Re: thesoupiest's Combined Forces - Release 2 (2/14/11)
I've got good news and bad news. I'll start with the good news.
I've made a hell of a lot of progress. Absolutely all of the data lost from the flash drive has been either recovered or reproduced. A lot of sprites are hitting the chopping block and being redone, most noticeably the Combat Shotgun and Machine Guns. Some others, like the Auto-Shovel and the Tesla Rifle, are getting visual updates with attached AEmitters to give them some more character. Each faction is also being rebalanced and repriced as well. The logos you see on the first post of this topic are being increased in resolution and revamped, as will the in-game logos.
I have a full plan for all of the guns, tools, and bombs I will be making for each of the four factions, and I'm working through them rather quickly. I'm also paying close attention to the amount of lag produced by each new addition and doing my best to prevent anything from producing too much slowdown while still creating a spectacular visual effect.
The Heavy and Light Troopers have been completely remade in the way that they take damage. Both of them have ridiculous GibWoundLimits, but also custom wounds. A Trooper, in combat, is less likely to die of too MANY bullets, but rather too much damage caused by the wounds FROM the bullets. You may ask, "But thesoupiest, why bother with having a high GibWoundLimit if they're going to die anyway from damage? Surely it's just the same as the previous system, if not worse, because soldiers will not last as long." You would be right, if there wasn't a system in place to
extend the life of your soldiers. On a separate but related note, headshots are now much more satisfying to get on a Heavy or Light Trooper. Although the heads are far more resilient to simply taking bullets because of their higher GibWoundLimit, the wounds they take are major wounds like those produced by losing limbs instead of basic entry and exit wounds. A Heavy Trooper being shot in the face takes 50 damage and another 75 over the course of 15 seconds from bleeding damage. The bleeding stops after 15 seconds. The same amount of damage is taken from losing a limb. These changes, I think, will make combat more cinematic, as losing an arm or leg will create a sense of desperation, as your unit is basically doomed to die unless you have one of the aformentioned
life-extenders nearby. Light Troopers, however, will have their heads explode as a result of being shot in the head. Normal wounds in other parts of the body to Heavy and Light troopers will also cause bleeding damage, however much more slowly. This bleeding will stop after one minute, after having caused 60 damage.
My discovery of how attached AEmitters work means that there will be weapons with bayonets, laser sights, buzz saws, or other such doodads. Perhaps there will be a gun which fires by itself, constantly spewing bullets. I can imagine simply visual AEmitter use as well, such as the current effect I have in place on the Auto-Shovel.
I am very interested in making a Brutality Mod-esque stand-alone version of Cortex Command with this mod's weaponry and actors making up its arsenal. As the mod grows, adding to other factions, this standalone version would as well.
The Dummy faction will be making an appearance in the next release, and they'll be entering with a bang - The Masgard Direktorate joins the fray with the Goliath, a magnified Dreadnought with a heavy Railspike Rifle.
Craft will also likely appear in the next update, if only as a drop crate. Gibs are going to the biggest issue in producing craft.
The bad news?
Well...
