Topics

1

Off Topic / Elemental: War of Magic

« on: July 05, 2010, 03:46:04 AM »

Anyone else waiting anxiously for this game?

The game is in its second last beta stage and will hopefully come out August 24th (according to Stardock).

If you haven't heard of it, it's a turn based strategy game similar to Master of Magic. Its engine is also being marketed as extremely moddable (it uses XML and Python for modding).

Here is the website: http://www.elementalgame.com/

You can get in the beta by pre-ordering the game - be warned though, this game has a REAL beta and not the betas most people are used to. This is a beta which isn't meant for fun but for fixing the game and finding bugs.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

2

Red Army Suggestions / Red Army Tech Tree - a must for defeating Nazis

« on: February 02, 2010, 05:59:57 AM »

Hey guys,

Given that the current Red Army tech tree is linear and not very fun (Mustering Tent -> SSB -> Armory -> Tank Hall) I have created one under the framework and influence of existing tech trees.

I used the Wehrmacht and American factions as a guiding tool in order to create a tech tree as close and true to vanilla CoH while at the same time making it unique to the Soviets. The tech tree that I have created is based on the Soviet method of war in WWII: Deep Operations.

Put simply, Deep Operations involved two cruical phases during a Soviet attack: The breakthrough phase and the exploitation phase. The breakthrough phase was to be carried out by infantry, heavy tanks, and artillery support units of the Soviet army. The exploitation phase was to be carried out by massive, mobile, tank forces. This short explanation of Deep Operations is the motivator for why I grouped units and upgrades the way I did.

The tech tree itself is very simple and simply divides and categorizes existing units and upgrades into manageable "chunks" which the player may choose or not choose to pursue. This choice, I believe, is very important because at the moment there is very little decision making involved for the Soviet player in terms of teching.

I have separated the tech three into three tiers:

Tier 1 (the tier the player starts the game in)
Tier 2 (called "Deploy Breakthrough Forces")
Tier 3 (called Deploy Exploitation Forces")

Since the breakthrough phase was carried out by infantry, heavy tanks, and artillery, "Deploy Breakthrough Forces" is researched at the Soviet Support Barracks.

Since the exploitation phase was carried out primarily by Tank Armies, "Deploy Exploitation Forces" is researched at the Tank Hall.

Tier 1
Units available:
Engineer
Command Squad

Conscripts
Sharpshooter
Tank Hunter Squad

Upgrades available:
Extra Rifles
Men against Machine

Tier 2 - Deploy Breakthrough Forces
Units available:
Strelky

Mortar
Medic Truck
ZIS-2

T-70
T-90
IS-2
T34-76
Su-85

Upgrades Available:
Sturmovie Ingenery
Sharpshooter artillery call-in ability
Red Banner Strelky

Tier 3 - Deploy Exploitation Forces
Units available:
Guards

Upgrades available:
Shock Guards

ZIS-2 squad upgrade
Mortar squad upgrade

T34-85
SU-100

I have split the units and upgrades into groups which I think are natural and logical from the point of view of the player. I find that I invisibly go through these tiers when I play. The whole point to implementing them though, is to give the player a choice whether they want to tech up or not. This is desperately needed right now because the current "tech tree" is simply too linear.


All that's left is to figure out the costs for moving up these tiers. That's why I want you guys to first look over my tech tree and tell me if you like it and second, suggest what these tier upgrades should cost.

3

Balance Discussion / [1.04] Sharpshooter Deployment Speed

« on: February 02, 2010, 04:43:39 AM »

Hi,

I don't know if this is a bug that came with the latest patch but sharpshooter teams are taking FOREVER to reinforce. I don't recall this being a problem in earlier builds but I specifically set out today to test this out. It took me AT LEAST a minute to reinforce my squad - maybe longer. There needs to be a severe reduction in redeployment speed because right now my SS squads spend more time sitting at HQs and forward bases than actually fighting.

4

Bugs & Tech Support / NKVD upgrade still 200 munitions

« on: January 30, 2010, 11:08:58 PM »

Hey,

If I understand correctly, the rifles upgrade for conscripts should be 125 munitions with the new patch - but it looks like it's still 200.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/7119/nkvd200.jpg

5

Eastern Front / Soviet Assault Engineer Forces

« on: January 26, 2010, 05:34:25 AM »

If anyone is interested in the 'sturmovie ingenery' forces that are in the mod - here is a short youtube clip describing their use in WWII:

Russian body armor in WW2

I'll give a better translation since the one provided in the video (on the right hand side panel, isn't that great).

