OpenRA

Wasn't sure if I should post this into maps and modding, but I'm mostly interested in the discussion of this in terms of game balance. Kyrylo's Real Map Talk video on Dual Cold Front got me thinking about how to counter the Allie players advantage in some maps where they can punish harvesters from sea early on.

To counter this I was thinking of a Soviet Tesla Ship. They would require War Factory and a Tesla Coil to build. They can attack land, air, and sea.


This is how they compare with destroyers..
-Cheaper
-Faster speed
-Much less HP
-Faster rate of fire fire, but lower DPS.
-Slightly shorter firing range
-Not as effective against air, you'd need 2 of them to take out one heli.
-1v1 would not be able to kill a destroyer, they are more for quick striking and then retreat

-If I did add this in, I would also want to add in the ability for destroyers to place Naval mines, which I remember seeing someone created in another post.
-Destroyers would ship with 2 mines each.



Wanted to hear others ideas on this! Note that II dont intend for this to become part of the main game, just a mod map.

i toyed around with amphibious vehicles in past mods. Your idea should be doable within the existing Framework. You might just use the tesla tank for testing.

A little word of warning, though: amphibious vehicles break the design of quite a few maps.

I'm not looking to make it amphibious, just meant WF is a pre-requisite Cool idea though!

I want one now

http://resource.openra.net/maps/15531/

you can try out a prototype unit in this map

I agree soviets need some sort of early game naval unit that can attack land and air, but tesla weaponry attacking air units doesn't fit with the theme of the rest of the tesla weaponry.

Good point r34ch, maybe this should become a flak boat?

A flak boat could be a nice AA unit, but would have no damage against harvesters ^_^ (your initial demand)
Unless you wanna do a similar unit to the GUM-boat, but not sure that's your intention.

I would go for Tesla against land and sea. Maybe combined with AA-Missile Subs, but that's another story.

Other question : would it be a Russian unit only ?

I'd prefer to make it for all soviets.

Your right, flak boat wouldn't hurt ore trucks that much, but it DOES put pressure on them and forces the other player to react. Checks and balances.

They would be fast and have low hp just like a flak truck. Gunboats or rocket troops could sink them. At the same time subs could counter the gunboat and the flak truck could escape from the rockets. I would give them enough HP so that one hind could kill a flak boat. However hinds would have trouble against say 6+ flak boats. I feel this could add more dynamic to the game.

Either way, I think most people agree that the navy is lacking in this game. After all, in vanilla RA navy wasnt originally implemented to be balanced in multiplayer.

I liked the idea of a flak boat a while ago but the fact it does little damage against buildings and the fact that the allied AA gun is flak based, I now prefer the SAM boat

But I agree that navy is lacking and that players are starting to see these issues.

( Btw just for the funz, back to the Tesla Boat idea : http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Stingray
Was in RA3, it had a splash attack ability (electrifying the water around it) ^_^ )

Yeah a tesla boat, haha

I was thinking of trying to put a M60 on the front section of the Submarine. Then make that M60 able to target air, like in the Red Sky mission. So it won't be a strong AA but atleast something.

Also Soviet players will need them late game to escort missile subs.

I know Missile subs might get AA themselves, but I think that would be a bit overpowered. Since they also stealth units. Think Stealth Cruisers with AA.

So a Submarine like this:

hmmm... tesla ships sound like fun, but the idea of the flak boats i can understand won't do jackall against harvesters, however you could make it more like a HE-Shotgun instead, nasty against aircraft if they get close to it because you all know what a shotgun can do to humans at close range, and is actually quite painful against infantry and to some degree, with a lot of micro can take down a mammoth on it's own, it can shoot at it's max distance, however it'll be more spread out and won't be so good for damage, more better for catching out enemies.

i've actual made some YAML codes that'll make it work out nicely, though using the mobile flak truck as the main test subject, take a look:

http://pastebin.com/dSmCjek1

hope you can shed some light with that, and the idea of electricity weapon boats sounds pretty interesting, though i think unless tesla coils gain the ability to be superior anti air along with SAM Site, i don't believe it'll work out nicer than you'd expect

A tesla boat? That probably sounds like a good idea if you are regularly bathing with your toaster.

Liking the ideas. Why not both? A flak/SAM boat, and a tesla boat for land units.

No one is really going to be building Air any time soon although it may counter early allies sneak heli tactics. (So backing the transporters with gunboats perhaps).

This'll also give gun boats something to go against. So:

Gun boat > Flak/SAM boat.

Tesla boat > Gun boat.

Destroyer > Tesla boat

Submarine ~ Destroyer as it currently stands.