Total Annihilation Core Contingency v3.1 Bug Fix patch
Dated: April 12, 2003
Version: 1.7 beta 5
LITE INSTALL VERSION!
If you're having trouble with TA Bugfix, email me at Switeck@hotmail.com!
Purpose of this patch:
---------------------
TA Bugfix is nothing short of a major attempt to fix the many bugs in TA. Some
of which are so glaring (Pelican bug, EMG lag, Core Necro bugs, and Adv. C-Kbot
bugs) as to nearly kill TA as a "fair" game worth playing...
Originally, TA has references to non-existent files, paradoxical causalty loops,
characters where numbers are expected, garbage strings, and data that cannot
possibly be correct. Although supposedly none of these problems will crash TA,
the long list of DEFINITE bugs in TA puts its reliability in doubt. That alone
should be justification for this patch -- which attempts to fix as much as
possible.
TA Bugfix attempts to reduce overall game micromanagement without sacrificing
gameplay. TA has a very steep learning curve not just because the interface is
complex (but streamlined) but also because many units don't behave in a
predictable or sensible manner. Enemy units may be in range of your units but
yours won't fire because they're busy moving -- even though they should be able
to fire while moving. This includes a Commander who has been told to d-gun a
fast-moving ground unit and tracks it without firing. Or a Cruiser that insists
on beaching itself while trying to destroy an inland guardian. (It almost
qualifies as exploiting a unit if a player can get the unit to hold position and
shoot reliably at enemy units as they come into range.) Or a Destroyer that
refuses to depth-charge an enemy's underwater metal extractor even when ordered
to because +SHOOTALL is not enabled. Or how close-up structures are no tougher
when closed -- despite what the game manual says!
TA Bugfix is intended to give units a little more common sense so you don't have
to babysit them with micromanagement so much.
This is what the patch contains: (table of contents)
-------------------------------
New Control Options!
Fixed Defenses Gain Guard Ability
Map Changes
Map Features Changes
Single-player Mission Changes
Speed Benifits
File Changes in GAMEDATA dir (in REV31.GP3)
AI fixes
Ai profile Changes
SIDEDATA.TDF Changes
Unit Changes
Build Menu Changes
Unit Category Changes
Unit COB Script File Changes
Unit ID Number Changes
Unit Mobility Changes
Unit Name Changes
Unit Sound Fixes
Antinuke Silo Bugfix
Arm Pelican Bugfix
Arm Penetrator Bugfix
Arm/Core Spy Changes
Core Krogoth and Krogoth Gantry Changes
Core Necro Changes
Crawling Bomb Changes
Hovercraft Bugfix
LRPC Changes
Minelayer and Landmines Changes
Mobile Radars, Jammers, Spies, and Mobile Flakkers Changes
Naval Unit Changes
Advanced Construction Sub Changes
Arm Fibber Sub Changes
Arm/Core Sub Changes
Core Leviathan Super-Sub Changes
Naval Defensive Structures Bugfix
Naval Dragons Teeth Bugfix
Cruiser and Destroyer Changes
Light Carrier Changes
Missile Frigate Changes
Sea Serpent Changes
Corpse Changes
Corpse Value Changes
Accumulating scars bug
Weapons Changes
Weapon ID Number Changes
Target Fixation on Weapons Fix
Zero-tolerance Weapon Bug
Advanced Bombers Laser Change
Anti-Aircraft Missiles Change
Flakker Weapon Changes
EMG weapon Changes
Core Pyro Weapon Changes
"Slow Light" Laser Weapon Changes
Arm Stunner EMP silo weapon Changes
Torpedo Weapon Changes
3rd party units don't work with Bugfix?
Unfinished work?
Why I didn't go further
How this file works
Legalese
Credits
(To quickly jump to each part, do a FIND on the section name.)
New Control Options!
-------------------
These new CTRL hotkey shortcuts are designed to eliminate some of the
micromanagement in controlling all your units:
CTRL+G - ground units (armed ground units only)
CTRL+H - hovercraft (armed hovercraft only) (Hovercraft are NOT selected with
CTRL+G)
CTRL+L - Laser towers + other fixed defenses (but not AA towers!)
CTRL+N - Naval units (armed ships only)
CTRL+Q - AA towers (Missile Towers, Flakkers, Naval Missile Towers)
CTRL+T - Torpedo Launchers (fixed versions only)
CTRL+X - "X-weapons" superweapons such as antinukes, nuke silos, and berthas (LRPC's)
NOTE: Pelicans are selecetable with both CTRL+G and CTRL+H.
NOTE: The crawling bombs cannot be selected with CTRL+G, because their "weapon"
is their death.
NOTE: Decoy commanders are not selectable with either CTRL+G or CTRL+W, but are
selectable with CTRL+B.
NOTE: Minelayers, Arm FARK, and Core Necro are selectable with CTRL+B.
Factories and c-units now allow you to press q,w,e,r,f, and v (I think) for each
build menu button. Q would be the build position 0 (top left), w for 1 (top
right), e for 2 (middle left), r is for 3 (middle right), f is for 4 (bottom
left), and v is for 5 (bottom right).
(Kudos to BSR for the key choices.)
Nuke/antinuke silos now use the "Q" key for queing up nukes, because it is the
first (and only) picture on the menu. The "Q" key is now a hotkey shortcut for
nuke silos and antinuke silos build menus. It will repeat the last mouse build
command for that silo - to either build 1 missile or to remove 1 missile from
the build que. It can be used with the shift key to build/remove 5 missiles at a
time - hold down shift+"X" to queue up many missiles quickly.
The Arm Annihilator and Core Doomsday Machine now have an On/Off switch. When
set to "Off", the turrets act as normal - opening as neccessary when an enemy
comes into range. When set to "On", the turret remains in an always open state.
Changing from "On" to "Off" causes the turret to stop what it is doing and begin
its close-up sequence. The turrets need to be set to "HOLD FIRE" to remain
closed and "OFF".
Also, the Core Viper, Core Toaster, and Arm Ambusher gain an On/Off switch just
like the Arm Annihilator's.
Also added to the Core Doomsday Machine is the "D-Gun" option. This does NOT
fire a D-gun but instead fires the Core Doomsday Machine's 3rd weapon -- its red
(LLT) laser. By using "Attack" in combination with the "D" key (using shift),
the DDM can fire at multiple targets at once using different weapons on each.
The Core Krogoth also has the "D-Gun" option to fire its 3rd weapon, its
arm-mounted Gauss Guns. These CAN fire automatically on their own, but because
of the 3-weapon bug in TA ussually don't.
Both side's Torpedo Seaplanes have the "D-Gun" option to individually tarrget
and fire their missiles separately from their torpedoes. THIS WAS REMOVED DUE TO
PROBLEMS -- it simply didn't work!
MOST 2-weapon and 3-weapon units now use the "D-Gun" option to individually fire
their secondary weapon. This MAY cause some confusion on ships, because their
'main' gun is now weapon #3 so their depth-charge weapon WILL target Fibbers!
On/Off switches can be toggled using "X" on the keyboard while unit/s are
selected! (This existed in OTA as well, it just wasn't well-documented.)
Fixed Defenses Gain Guard Ability:
---------------------------------
Guard ability has been added to all fixed defenses EXCEPT for bertha weapons,
nuke silos, and flakkers. This was done to give the expensive base defenses the
same ability that even the lowly AK or Peewee has at no extra cost: the ability
to return fire on a unit shooting at another even if it's out of sight. Although
possessing the POTENTIAL for abuse, this was done to cut down on the
micromanagement costs that previously were rendering MOST base defenses (other
than massed missile towers) useless -- or at least not worth their cost. Poor
and even typical use of this new ability will often prove of little value, as
the gun turrets still have to turn to fire and will NOT do so until AFTER the
unit they're told to guard has been hit. Also, it could result in base defenses
being 'distracted' by a minor enemy (the leading edge of an enemy attack force
is often made up of fast level 1 units) while the more serious enemy (like
merls) remain untargetted and free to do their worst. Unless you're willing to
let your front edge of your base defenses take hits, guarding 1 base defense
with others is of limited value. Chances are, if the enemy ground force is
firing at a turret then the turret probably has LOS on them -- so all base
defenses that can should already be firing at the enemies. This might not be
true if your opponent is radar-targetting their troops from their max weapons
ranges -- like the ai does sometimes. But if that's the case, you'd be better
off radar-targetting and/or scouting the enemy as well -- otherwise you could be
losing base defenses to massed volleys of enemy fire while your base defenses
only target the single enemy that inflicted the 'killing blow' on each defensive
structure. Also important is NOTHING in TA can guard more than 1 unit at a time.
A 'Guard queue' of multiple guard commands strung together using the shift key
only results in the 1st guard order being the only one in effect until the 1st
unit being guarded is destroyed. Only after the 1st guarded unit is destroyed
will the guarding units attempt to guard the 2nd guarded unit. The 2nd and later
guard commands may even be ignored till the guarding units destroy the enemy
that damaged/destroyed the 1st guarded unit! So, in short, having a whole field
of HLTs, LLTs, or missile towers guard one another can be completely useless
except to give your computer's cpu more calculations to do, possibly causing you
gametime to lag behind in a multiplayer game or to slow down the game in
skirmish.
The reason why this ability was not given to bertha weapons, nuke silos, and
flakkers is simple: methods for abuse are too great. Guard is supposed to make
base defenses better able to do their job to DEFEND, but these weapons (with
exception of the flakkers) are designed mainly for attack. You'll need scouts to
plan your attacks, as it should be. (Although I do a lot of radar-targetting
with my berthas myself.)
Flakkers were not given this ability because of the flakker guard bug which will
result in flakkers firing at ground units despite being air-only weapons.
"Tricking" a flakker into shredding a Goliath tank is equivalent of a built-in
game bug.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that ground units and buildings cannot guard
aircraft in the air. It's a game limitation -- and it prevents guarding a peeper
with base guns or ground troops so they will automatically kill whatever kills
the peeper -- if in range, that is. If it's not in range, and the guarding units
are mobile, they will attempt to take the shortest route to the offending enemy
unit -- possibly running blindly into other enemies in the process.
Map Changes:
-----------
The CHANGE MAP selection screen has been made much larger -- now it will be
easier to examine a map's minimap before selecting it. This required a GUI
change for VIEWMAP.GUI and SELMAP.GUI, and a bitmap change for DSelectmap2.pcx
and Dviewmap.pcx. Thanks to Dark Rain for this change!
I moved around a few of the starting locations on some maps because of conflicts
-- either the commander starts out "stuck" on/in the scenery, or starts very
close to other commanders.
I did this on these maps:
Evad River Confluence (tidal strength has been increased from 0 to 15 -- this is
supposedly a river isn't it?)
Painted Desert (w/ more than a 4 player start, players 1 and 5 were close
together. Player 5 is now in the center -- more metal but more vulnerable.)
Polar Range (Hailstorms are now not as frequent, but cover a greater area with
fewer hailstones per screen.)
Town and Country (one player starts out embedded in a car!)
Moon Quartet has its starting locations moved slightly to offer more equal
starts. The poorer bottom center position is now player #4's starting location
instead of player #2's -- however, it has been shifted to the right about 1,000
pixels so it's almost on top of a good metal spot. Having to walk a whole
screenlength just to get to the nearest metal spot was very unfair. Now, it's
not the case.
Slate Gordon's start locations have been moved around -- player #1 now starts on
the mainland instead of the island. The only start on the island now is player
#7. Odd player numbers start on the left side of the mountain ridge on the map,
even player numbers start on the right. Although maybe still not a purely fair
match-up now for metal spots per player, it is FAR fairer than having 1 player
start out on the small island while the other started out on the mainland.
Lava Run's start locations have been moved around -- in 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 (left
versis right), players start at or near opposite ends of the map. No more early
wins thanks to radar-targetting missiles or guardians! (This change may bother
some people as the map wasn't technically 'broken' -- which Moon Quartet and
Slate Gordon practically are -- but the original starting setup really limited
gameplay.)