(0:00) "At this time new infantry units were being formed. August 19th 1943, region of Smolensk. During the past few weeks, Soviet infantry tried to capture a hill that was turned into a fortified area by German forces. After several unsuccessful attacks, the Soviet High Command ordered an extraordinary unit to join the battle." (0:23) The Germans threw everything they had at it but the Soviet soldiers pressed on as if not noticing it."

Nikolay Nikifofrov, the vice-president of the War History Institute: 'The brigade that entered the battle was equipped with body armor. At one point during the battle a Soviet soldier's gun jammed and a German officer unloaded a pistol clip into him. The Soviet soldier turned away and had the body armor absorb the hits. With the butt of his rifle, the Soviet soldier finished the German officer.'

(0:45) " These were soldiers of the engineer assault/sapper brigade. In addition to body armor, they were armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rifles, carried a large quantity of grenades and wore camouflaged coats. Not missing a beat in the heat of battle, the assault formation quickly closed the gap and entered hand-to-hand combat with the enemy."

(1:07) 'In the span of half an hour, the hill was captured which the infantry, over a period of two weeks, had not been able to take. During the assault, the brigade lost 2 men and 19 wounded. '

(1:22) "Until the end of the war, only 15 such units were created. They were the High Command's personal reserve formations and appeared where regular infantry forces proved to be unsuccessful. (1:33) Unfortunately, they could not become the basis for the entire army. Battles raged over vast distances, tens of thousands of soldiers died each day. Pressing into service fully trained, fully equipped formations such as these was impossible. Therefore the ordinary infantryman was equipped with simple and light equipment."

6

Bugs & Tech Support / 2 Bugs: Sharpshooter and T-34/85

« on: January 21, 2010, 07:44:12 PM »

Hey guys,

I just played a game and believe I've encountered two bugs.

The first: When the observer (the guy with the binocs) in my sharpshooter team died, the other team member was stuck in place. I could select him, order him to move, but he wouldn't actually move. This happened near a control point (they weren't capturing it, they just happened to be there) - so I don't know if that played a role. Throughout the game I've had sharpshooter team members die and I could move the remaining guy around, it just happened to this one squad.

Second bug: My T-34/85 was about to kill a Panzer 4, I believe, but for some weird reason it took 5+ shots to finish it off. This is kind of hard to explain but it did not miss, they were direct hits, I saw the animation - it even sometimes showed the "Rear Hit!" caption but the enemy tank would not die. Again, it took 5+ shots from the T-34/85 to kill a tank that had almost zero HP left - and all of the shots clearly hit the tank. What's going on?!

Those are the two that I encountered so far.

Great mod guys

7

Suggestions / Intro music?

« on: November 29, 2009, 05:30:39 AM »

You guys should totally use Sabaton's "Panzerkamf":

Panzerkampf / The Battle at Kursk / Отечественная война

8

Suggestions / ISU 152 - Drop the 'Juggernaut'

« on: October 27, 2009, 09:09:35 PM »

Thank you devs for putting the change in I just played a game where I got to call in an ISU-152 and it was BADASS. TOTAL animal killer

Just a small suggestion: Drop the name "Juggernaut" from the doctrine page and call it 'Zveroboy' or 'Animal Hunter' as it was nicknamed by the Soviets. Would be a nice addition IMO to signify the 'animal hunting' of the tiger, panther, and elefant tanks. Juggernaut just sounds so lame

Copied shamelessly from Wikipedia:

"The ISU-152 could also operate as a tank destroyer. In this role the vehicle inherited the nickname Zveroboy ("animal killer") from its predecessor the SU-152, for its ability to kill German Tigers, Panthers, and Elefants. For anti-tank operations there was a separate BR-540 armour-piercing round and charge. The large shells meant that a low fire rate of only one or two shots per minute was possible, but the large 48.9 kg warhead, fired at 600 m/s, was devastating to the target, often completely destroying it. At close range it could rip the turret off a tank."

Its other nicknames were "Glorious Beast" and "Big Hunter".