Putting a little (more) defense into the game.

[eddieballgame]

Some friends & I have recently started playing this fun game again. Using the Chaos Creatures mod ( however, not using the 2 Dinos, the Alien, & the Frownodon...what the hell is that? ), we have had some fun yet quick games. With some modding we tailored this mod to our specifications in an attempt to make the games a little more strategic & a little slower paced. This tweaking also allowed us to put level 5's back in, as we had agreed not to use them. Too quick to get & too many similar designs. Anyways the 3 files that were modded were:

Prerequisites.lua, Research.lua, & Tuning.lua which are in the ... Chaos Creatures/Data/Sigma folder

Here are the READMEs for our changes:

PREREQUISITES changes:
-- antiairtowerlimit =
-- {
-- newtype = TYPE_Limit,
-- newitem = AntiAirTower_EC,
-- reqtype = TYPE_Limit,
-- reqitem = AntiAirTower_EC,-- limit = 35, now = 50
-- }, -- soundbeamtowerlimit =
-- {
-- newtype = TYPE_Limit,
-- newitem = SoundBeamTower_EC,
-- reqtype = TYPE_Limit,
-- reqitem = SoundBeamTower_EC,-- limit = 15, now = 50
-- },
lightningrodlimit =
{
newtype = TYPE_Limit,
newitem = ResourceRenew_EC,
reqtype = TYPE_Limit,
reqitem = ResourceRenew_EC, limit = 4, now = 8
},




RESEARCH changes:

RESEARCH TICKS per RANKS = 1000 approximatelty 2:00 minutes




TUNING changes:

-- ResearchBonus ResearchBonus = { -- hitpoint bonus to give to the lab with the advanced structure research advancedStructLabMultiplier = 1.5, now = 2.0

-- hitpoint bonus to give to buildings (no lab) with the increase building -- integrity research incBuildingIntegrityMultiplier = 1.5, now = 2.0

-- hitpoint bonus to give to bramble fences with the strengthen-fences -- research strengthenFenceMultiplier = 4.0, now = 5.0

-- collection rate bonus to give to all electricity collectors with the -- strengthen-electrical-grid research strengthenElecGridMultiplier = 1.25, now = 1.5

-- henchman improved healing henchmanImpHealingMultiplier = 2.0, } no change ---------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Defense Tuning values Defense = { -- the max your defence can be set to through modifications defensemax = 0.75, now = .90 } ---------------------------------------------------------------------

-- DoctorHeal DoctorHeal = { -- number of health points per second a henchman will heal healthPerSecond = 3, now = 5

-- maximum distance between the doctor and the patient healRange = 10.0, now = 30 } ---------------------------------------------------------------------

-- HealthRegen = { -- the amount of health that regenerates per second, by creature rank regenamount1 = 0.8, now = 1.2 regenamount2 = 1.1, now = 1.4 regenamount3 = 1.4, now = 1.6 regenamount4 = 1.7, now = 1.8 regenamount5 = 2.0, now = 2.0 } ---------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Player Info Player = { -- starting resources for a player (Standard) starting_gather_res = 500.0, now = 1000 starting_renew_res = 100.0, now = 500 } ---------------------------------------------------------------------

IC CC - STEEL CURTAIN MOD.zip (24.19 KB)

[Sawslig Steve. And William.]

Jan 20, 2014 20:37:53 GMT eddieballgame said:

Some friends & I have recently started playing this fun game again. Using the Chaos Creatures mod ( however, not using the 2 Dinos, the Alien, & the Frownodon...what the hell is that? ), we have had some fun yet quick games. With some modding we tailored this mod to our specifications in an attempt to make the games a little more strategic & a little slower paced. This tweaking also allowed us to put level 5's back in, as we had agreed not to use them. Too quick to get & too many similar designs.

Tel deals with most of this already.

I'll download the mod though, on the off chance that I can get someone to play.

I'll tell you now though that the starting resource change and the Rod limit change are No-Nos. If the mod were to be played by any experienced players in the community, the outcome of every game would be decided in like 3 minutes with that big of a boost, making your other changes pointless.

Also, the name of the mod is Creature Chaos.

~Steve

[Blother Had Me Like]

Before anyone talks your mod down I am interested in your reasons for the changes you made. People get pretty touchy when it comes to talking about the best changes to make to mods and because of that I feel we lose out when people never try out changes for themselves. If you aren't in the IC group on skype then you should join and we can maybe try your mod out a bit. Its a good time for me to come out of hibernation anyway.

