RELEASE 3 IS OUT!!! LINUX, PC, OSX!

[treba]

im not really sure....would you rework them so they fit better into annex?
if so, what about conflict?

[Ishmaru]

im not really sure....would you rework them so they fit better into annex?
if so, what about conflict?

Yes they will be reworked to fit, compatibility with annex tilesets, more space for bases, more room for larger armies, and more resources.

Yes I will add conflict to annex, I'm making the single land bridge, larger as it is too small for annex games, and a small bridge in the north and south too. Actually I'm making two versions of conflict, a 1v1 and a 2v2. Any other maps?

[Hagekura]

I want 4hills8kings to be in Annex! because I often play this map in megaglest.

[Ishmaru]

I redone how defense structures work:

3 defense structures: Gun Turret (replaces bunker/anti infantry), Rocket Turret (anti vehicle/anti air) and EML Turret (heavy long range anti vehicle)

Population penalty reduced to 1 per defense structure (was 3 in beta 1). You can place lots of turrets now, however they are more vulnerable than before, especially vs siege units.

I want 4hills8kings to be in Annex! because I often play this map in megaglest.

I could do that, would it be an issue if its only 4 players? Since Annex is much more resource heavy than MG so I try to keep the player count to a max 4.

Any more good MG maps?

[ElimiNator]

I must say the ground textures kind of clash in that tile-set.

[Coldfusionstorm]

why the **** would you artificially limit players??

[Mr War]

Man that vid is beautiful. The muzzle flashes are great

[Ishmaru]

Thank you!

I must say the ground textures kind of clash in that tile-set.

Yea its tough trying to be able to have multiple biomes with only 5 surfaces to choose from.

why the **** would you artificially limit players??

Like I said limited them because Annex is more taxing on the system than MG.

[Coldfusionstorm]

......Well, i wouldnt, altho i see why and what you are trying to acomplish

[Omega]

why the **** would you artificially limit players??

Like I said limited them because Annex is more taxing on the system than MG.

Hmm, why not have an eight player map, but have the player setup so it's easily compatible with four players? So in a 2v2v2v2 map, generally it'd be player 1 and 2 against 3 and 4 and so on, but to make it more compatible for four players, it could be 1 and 5 against 2 and 6, etc. Sure, annex might be too taxing with 8 players for many, but for those with power to burn, they'd likely be able to handle it, not to mention we can expect the engines to only improve in performance in the future.

[Ishmaru]

I redid the menu screen. This is it rendered in 3DS Max:

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/annexmenu.1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/annexmenu3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/annexmenu4.jpg[/img]
[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/annexmenu5.jpg[/img]PS: this new menu is based on Chasm Mod menu:
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=chasm+mod#/d2ucgkj

Also Here are some MG maps that I edited for Annex Use:

Conflict  (There is two versions in Annex: 1v1 and 2v2)

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/2v2_conflict_mg.jpg[/img]

Fracture (edited map to use cliffs)

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/2v2_fracture_mg.jpg[/img]

Forrest for Four

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/4_forest_for_4.jpg[/img]

Valley of Death

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/2_valey_of_death.jpg[/img]

Also a new Annex specific map:

Platforms

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/2_platform.jpg[/img]

[Omega]

Wow, that's an epic main menu! The maps look pretty good too, though the sands on conflict grow repetitive fast, and I've never cared much personally for the concept of one massive resource "clump" such as Platforms displays.

[Hagekura]

>new menu screen
Simply awesome...

[Mr War]

Wow, just wow. It's seeing stuff like this that makes me try harder, thanks

[Ishmaru]

Wow, just wow. It's seeing stuff like this that makes me try harder, thanks

>new menu screen
Simply awesome...

Wow, that's an epic main menu!

Thanks! Now I need to change menu music, The current annex one really doesn't go with this layout.

The maps look pretty good too, though the sands on conflict grow repetitive fast, and I've never cared much personally for the concept of one massive resource "clump" such as Platforms displays.

Ill add more texture to conflict, as for Platforms its the only one with the giant resource patch, its there if anyone is interested to try something different

[Ishmaru]

New menu In game, Has its own custom Camera angles! Also a new Logo!

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/18/17106/thumb_620x2000/annex_beta_2_menu.jpg[/img]

Also I'm doing a few scenarios. I'm not much of a Lua coder though, so they are simple, but still fun. If anyone is interested in making some Annex scenarios/maps let me know!

[Omega]

New menu In game, Has its own custom Camera angles! Also a new Logo!

Very nice. I can't help but think that the logo has a "cut off" sort of look, though.

Also I'm doing a few scenarios. I'm not much of a Lua coder though, so they are simple, but still fun. If anyone is interested in making some Annex scenarios/maps let me know!

I'm afraid I haven't the time at the moment (or in the foreseeable future ), but I can offer some ideas. General ideas include a king of the hill scenario, a scenario where you must protect an AI controlled vulnerable unit, a scenario where you must defeat a "boss" (make a new unit only used in the scenario, placed with Lua, give it extra high HP and devastating attacks which would require tactics and strong unit choices to fight), or a scenario where players defend from waves of foes, with each wave being largely comprised of a single armour type, and thus being advantageous to use certain attack types.

Oh, and another unrelated idea:

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[url=https://docs.megaglest.org/index.php?title=Annex&action=edit]Create the Annex wiki page[/url].

[softcoder]

Looks very nice, I've updated intro docs on wikia to try to explain some of the new intro settings you can use for MG, still need to add loads of documentation, but it will take time. Great work Ishmaru.

[treba]

i wil try to create something like the starcraft 2 challange missions (which are meant to teach the player how to use the different unit types). they will probably head into the direction what omega suggested.
but it may take some time as i will use it as a testing ground for my editor. so don't espect it too soon.

btw: great work! when will you ship the next beta?