Map Features Changes:
--------------------
AcidMetal03, the largest metal deposits on Acid Maps such as Gasplant Plain have
been increased in size from a 3x3 footprint to a 3x4 footprint. They are now
taller than they are wide. This was done to more accurately reflect their
graphical appearance which implied a bigger metal spot than the game treated
them as. It now means that 2 metal extractors have to be built one above the
other to effectively recover all the metal (yielding +1.4m/sec from each of the
2 mexs, or +2m/sec from 1 and +0.8m/s from the other) from each such metal spot.
Also, a moho extractor built on these metal spots will now make about +8.4m/sec
instead of +6.2m/sec like originally.
DryMetal03, the largest metal deposits (the streaked lower-level metal spots) on
Desert maps such as Painted Desert and Desert Triad have been increased in size
from a 3x3 footprint to a 4x3 footprint. They are now wider than they are tall.
It now means that 2 metal extractors have to be built side-by-side to
effectively recover all the metal (yielding +1.4m/sec from each of the 2 mexs,
or +2m/sec from 1 and +0.8m/s from the other) from each such metal spot.
SlateMetal6, the long, narrow metal deposits on Slate (air/clouds) maps have
been increased in size from a 6x3 footprint to a 7x3 footprint. It is now
longer. (from left to right)
SlateMetal10, the y-shaped metal deposits on Slate (air/clouds) maps have been
increased in size from a 3x3 footprint to a 4x3 footprint. It is now wider.
(from left to right)
WaterAquaOre2, the medium underwater metal deposits found on waterworlds have
been increased in size from a 3x3 footprint to a 4x3 footprint. It is now wider.
(from left to right)
WaterAquaOre3, the medium underwater metal deposits found on waterworlds have
been increased in size from a 3x3 footprint to a 5x3 footprint. It is now wider.
(from left to right)
Single-player Mission Changes:
-----------------------------
Some single-player maps have been altered so they can be used as multiplayer
maps as well, HOWEVER the big totala4.hpi file on the TA Mission CD MUST be
copied to the TA directory on the harddrive in order to run.
Also, a small and currently incomplete Arm campaign has been added as well. It
takes place at about the same time as the missions in TA and TA:CC.
The missions will play better if ai profiles are added to augment them! SOME of
them have been set up to use these special ai profiles:
SeaMMiss.txt for Sea Metal maps
Sea_Miss.txt for Sea maps
The Krogoth Campaign has been altered so the original hard setting is now only
the medium setting. The new hard setting removes most of the waittimes placed on
the enemy units allowing the ai to attack earlier and with greater strength, and
to resupply its attack force quicker. For those that find either version too
hard, an easy version has been added as well - but it's not a complete cakewalk.
Also, unit max on the mission has been increased from 400 to 500. (I thought
about making it 1,000 unit max, but decided it wouldn't help the ai too much to
have that many units nor could people with slow computers play the mission
anymore.)
Speed Benifits:
--------------
A side benifit of removing all duplicate and erroneous files is an increase in
gamespeed - at least one speed notch from regular TA. Also, the game will load a
new mission faster because it shuffles through fewer files.
Because of the decrease of EMG lag as well as the removal of many categories for
units, internet games and LAN games should lag less.
File Changes in GAMEDATA dir (in REV31.GP3):
-------------------------------------------
Category.tdf file has been altered to reflect the reduced number of different
Categories actually used in the game.
Help.TDF is the help file viewed from inside the game. Some of the new commands
added are now listed in the help menu. Page 1's FIRST line should tell if TA
Bugfix is installed or not and what version TA Bugfix is installed.
The LOS.TDF (the Line of Sight tables) file has been altered to include entries
out to 640 pixels -- so now far-seeing units such as the Leviathan will reveal
what is in the outer edges of their sight radius.
Meteor.tdf (in the Gamedata dir, NOT in the weapons dir) has been replaced with
a modified meteor file. This is the data used when the +METEOR cheat is used in
skirmish. It has been made a little more dangerous and now affects a much larger
area.
Moveinfo.TDF contains the mobility attributes of all the units in the game. A
couple minor typos were fixed in it.
The Sidedata.tdf file stores the ai's build menus, which has been corrected.
(See AI fixes section for more details.)
Also changed in the SIDEDATA.TDF file is the thickness of the metal and energy
bars displayed at the top of the screen. This will make it easier to spot at a
glance whether you are out of resources or not. Thanks to Dark Rain for this
change!
Sound.TDF stores the list of soundfiles used by various units.
Weapons.tdf (in the Gamedata dir, NOT in the weapons dir) has been replaced with
a zero-length file to mask the one in the old Gamedata dir.
AI fixes:
--------
Another bug fixed by this patch is making map OTA's use a better ai profile.
Original pre-TA:CC maps were particularly bad about their choice of ai profiles
that they used. This should make the ai's at least slightly more effective on
those maps than originally.
Map OTA Did use Now uses
------- ------- --------
Acid Foursome Acid Default
Acid Pools Hover Wind
Assault on Suburbia Hover HoverWin
Biggie Biggs AirBattle AirWind
Checker Ponds Acid Default
Crystal Cracked SeaBattle Hover
East Indeez SeaBattle SeaWind
Eastside Westside Urban UrbanWin
Etorrep Glacier Default Wind
Evad River Confluence*AirBattle Hover
Flooded Glaciers SeaBattle UrbanWin
Gasplant Plain Default Wind
Hundred Isles Default SeaBattle
Higher Ground *AirBattle Wind
Ice Scream Hover HoverWin
John's Pass Hover HoverWin
Kill the Middle *AirBattle Wind
Lake Shore Default UrbanWin
Lava Mania Default Wind
Long Lakes** Default UrbanWin
Metal Heck Default Metal
Metal Isles Default SeaMetal
Over Crude Water *AirBattle Krogoth
Pillopeens SeaBattle SeaWind
Red River Hover UrbanWin
Red River North Hover UrbanWin
Ring Atoll Default Hover
Sail Away SeaBattle SeaWind
Seven Islands Default SeaMetal
Shore to Shore Seabattle Hover
Show Down Default Wind
Surface Meltdown Acid Default
Temblorian Mist *AirBattle Wind
The Barrier Reef SeaBattle SeaWind
The Cold Place Default Wind
The Pass Default ThePass
Trout Farm Default UrbanWin
Two Continents *AirBattle Hover
*NOTE: AirBattle is now strictly aircraft-only maps.
**NOTE: Stand-alone map by Cavedog, not found in TA, TA:CC, or TA:BT
Ai profile Changes:
------------------
There are NO ai profiles in ][BF15.org or later versions of TA Bugfix! TA Bugfix
uses the ai profile files found in the old Rev31.gp3 file (renamed Rev31.ccx or
incorporated into totala1.hpi) instead. I did not include my ai profiles (that
is found on other websites) with this patch. Also, ai profiles are something
that typically get changed often like maps do - which is much easier to do if
the ai files are in an AI directory instead of buried inside of a ufo file.
If you want an IMPROVED TA ai, many are available at
Quitch(y)'s AI Central - Home of the Queller AI
URL:
http://www.planetannihilation.com/taec/queller/armframe.htm
Descriptions of AI Profile types:
(this is what they probably should be, not what they are...)
Acid.txt
Presumes that each player is separated by acid, so ships and ground troops
cannot (safely) get from one island to another. This means the ai should build
aircraft and hovercraft (and Pelicans).
AirBattle.txt
Presumes that each player is separated by impassable terrain (clouds, lava, etc)
that even hovercraft cannot cross. This means the ai should only build aircraft
for mobile attack. Generally, wind generators are a better deal than solars on
these maps as wind is ussually high.
Default.txt
Presumes a big land map that all units can cross. Presumeably no water is on the
map, so making ships is pointless. So the ai should build everything but ships.
Hover.txt
Presumes a water map with lots of land to build many factories on. This allows
the ai to build many aircraft plants as well as hovercraft platforms. Ships
aren't neglected, but have low limits.
Krogoth.txt
For a metal map that has water as well as land. Ground troops presumeably can
travel from almost any part of the map to any other part. Ships aren't
neglected, but have low limits.
Metal.txt
Strictly a metal map with little or no water and no obstructions to ground
units. So the ai should build everything but ships and metal makers.
SeaBattle.txt
Presumes a water map with limited land to build factories on. Ships are the main
form of attack or defense, but small numbers of air plants and hovercraft
platforms might be built.
SeaMetal.txt (Does not normally exist in the game!)
A metal water map, presumeably with lots of land to build many factories on.
This allows the ai to build many aircraft plants as well as hovercraft
platforms. Ships are still a major form of attack but by no means the only one.
Actually, this is just a metal form of the Hover.txt ai -- with the exception
that the ai shouldn't make metal makers.
ThePass.txt (Does not normally exist in the game!)
A special map ai, designed specifically for The Pass map. It builds very few
factories or base defenses to conserve its very limited build space, nor does it
build many metal extractors.
Waterwrld.txt
Presumes an entirely water map. Ships are the only form of attack or defense,
with seaplane platforms as the only other factory type. The ai should not try to
build any land-based factories.
Wind.txt (Does not normally exist in the game!)
Presumes a big land map that all units can cross. Presumeably no water is on the
map, so making ships is pointless. So the ai should build everything but ships
and solars. The ai's early energy sources are wind generators instead of solars.
Urban.txt
Presumes a water map with lots of land to build many factories on. This allows
the ai to build many aircraft plants as well as hovercraft platforms. Ships
aren't neglected, but have low limits. Also, this map is low on resources but
may have reclaimable objects (buildings, rocks, and trees) to make up for this
lack. Also presumes there is underwater metal spots.
SIDEDATA.TDF Changes:
--------------------
The ai's build menus are pretty messed up:
(this is stored in the SIDEDATA.TDF file in the GAMEDATA dir.)
FIXED: Core is unable to build seaplane platforms and advanced construction
subs!
FIXED: Arm's seaplane platforms sometimes quit building for no reason!
ADDED: All the TA:CC units that were missing, plus the 6 post-v3.1 patch units.
I left the ability of the ai's construction hovercraft to build advanced vehicle
plants. (They are hover tanks...)
I removed the ability of the ai's construction seaplanes to build advanced k-bot
labs and replaced it with the ability to build advanced air plants. (After all,
they are aircraft...)
These last 2 changes offer only a small advantage for the ai -- and the ai needs
that (and more!) to compete with good players.
I stripped the SIDEDATA.TDF file of ANY entry which is built by a downloads
folder TDF file. The ai already has access to these units via that TDF file and
doesn't need a redundant entry in the SIDEDATA.TDF file.
Unit Changes:
------------
Sortbias=0; and downloadable=1; and ovradjust=1; lines have been removed from
every Cavedog unit that had these entries.
The units Torpedo Seaplane/s (ARMSEAP and CORSEAP), Seaplane Fighter/s (ARMSFIG
and CORSFIG), Arm Escort (ARMSJAM), Core Phantom (CORSJAM), Core Adv. Torpedo
Launcher (CORATL), and Core Leveler (CORLEVLR) all use: ExplodeAs=MEDIUM_UNITEX;
But MEDIUM_UNITEX is a nonexistant weapon and does no damage to nearby units
when they die.
This has been changed to: ExplodeAs=BIG_UNITEX;
The replaced explosion does 1/5th the damage in nearly the same radius as the
self-destruct for the above units.
Arm's Moho Metal Maker (ARMMMKR) and Core's Moho Metal Maker (CORMMKR) uses:
ExplodeAs=BIG_BUILDINGEX;
SelfDestructAs=BIG_BUILDING;
But both are nonexistant weapons and do no damage to nearby units when they die.
(Because these units have nonexistant weapons for their explosions, a weapon of
the same name could be created and used to cheat!)
