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

[Ishmaru]

Annex Beta 2 is out! Check first post!

[Mr War]

loving playing the new beta. 

[Ishmaru]

Thanks man!

Just did a test play with tomreyn, atze. Fun but pretty hard (if not almost impossible) to recover from serious attack. Any ideas as to how to help remedy this?

[Mr War]

I can beat CPU 1.0 first go just by building a defensive line of turrets and quick reaction groups, then wait to amass enough bombers to obliterate the enemy base. Which is a good start for me, very enjoyable. The only units that caught me out were the mortar dudes because of their long range

Love the mobile refinery especially.

The muzzle flashes look black on my PC. Maybe you could use some muzzle flash particles to hide the G3D flashes? Same particle logic can be applied to explosions on death etc.

[Ishmaru]

 Congrats! Bomber squads can be fun and devistateing!

 Yes I believe normals may be broken in muzzle flashes. On my fix list

Don't forget the scenarios included in beta 2!

[treba]

headless server is running as promised and doing good.

off playing annex, will give you my feedback later

edit: for some reason i don't have the hud when playing on the headless server. i thought it could be a problem with the self compiled binary (from megaglest svn) but as i remember, you said you'd use the standard binarys. did that change somehow? and where is the hud located, just to check if i forgot something on the server.

[Ishmaru]

Thank you very much Treba!

I actually noticed this myself when playing on annex.megaglest server. I just thought that I had disabled Huds.

hud.png is stored in each faction folder, if that helps, and yes I used standard megaglest binaries.

Good luck!

[treba]

alright, so now some feedback from my side:

i really, really like the menu, the design is just awesome. this alone makes me want to play the game.

can't say that finally, but i concerning the changes in the techtree, i have the feeling they are overall quite good.
i'm not so shure about the scout. it's so cheap and you can basically build an unlimited number of them. that makes it impossible to hide your strategie against human players (and i love cheese strategies that only work if the enemy gets totally suprised). one possible solution would be to make the scout an starcraft like observer (higher tech level again, but invisible and with detector for invisible units of the enemy). obviously, the needed skills would need to be implented upstream

i like the new tileset, but there are some textures which are a little bit ugly in my opinion. especially the water texture would be better if it was bigger, but that's again a shortfall of the engine i think (there a couple of threads on this topic, this one being the closest to solve my problem

the unit sounds are cool and they suite the units just fine, but i really don't like the female voice 

overall i really like the gameplay. it's fast and there're a lot of big fights and so on. actually it is exactly what i wanted c&c always to be. also, the fact that all units are range units and usually die quite fast solves some problems with the mg pathfinder, which sometimes drives the cpu usage to 100% if a lot of units block each other because only the first line is able to fight.
that makes annex generally perform quite good on the server.

what should also be mentioned here is your great guide, although i would have made it a pdf. that must have been a lot work!

so thank you alot for this great mod! hopefully, this version can start a small online community, as it is definitly worth to play already.

[Ishmaru]

alright, so now some feedback from my side:

i really, really like the menu, the design is just awesome. this alone makes me want to play the game.

can't say that finally, but i concerning the changes in the techtree, i have the feeling they are overall quite good.
i'm not so shure about the scout. it's so cheap and you can basically build an unlimited number of them. that makes it impossible to hide your strategie against human players (and i love cheese strategies that only work if the enemy gets totally suprised). one possible solution would be to make the scout an starcraft like observer (higher tech level again, but invisible and with detector for invisible units of the enemy). obviously, the needed skills would need to be implented upstream

i like the new tileset, but there are some textures which are a little bit ugly in my opinion. especially the water texture would be better if it was bigger, but that's again a shortfall of the engine i think (there a couple of threads on this topic, this one being the closest to solve my problem

the unit sounds are cool and they suite the units just fine, but i really don't like the female voice 

overall i really like the gameplay. it's fast and there're a lot of big fights and so on. actually it is exactly what i wanted c&c always to be. also, the fact that all units are range units and usually die quite fast solves some problems with the mg pathfinder, which sometimes drives the cpu usage to 100% if a lot of units block each other because only the first line is able to fight.
that makes annex generally perform quite good on the server.

what should also be mentioned here is your great guide, although i would have made it a pdf. that must have been a lot work!

so thank you alot for this great mod! hopefully, this version can start a small online community, as it is definitly worth to play already.

Thank you for your feedback!

Some of the ground textures does need alot of work: sand, water, and cliff textures particularly.
I see if i can get better voice overs as well.

Thanks for noticing the guide i was wondering what people thought of it

It would be nice to have it get that popular Hopefully, the master servers will get a bit more use soon!

