Apocalyptic Dawn (formerly known as Military)

[John.d.h]

Some nit-picking and assorted other thoughts.

First, the nit-picking: Grenadier, Hangar, Headquarters.  Some of these might just be international spelling differences, though, so they may or may not be technically correct... oh, and don't you people spell "armor" with a 'u'?

Second, the other stuff:

I'm not sure that the farm idea makes a whole lot of sense.  If this is supposed to be a modern military base, I doubt they'll be growing their own food, milking their own cattle, etc.  I think using power as a resource instead of food would be better.  Maybe both (buildings require power, soldiers require rations/supplies)?  Still, then the rations/supplies would probably come from something like a supply drop-zone, kinda like the one in C&C:Generals, but serving a different purpose.

There doesn't seem to be any defensive structures in your tree.  Might I suggest a machine gunner for anti-ground and a SAM battery for anti-air?  The gunner would be a mobile unit, but he'd have to stop to set up his gun before he could fire (i.e. morph).  The SAM battery could also be mobile if it were mounted on a truck or something.

As for air units, do you really think a stealth fighter is a good idea?  First of all, planes have to keep moving or they'll fall (VSTOL fighters like the Harrier are an exception, but they can only hover for a limited time), so they'd have to take off, attack, and then fly back to land, but to the best of my knowledge Glest doesn't really have a way of doing that.  Secondly, the whole idea of having a stealth is that the enemy can't see it, and I'm pretty sure there's no way to do that yet either.  The obvious solution here is to use a helicopter instead.  If you wanted to have two different air units, you could have the heli and then a tiltrotor aircraft (think V-22 Osprey) which would be faster and more expensive and would probably require an additional technological advance.

[modman]

There was a helicopter, but I opted not to reuse it because it wasn't exactly as good as I wouldv'e liked.

[bisurge]

How long?
Seriously, I've been waiting forever for a decent free RTS where you shoot each other with guns.

[RTSman]

how long what.  what you want is a FPS game

[Omega]

Omega do you have Office 2007 because I could just send you the PowerPoint.

I use Open Office, so as long as it is .PP and NOT .PPX or whatever the new format is, you're good.

Now everyone else, I am working on the website, and have been doing so long hand around the clock. It's coded long hand, and makes heavy use of CSS and <DIV>. It'll be up before the end of the week. Hopefully it will answer some questions. The units page there states that there is an AA-Launcher which shoots six Surface to Air Missles for heavy air damage, and the watch tower actually is a defensive unit (yeah, it's a producer and a defender, new functions, gotta flaunt it).

I agree about the farm, any ideas?

And concerning the stealth fighter, please don't complain, cause I spent like eight hours modeling and texturing it to perfection... :'-(

And in case anyone wants to shoot things, I recommend Halo 3. Of course, if you want to shoot things in Glest, THis is your dream come true (and a pacifist's nightmare!)

[bisurge]

how long what.  what you want is a FPS game

Do you know what RTS stands for?
Right now starcraft is old.

[modman]

FPS=First Person Shooter
RTS=Real Time Strategy

Anyhooo...
I have the tech tree diagram that I procratinated into showing below.

Questions? Comments? Please ask away; my brain is fully functional!

[Omega]

Oh, and like I replied in the email Modman, I'm going to try to take our ideas, merge them together, and I'll send it to you, if you like it, we can get started and I'll release the website (gotta redo the units). However, if you don't, you can make some changes to that tech tree until we are both satisfied that it's good, sound good? :-P (And the smilies aren't working, so this'll do)

[titi]

wow, this is a monster techtree!
Do you think all this will ever be build in a normal glest match?
There are enough units and buildings for two or three factions.
I think you will need special designed maps for all these buildings/units.

[mictes]

13K have two factions and everyone of it have 34 units ;-)
13K need specially maps, but this here not.Look again at the techtree:
The Grenadier can produce a mine, the humve can produce a mine (mines are so small...)

[John.d.h]

Holy smokes that's a huge tech tree.  Um... just so you know, a hangar is a place for aircraft, so it's not really where you'd make your tanks... and why does your humvee produce units?  That's just silly.

[bisurge]

Maybe they can make a limited amount of units, like when you make a humvee it comes supplied with units inside.