This has been changed to:
ExplodeAs=LARGE_BUILDINGEX;
SelfDestructAs=ESTOR_BUILDINGEX;
Core Toaster (CORTOAST): ExplodeAs=lARGE_BUILDINGEX;
(probably still works, but just to be safe...)
armthover.fbi typo:
ARMTHOVER has a brakerate of 0.0018, BUT CORTHOVER has a brakerate of 0.017!
Therefore, ARMTHOVER has a typo in it - an extra 0 that wasn't intended.
armaser.fbi typo:
ARMASER has a brakerate of 1, BUT the Core equivalent has a brakerate of 0.12!
Therefore, ARMASER almost certainly has a typo in it - so I reduced its
brakerate to 0.2!
The missions-only unit ARMSCORP has a goof-up in its FBI file:
ItalianDescription=;Scorpione
This has been changed to:
ItalianDescription=Scorpione;
Pop-up turrets scripts are fixed.
Construction kbots and advanced kbots now turn their turrets while opening to
begin nanolathing. Previously they opened their nanolather THEN turned their
turrets. This minor change saves as much as 1/2 second in start-up times.
The Arm Energy Storage has an error in its yardmap. It is a 4 x 4 unit with a
yardmap of:
YardMap=o;
instead of:
YardMap=oooooooooooooooo;
like Arm Metal Storage - which is also a 4 x 4 unit. This was a simple
cut-and-paste fix.
Arm's Advanced Construction Sub now has 100 Energy and 100 Metal storage, just
like Core's Advanced Construction Sub -- and like all other advanced c-units.
The Core Advanced Vehicle Plant's build platform no longer spins while building
units. This is to compensate for it having only 1 exit, unlike Arm's Advanced
Vehicle Plant.
The Core Gimp now uses the same movement class (MovementClass=TANKDS2;) as the
Core Commander. Previously, it was set to use the TANKHOVER3 movement class --
even though it is defined as a 2x2 footprint unit (in its FBI and corpse file)
and it's NOT a hovercraft!
All the aircraft plants (basic and advanced) have altered yardmaps so ground
c-units don't block production as badly (but can still occur!) while guarding
them.
I added y to the yardmaps of all factories that appeared to have empty space in
their footprints. This will help especially well with Core factories, so
slightly more c-units can guard the factories.
Likewise, aircraft have an altered footprint so they don't jam the air plants
that can build them -- the problem was the worst with the Arm Seaplant Platform
which could build only 5x5 footprint units at largest -- but the Lancet had a
6x6 footprint! I changed the Lancet's footprint to 3x3, the same as other large
aircraft.
Individual unit _gadget.gaf build menu picture files have been added to the
Amins directory for many units that lacked them.
Cursor.gaf in the Amins directory now have a better unload animation. (Thank BSR
for this one!)
Help menu pictures (gotten by pressing F1 while the cursor is on them) have been
added to the Arm Scorpion, the Core Sea Serpent, and the Core Hydration Plant.
Build Menu Changes:
------------------
Both Arm and Core's AWACs (Arm Eagle and Core Vulture) have been moved from page
3, position 0 of the Adv. Air Plant to page 2, position 5. This puts ALL Cavedog
advanced aircraft on one build menu.
The Arm Panther has been moved from page 4, position 0 of the Arm Adv. Vehicle
plant to page 3, position 5. Previously, it was needlessly on a menu page by
itself.
Nuclear Mines (which can now be built underwater) have been added to the
Advanced Construction Sub build menu. (Page 3, position 5)
The Seaplane Platform is now buildable on the Advanced Construction Aircraft
build menu at Page 4, position 4. (This is the same build position used by the
Core Advanced Construction Kbot to build the Krogoth Gantry, another Level 3
factory.) Because the Seaplane Platform is an advanced factory that builds
aircraft, some type of construction aircraft should be able to build it. (This
follows the general build rule that advanced factories are built by
less-advanced construction units of the same type.) Since the Seaplane Platform
is a Level 3 factory, the Advanced Construction Aircraft (a Level 2 unit) should
build it because the Advanced Construction Aircraft is the only construction
aircraft capable of building Level 3 buildings. This change was to allow a
land-locked player to directly build seaplane platforms without having to build
ships first, so they might eventually retake the sea if driven out of it.
Considering a single well-placed Skeeter or sub can prevent seaplane platforms
from being built, exploiting this new build link is not as likely as might seem.
Unit Category Changes:
---------------------
Morty is now treated as a LEVEL2 unit in its FBI file.
Both the Arm Samson and Core Slasher are now LEVEL1 units -- not LEVEL2 like
they were.
Thuds can no longer be selected with CTRL+P.
Most/all units have ALTERED category information in their FBI.
Any units with radar, sonar, or jamming ability are now selectable with CTRL+R.
The Targetting Facility can now be selected with CTRL+R.
ALL Underwater units now have the UNDERWATER category in their FBI.
These categories have been totally removed:
ANTISUB, BEACON, BOMB, CARRY, defensive, DEV, extractor, HOVER, JAM, KAMIKAZE,
KBOT, LEVEL, LEVEL10, MINE, MINELAYER, PARAL, PHIB, RAD, REPAIRPAD, SCORP, SHIP,
SONAR, SPECIAL, SPY, STEALTH, STORAGE, strategic, TANK, TPORT, VTOL
Although this seems excessive, the categories tell the ai what category each
unit is in. Since this information was not used by the ai (or did not appear to
be used), it was removed.
These categories have been added: CTRL_G, CTRL_H, CTRL_L, CTRL_N, CTRL_Q,
CTRL_T, CTRL_X, MOBILE
CONSTR and PLANT were added back because ai profiles DESPERATELY needs this
information!
TORP now takes the place of ANTISUB
CTRL_H now takes the place of HOVER
CTRL_G now takes the place of KBOT -- selects all ground units with weapons
CTRL_G now takes the place of TANK -- selects all ground units with weapons
CTRL_L now takes the place of DEFENSIVE -- selects all Laser towers + other
fixed defenses
CTRL_M now takes the place of MINE
CTRL_N now takes the place of SHIP -- selects all naval ships with weapons
CTRL_Q now takes the place of SPECIAL -- selects all AA towers
CTRL_R now takes the place of JAM
CTRL_R now takes the place of RAD
CTRL_R now takes the place of SONAR
CTRL_T now takes the place of TORP -- selects torpedo launchers
CTRL_V now takes the place of VTOL
CTRL_X now takes the place of strategic -- and selects antinukes, nuke silos,
and bertha weapons.
Because the remaining categories make decent substitutions, the originals are
not needed.
Units ai behavior is improved with appropriate badtarget lines in their FBI.
Both Light Carriers have an added "ENERGY" line in their categories in their FBI
file.
The Geothermal Plant, Energy Storage, Underwater Energy Storage, Fusion Reactor,
and Underwater Fusion Reactor have an added "METAL" line in their categories in
their FBI file. Although this is incorrect, it should encourage the ai to build
them more often and will have no effect on the player. Also, the Moho Metal
Makers no longer have the "METAL" line in their categories in their FBI file.
This is to partially overcome the ai's tendancy to build moho metal makers when
it has nothing but solars to power it and will also have no effect on the
player.
"Mobile" category tag has been removed from both Commander, Decoy Commander, and
Krogoth. This way, ai berthas will target them by default -- even at a
preferance over other units, as a player might. (The ai berthas will target
decoy comms as well because it can't tell a differance!)
Core Slinger (CORAH) had BadTargetCategory=VTOL;
Arm Swatter (ARMAH) had BadTargetCategory=VTOL;
even though they're ANTI-Aircraft hovercraft!
Core Thunderbolt, Floating Heavy Laser Tower (CORFHLT) had
BadTargetCategory=NOTAIR;
but it's HARDLY an AA weapon!
Core Shadow (CORSHAD) had NoChaseCategory=UNDERWATER;
but it's very unlikely that it'd ever find an underwater target to chase in the
first place.
(All bombers have this line!)
Note that +SHOOTALL overrides the bad target settings, allowing units to
autotarget resources and the like.
Also, bad target setting have been changed so units don't shoot at c-units and
factories by default.
The BadTargetCategory= line seems to be "overall" for ALL the weapons on the
unit. (But is sometimes ignored!)
The NoChaseCategory= line seems to be for whether the unit will chase a unit
it's told to attack if it moves out of range.
The wpri_BadTargetCategory= line seems to disallow the FIRST weapon of that unit
from targetting certain enemy types. It is the GREATEST deciding factor on what
the unit will target quickly and what it will ignore if other units are around.
For missile weapons with AA uses, what seemed to work best was:
wpri_BadTargetCategory=NOTAIR;
BadTargetCategory=NOWEAPON;
This means firstly, it would ignore units not flying (NOTAIR) and out of the
flying units it would prefer units with weapons. The other way around made them
too likely to shoot at anything with a weapon -- whether it was flying or not!
Unit COB Script File Changes:
----------------------------
(there's a couple 3do file changes here as well...)
The Core Spy no longer "runs" while being built.
Both sides' Construction Kbots (both Basic and Advanced), Core Necro, and Arm
FARK should almost never have guarding and building problems now.
All c-units should work correctly, but some have minor animations goof-ups. I
fixed them as best I could.
Almost ALL buildings that can open and close were not becoming armored when
closed - DESPITE having a damage modifier line in their FBI file that says that
they should be! This bug occurs on the Arm Annihilator, Arm Advanced Radar
(although it lacks a damagemodifier line, since it's closed it should be
slightly tougher - so I added a damamgemodifier of 0.5, this will have little
effect because it is so fragile), the Core Doomsday Machine, the Moho Metal
Makers, both side's Targeting Facilities, and both side's antinukes. All were
previously NOT more resistant to damage while in a closed state. Antinuke silos
are fragile and easy to kill because of this bug. THIS has been fixed!
To make matters worse about this failure to armor bug, the Arm Advanced Radar,
both side's solars, both side's sonars, and both side's moho metal makers
incorrectly OPEN and activate when shot -- even when not COMPLETELY BUILT! This
makes them easier to kill. This has been fixed as well. On TOP of that problem,
these same buildings OPEN and activate when shot even if they were turned OFF
beforehand. So, it is possible to turn on an opponent's MMM just by shooting it
and not destroying it.
The Core Viper pop-up HLT had a scripting error that caused it to not leave a
corpse, this has been corrected. The corpse metal value has also been reduced to
less than the metal cost of the Viper.
Guardian aiming point needs to be more accurate. <-- DONE! Rex222 sent me a
guardian 3do file that allowed it slightly better targetting.
A few multi-weapon units have an either-or approach to using their weapon. The
Arm Warrior for instance will fire either its cannon OR its EMG but seldom both.
The fixed Arm Warrior attempts to use both weapons at once, if in range. Even
with the original unit, this could be done by using "Hold Position" and "Fire at
Will" and ordering the Warrior to move near an enemy instead of ordering it to
attack the enemy - this fix just removes the micromanagement involved. This was
done with a COB fix.
Both side's Flakker ships have lost their second missile weapon, leaving them
with 2 weapons -
weapon 1: their first missile weapon
weapon 3: their flakker weapon
The flakker weapon had to be made weapon 3 instead of weapon 2, or it would be
force-fireable (which would make it able to destroy almost any unit not strictly
immune very quickly.)
This means the flakker ships should shoot their flakkers more often. This was
done with a COB fix and an FBI change. The reload time on the remaining missile
weapon used on Arm Flakker ships (and also reused on Core's Flakker ships as
well) has been halved, thus making it roughly equal to the 2 original missile
weapons it replaces.
The Core amphibious K-Bot, the Gimp, should now use both of its weapons at the
same time. Just like the Arm Warrior, the Gimp could use both of its weapons at
once - but only if not ordered to attack a specific target. This should help
make the Core Gimp more effective against the Arm Pelican without requiring
changes on either of their stats. This was done with a COB fix.