[treba]

one more point that a friend of mine mentioned: the game could be a little bit more shiny and less dark, or in other words, could have more contrasts.

i personally really like the dark scifi environment. but the game can feel dark and still be shiny somehow, if you work with lights. i don't know what the engine allows you to do, as it lacks shadersupport, and i know the following comparison is a little bit unfair, but have a look:

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[url=http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Beta2ScreenE_AD.jpg][img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Beta2ScreenE_AD.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Beta2ScreenF_AD.jpg][img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Beta2ScreenF_AD.jpg[/img][/url]

an all of the image you can see particles, some are even quite similar (like the blue particles of the bombers in annex and the suvs in starcraft).
but for some reason, in annex they are a little bit...dark. they don't really light.
as it's the same story for megaglest overall, i wonder if that is just a limitation of the engine, but wc3 on the other hand, was also quite bright.

anyways, this is just an suggestion and it's you who decides how the look of the game will be

[titi_son]

Great thanks for beta 2.
I already thought you aren't continue making annex   

I really like it
its a bit different to megapack

I only played one game at this point but i really like it. (i will continue playing after this post)
but as always i have to say a bad thing 

In german language:


but that the only bug i found yet
lets go searching bugs ..eh i mean go playing

[Omega]

I only played one game at this point but i really like it. (i will continue playing after this post)
but as always i have to say a bad thing 

In german language:


but that the only bug i found yet
lets go searching bugs ..eh i mean go playing

Erm, what's the problem?

[Mr War]

Das ist nicht kaputt

_{Edit by Omega: Babylon says two "t"s}

[Ishmaru]

one more point that a friend of mine mentioned: the game could be a little bit more shiny and less dark, or in other words, could have more contrasts.

i personally really like the dark scifi environment. but the game can feel dark and still be shiny somehow, if you work with lights. i don't know what the engine allows you to do, as it lacks shadersupport, and i know the following comparison is a little bit unfair, but have a look:

an all of the image you can see particles, some are even quite similar (like the blue particles of the bombers in annex and the suvs in starcraft).
but for some reason, in annex they are a little bit...dark. they don't really light.
as it's the same story for megaglest overall, i wonder if that is just a limitation of the engine, but wc3 on the other hand, was also quite bright.

anyways, this is just an suggestion and it's you who decides how the look of the game will be

Yes game is dark. I wonder if diffuse values matter in megaglest, (my theory is that it doesn't) That could be one explanation as to why game is so dark. I really would like the game to have more vivid colors, but if you look at each unit textures you can see just how much i attempted to lighten the textures. Also geme seems darker/lighter depending on what OS you use. Its a bit frustrating.

[Ishmaru]

So editing the diffuse color can create some brightness when setting to pure white, but its very small difference...

So development wise, I took a break after Beta 2 release to work on Ludum Dare, as well as some personal things, so not to much is new.

Just some flame tanks:


I did do some thinking into what Is next for Annex, a sort of plan on how the game should be like in its completed form. Their is now 3 factions planned for Annex. The Shadow Organization was originally supposed to be a sort of add on campaign using a faction really made to re use old models, and build faction that will work best for AI. However, people wanted the ability to play as the third faction so now Shadow Organization will be getting new models on par with the Alliance.

So there is an issue the Alliance has 30 (if i remember right) units+structures which means the other two should have roughly 30 units as well. meaning Annex will have roughly 90 units. That may sound fine but the original vision was to have a battle field with drastically different units, instead of having units of similar classes or similar units with different stats. I want drastically different units each with its own purpose, and uses.

So what does this mean? Well the biggest change will be having less units per army, meaning the Alliance will be losing some units. Don't worry these units aren't going to be cut but rather transferred to another faction, others may be combined together.

Here are some plans I have:
-The Silo part of the tech tree will be removed from the alliance.
-The MRLS will be produce-able through tech lab.
-The Destroyer + Guardian will be converting to the Northern Empire units
-Nuke super weapon moved to either the Northern Empire or Shadow Organization

Other ideas i'm playing with in my head:
-Combining Harrier + Bomber units (will retain harrier model) However I may reduce the effectiveness of bombs. Also will help the issue of new players massing harriers to find them useless vs ground...
-Combining Striker + MRLS i'm not as sure this is a good idea as the Harrier + Bomber combo. Mainly because MRLS is supposed to be a late game unit, meaning if I do this the Alliance will not have good Ground to air support till late game. This still may be a good thing though as the alliance is near perfect (having no holes in its tech tree)
-Removing worker units and replacing them with Bulldozers, build/repair only units, that require you to have one or two of them, instead of 10-15, meaning more population slots. Of course Harvesters will be produce able at tier 1.

Any one has ideas/opinions on this?

