Latest Changes

[Azzer]

Code Changes:
+ "Drive-By" now gives the same information that "Fly-Over" used to give (the old drive-by no longer exists). "Fly-Over" intelligence reports are now a "mini spy scan" - giving you any news generated within the past 15 minutes real time, but with all IDs stripped out (replaced simply with "[somebody]"). This 15 minute period could be risky and misleading - an event that occured early last tick (ie 16 minutes ago) can be missed, and with all IDs appearing simply as "somebody" it can be hard to tell exactly what is going on. The development cost and ETA for fly-overs has been increased, and the development ETA for hacking has also been increased.
+ Remaining under 10 land no longer provides immunity. There is no longer a minimum land check on attacks. The purpose of this feature was to protect beginners, which it no longer did. It was never intended as a mechanic for high scoring players to remain immune to incoming, that was a clear abuse of mechanics.
+ "Delete" and "Sleep" confirmation strings when marking for sleep or deletion, are no longer case-sensitive.
+ Note on all unit initiatives: I did an "initiative re-shuffle" after doing all the updates below. Basically this keeps the firing order, but spaces out every unit initiative in gaps of 10. I do this when too many units are starting to be plugged in to the "gaps" with odd initiative values, and to make space for future changes. The only firing orders that actually got altered (ie firing earlier/later than they used to) are those mentioned below.

Protestor Route:
+ Hippy Van initiative changed to fire after Gargoyles, before Iron Golems and Sorcerers (Iron Golem initiative also changed, see below).
+ Violent Demonstrator health has been increased to ***, ETA changed to 2, and targetting changed to NLD/NLT/LET.
+ Political Mastermind cost has been reduced to £40,000, health damage increased, and armour damage decreased severely.
+ Rebel has changed immensely (like a new unit). Now STUNS instead of kills. Costs £21,000. Targets pure LET. Initiative changed to fire before Vampires, after Secret Agents and the new Fanatic (see below). Stats are Health: **, Armour: *, Health Damage: **, Armour Damage: *.
+ Fanatic targetting has changed to LET/INN. Initiative changed to just before the new Rebel unit, after Secret Agents. Stats now Health: ****, Armour: *, Health Damage: *****, Armour Damage: *.
+ Extremist has changed quite a lot. Cost has increased to £65,000, initiative changed to fire after F-117, before Bunkers. It has also been changed to close range only, and targetting LET/NLD instead of LET/ALL. Stats are Health: ***, Armour: *, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: ******.

Thug Route:
+ Biker initiative changed to fire after Strikers, before Terrorists. Armour has been increased to ***.
+ Nutters and Attack Dogs have switched placed in the tech tree (develop Attack Dogs first). Attack Dogs are now a research item, and Nutters are now a construction item.
+ Nutter has changed to £10,000 cost, and is now a close-range disabler that targets LET/ALL. Stats have changed to Health: *, Armour: ***, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: **.
+ Arsonist unit has been replaced with the equivalent of a new unit (same name). It is an NLT unit, fires all three ticks, disables, at a cost of £30,000. Initiative fires after Crazed Droids (initiative also changed, see below), before Political Mastermind. Targetting is NLD/ALL. Stats are Health: **, Armour: *, Health Damage: **, Armour Damage: ****.
+ Terrorist Leader armour damage has been increased to ***.

Military Route:
+ Shock Trooper armour increased.
+ Sniper armour damage increased.
+ Humvees now cost £28,000, and all combat stats have been changed (now read as Health: *, Armour: *****, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: *).
+ EMP Warrior unit has been removed from the game.
+ Paratrooper cost reduced to £30,000, targetting changed to LET/NLT/ALL. Stats modified to Health: *, Armour: ***, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: ***.
+ Harrier health has increased.
+ F-117 ETA is now 6, reduced from 8.