The Arm Maverick and Arm Zeus will now take considerably longer (about 10
seconds) to put their guns away -- this will decrease the likelyhood that they
are "disarmed" during intermittent fighting.
The Arm Zeus had minor problems with its animation script (unit script) -- its
gun appears and disappears when it shouldn't. Correcting it and adding an
increased delay between holstering the gun after each combat neccessitated
editing the script. I subtracted from sleeptimes elsewhere in the script so the
time the Zeus takes to ready his gun remains very close to the same amount of
time as before.
The Core Battleship's laser turret animation has been corrected so the 3rd
barrel rotates into position correctly.
The Arm Wind Generator's blades have now been changed to spin in opposite
direction from the originals. This better matches the wind direction as seen by
which way smoke blows.
The Arm Wind Generator never leaves a complete corpse -- only a heap because of
a missing return (0); in its unit script. And the Core Wind Generator's corpse
has over 1,400 armor -- might make them worth putting around fragile buildings
then killing them on purpose because they're so tall... Anyhow, it's a bug, and
I gotta kill it. What I was WANTING to learn was a way to make the Wind Gens lag
less. I'm still searching for how to do that... with help from others who will
look into the 3do file...
Wind Generators and Tidals now have On/Off switches. This is so they will WORK
when captured or resurrected!
Wind Generators cause major slowdowns due to poor unit script and complex
textured model.
The Wind Generators COB scripts have been simplified slightly to reduce lag.
ARMWIN never leaves a "whole" corpse. CORWIN's corpse and heap is 10 TIMES
tougher that reasonable. (It has 10 times the armor of the ARMWIN corpse!)
Solars, Metal Extractors, Moho Mines, and Wind Generators COB scripts have been
simplified slightly to reduce lag.
The Arm Jethro, Arm Pelican, Arm Phalanx, Arm Samson, Core Copperhead, and Core
Slasher have modified unit COB scripts to make them less likely to ignore enemy
aicraft flying past them.
The Arm and Core Scorpion has a simplified COB script to fix their weapons jam
bug.
The Arm and Core Sea Serpent has a simplified COB script to fix their weapons
jam bug.
Almost all Hovercraft have modified unit COB scripts, so they won't leave
blocking wreckage in the water. Instead, they will leave passable wreckage.
While on land, they can still leave blocking wreckage. SOME of the hovercraft
scripts also have corrected explosions.
Arm Stunner EMP silo and Core Nuke silo both have a COB script modification to
prevent the problem the ai has when using this silo. Previously when the ai used
these launchers, conditions could occur which caused the missile to explode
inside the silo instead of launching!
If I included a COB file in TA Bugfix, it definitely makes some changes over the
original. Even ALL 6 extra Cavedog units have modified COBs from Cavedog's
versions. Enough cannot be emphasized on the problems with the original COBs or
the complexity and difficulty I had fixing them. The number of problems I fixed
in the COBs is legion -- often the same or very similar problems occured on many
similar unit scripts (such as the open-when-shot bug that's found on solars.)
And many times the COBs I ended up using still have problems, but to a lesser
degree than the originals.
Unit ID Number Changes:
----------------------
20 Cavedog units share the same unit id #:
Unit Name Description id# new id#
------ ---------------- ----------- --- -------
ARMCA Construction Aircraft Tech Level 1 18 18
ARMCSA Construction Seaplane Tech Level 1 18 *CONFLICT: ARMCA 400 *
CORCA Construction Aircraft Tech Level 1 90 90
CORCSA Construction Seaplane Tech Level 1 90 *CONFLICT: CORCA 403 *
ARMDECOM Decoy Commander Decoy Commander 232 232
CORDECOM Decoy Commander Decoy Commander 232 *CONFLICT: ARMDECOM 404 *
ARMPLAT Seaplane Platform Builds Seaplanes 242 242
CORPLAT Seaplane Platform Builds Seaplanes 242 *CONFLICT: ARMPLAT 405 *
ARMMANNI Penetrator Mobile Energy Weapon 269 401 *
CORSUMO Sumo Adv. Armored Assault Kbot 269 *CONFLICT: ARMMANNI 269
CORSS Sea Serpent Indigenous Lifeform 277 406 *
CORSSUB Leviathan Battle Sub 277 *CONFLICT: CORSS 277
CORUWES Underwater Energy Storage Increases Energy Storage 293 293
CORUWMS Underwater Metal Storage Increases Metal Storage 293 *CONFLICT: CORUWES
407 *
ARMUWES Underwater Energy Storage Increases Energy Storage 298 298
ARMUWMS Underwater Metal Storage Increases Metal Storage 298 *CONFLICT: ARMUWES
402 *
ARMEMP Stunner EMP Missile Launcher 322 322
CORMABM Hedgehog Mobile Missile Defense 322 *CONFLICT: ARMEMP 408 *
CORPUN Punisher Plasma Battery 124 124
CORPLAS Immolator Plasma Tower 124 *CONFLICT: CORPUN 409 *
The * (asterick) means changed.
ALL FIXED -- by moving the conflicting units to different unit id #'s, starting
at 400 and going to 409. This should be safe so long as Cavedog doesn't create
nearly 100 new units. According to Cavedog, this bug has no effect on gameplay -
but since I'm removing other bugs, I'm removing this bug as well!
Unit Mobility Changes:
---------------------
The Arm Triton (ARMCROC) and Core Crock (CORSEAL) now has climbing ability out
of the water (maxslope=30) equal to their in-water climbing ability
(maxunderwaterslope=30) -- this is for metal maps like Over Crude Water, where
they would often get stuck going in and out of the water.
The Arm Zipper and Core Freaker now has climbing ability identical to most other
kbots. (maxslope=15) Previously they could climb only gentle slopes.
The Core Krogoth has been given climbing ability identical to the Arm Bulldog
tank. This will allow it to wade into shallow pools of water but will not let it
snorkle accross deep bodies of water like fully amphibous units.
Fire Standing Orders and Fire Moving Orders for mobile units have been changed
so most mobile units are set to Fire at Will MOST of the time.
Unit Name Changes:
-----------------
The Decoy Commanders have been renamed "Commander" so you don't see "Decoy
Commander" when you move your cursor over top them in skirmish. You can still
use F1 to see a difference. I did not change the Commander build cost to the
same as the Decoy Commanders because of a gamecheat which makes Commanders
buildable - if Commanders cost no more than Decoy Commanders, it would be more
tempting to use that cheat.
The Arm Millenium has been renamed "Millennium". (See dictionary for correct
spelling of word :p)
The Core Mobile Artillery has been renamed "Pillager".
The Core Missile Frigate has been renamed "Hydra".
The Core Ressurrection Kbot has been renammed "Necro".
Unit Sound Fixes:
----------------
These units either were using NONEXISTANT sound categories (can we say "file not
found error"?) or were using common ones when specific sound categories for that
unit existed:
CORFAST
CORFHLT
CORMEX
CORPUN
CORSENT
CORSPY
CORSSUB
CORUWMS
ARMUWMS
ARMFHLT
I fixed them all.
The missile firing sounds (particularly for Hawks and Vamps) has been shortened
to reduce soundcard 'lag' when 10+ fire at once.
The EMG firing sounds have also been shortened slightly.
Certain large explosion sounds also taper off quicker than originally.
All this is nearly impossible to notice in-game because sounds tend to cover
each other up when there's lots of action.
Antinuke Silo Bugfix:
--------------------
I've added a weapons line "toaironly=1;" to the antinuke missiles for the Arm
AMD/Protector and Scarab and Core FMD and Hedgehog so that they will not open
and attempt to shoot at anything other than aircraft that hit them. This negated
their 0.5 damage modifier they gained for being closed and made them TWICE as
easy to destroy. Sadly, they still open stupidly when aircraft shoot them - but
I could find no weapons-modifying line that could tell them to ignore attacks by
aircraft. So I settled for the partial fix instead of none at all. I also made
it so antinuke silos should only stay open for 10 seconds after firing a missile
or attempting to attack aircraft. This keeps the "window of opportunity" to
destroy them while they're open and more vulnerable reasonably small without
interfering with their standard operations.
Antinuke weapon turnrates have been increased to 63,000 -- the same turnrate as
the Krogoth Rockets have -- and given a 120 second (from 60 seconds) flighttime.
This is to combat the "trick" of shooting nukes at an enemy unit inside the
enemy's antinuke protection zone, then killing the enemy unit -- resulting in
the nuke missile flying around in a tight circle while antinuke after antinuke
missile hopelessly tries to shoot down the single confused nuke missile. This
was a cheap way of exploiting a bug to deplete the already buggy antinuke silo
of missiles.
Originally, if the Core Antinuke silo (CORFMD) is ever nuke-flooded -- and the
silo survives -- the silo locks up and refuses to ever fire at nuke missiles
again even if it has missiles in it.
BEFORE my changes, ALL antinuke silos can temporarily overload and quit firing
if 5 or more nukes are fired at them at once. (This is what "nuke-flooded"
means.) Once ALL nukes have impacted or are shot down, they might resume firing
at the NEXT wave of incoming nukes. The antinuke's animation scripts cannot keep
up with how fast the antinuke fires, causing the antinuke to refuse to fire
until it resets its variables when there are no more incoming nukes. A
"workaround" for the problem is to put the antinuke on hold fire, which resets
its script, then back on fire at will -- which should cause it to resume firing.
To get the antinuke silo's animations to match their actions, I had to slow down
their rate-of-fire slightly and both speed up and simplify their animations,
especially for Arm's antinuke.
Arm's antinuke silo's rotary launcher was much too slow for the rate-of-fire
needed in the event of a nuke-flood, and did not match its apparent
rate-of-fire. Originally, it ignored the position of the rotary launcher and
fired multiple antinukes almost instantaneously, while the rotary launcher would
continue to rotate erratically -- sometimes even reversing direction! Now, Arm's
antinuke silo loads 3 antinuke missiles on 3 separate launch rails (in a
triangular configuration) and has to close and rearm after every 3 shots. It
does this quickly enough to seldom cause problems.
Core's antinuke silo has to close and rearm after EVERY shot, but it rearms
faster than Arm's antinuke silo so both should be balanced yet still retain
originality.
The mobile antinukes needed only a firerate reduction (in their unit scripts) to
remove most of their problems.
After all the antinuke changes, the fixed antinuke silos can fire slightly
quicker than their mobile counterparts. This should make fixed antinukes
worthwhile versis their mobile counterparts which cost the same.
Arm Pelican Bugfix:
------------------
Despite the many and much heated debates about the Pelican being too powerful in
TA, I still prefer to think of the Pelican (and Flash as well, but that's a
different story) as a legitimate unit in TA. However, missiles aimed at the
pelican when it is on the water tend to hit the water instead of the Pelican
unless fired from nearly point-blank range. This is a bug or is at least
unintentional on the designers part. All ships are targetted correctly by
missiles, SO if pelicans are in fact meant to be a ship (but then why the
Floater=0; line? -- all ships have a Floater=1; line!), subs should be able to
target them. However, subs cannot target them. (But subs can force-fire past
them, hitting the Pelicans. The same trick can be done to all Hovers.) Pelicans
also have a canhover=1; line which ALL other hovercraft have as well - which
proves that Pelicans are hovercraft and not ships. Pelicans currently use
waterline=9; which is ODD because all hovercraft lack a waterline=9; in their
unit FBI file -- which due to its absence defaults to 0. So obviously, part of
the Pelican is hiding below the waterline -- which is where missiles are aiming
in their attempt to hit them. However 2 other facts remain which causes the
behavoir of even partially underwater Pelicans to not make any sense:
1.Pelicans take NO DAMAGE from acid on acid maps!
2.ALL other units slow down when they go underwater or even partially
underwater, but Pelicans are no slower on water than on land.
As such, there is a simple fix for the WHOLE problem: set the pelican's
waterline to 0 so it isn't partially underwater.