[eddieballgame]

The "reasons" for these adjustments were mainly to slow down the game just a bit as per researching while adding a little more umph to some of the defensive values per buildings. I disagree that increasing the starting resources just a bit ( similar to original game ) & doubling the Rod limit will make it easier to take out someone. If anything, just the opposite, as one can now "hole up" a bit. Not everyone is great at expanding fast & these adjustments allow for those particular folks to play more passively early on & still have a chance to survive. This mod is working really well in our team ( 3v3 games ). There appears to be more strategic play involved now as rushing to level 4 or 5 ( depending on the map ) can be...dangerous. The increase in both defensive Towers also adds more defense ( duh! ) allowing to actually defend your base/lab ( 24000 hit pts now ) & or outposts.
With the increase in the Electric Rods, one can run out of coal mines & still maintain a viable coal income, at least for awhile. The Creature Chaos Mod is outstanding, our adjustments were only to appease our tastes in this "real time" program. We are very experienced in almost all RTS games, so we are putting these adjustments to a very good test. So far, after many, many games...we are very comfortable that our changes have improved the play...at least for us.

[Sawslig Steve. And William.]

We are very experienced in almost all RTS games

That's quite impressive.

[Sawslig Steve. And William.]

Jan 22, 2014 3:00:32 GMT eddieballgame said:

The "reasons" for these adjustments were mainly to slow down the game just a bit as per researching while adding a little more umph to some of the defensive values per buildings. I disagree that increasing the starting resources just a bit ( similar to original game ) & doubling the Rod limit will make it easier to take out someone. If anything, just the opposite, as one can now "hole up" a bit. Not everyone is great at expanding fast & these adjustments allow for those particular folks to play more passively early on & still have a chance to survive. This mod is working really well in our team ( 3v3 games ). There appears to be more strategic play involved now as rushing to level 4 or 5 ( depending on the map ) can be...dangerous. The increase in both defensive Towers also adds more defense ( duh! ) allowing to actually defend your base/lab ( 24000 hit pts now ) & or outposts.
With the increase in the Electric Rods, one can run out of coal mines & still maintain a viable coal income, at least for awhile. The Creature Chaos Mod is outstanding, our adjustments were only to appease our tastes in this "real time" program. We are very experienced in almost all RTS games, so we are putting these adjustments to a very good test. So far, after many, many games...we are very comfortable that our changes have improved the play...at least for us.

Like Blother said, get you and your friends into the Skype group so we can all chat a bit more easily. You can add puglinic as a contact and I will add you.

But I'm still not buying the resource boosts. I'd recommend you at least cut the starting elec down to, say, 200, so you at least have to build a Rod before you get to level 2. What's going to inevitably happen (not every game, mind you, but it's still worrisome) is that someone will go 2 right from the start of the game, send a Hench to scout and find someone who's taking a slower approach, build a CC behind their base and start hammering out creatures as soon as level 2 hits (which would be like 30 seconds in). If you're going to have high starting resources, at least alter Quick-Start, but keep Standard the same. Though, an alternative would be to up the research costs accordingly.

Not everyone is great at expanding fast & these adjustments allow for those particular folks to play more passively early on

Meanwhile, the more aggressive players take advantage of the boost to roll right over them. To be honest, I don't think passivity ought to be encouraged, since it enables turtlers who do nothing all game but hole up in their base and then wonder why their walls of towers don't stop them from getting smashed at Level 5.

As for the Rod change, that's never really come up as an issue before. There's generally enough elec to go around to survive on conversions until you can get back on your feet.

I know it might sound like I'm bashing on your mod. I'm really not trying to. I don't mind the idea of having the game more based around defense (although, IC was meant to be a fast-paced game from the start), but I think it could be handled differently in some ways. You actually presented this at a good time, as IC seems to be creeping out of hibernation.

Also, I know you say the mod works well for you and your friends, and I'm sure it does. But I know from experience that what works well in a small group of friends is not necessarily going to work out in the general IC community.

Anyway, get on our Skype group and bring your friends and playtesting shall commence posthaste.

~Steve

[eddieballgame]

Thanks for the input, & I did not think you were "bashing" our changes. One of the neat things about this game is one can make adjustments per tastes. Your points are well taken & will keep them in mind. I will also check out "Skype".