improve the gameplay by rebalancing the two factions. I do however somehow miss a "vanilla/vintage" button in the game menu that lets you play with unchanged unitstats and compositions.
I'd like to make this clear here and now that there is little to no chance of this happening as an officially maintained mod. We're moving forward, doing our own thing. I can understand purists not liking it but we believe we are making positive changes to the game and have neither the time nor desire to maintain another mod.

If someone wishes to make their own "legacy" mod, they are quite welcome to and we have made every effort to make it simple for someone to do so.

(I need to put this in big flashing neon letters somewhere so people will stop asking us about it.)
Kashi wrote: If anyone could drop me a hint of where to find the help file for the editor I'd be gratious, maybe I just overlooked it.
I don't believe there is one, we haven't had the manpower to maintain documentation for anything.

chrisf
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:59 am

Post by chrisf »

@Kashi: Thanks for the suggestions. We'll take them under consideration, and you might find a few surprises in a later version.

As @beedee pointed out, though -- we don't have the resources to maintain both this game and a classic mode. I know there are a number of people interested in building their own classic mod, and we're trying to make it easy for them to do so. There is a post in the Modding forum about this.

Kashi
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:55 pm

Post by Kashi »

Right now I'm only searching for a way to scroll the map when using the editor, I'm probably just missing something obvious but I can't for the life of it figure it out right now.

@ Vanilla RA: Too bad, but it wasn't my main concern for the game. seeing how Everything needed for such a version is available from the original RA gamefile someone's gonna come forth and make a mod for Open RA with vanilla settings.

chrisf
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:59 am

Post by chrisf »

To scroll in the editor, you can either hold down middle-mouse (same as in-game), or hold down space and left-drag (same as photoshop, etc)

Seru..
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Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:59 pm

Post by Seru.. »

Sorry for the translation of online translator.

I have a suggestion to make a smooth response units look at the reactions of infantry tanks when you withdraw them retire after a few seconds and gave the order to convert the units to respond immediately to orders? I think this bothers grid and had to dismantle a network? then the unit would always move immediately toward the point of what do you think? the gameplay is increased by

Kashi
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Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:55 pm

Post by Kashi »

I've been trying to think about some support powers for both factions to spice things up. There probalby shouldn't bee too many suport powers in RA, but one or two additional for the soviets and three or four for the allies (three if you consider the Spy Sat a support power) would be good. [Sqare brackets] suggest the name of the ability, (round brackets) suggest the faction this ability could suit. "shared" means both factions could use this ability, "allied, soviet" means the ability would be suited for either allied or soviet, with allied being the more suitable faction.

Short cooldown timers are between 1:30 and 3:00 minutes, medium is 3:00 to 5:00 minutes, long is 5:00 minutes to 8 minutes.

[Ping] The sonar ping has been suggested before and could probably go naturally with the allies, however soviet-soviet mirrors can be tedious to play with no surface ships on either side (safe for the not yet implemented Naval Transport). Thus a ping ability could also become available to both factions once the SPen or NYard are buiilt. If the ping also revealed surface ships and subs hidden in the shroud it would be quite powerful. The cooldown timer should be medium. (allied, shared)

[Parabombs] Parabombs are an obvious choice as well, but instead of basically being a weaker nuke attack you could have three bombers that would cover a larger area with bombs that do less damage but shut down any building they hit for a period of time. Since buildings can be deactivated in Open RA it should also be possible to assign such an ability to the bombs, and cracking a well defended base should become a lot easier with this. This ability should require the Airfield and the Tech Center. Cooldown timer should again be medium (soviet)

[Repair Cycle] Has a diameter of three (like the chronosphere) or five cells, ships marked with this ability have better armour, move faster and regenerate hitpoints at a quick rate for a short period of time, but do considerably less damage/no damage at all. Needs the NYard/SPen and the Radar Dome. Short to medium cooldown timer. (allied)

[Chinook Transport] A Chinook is called in that straps the marked ground vehicle under it's belly and transports it to any desigantion. The Chinook flys off the map once the vehicle is dropped. Can be shot down, maybe restrict superheavy units like the Mammoth Tank or the OT from being lifted. Has a short cooldown timer. Needs the Helipad. (soviet, allied)

[Division of Labour] A small number of units can be marked by the player (again within a diameter of three to five cells). For a short period of time all marked units gain a collective boost of firepower for every hit the individual units within that group recieve, stacking up to a maximum of 150 or 200% of the units' inital firepower. Additionally, if one of the affected units is destroyed the other units gain an additional 50% boost on their next shot (this one however does not stack, imagine a 500% damage V2... *makes ominous sounds*). Needs the Tech center, has a medium to long cooldown. (soviet)

[Raiders] A group of three Light Tanks and two Rangers either drives in from the corner of the map (if the corner is solid ground) or is shipped in by a Naval Transport. Those units will attack a previously desiganted target until the enemy destroyed them. If they manage to destory their target they will keep fighting the enemy in the vicinity. Needs the Radar Dome, cooldown should be short. (allied)

I think Chinook Transport has been suggested in a different way before, if I read it correctly. Kinda C&C:TW and RA3 inspired, but could come in handy. Raiders could be problematic if the incoming units spawn in the wrong place, i.e. trapped on a small island or on top of a close ridge... Just wish I could come up with more abilities for the allies, but soviets are kind of easier to do.

Lamoot
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:17 pm

Post by Lamoot »

Thank you developers for implementing mouse-over health preview and defensive buildings radius preview. It's a really nice usability touch. However one thing I noticed with defensive building radius is that the yellow colour used to show the radius doesn't show well on snow terrain. It's not impossible to see it, but you have to try hard.

ragingirish
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Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:17 pm

more ideas

Post by ragingirish »

Wanted throw in some request in for the next, next release.

1. chrono tank, gap gen, in general all the missing units.

2. give the allied cruiser some power its still to weak

3. give troops some battle field ai; for example prioritize targets:
rifle man= tanya> shock trooper > flame trooper > granader> Rocket> medic > engineer> jeep> soviet AA> tanks so on and so on.
Do this for every unit so that each unit is firing on its highest weaker counter part prioritized by value.

4. the allied attack heli could use a faster rate of fire, as it is slower and the only benefit over the mig is it dose not need two passes.

5.Iron curtain needs to be individually targetable or a full 3x3 reason being you rarely are able to stage the units before an attack run there is probably be a simpler anwser to that that I am not thinking about.

6. a way to upload maps in the game similar to RA2 maybe.

7. could we give back RA Russia had cheaper units, England had the thief Germany had the cruiser I think. I don't think it should be the same yall could do your own tinkering. Maybe someone gets a 10% someone gets faster build speed, maybe France gets the fake buildings. would add a new dynamic to the game.

8. is there a way to incorporate the irc to openRA? so that we don't have to switch windows?


I know squat about programing so I apologize if I am asking to much.
Thanks for letting me waste your time.

Seru..
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Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:59 pm

Post by Seru.. »

could you work on balance cnc , cnc balance is poor and the game is fun

Kashi
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Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:55 pm

Post by Kashi »

Before having units that auto-attack even more I'd prefer if my units would stop rushing the enemy base by themselves every time a rifle soldier comes too close to them. Enemy unit trickle plus guarding units agressively driving up to enemies is evil. Always feel like a babysitter when playing.

In RA the "factions" did not have any specific units only they could produce, Ukraine had cheaper units, Russia had more firepower, England, Germany and the other allies had more speed and the like.

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