Pelicans may appear to be hovering over the water with this fix when viewed at
640 x 480. I couldn't tell any differance myself except that missiles hit the
modified Pelicans more reliably. HOWEVER, any missiles fired from at or near max
range that might miss an ordinary hovercraft could well miss the Pelican as
well. This change does nothing else to the Pelican's unit stats, nor does it
change how any other weapon is fired at them. It only allows missiles and
direct-fire rockets to hit Pelicans as they would any ship or hovercraft in the
same conditions.
Arm Penetrator Bugfix:
---------------------
Originally, Penetrators could recenter their turret quicker than the turret
turns to aim! It's also the slowest-turning mobile turret in the game. Why not
aim the turret as fast as it can recenter in the first place? It won't be around
to recenter if it can't acquire the target! So, the Penetrator's turret has been
changed to a faster-turning (but still slow) turret with the same turret speed
as its larger counterpart, the Arm Annihilator. The Penetrator's weapon lacks
the range and damage of the Arm Annihilator and costs nearly as much energy to
fire -- these characteristics I have not changed.
Arm/Core Spy Changes:
--------------------
Presumeably, spies are level 2 scouting units. But both sides' spies had
terrible LOS ranges. A Core Crasher's LOS range is 42 units greater than the
Core Spy -- and Core Crashers aren't even "scout" units! An Arm Jethro's LOS
range is 10 units greater than Arm's Spy. Even Arm's Stumpy had the same sight
range as the Core Spy -- and it's a half-blind tank! Without the very expensive
cloaking ability, the spies are LESS effective than their much cheaper level 1
counterparts. (the scouting kbots, which even have weapons.) What good is a
nearly blind spy? Like many other typos, this was probably an oversight or minor
mistake. So, both spys now have their sight range increased by 100 units - to
380 and 350 respectfully. This is the same as the ARM HLT and Core HLT - level 2
defensive lasers. Even after the change, since most base defenses have a sight
range of 350, it is almost impossible for a Spy to sneak up on them if not
cloaked. By the time the Spy can see them, they can see the Spy! Any rough
terrain on True LOS (Greenhaven anyone?) will negate most of the Spy's extra
seeing range. Also, since the spy is NOT as mobile as a Thud or Spider it cannot
as easily find a high spot to get a better view.
Core Krogoth and Krogoth Gantry Changes:
---------------------------------------
Krogoth Duplication Bug:
When a healthy vetran krogoth is captured, self-d'ed, or traded, the krogoth
(being captured, self-d'ed, or traded) has 30,000 damage done to it which is
LESS than its total health. So the original krogoth (that was captured,
self-d'ed, or traded) lives, barely; and a NEW healthy duplicate is created as
well. By repeating this cheat, krogoths can be created for free! This fix
reduces the krogoth's health to half (to 14,959 which is half of 29,918) and
adds a damagemodifier=0.5; line in its FBI file, which makes the krogoth have
1/2 the health but take 1/2 damage all the time. A COB file fix was also needed
which set the Krogoth to the always armored state.
When the modified krogoth is captured, self-d'ed, or traded the 30,000 damage
ignores the damagemodifier=0.5; in its FBI file. So, the original is removed
when the copy is created. This prevents the appearance of extra, but badly
damaged, krogoths. One small but extra benifit is Krogoths can be repaired at
double their original rate - so it'll take a construction aircraft about 5
minutes to repair a badly damaged krogoth instead of 10 minutes.
Also to maximize the krogoth's damage potential in combat, its 3 weapons have
been moved around. Since the krogoth tends to use its primary weapon over its
secondary weapons, it makes good sense to make its primary weapon one it can use
in MOST situations.
The weapons are swaped around to:
Weapon1=CORKROG_HEAD;
Weapon2=CORKROG_ROCKET;
Weapon3=CORKROG_FIRE;
The bad target categories are changed to:
wpri_BadTargetCategory=LEVEL1;
wsec_BadTargetCategory=NOTAIR;
wspe_BadTargetCategory=CTRL_V;
BadTargetCategory=NOWEAPON;
NoChaseCategory=CTRL_V;
The weapons will still fire at bad targets, but only if ordered or if no other
targets are available.
Also added to the Krogoth is the "D-Gun" option. This does NOT fire a D-gun but
instead fires the Krogoth's Gauss guns on its arms. When "Attack" is used in
conjuction with the "D-Gun" option (via the shift key), the Krogoth can be made
to fire all its weapons at once -- possibly even at different targets! When
using "Attack" alone, the Krogoth will only try to get within range of its
head-mounted Blue Laser (700 pixel range) from the target.
The Krogoth can now be selected to built in the Krogoth Gantry using the "Q" key
when the Gantry is selected and the Krogoth is showing on the menu. The buildpic
for the Krogoth is now a huge picture on the the first build menu page. (Page #2
as a keyboard shortcut -- the actual 1st page is the fire orders page.) The
now-missing 5 other unit build buttons are hidden in the title and description
bars next to the Krogoth build picture and are still accessable through keyboard
shortcuts.
The Core Krogoth Gantry will consistantly stay open between each Krogoth it
builds in sequence. It also builds at 2x its original OTA rate. This means that
without assistance and without nanostall a Krogoth will take about 16.5 minutes
to complete. Each extra c-unit will NOT decrease the Krogoth buildtime as much
as they did in OTA.
Core Necro Changes:
------------------
Changes made from the original Necro:
1.Name change from "Ressurrection Kbot" to "Necro".
2.Added builddistance=30; to the CORNECRO.FBI file, so it doesn't have to be
touching units and wreckage to repair them.
3.Removed bogus attack button information in the CORNECRO.FBI file.
4.Fixed Necro's unit script so that the guard factory bug (where the necro gets
"STUCK" repairing units built by the plant even after they've left the plant)
happens less frequently. (Total elimination of this bug is nearly impossible
though, because what triggers the bug seems to be the interaction of many
scripts at once: factory, Necro, and unit being built.) This bug ALSO affects
any repetitious nanolathe animations, even back-to-back ressurrections that
don't require movement.
Why I made these changes to the Necro:
1.The Necro, which was obviously found and released as it, has the bug of not
even being called the Necro.
2.The Necro could not reliably repair units because of a missing
"builddistance=###;" in its CORNECRO.FBI file. Any number between 20 and 100
could be used for builddistance, but I chose 30 after talking with Boneyards
sysops about how the Core Necro affects game balance. If I gave it a value of
60, like the Arm FARK, it could be abused by making it possible to guard a
single adv. air plant with 10 or more Necros!
3.And to further confuse matters, the Necro has bogus attack information in its
CORNECRO.FBI file!
4.The Core Necro has the same build/assist scripting problems as the Core Adv.
C-Kbot -- which means in OTA (other than the Decoy Commander which is a very
weak construction unit) Core does not have a reliable construction unit that is
built by its Advanced K-Bot lab.
The results of these Changes:
With a too-large builddistance, the Necro would be able to do everything the Arm
FARK could AND ressurrect units as well! I tried to avoid this by making the
Necro's builddistance tiny -- even shorter than most Level 1 construction units
(which normally have a builddistance of 40.)
Core's Necro is still only a so-so Arm FARK counter. Although it costs less
metal than the FARK, it costs 3 times as much energy, is built 40% slower, has
far less armor (paper thin, in fact), makes no resources (the FARK makes +0.5m/s
and +17e/s), would assist factories at a slower rate than the FARK, cannot be
used to MASS-assist a single factory like the FARK can, and moves slower. But at
least with this fix, it can ressurect and repair correctly unlike the original.
And if you don't have any wreckage around to rez, it can even reclaim rocks and
trees (while on Patrol) and repair already-living units (while on Patrol or
ordered to repair) -- which is something it previously had trouble doing! Only
1-3 Necros can get close enough to a single factory to assist in building mobile
units, but would block the factory's exit. After all these changes, the Necro
goes from being a micromanagement pain to use (because it was always failing to
complete orders and would sit idle) to easy and FUN to use. This gives Core a
workable counter for the Arm FARK. (in my opinion)
Crawling Bomb Changes:
---------------------
Crawling bombs have their self-d countdown reduced to 2, the same as landmines.
This will NOT speed up the countdown of a flying bomb so it should have little
effect on the game. Also crawling bombs' kamakazi distance (how far they have to
be from an enemy unit before they'll self-destruct on their own) has been
changed up to the limits of their line of sight. This will make them more likely
to self-destruct before they are destroyed, thus creating a far larger more
deadly explosion. This allows crawling bombs on the ground to be a slightly more
viable tactic without changing a variety of their statistics. Just as before, a
crawling bomb can be told to attack the ground just in front of it to cause an
instant explosion without the 2 (or 5) second self-d delay! Also, a crawling
bomb can be put on hold fire to ignore its kamakazi distance -- and then
manually detonated either with self-d (and a 2 second delay) or by attacking a
spot.
Hovercraft Bugfix:
-----------------
(This idea was taken straight from BSR's UH.)
Hovercraft leave passabled debris when destroyed on the water. (That is IF they
leave debris!) The debris created is also left on land IF the hovercraft is
badly destroyed. The debris is equally valuable and as tough as the "shell"
wreckage is.
This required a new COB script for every hovercraft in TA, as well as changes to
the 4 corpse files. Unfortunately, this could not be done for the hover
transports, due to the complexity of their script.
LRPC Changes:
------------
All the LRPC's (Arm Big Bertha, Arm Vulcan, Core Buzzsaw, Core Intimidator) have
been modified so the direction they point when built isn't always straight down.
Now, they can be pointed to the left, down, or to the right. I tried making them
so they could point up also, but something caused them to be unable to fire when
they were built facing up.
I added an On/Off switch to the Arm Vulcan and Core Buzzsaw. Consider it a
single-shot sniper mode/full auto spray fire switch. While On, these big guns
fires at their superfast drain-your-energy-dry rate. While Off, the Vulcan fires
at the same rate as an Arm Bertha -- making it likely to be mistaken as one by
its rate-of-fire and its sound. The Buzzsaw fires at the same rate as a Core
Intimidator -- but will sound a little different. These guns don't require 8+
fusions to sustain firing while in single-shot sniper mode. Worth noting is they
also don't lose targetting information (about what to shoot next) whenever it is
turned On/Off -- this allows you to get over an energy stall without resorting
to stopping your big guns from firing.
Unfortunately, ARM Vulcan (ARMVULC) and Core Buzzsaw (CORBUZZ) don't always
single-fire correctly, they sometime double. I think it's caused by vet status,
as it seems to happen more often as they get more kills.
The Core Buzzsaw, because of its odd 6-barrel rotating configuration, allowed me
to retool its script so that it aims from the first gun barrel. This causes it
to shoot short or long for all shots except every 6th one even at vetran status.
(The first barrel aims from the proper aiming point.) This prevents the problem
that the Buzzsaw has when it reaches 100 kills or more -- it would shoot at one
spot only instead of spraying the damage around. There was no point in that
because Arm doesn't have a single mobile land unit that can survive more than 2
direct hits. By spreading out the shots in a line extending away from the
Buzzsaw, it can better counter hordes of enemy units charging straight at your
base. While in single-shot mode, the Core Buzzsaw will not spread the shots out
in a line.
I tried to do the same to the Vulcan, but the resulting Vulcan would stop to
reaim between shots because its aiming point changed too drastically. At 100+
kills an Arm Vulcan will tend to put its shots in a small area -- perfect for
chewing up Core Krogoths charging your base.
(Ideas taken from BSR's UH:)
Aiming point changes have been given to the Arm Vulcan and Core Intimidator to
make them more likely to hit their target once they reach 1,000+ kills.
Originally, their aiming point choice resulted in them consistently shooting
over their intended targets (by over 1/2 a screenlength at max range for a
high-kill vet Vulcan!) yet almost always hitting in the same place -- off
target. This meant that as their kills increased both the Core Intimidator and
Arm Vulcan became progressively LESS likely to hit a tiny, short stationary
target! As many have noticed the HARD way, the Arm Bertha doesn't have this
problem.