Robotic Route:
+ Shield Android ETA changed to 3, and targetting changed to LET/ALL. Armour reduced slightly.
+ Nanobot Armour Damage increased to **. Health increased slightly. Targetting changed to LET/INN/ALL.
+ Crazed Droids have changed in purpose. Their cost is now £61,000. They target ALL, and fire close range only. Initiative changed to fire after Werewolfs, and before the new Arsonist unit (before Political Masterminds). Their stats are now Health: *, Armour: *****, Health Damage: **, Armour Damage: **.
+ Scrap Bot minimum conversion rate increased slightly.
+ Gargantua cost lowered to £1,000,000 - meaning you now get roughly 25% more Gargantua from conversions. Gargantua now fires both middle tick and close tick, not just the middle tick. Armour, health damage, and armour damage all increased.

Special Ops Route:
+ Chemical Sprayer has been replaced with a "Stealth Gardener", a stealth unit with an ETA of 5, and a stealth reveal of 2, able to handle 400 plants a tick. The cost is £10,000, and the stats otherwise not much more than a standard gardener. The development for this is called "Turnip Costumes", though the development stats are the same as the old chemical sprayer development.
+ Bunkers stats have been halved, and the cost almost halved to £95,000.
+ Sentry Turret stats have been halved, and the cost almost halved to £115,000.
+ Assassin armour reduced very slightly. Bonus against undead changed from -75% health damage and armour damage, to -50% in each.
+ Secret Agent bonus against undead changed from -75% health damage and armour damage, to -50% in each.
+ Steel Wall has been replaced with an "Armoured Car", an ETA 4 mobile highly armoured unit. Their initiative has been changed to fire after Scrap Bots, before Strikers. The development for this unit is "Bulletproof Glass". The stats are Health: *, Armour: *****, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: *.
+ Puppet Master initiative improved to fire after Tyrant Drones, before Heavy Weapons.

Fantasy Route:
+ Gargoyle unit is now classified as "Undead", instead of "Machine/Vehicle".
+ Mummy unit now fires all three ticks, and has had it's ETA reduced to 3. It now fires after Automotons, but before Petrol Bombers.
+ Vampires now fire all three ticks, but their cost has increased to £75,000.
+ Bunker Buster unit has been removed from the game.
+ Witches bonuses against thugs have been removed. Their cost is increased to £35,000. They now fire close range as well as medium. ETA is now 4. Combat stats are now Health: ****, Armour: **, Health Damage: ***, Armour Damage: *.
+ All of the Sorcerer's combat stats have been tweaked (some a little bit, some a lot). The stats are now Health: **, Armour: ****, Health Damage: **, Armour Damage: ****. Their cost is now £58,000.
+ Iron Golem combat stats have all been tweaked slightly (stats still read as Health: *, Armour: ****, Health Damage: *, Armour Damage: *). Their cost is now £30,000. Their ETA has reduced to 3, and they now fire all three ticks. Their initiative has been changed to fire after Gargoyles and Hippy Vans (hippy van initiative also changed, see above), before Sorcerers.
+ Siren's Armour has increased to ***. Their cost has increased to £50,000.
+ Dragon cost has decreased to £78,000, their combat stats are now Health: **, Armour: *****, Health Damage: *****, Armour Damage: *****. Special bonus against POM's removed.
+ Various fantasy unit descriptions have been changed to hint more obviously at their "hidden bonuses". Read through them to find them.

 

[Souls]

Puppets seem so appetizing now!

 

[Dark_Angel]

[20:27] <DA> + Terrorist Leader armour damage has been increased to ***.
[20:27] <DA>
[20:27] <DA> that is seriously interesting

I'm a thug player through and through, but would be interested to know what prompted this change?

 

[Azzer]

I'm a thug player through and through, but would be interested to know what prompted this change?

Probably best explained here

(also in reply to any other similar questions from anyone )

 

[Dark_Angel]

I'm a thug player through and through, but would be interested to know what prompted this change?

Probably best explained here

(also in reply to any other similar questions from anyone )

Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a ***** he's a hero

?

 

[Martin]

All I'd say Joey is that all the changes have been thought about it in the grand scheme of things, how it would work with the route, looked at from many different perspectives by several people and spawning many hours of discussions. It wouldn't be fair to explain to everyone exactly what the routes should do?