[modman]

For the Humvee, I just wanted a Summoner-like unit for this faction so it can be as mobile as possible.  The Humvee was the best I could come up with, but I'm always listening to suggestions!

Also, it's just a visual problem here, but the Tank is built by the Automaton...

[John.d.h]

Also, it's just a visual problem here, but the Tank is built by the Automaton...

Oh, right.  I just read the diagram wrong.

[Omega]

I have a new tech tree map that I gotta upload (on my school computers right now). It improves some things, and I'll let you guys decide if you like it. Although I just can't imagine a summoner type unit here. Not sure if that's all that good. I mean, the unit can't move, which goes against the high speed of the humvee.

[modman]

Military is versitile, so I needed to make a mobile military producer.

[bisurge]

How's the AI going? I don't want to play against enemies that just sit there.

[modman]

It's...coming along.  I believe I found the problem, but I'm waiting on units' models.

[Omega]

Here's a new rendering of a possible tech tree:



And a brief description of some new units and upgrades:
~Automaton - Robot Worker (needs Artificial Intelligence upgrade)
~Surveillance - Increases sight of outpost from 15 to 25
~Plutonium Extraction - Allows the use of the nuclear special attack, requires explosives, titanium refining, and the automaton
~Artificial Intelligence - Allows the constuction of robots (Automaton)
~Titanium Refining - Increases the defense of the Tank, Stealth Bomber, and Humvee
~Stealth Research - Allows the creation of the stealth bomber
~Aerodymics - Increases speed, defense, and attack power of the Stealth Bomber
~Explosives - Allows the production of the IED, Grenader, and RPG Trooper

Nearly every model will be remodelled except the following, which are either good already or done:
-Private (fine)
-Reactor (fine)
-Factory (fine)
-Outpost (done)
-Stealth Bomber (done)

This is not the final version of the layout, and is subject to change.
@Modman, please submit your opinions of the layout and ideas, once we get the perfect tech tree map, I'll start modeling the other units, starting with the Humvee, which I think will be fun to mod, especially the burnt out 'dead' model.

Summary: Once we agree on a tech tree map, I'll get to work with modelling and stuff, and it'll get done soon. Finals are next week (22nd), so I may be a bit slow. Sorry.

[firedeathbot]

looks cool, simililar to something i did a year or so ago, cept i used a tanks and planes, i just was too lazy to animate and rig human models at the time. after ive started back, blender isnt bad its texturing and animating that kills me, also glexemel is broken on ym cpu, if u need help can i have the xmls and see if i can find any probs?

[Omega]

You'll have to talk to modman about the xmls. I feel the opposite though. I don't mind animating, though texturing can be  pain, though unwrapping is the hardest. Modeling is somewhat in the middle, but depends on the model.

I'll happily borrow any models (unanimated, untextured or not) and give you credit. ;-D

[titi]

hi, did I miss something?
What's the current available download, still beta1?

[modman]

We're still waiting for models to be done, but Omega is it OK to release a beta without all new models?  The only new model I have is the Stealth Bomber.

[Omega]

Can you wait just a bit at least? I am almost done the private and I just have to do a bunch of animations, and I already have the models for the marine and infantry, but they haven't been animated yet either. Here's an image of the private so far. For some reason, the G3D viewer is positioning the shadows backwards, which means this is kinda hard to see the detail in it, but it'll look normal in the glest's shadows.
For this picture, I increased the brightness just a bit (but not too much less the unit look weird) just so that it'd be easier to see the details through those shadows. Tell me what you think, this wasn't an easy unit at all!

EDIT// The image is down. Be back up soon.

I also have completed all the weapons with very good textures, and I have them in a zip I was going to upload, but my internet is going so s__ty right now, so they'll have to wait. They're all in G3D and I don't know why I made the weapons first, but it's a good sign my modeling and texturing is improving...

[modman]

OK fine. (releaf) I'm kind of in no position to release a beta myself (alpha, whatever) so I was just testing the waters.  Don't worry, my position can change fast though!
BTW because of the icy chill from Canada, I've had a five day weekend.  Friday and Thursday were cancelled due to cold, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday.  Awesome! (It's not all good; 6 people died due to cold)