Minelayer and Landmines Changes:
-------------------------------
Minelayers are now selectable with CTRL+B (as Constructors) and now have patrol,
repair, and reclaim abilities! They are still considerably slower than
C-vehicles, nearly as costly, do not make (or store) resources on their own,
plus they have only landmines on their build menu - but now at least they can
clean up the messes their minefields can make! They can now clean up messes,
repair units, and even assist in construction projects when specifically
ordered. Minelayers do NOT have guard ability, so they cannot act as level-1
FARKs to mass guard factories and c-units.
Landmines can now all have their fire orders changed to HOLD FIRE, RETURN FIRE,
and FIRE AT WILL. Why a player would want to is questionable, but since they
qualify as a weapon - it makes sense that they have a "safety" feature too. The
Nuclear Mines default to HOLD FIRE, but all others default to FIRE AT WILL.
While a landmine is set on Hold Fire, it can be manually detonated for maximum
damage effect. Or, landmines can be used as cloaked spotters. (However their
poor LOS range, cloaking cost, and lack of armor makes landmines poor spotters.)
Originally, landmines were only resistant to damage caused by landmines of the
exact same kind. This has been changed so that all landmines of one side are
resistant to other mine's damages of the same side. The only exception is the
nuclear mine's explosion which kills ALL landmines nearby -- and just about
everything else too! Arm mines affect Core mines and vice-versa just fine. This
is done to encourage the use of dissimilar mine types in a tightly packed
minefield.
Previously, the Arm Precision Mine (ARMMINE5) had 2,000 armor while ALL other
mines had only 100 or 200 armor. Because the mine is extremely tough for such a
cheap price (which is unbalanced), I presume an extra unintended 0 was
inadvertently put there. The armor has been reduced to 200 -- still TWICE as
much as all other Arm mines. (Sorry Arm players, there goes your "killer"
strat.)
Both side's Nuclear Mines can now be built underwater. However, since the
minelayers can drive only into shallow water, a naval construction unit is
required to build them in deep water. So, Nuclear Mines have been added to the
Advanced Construction Sub's build menu. (Page 3, position 5) This should be
useful as a naval defense against Fibbed subs, Pelicans, and Leviathans, which
previously lacked good counters. Nuclear Mines have a tiny LOS radius, no sonar,
damage both friendly and enemy units, are one-shots, and cost a considerable
amount of resources -- making this change difficult to abuse.
Landmines now have an On/Off switch. When "ON", they are "primed for
destruction" -- it sets their damage resistance to only 1/10th normal, making
them very easy to destroy -- not that they were very tough to begin with. The
main purpose of this is to allow landmines out front to be set to hold fire and
ON while the ones at the rear are set to fire at will and OFF. That means they
won't detonate till enemy units pass near the landmines at the rear -- which
will detonate all the landmines turned on, causing much more destruction with
minimal micromanagement. (The idea came from UberHack, but since it decreases
micromanagement so much I decided it made sense as a new control option to add
it to TA Bugfix.)
See also Landmine Explosion Changes...
Mobile Radars, Jammers, Spies, and Mobile Flakkers Changes:
----------------------------------------------------------
The mobile radars and radar jammers now use fake merl rockets to make them act
like an attack unit and will cause them to close to max merl rocket range (just
outside most weapons range) and stay there. It has been added to the mobile
radars, mobile jammers, mobile flakkers, and spys. This will allow them to
travel with your attack group without requiring constant move orders, since
previously they didn't move when told to attack with a group. As they near your
chosen target, they will only approach barely into their fake weapon range --
about 700-800 pixels away from the target. This will allow them to cover
attacking/retreating forces without them charging in like suicidal flash tanks.
The now-known trick of having mobile flakkers guard attack units so the flakkers
will fire at ground targets has been removed in TA Bugfix by redesigning the
mobile flakkers so their flak weapon is weapon #3 instead of weapon #1. Weapon
#1 is now a fake Missile Frigate Rocket so the mobile flakkers will follow the
attack force around when told to attack ground targets -- without getting too
close.
NOTE: The Fake Laser (used in v1.5betas) has been removed from mobile radars and
jammers, and has been replaced with non-firing versions of regular weapons
already found in the game. This saves a weapon id number.
NOTE: The mobile radars and radar jammers now use fake Merl v-launch rockets
instead of fake lasers to trick them into attacking like other units. This will
make them more likely to hide behind covering terrain.
Mobile radar tanks (ARMSEER and CORVRAD) didn't stop spinning their radars when
turned off -- now fixed!
Naval Unit Changes:
Advanced Construction Sub Changes:
---------------------------------
I did a footprint decreases for the adv. c-subs. They used a 6x6 footprint,
which I changed to a 3x3 footprint. This should decrease their pathfinding
problems while also making it possible to cram slightly more around naval
building projects.
Arm Fibber Sub Changes:
----------------------
The Arm Fibber in OTA is one unfair unit because of the way sonar jamming works.
Sonar jamming gives the equivalent of underwater cloaking on ALL units within
the jamming radius, and in the case of the Fibber this costs NO energy! Even
mincloakdistance=100; does not negate this cloaking-like effect.
Now, if the Fibber somehow takes damage, its sonar jamming effect is temporarily
disabled for up to 10 seconds. This is no different than a radar that turns off
briefly when hit, and should help make anti-Fibber wars winnable, with
difficulty.
Fibbers now have a fake weapon that acts as a fake torpedo. It does 0 damage,
but has a large area of effect -- almost as big as a crawling bomb explosion.
Fire orders have been disabled, so the Fibber is stuck permanently in Fire at
Will mode. If a targetable enemy unit gets within 200 pixels of the Fibber, the
Fibber will fire on it. And when the Fibber fires, it turns off its sonar
jamming for up to 10 seconds. Also, if an enemy destroyer or sub is hit, they
WILL return fire! With the fibber weapon's large area of effect, it is possible
that more than 1 enemy unit will be affected by it -- so return fire may be
significant. Net result: Fibbers now turn off their sonar jamming IF an enemy
unit gets within 200 pixels of them (and presumeably has them in their LOS.)
However, because the Fibber's OWN LOS is less than 200 pixels, when the Fibber
travels alone it has to get closer than 200 pixels to an enemy unit before it
will open fire with its fake torpedo. Also, the Fibber will NOT fire at unarmed
buildings unless +SHOOTALL has been enabled. Fibbers won't fire at aircraft or
hovercraft in any case, since regular sub torpedoes and destroyer depth-charges
also won't shoot at aircraft and hovercraft. This means overflying aircraft and
hovercraft WON'T unmask your underwater base. But they still will see
unidentifed dots on radar within the aircraft's LOS as it passes. (This was
already true even with OTA.)
Keep Fibbers at the back of the pack and they'll work just fine -- use them as
spotters against anti-submarine defenses and you'll lose them. Which is fair and
makes sense, I think.
Arm/Core Sub Changes:
--------------------
"upright=1;" has been added to all sub FBI files to combat their tendancy to
breach the water's surface in shallow water. It only helps a LITTLE for the
massive Leviathan, so just remember to keep them in DEEP water!
Core Leviathan Super-Sub Changes:
--------------------------------
SoundCategory=ARM_SUB;
has been changed to:
SoundCategory=CORE_SUB;
since it is after all a CORE sub!
Naval Defensive Structures Bugfix:
---------------------------------
Both side's floating HLT's and Core's floating missile tower's waterlines have
been changed from 3 and 4 respectively to 0.3 -- this will allow them to better
shoot over naval dragon's teeth while still allowing subs to target them. It
will also allow guided missiles targetted at them to hit them from a longer
range, previously the missiles would hit the water like the Pelican bug (see
below). The Core naval HLT has also been made slightly taller (in the 3do file)
to better allow it to shoot over naval DT.
Naval Dragons Teeth Bugfix:
--------------------------
Naval Dragons Teeth water depth has been altered to allow naval HLT's and naval
missile towers to shoot over them but missiles and lasers from most other
sources cannot. Originally, naval HLT's and naval missile towers could not do so
reliably -- which made countering Pelicans all the more difficult! Naval DT can
also act as torpedo netting against subs.
Cruiser and Destroyer Changes:
-----------------------------
Although previously changed in TA Bugfix before v1.6, Destroyers and Cruisers
have their Depth Charge weapons set from Weapon #3 back to Weapon #2. The
earlier change caused them to be unable to chase subs -- if you ordered them to
attack a sub outside their depth charge's current range, they wouldn't try to
move in range to fire! However, if you have radar coverage of an area, you can
put your ships on hold position and radar-target the dots -- IF the ships are
already in gun range (and stopped and set to hold position) when you tell them
to do this, they won't try to get into Depth Charge range. Unfortunately, Fire
at Will AND +shootall has to be activated before they will shoot at weaponless
underwater buildings.
Light Carrier Changes:
---------------------
Carrier radars should quit spinning when turned off. This will allow opponents
to know if an enemy is using their carriers for their radars and repair pads or
just as energy sources -- allowing them to target them accordingly.
Carrier roam radius has been increased to reduce the constant turning in circles
behavior of ai carriers -- which makes them almost unuseable as air repair
facilities.
Missile Frigate Changes:
-----------------------
These units have less than 1/3 the armor of the cheaper cruisers made by the
same factory, yet prove less useful in almost every case. The only semi-useful
task they can perform is base bombardment, but because they are terribly slow,
unmanueverable, and poorly armored the only base they're likely to bombard is
your own when they attempt to shoot down enemy aircraft with their heavy
rockets.
To combat the lack of armor, I did not change the ship's armor stat but rather
looked at the ship's design. Because the heavy rocket launcher occupies about
1/2 the ship's length, I gave the missile frigates a 1/2 damage modifier when it
is closed and not exposing the ship's innards and live heavy rockets on the
launcher. This makes them barely half as tough as a cruiser when closed.
To combat the friendly fire problems caused by the heavy rockets, I added an
On/Off switch to these ships which controls whether or not the heavy rockets
will fire. On Core's Missile Frigate, this also has the unfortunate effect of
turning off its radar, so I made the radar quit spinning while off as well.
While set to the "Off" state, the missile frigates will still fire their AA
missiles at enemies if any are in range.
The default state for the Missile Frigates is "On", so it can use its heavy
rockets by default.
Sea Serpent Changes:
-------------------
These little nasties are found in the first couple TA:CC missions. The
ARMSS/CORSS waterline changed from 3 to 0.3 -- to make them more suseptable to
missiles and rockets while still leaving them vulnerable to torpedoes.
Previously missiles would hit the water like the Pelican bug (see above).
Corpse Changes:
--------------
All corpses and heaps (in alphabetical order by unit abbreviation) are in 4
master files (Arm corpses, Arm heaps, Core corpses, Core heaps) -- this would
also aid in discovering unit conflicts. The other files are of zero-length to
force TA to forget all the incorrect and redundant entries in ccdata.ccx and
totala1.hpi.
Land-based metal maker corpses have been made worth 1 metal so c-units on patrol
will automatically reclaim them if low on metal -- previously, their wreckage
would block passage but would never be automatically reclaimed. 1 metal is a
neglegible amount and not exploitable as a cheat because the energy to metal
conversion ratio of this "cheat" is nearly 700e to 1m! (Over 10 times worse than
using an equivalent amount of energy to power metal makers.)
FIXED: The Core Fortitude Missile Defense (CORFMD) incorrectly uses Arm's Anti
Missile Defense's (AMD's) corpse (armamd_dead) instead of its own corpse
(corfmd_dead) which is in TA. This isn't too big a deal, unless you're using
ressurrector units - in which case corpses don't always turn back into the unit
that they came from!
FIXED: The Core Goliath (CORGOL) uses the Core Diplomat's (corvroc_dead) corpse.
This was why previously a dead goliath was worth less metal than a dead Reaper!
This has been replaced by the considerably more valuable goliath corpse
(corgol_dead), which is also in the game.