 

[Davis]

i think he said something along the lines of "I wake up and sees a lot of changes should i kill myself?"

or maybe he said see no change kill myself

on a more serious not, Azzer, me being a non memorizer, and i'm sure there are many others who don't know every units previous *'s and what not, and maybe not in this post but i thought when you used to put up the updates on portal you would say it in the manor of "changed X unit from *** AD to **** AD" so that people like myself can actually see how drastic the changes were/weren't

 

[Steve_God]

Someone's been busy?
*Gets reading/processing....*

 

[Garrett]

ugh lost my post. no matter. short form. whoever acted as 'advisors' and support these moves as a good thing need shot. at the very least you should know better than to be this dumb. (don't care if your name is martin, darksider, or azzer. seriously bad moves here.)

the changes suck. there are 40 +'s for units. my prediction is that 75% or 30 of them will be changed prior to next round.

prot:
rebels were the anti ninja unit. now they stun, which is ok however, there is no LET firing after they stun. oh and they don't fire close so whatever they were stunning to set up for nothing but blockers firing, don't help out last tick. BRILLIANCE!

thugs:
sweet move on the dogs, but crappy move on the nutters especially after seeing how you blessed the arsonists with firing all ticks. SUPER!

military:
Removed Emp, didn't change the init on paras. So now that VD have LET as their 3rd target slot and emps are gone, all I need to do is have my alliance rush PA for dominance. Outstanding!

All you needed to do was remove the emp's specialized damage and let it strip armour for harriers. harriers are a suck rush unit. f117's are still expensive as well as the rest of the route so you can't get f117's in any kind of large number and have anything else of relevance. best bet: f117's and rangers only to try and attack SO.

Spec Op:
Visibility was the only problem. Generic tech's really suck. get rid of them and just make the sprayer stealth. it was dumb to give away that you didn't have spike traps with sprayers, but had stealth geos. Sigh!

Fantasy:
All kinds of meh. Mummies still irrelevant as Gargs are the unit most typically rushed and fire before pb's too. Mystic still by and large really bad.



Have 'fun' with the round guys and gals. Mid round there will be 5 threads 7 pages each - with only 2 threads for a total of 8 posts worth reading - about combat changes. These moves weren't in the interest of 'global direction' other than a small clique got together and said 'here's how i want to play'. Well since you few folks will be the only ones left, I guess it's fair! Enjoy.

/goes back to lurking.

 

[Polo]

ugh lost my post. no matter. short form. whoever acted as 'advisors' and support these moves as a good thing need shot. at the very least you should know better than to be this dumb. (don't care if your name is martin, darksider, or azzer. seriously bad moves here.)

the changes suck. there are 40 +'s for units. my prediction is that 75% or 30 of them will be changed prior to next round.

prot:
rebels were the anti ninja unit. now they stun, which is ok however, there is no LET firing after they stun. oh and they don't fire close so whatever they were stunning to set up for nothing but blockers firing, don't help out last tick. BRILLIANCE!

thugs:
sweet move on the dogs, but crappy move on the nutters especially after seeing how you blessed the arsonists with firing all ticks. SUPER!

military:
Removed Emp, didn't change the init on paras. So now that VD have LET as their 3rd target slot and emps are gone, all I need to do is have my alliance rush PA for dominance. Outstanding!

All you needed to do was remove the emp's specialized damage and let it strip armour for harriers. harriers are a suck rush unit. f117's are still expensive as well as the rest of the route so you can't get f117's in any kind of large number and have anything else of relevance. best bet: f117's and rangers only to try and attack SO.

Spec Op:
Visibility was the only problem. Generic tech's really suck. get rid of them and just make the sprayer stealth. it was dumb to give away that you didn't have spike traps with sprayers, but had stealth geos. Sigh!

Fantasy:
All kinds of meh. Mummies still irrelevant as Gargs are the unit most typically rushed and fire before pb's too. Mystic still by and large really bad.