 

[wyvern]

I'd suggest making one faction, maybe the Northern alliance more robot and walker based, with UAV's as aircraft. keep the alliance as is, with high tech human operated equipment and make the last faction a faction of spam units.

[treba]

i strongly support the idea of slimming down the alliance.
in the moment, it's cool as it is,  because there's only one faction. so it's fine that it is, as you said, nearly perfect, having no real weakness or strength.
but as soon as we have different factions, each of them should have some strengths and weaknesses, of course being equal overall.
if each of them would have as many units as the alliance, they could feel to alike in gameplay, like the "factions" in age of empires 2.

as you may know, i'm a big fan of starcraft. and while i don't want annex to be a starcraft clone but rather a own game (with some similarity to c&c), i nevertheless think that, when it comes to balance, starcraft (1&2) and warcraft are good examples for how to do that.
making every faction unique and fun to play.

[SnEptUne]

I wouldn't recommand slimming down the current alliance faction too much, especially if this is meant to be a multi-player games.  Otherwise, in a game against another human, there will be no surprise because we already know what units they will make eventually.

[Ishmaru]

I'd suggest making one faction, maybe the Northern alliance more robot and walker based, with UAV's as aircraft. keep the alliance as is, with high tech human operated equipment and make the last faction a faction of spam units.

Yes all factions use UAV to some extent, and I do have made model for a UAV helicopter planned for Shadow Organization, There is also a plan for a small spider tank UAV. Latest Infantry will fit the High tech category (see below)

A Spamming faction would be a bad idea for two reason the population cap is way to low for spamming to really be a strategy, plus units already build really quick so even faster will make faction extremely difficult to multitask...

i strongly support the idea of slimming down the alliance.
in the moment, it's cool as it is,  because there's only one faction. so it's fine that it is, as you said, nearly perfect, having no real weakness or strength.
but as soon as we have different factions, each of them should have some strengths and weaknesses, of course being equal overall.
if each of them would have as many units as the alliance, they could feel to alike in gameplay, like the "factions" in age of empires 2.

as you may know, i'm a big fan of starcraft. and while i don't want annex to be a starcraft clone but rather a own game (with some similarity to c&c), i nevertheless think that, when it comes to balance, starcraft (1&2) and warcraft are good examples for how to do that.
making every faction unique and fun to play.

This is what I originally had in mind 3 drastically unique factions, each with its own unique units but also holes in its tech tree for your enemies to exploit... Similar to Red Alert 1, Starcraft, & Tiberium Dawn

However, SnEptUne has a very good point.

I wouldn't recommand slimming down the current alliance faction too much, especially if this is meant to be a multi-player games.  Otherwise, in a game against another human, there will be no surprise because we already know what units they will make eventually.

Perhaps I should Cut one of the planned factions and leave 2 Large factions, Leave Alliance the way it is and have second one Unique incorporating ideas from both remaining factions.

So if i do that which faction do you guys want to see Shadow Organization, or Northern Empire?

Ps here are some New unit renders:

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[img]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/18/17106/Rocket_Pod_Grunt_AD.jpg[/img]Anti tank unit, Haven't decided how she will work yet,but she will fire probally 2-4 rockets per burst.

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

[Psychedelic_hands]

Hmmmm, pretty hard choice.
Can you show some of the Northern guys? Whats the difference between them and the Alliance?

[Ishmaru]

Hmmmm, pretty hard choice.
Can you show some of the Northern guys? Whats the difference between them and the Alliance?

I haven't made anything for Northern Empire yet, Just Shadow Organization. I guess its more of just what is the name/theme.

[treba]

i would prefer the nothern empire, although i still like the idea of three factions most.
it's actually not that important, that the enemy will know what you will build (he will know anyways, because of the insane scouts). in the end, the question will be what combination of units you play. you don't need that many units for lot's of different combinations.

anyways, having the northern empire as the second big faction while keeping the models of the shadow organisation as extra stuff for scenarios, just as you planned in the beginning, is imo the best solution as of now.

[Mr War]

The dark blue/purple camouflage looks great.

Might be best to reduce alliance by a couple of units, and build out shadow. For example, combine the harrier and bomber, using one model in alliance and the other in shadow with the blue camo

[Ishmaru]

So this is what I will do:

Keep devlopeing shadow to be a full faction, then work on northern empire.

The alliance will loose these units: destroyer,bomber, + guardian and harrier will gain bombs (though not as powerful)
Destroyer + guardian will be ported/ re skined to northern empire.

Not sure maybe scouts be given to shadow organization.

The old models are going back to storage as they fit northern empire or shadow new design. As I don't know what to do with them.

[treba]

that sounds reasonable. looking forward to have a second faction ready =)

i'm about to start my first scenario for annex, so hopefully i will have something for your next release.