FIXED: The Arm Retaliator nuke silo's corpse was worth 1,700 more metal than it
cost to build the silo. This has been changed to 80% the value of the silo.
FIXED: The Core Viper (CORVIPE) corpse was worth over 2 times as much metal as
it costs to build a Core Viper. This has been reduced to less than the cost of
the Core Viper. The Viper heap has also been reduced to half the corpse's value.
This was never noticed as Core Vipers previously didn't leave a corpse at all!
FIXED: The Arm Seer (ARMSEER) and the Core Informer (CORVRAD) used the same
corpse as the Arm Jammer, (ARMJAM) this has been changed to ARMSEER's corpse and
CORVRAD's corpse, respectfully.
Better dead Merl picture added. Thanks to the UH crew for this one!
Better dead Core MMM picture added. Thanks to the UH crew for this one!
The Arm Cruiser and Arm Carrier corpses have been given a blocking 2x2 footprint
to simulate their tall parts sticking up.
Unit Footprints, Corpses, and Heaps have been changed so that they are the same
size, what few units this affects have had their corpses reduced by a small
amount. About the only effect this may have on the game is slightly more corpses
can be packed into an area without overlap -- meaning that a few extra corpses
will be left behind after a battle that would otherwise have been covered up and
unreclaimable. (This makes the Core Necro and Arm FARK more useful for when they
go on ressurrection and reclaim patrols!) For some reason, the Lancet had a 6x6
unit footprint!
Corpse Value Changes:
--------------------
The Corpse damage capacity and metal value is calculated using these formulas:
unit corpse health and metal value = 80% (4/5) the original unit's value
unit heap health and metal value = 40% (2/5) the original unit's value
Most of Cavedog's units followed those formulas exactly, and few deviated from
that by much.
HOWEVER, I deviated on the health value on naval unit corpses (making them just
as tough as the units that created them because they're underwater), on
super-expensive but fragile buildings (making them just as tough as the units
that created them to slightly improve the change of them being reclaimed --
instead of being destroyed), on pop-up open/close turrets (making them just as
tough as the units that created them to simulate their armored state even as a
corpse), and on hovercraft heaps (because they also get left on the water.)
I deviated from the corpse metal formula on pop-up open/close turrets (making
their secondary corpse just as valuable as their regular corpses to simulate
their armored state even as a corpse), on the hovercraft heaps (because they
also get left on the water), and on galactic gates (because they exceeded the
maximum value accepted by TA!)
# = valuable (or underwater) corpses have damage set to live unit damage value
!!! = 2's compliment forces the use of a number smaller than 65535!
* = 1-point metal change
% = Hover/Amphibious unit special heap which appears INSTEAD of regular corpse
when on water. (This is so the water doesn't clog up with with corpses that
block both ship and hover units passage. Previously, hovers had NO heaps at all
-- they were either a solid corpse or nothing!)
_______
|Corpses|
---------
Orig Metal New Metal Orig Damage New Damage
ARMAMB# 1326 1658
ARMAMB2# 801 1202 663 1658
ARMAMD# 991 1150 624 780
ARMAMPH 204 640 320
ARMANAC 105 218 464 704
ARMARAD 36 100 44 96
ARMASER 48 59 144 244
ARMASON# 256 320
ARMASY# 24000 2820
ARMATL# 643 1410 1160 520
ARMATLAS 95 86
ARMBATS# 24000 5720
ARMBRAWL 287 251 960 736
ARMBRTHA 4147 3347
ARMCARRY# 24000 3390
ARMCRUS# 24000 4050
ARMCS# 24000 1150
ARMEMP* 1441 1442 2048 1840
ARMFHLT# 446 419 1108 1325
ARMFIG 126 79 160 157
ARMFLEA 53 60
ARMFRT# 56.8 57 202 252
ARMGATE!!!# 171172 65127 2301 2876
ARMGUARD 2302 1982
ARMHAWK 174 203 400 408
ARMHP* 1605 1606
ARMJETH 111 102 484 376
ARMLANCE 126 303 160 296
ARMLATNK 262 283 794 880
ARMMAKR* 0 1
ARMMAV 310 394 376 696
ARMMEX 1700 136
ARMMSHIP# 24000 1200
ARMPEEP 38 32
ARMPNIX 161 167 240 376
ARMPT# 24000 560
ARMRAD 15 39
ARMROCK 103 94 576 488
ARMROY# 24000 2870
ARMSAM 114 96 739 520
ARMSCORP 4698(energy)12528(energy)
ARMSCRAM# 326 236 256 450
ARMSILO 2734 808
ARMSJAM# 104.8 105 408 510
ARMSNIPE 400 256
ARMSONAR# 24000 50
ARMSPY 794 216
ARMSS# 1316(energy)3508(energy)342 420
ARMSUB# 24000 610
ARMSUBK# 24000 290
ARMSY# 24000 2490
ARMTARG# 1160 1900
ARMTHUND 161 104 240 256
ARMTIDE# 24000 256
ARMTL# 723 643 24000 1450
ARMTSHIP# 24000 2000
ARMUWES# 1158 1447
ARMUWFUS# 985 1231
ARMUWMEX# 264 330
ARMVULC# 1120 1400
ARMYORK 256 497
CORAMPH 227 259 656 920
CORAPE 287 235 960 752
CORARAD 34 98 40 104
CORARCH# 1960 2450
CORASY# 24000 2760
CORATL# 1006 1406 450 562
CORAVP 2060 2064
CORBATS# 24000 6140
CORBUILD 145 176 1400 1449
CORBUZZ# 22569 28211 1360 1700
CORCARRY# 24000 3500
CORCRASH 113 103 496 384
CORCRUS# 24000 4170
CORCS# 24000 1150
CORFINK 42 29
CORFLAK 855 874 1219 1324
CORFMD# 991 1206 624 780
CORFMKR 88 96
CORFRT* 57 58
CORGATE!!!# 157988 62735 1975 2469
CORHLT 950 960
CORHRK 301 310 950 496
CORHURC 161 176 240 384
CORINT 4267 3462
CORKROG 11967 23934
CORLEVLR* 233 234
CORMABM 991 1206
CORMAKR* 0 1
CORMIST 114 93 794 524
CORMSHIP# 24000 1250
CORNECRO 132 301 794 376
CORPLAS 132 257 794 674
CORPT# 24000 570
CORPUN 2352 2032
CORRAD 15 40
CORROY# 24000 3150
CORSCORP 4698(energy)12528(energy)
CORSENT 2280 548
CORSHAD 161 105 240 252
CORSHARK# 221 276
CORSNAP 480 680
CORSOLAR 116 113 261 256
CORSONAR# 2000 52
CORSPEC 48 56 144 248
CORSS# 1316(energy)3508(energy)342 420
CORSSUB# 1652 3080 794 3052
CORSTORM 103 94 592 496
CORSUB# 903 959 24000 590
CORSUMO* 674 675 3280 3960
CORSY# 24000 2490
CORTARG# 2240 1800
CORTIDE# 24000 253
CORTITAN 126 291 160 300
CORTL# 745 665 24000 1520
CORTOAST# 1160 1717 1172 1502
CORTOAST2# 1160 1288 1172 1502
CORTRON 2048 1680
CORTRUCK 710 174 24000 2627
CORTSHIP# 24000 2120
CORUWES# 1217 1521
CORUWFUS# 1140 1425
CORUWMEX# 284 355
CORUWMS# 1400 1750
CORVALK 95 92 120 128
CORVAMP 174 206 400 392
CORVENG 126 81 160 162
CORVIPE# 1717 514 1502 988
CORVRAD 72 69 400 408
CORWIN 1430 143
_____
|HEAPS|
-------
ARMACV* 192 193
ARMAH% N/A 96 N/A 300
ARMAMB# 496 801 663 664
ARMAMD# 496 575 312 390
ARMAMPH%# 102 204 320 640
ARMANAC% N/A 218 N/A 707
ARMARAD 18 50
ARMASER 24 29
ARMATLAS 48 43
ARMBEAC* 2085 2086
ARMBRAWL 144 126
ARMBRTHA 2074 1674
ARMCH% N/A 317
ARMCROC% 119 238
ARMFIG 63 40
ARMGATE!!!# 85586 45586 1151 1438
ARMGUARD* 778 779
ARMHAM* 60 61
ARMHAWK 87 102
ARMHP* 802 803
ARMLANCE 63 151
ARMLATNK 66 131
ARMMANNI* 1041 1042
ARMMAV 155 197
ARMMH% N/A 260 N/A 360
ARMPEEP 19 16
ARMPNIX 80 84
ARMRAD 7 20
ARMROCK 52 47
ARMSAM 57 46
ARMSEER* 34 35
ARMSH% N/A 61 N/A 160
ARMSILO 1367 404 1840 920
ARMTHUND 80 52
ARMUWES 113 114
ARMVADER 32 25
ARMVULC# 560 700
CORAAP* 876 877
CORACA* 92 93
CORAH% N/A 92 N/A 316
CORAK* 22 23
CORAMPH% 114 259
CORAPE 143 118
CORARAD 17 49
CORBEAC* 2085 2086
CORBUILD 72 88
CORBUZZ 11285 14106
CORCRASH 56 52
CORFINK 21 15
CORFLAK 428 437
CORFMD# 496 603 312 390
CORGATE!!!# 78994 43915
CORHRK 122 155
CORHURC 81 88
CORINT 2133 1731
CORKROG* 11795 11796
CORLEVLR* 116 117
CORMABM 575 603
CORMART* 100 101
CORMEX* 20 21
CORMH% N/A 254 N/A 368
CORMIST 57 47
CORNECRO 66 151 794 188
CORPLAS 66 129 794 337
CORPUN 2352 1016
CORRAD 8 20
CORSEAL% 118 236
CORSENT* 354 355
CORSH% N/A 58 N/A 160
CORSHAD 80 53
CORSNAP% N/A 224 N/A 680
CORSPEC 24 28
CORSTORM 52 46
CORSUMO 417 338
CORTITAN 63 146
CORTOAST# 580 859 1172 751
CORTRUCK 109 87
CORUWES# 609 761
CORUWFUS# 570 713
CORUWMS# 700 875
CORVALK* 47 46
CORVAMP 87 103
CORVENG 63 41
CORVIPE# 859 257 751 494
CORWIN 1430 72
Accumulating scars bug:
----------------------
After many hours of battling on a map, many of the map features are either
removed or destroyed - such as trees or recycleable rocks - leaving behind a
"damaged terrain" scar. This is also true of dead units and dragon's teeth which
are recycled. The accumulation of many of these scars causes some slowdown in
the game. In the case of dragon's teeth, the slowdown could well be excessive -
plus revealing where dragon's teeth walls once were to all players. Currently,
I've left the other scars but removed the "dead" dragon teeth scars.
Also, it was strange that although there is no way to destroy a scar - many
scars have a scar corpse as well! All scar corpses have been removed. ALL the
remaining scars do NOT have a corpse.
Weapons Changes:
---------------
Arm's Hawk's 2nd missile has an error in its data, it has:
weaponacceleration=13O;
instead of:
weaponacceleration=130;
(notice the "O" instead of a "0")
This has been corrected (but now only affects the old weapons file.)
I removed "propeller=1;" from all nuke weapons.
All "metal=##;", "energy=###;", "burstrate=##;", (on non-burst weapons)
"soundtrigger=1;", (on non-burst weapons) "startsmoke=1;", (on all missile
weapons and any fast-firing weapons) and all "// comment" sections have been
removed from ALL weapons in TA Bugfix. These either do nothing, have no visible
results, or have such a minor effect that they were removed to speed the game
up.
Interestingly, both "startsmoke=0;" and "endsmoke=0;" are DEFAULT settings for
weapons -- that's why I no longer include them on various weapons that need
those settings.