Have 'fun' with the round guys and gals. Mid round there will be 5 threads 7 pages each - with only 2 threads for a total of 8 posts worth reading - about combat changes. These moves weren't in the interest of 'global direction' other than a small clique got together and said 'here's how i want to play'. Well since you few folks will be the only ones left, I guess it's fair! Enjoy.

/goes back to lurking.

What the hell have you been smoking?

 

[Turnip2k]

Sorry Garett, but I'd take another look at the unit stats.

 

[Iamsmart]

Anybody else dislike the new fly-over change?

 

[Tombi]

Anybody else dislike the new fly-over change?

Head to http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3159 and suggest what i did then

 

[damfrankie]

hm, i might be missing it, but it seems to me that the already impopular Extremist route is now totally killed and could as well be taken out of the game; pity.

 

[DarkSider]

I can't say i support all changes or that i think those are enough, tho i do appreciate shaking the units stats every now and then (preferably more frequent) So give them a bit of time to see how they fit, i'm pretty sure perfect balance can't be discovered over 2-3 days of testing but I at least appreciate the freshness those unit changes will bring in the game
Now if only we would get some game mechanics changes aswell

 

[Twigley]

I got ignored on IRC so ...

On the topic of "Mini spy scans"

[22:49] <Twigley> Its a retarded change
[22:49] <Twigley> Dunno why the hell it was made
[22:49] <Twigley> I dont see any advantage
[22:49] <Twigley> What so ever
[22:49] <Twigley> Its pointless.

[22:53] <Twigley> Do the advantages of the fact that: Alliances that already have mass inc at start who aint at the top will have their ids put together asap. Top allies wont as they never get hit and when their smaller members do, 1/2 defend max not 8/9, make up for the fact we have a mini spy thing now

 

[Garrett]

Sorry Garett, but I'd take another look at the unit stats.

dur dur dur.

it's why I made a prediction and put it into writing. evaluate the statements after the round. I may even drop in so you can tell me 'you were right' or 'you were wrong'. I care not either way, but this isn't a positive move in the least. Time will tell, I simply went on record with it.

OR

you could give me the actual unit 'stats' and not the imaginary stars and other shizzle. until then gtfo with such statements. i looked the representation of the stats already or I wouldn't have posted at all. :/

 

[DarkSider]

I think you're jumping to conclusions twigs, top allies need alot of members online to defend and since the good allies (the very top ones) know that best way to grow is to buy just minimal troops and defend with most members they will get their id's out pretty damn fast imo

Also if the solo's / crap allies are identified fast i don't see it as a big deal really. The only change will be that the allies/players unable to cope with inc will have a slower growth first days and make them less apealing / push them out of range of top allies and those will have to fight between themselfs pretty damn early. So imo it should be a slow growth filled with action for everybody. However, time will tell

 

[Turnip2k]

As you wish garett - I'm not spending time answering all the points in your post though. The changes will be interesting, but I think you haven't looked closely enough at how they will affect things on the whole. I may be wrong. Time will tell.

 

[Garrett]

What the hell have you been smoking?

nothing, why you holdin? i know what you've been saying. i'm glad you are all able to comfort yourself with such things as labelling me a 'tunnelvisioner' and will be happy to accept apologies when you, azzer, and anyone else who can't handle discussions or criticisms of the changes find out that people other than those 'on board' can have a valid point.

i have started to make a txt file of exact long term downstream problems of how subtly you've changed the fundamentals of some routes and will time stamp it and email it to someone else by this weekend so it can be revealed at round end.

just cuz i say the stuff isn't good, doesn't mean I don't have points worth discussing and since it's implemented does running me down do any good? does my post change things?

no you lot who just keep calling names because you don't agree with what i have to say just become more pathetic as time marches on. the big picture is that azzer is going to refine this game out of existence by continually listening to the same sycophantic people time in and time out.

so my prediction is in writing, and my 'global view' will also be in writing. then you all can cry, whine, throw parties, hug each other or whatever you do. I can't sit here and banter back because it's all just words til it starts ticking and real examples start happening. so I've got RL to worry about and will check back in a couple months to compare.