[Ishmaru]

@Omega yes wiki page is long overdue. I want to have a beta 2 Release first though.

@softcoder thanks for the documentation, still unsure what I want to do as an intro, I may not have one this release, depending on how much time I have.

@treba
That would be great! For now training missions for units, and challenge maps would be the best. I already have 10 scenarios with Beta 2. Take your time, we can always release any scenario as separate downloads and include them with annex in later releases.
When i get around to making Annex's other Faction I would like to make Story/Campaign scenarios. Focusing on the Hero character (falcon) and maybe some other campaign only heros.

As for next beta, should be soon!As of now this is the content in beta 2:

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Menu (new)

Techtree:
Base Battle
Pre Deployed
Infantry Only
Tech level1
Tech Level 1+2
Unlocked (new)

Factions:
Alliance

Units:
Refinery
Warehouse
Barracks
Factory
Hangar
Tech Lab
Silo
Gun Turret (new)
Rocket Turret (new)
EML Turret
Mobile Refinery (new)
Grunt
Rocket Grunt
Mini Gunner
Mortar Grunt
Guardian
EML Grunt
Falcon
Harvester
IFV Rocket
Battle Tank
Striker
EML Walker
MRLS
Destroyer
Scout
Gunship
Harrier
Bomber

Tilesets:
Wasteland High
Wasteland Low
Toxic High (new)
Toxic Low (new)

Maps:
1v1 Conflict (new)(mg)
2v2 Conflict (new)(mg)
2 Great Desert
2 Head On
2 Indus
2 Longroad
2 One on One (new)(mg)
2 Platform (new)
2 Shallow River
2 Valley of Death (new)(mg)
2v2 Fracture (new)(mg)
2v2 Urban Rumble
3 Delta
3 Peninsula (new?)
4 Forest
4 Great Desert
4 Island
4 Rivers
4 Swamp
4 Wetlands

Scenarios:
Annex Practice (new)
Hidden Airbase (new)
Infantry Only (new)
Island Siege (new)
late Start (new)
Out Numbered (new)
Pincer Attack (new)
River Ambush (new)
Unfair Duel (new)
Urban Rumble (new)

Soundtrack:
Menu
"Thermal Laser Satellites" by Thermal Laser
In game
 "Industrial Factory" by: Shadrock
 "Astral Assualt" by: Shadrock (new)
 "Epic With a Vengeance" by: Shadrock (new)
 "Under the Influence of Jazz" by: Shadrock (new)
 "Artificial Mind Games" by: Shadrock

(New) Gameplay changes:
Factories + Hangars heal their respective units when close by.
New Particle FX, Including Muzzle Flashes!
Units now have icons appear above them when doing certain actions.
New In game GUI
Refineries can be rebuilt if destroyed.
Scouts are now producible at the Barracks.
Major change to Resource collection. Crystals have double resources, and Mobile Refinery allows for collection of
resources far away from main base. Standard workers gather 3 credits per run (1 credit in beta 1)
Major chance to Population Cap. Max is 75. Defense structures now only take 1 slot (3 slots in beta 1), Harvesters now
take 5 slots each (3 slots in beta 1), Scouts do not take any slots (1 slot in Beta 1) but are limited to 5,
Falcon (hero) takes 5 Slots (1 in beta 1), Players cannot mass harvesters as they use to in Beta , I personally recommend 4 harvesters per player.

Misc:
Moved Art/sound directories out of main folder to Base_Battle folder. Thus reducing data mixing.
Reduced Frames in most units to reduce payload on Computer
Increased brightness/saturation of textures
Slight change to structure Textures
Changed skin of "Falcon" unit
New Logo
Player 4 is now Purple instead of Yellow

[Ishmaru]

Teaser ahead

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Who are these people?? A Mercenary/Terrorist force. Their goals, and their financial backers are still unknown.

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/screen26.jpg[/img]

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/screen32.jpg[/img]

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/screen18.jpg[/img]

In Real Life this faction was put together to give me an excuse to bring back old Alliance models, which were scrapped for various reasons, and I gave them a fresh new skin (with purple night cammo).

FYI THIS IS NOT THE NORTHERN EMPIRE. They will be a separate entity completely.

This faction will appear in a special prologue campaign, which wont be in beta 2 but either a  later release or as an addon to Annex. This faction wont be playable for humans as all units were built with workarounds to help Ai but would be very Overpowered in the hands of a human. Not to mention the techtree is small+simple.
However may appear as a cpu only choice in custom games if my feature request is implemented:
https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=7927.msg79632#msg79632

[Mr War]

that dual barrelled tank kinda reminds me of the Harkonnen Devastator from Dune II crossed with a mammoth . Very cool, what's it called?

[Ishmaru]

that dual barrelled tank kinda reminds me of the Harkonnen Devastator from Dune II crossed with a mammoth . Very cool, what's it called?

Well none of the Shadow units have names yet. Technically it was the Tank Destroyer from the alliance faction before it got replaced by the giant two legged walker.

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Annex_3_AD.jpg[/img]

I was planning on just calling it Heavy Tank, unless someone else thinks of a better name. Its got firepower, 2 cannons is better than one! but about the same armor as a standard tank, but as such cheaper and faster to build, so you could have a few!

[treba]

hey ishmaru, what do think about creating a git where everyone interested can already have a look into the current status?
i would really like to have that, to be able to start creating scenarios with the current tech

[Ishmaru]

Yea setting up a git hub would be a good idea. Beta 2 realease is sooo close though I'm going to need to make a linux version somehow. I have windows and mac osx version ready.