Immolator (CORPLAS) weapon now does 20 default damage instead of 10. It will now
be able to kill a Jeffy with 4-6 direct hits instead of 8-12 direct hits. :) It
also does 80 damage per shot versis Brawlers, (the same as it does to Peewees)
since they ALSO carry EMG weapons. Still against anything BUT Flashes, Peewees,
and Warriors, Immolators are far less effective than the less expensive LLT.
All EMGs now use a 3do file instead of a bitmap hack.
ALL Lasers now have a 16-32 pixel Area of Effect instead of their previous 8
pixel area. This is to reduce the chance of them passing completely through a
target without doing any damage because of their high shot velocity (now at
1,000 -- see slow light for more details.)
Edgeeffectiveness=1; added to all point-damage weapons (like gauss and lasers)
and torpedoes and depth charges to ensure that hits with these weapons do
damage.
COMMANDER_BLAST has been altered to be a nuclear missile weapon that has a 5
minute buildtime with a massive cost - 2x the metal and 3x the energy as the
regular nuke weapon. This will have NO effect on the game, but allows for the
design of 3rd party units with this "new" oddball weapon.
CRAWL_BLAST has been altered to be a medium-ranged mini nuclear missile weapon
with a cost slightly greater than the Arm Stunner missile weapon. This will have
NO effect on the game, but allows for the design of 3rd party units with this
"new" oddball weapon.
ARM_DISINTEGRATOR will no longer start fires (firestarter=0;) -- the D-gun
should destroy trees, not burn them!
Both the COMMANDER_BLAST and the CRAWL_BLAST will also destroy trees
(firestarter=0;) instead of setting them on fire. This will make the Crawling
Bombs good for clearing trees -- and almost nothing should survive a commander
explosion!
ALL nuclear missiles have reduced flighttimes -- previously they had flighttimes
of 400 seconds, now they only have a flighttime of 120 seconds. This will make
nukes that are flying around in circles run out of fuel and fall faster than
previously, making them even LESS likely to drain multiple antinuke missiles.
5 explosion weapons have been turned into true weapons:
Weapon Area of Cost Reload
ID Name Range Damage Effect Metal Energy Path Time
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Special
note Used by:
BEFORE:
110 MEDIUM_UNIT 480 250 95 - - B 3.6 Medium Unit self-d
185 ARMMINE2(Area) 480 600(30) 200 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect Arm Mine #2
204 SMALL_UNIT 480 200 75 - - B 3.6 Small Unit self-d
207 MEDIUM_BUILDINGEX 480 100 105 - - B 3.6 Medium Building explosion
213 COMMANDER_BLAST 380 9999 950 - - B 3.6 75% edge effect Commander explosion
214 CRAWL_BLAST 480 2500 556 - - B 3.6 Crawling Bomb self-d
AFTER:
110 MEDIUM_UNIT 2400 250 95 - - L 2 Dragon
185 ARMMINE2(Area) 2100 600(30) 200 - - L 10 5% edge effect ADVSAM
204 SMALL_UNIT 850 200 75 - - B 2.8 ARM_MORTAR
207 MEDIUM_BUILDINGEX 600 100 105 - - L 1 dart
213 COMMANDER_BLAST 32700 9999 950 6000 600000 V 300 75% edge effect Super-nuke?
214 CRAWL_BLAST 4000 2500 556 1300 52000 V 130 Medium-range Mini-nukes?
(Path V= Vertical Launch)
These weapons will still retain their original ability as explosions, but can
also be used as weapons on 3rd party units.
ADDED 3do and sound files:
[ARM_MORTAR]
model=mortarshell;
soundstart=Mortar1;
[Dragon]
model=Dragon_miss;
[ADVSAM]
model=ADVSAM;
soundstart=launch;
[dart]
model=dart;
[CRAWL_BLAST]
model=advmiss;
After I add the appropriate sounds and 3do files to TA Bugfix, everything needed
to use these weapons has been included.
Admittedly, it may seem a little strange for a unit to fire SMALL_UNIT,
MEDIUM_UNIT, MEDIUM_BUILDINGEX, or ARMMINE2. But confusion is the price to pay
for saving 6 weapons id's.
The 6 weapons conversions plus extra 3do and sound files adds less than 100kb to
the total filesize.
Weapon ID Number Changes:
------------------------
All of the Cavedog weapon id's (in numerical order) are in 1 MASTER weapons.tdf
file in the weapons dir (in REV31.GP3) instead of divided up among many little
files of only a weapon or 2 each. The other files are of zero-length to force TA
to forget all the incorrect and redundant entries in ccdata.ccx and totala1.hpi.
Although there is only 255 weapon id #'s to work with, Cavedog has quite a few
weapons id #'s that have unused weapons in them. Plus there is quite a few
duplicates among Cavedog's weapons. I don't mean just similar - I mean identical
down to the picture, speed, turn rate, and even acceleration speed of the
weapon. Although it's a lot of work, it's just going through the unit FBI files
and referring them to the same weapon id and going through weapons id #'s and
deleting the unused ones. The problem is, getting TA both to recognize the
changes and ignore the old id's. To do that, I have to change around a lot of
stuff in REV31.GP3 -- it's the only file that overrides other files containing
identical FBI's and weapons id's. For old weapons id #'s to be ignored, I have
made empty files of the same name and put the whole weapon id #'s list in a
single WEAPONS.TDF file.
With my tests so far, it all seems to work -- even units with 2 identical
weapons such as the Seaplanes and Stealth Fighters seem to work correctly.
Cavedog IDENTICAL and UNUSED weapon id's!
Weapon Area of Cost Reload
ID Name Range Damage Effect Metal Energy Path Time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7 MINDGUN 500 100 16 - - L 1 unused! *
8 SBMISSILE 300 80 16 - - L 1.6 unused! *
19 VTOL_EMG2 (unused!) 510 12 8 - - L .6 burst=3 burst rate=.1 *
22 ARM_DISINTEGRATOR 240 30000 48 - 400 L 1.2
23 CORE_DISINTEGRATOR 240 30000 48 - 400 L 1.2 *
30 AMD_ROCKET 32000 500 96 200 10000 L 120
117 ARMSCAB_WEAPON 27000 500 96 200 10000 L 120 * -- see NOTE #1
32 FMD_ROCKET 32000 500 96 200 10000 L 120
118 CORMABM_WEAPON 22000 500 96 200 10000 L 120 * -- see NOTE #1
38 ARMAMPH_WEAPON2 700 46(97) 48 - - L 2 *
106 ARMRL_MISSILE 700 46(97) 48 - - L 2
43 CORFLAK_GUN 750 146 125 - - B .7 Flak
79 ARMAAS_WEAPON3 750 146 125 - - B .7 Flak *
180 CORARCH_WEAPON3 750 146 125 - - B .7 Flak *
50 ARM_LIGHTCANNON 240 50 32 - - B 1.53
51 CORE_LIGHTCANNON 240 50 32 - - B 1.53 *
55 CORE_THUD 230 80 48 - - B 1.9
159 CORAMPH_WEAPON1 230 80 48 - - B 1.9 *
75 ARMSFIG_WEAPON 510 50(140) 48 - - L 3
76 CORSFIG_WEAPON 510 50(140) 48 - - L 3 *
96 ARMSFIG_WEAPON2 510 50(140) 48 - - L 3 *
97 CORSFIG_WEAPON2 510 50(140) 48 - - L 3 *
77 ARMAAS_WEAPON1 710 57(108) 48 - - L 2 -- see NOTE #2
78 ARMAAS_WEAPON2 710 57(108) 48 - - L 2 *
103 ARMSHIP_MISSILE 710 57(108) 48 - - L 2
178 CORARCH_WEAPON1 710 57(108) 48 - - L 2 *
179 CORARCH_WEAPON2 710 57(108) 48 - - L 2 *
80 ARM_LIGHTLASER 300 60 8 - 10 L .52 -- see NOTE #3
81 CORE_LIGHTLASER 300 60 8 - 10 L .52 *
82 ARM_LASER 180 30 8 - - L .865 *
88 CORE_LASER 180 30 8 - - L .865
95 ARMSEAP_WEAPON3 510 44(130) 48 - - L 3 *
98 CORSEAP_WEAPON3 510 44(130) 48 - - L 3 *
108 ARMVTOL_MISSILE 510 44(130) 48 - - L 3
107 CORRL_MISSILE 700 45(95) 48 - - L 2
148 CORFRT_MISSILE 700 45(95) 48 - - L 2 *
112 ARMVTOL_ADVMISSILE 659 70(150) 48 - - L 3
115 ARMVTOL_ADVMISSILE2 659 70(150) 48 - - L 3 * -- see NOTE #4
113 CORVTOL_ADVMISSILE 650 68(155) 48 - - L 3
114 CORVTOL_ADVMISSILE2 650 68(155) 48 - - L 3 *
135 VTOL_ROCKET 450 125 48 - - L 2 -- see NOTE #5
136 VTOL_ROCKET2 450 125 48 - - L 2 *
146 ARMSEAP_WEAPON1 300 400 16 - - L 6
152 CORSEAP_WEAPON1 300 400 16 - - L 6 *
193 ARMSEAP_WEAPON2 300 400 16 - - L 6 *
194 CORSEAP_WEAPON2 300 400 16 - - L 6 *
145 ARMSCORP_WEAPON 320 400 8 - - L 1.2 *
181 CORSCORP_WEAPON 320 400 8 - - L 1.2
143 ARMFRT_MISSILE 700 46(97) 48 - - L 2 unused! *
157 ARMFARK_WEAPON 320 112 48 - - B 1.8 unused! *
158 ARMSCRAM_WEAPON 320 112 48 - - B 1.8 unused! *
158 ARMSCRAM_WEAPON 200 0 420 - - L 2 -- see NOTE #6
162 CORHUNT_WEAPON 320 112 48 - - B 1.8 unused! *
164 ARMSEHAK_WEAPON 320 112 48 - - B 1.8 unused! *
33 CORMINE1(M-104) 480 200(45) 175 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect *
36 CORMINE2(M-209) 480 400(45) 190 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect *
37 CORMINE3(M-303) 480 700(45) 160 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect *
61 CORMINE4(M-420) 480 1100(45) 140 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect *
74 CORMINE6(M-610) 480 4300 400 - - B 3.6 15% edge effect *
184 ARMMINE1(Tiny) 480 400(30) 160 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect *
186 ARMMINE3(Focused) 480 1300(30) 130 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect *
187 ARMMINE4(HE Area) 480 1500(30) 180 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect *
188 ARMMINE5(Precision) 480 2000(30) 130 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect *
The * (asterick) shows the weapon id #'s that have been freed up with the
removal of that weapon.
This patch frees up 42 weapons id #'s.
These are the weapon ID#'s removed in numerical order:
7,8,19,23,33,36,37,38,51,61,74,76,78,79,81,82,95,96,97,98,114,115,117,118,136,143,145,148,152,157,159,162,164,178,179,180,184,186,187,188,193,194
7,8,19,143,157,158,162,164 are never used even in the original game!
All of Cavedog's units use 197 weapon id #'s BEFORE this patch. (counting unused
weapons id's in the game.)
All of Cavedog's units use 155 weapon id #'s AFTER this patch.
NOTE #1: (Mobile Antinuke Weapon Removal)
Although the 4 antinuke weapons have VASTLY different maximum ranges, ALL the
antinukes WILL shoot down nukes fired into their protected zone from beyond
their maximum range. The only thing the antinuke weapon range changes is how
soon the antinukes fire after the nuke is fired. The shortest-ranged antinuke
weapon, CORMABM_WEAPON (Core Hedgehog's weapon) has a weapon range of 22,000
pixels -- even this could cross from one side to the other of a 40 x 40 map.
(The largest non-3rd party map in TA is only 40 x 40!) Since the ranges all
correspond to an incredibly huge distance, and because any of the antinuke
weapons WILL shoot down nukes fired from beyond their max range, I have removed
ARMSCAB_WEAPON and CORMABM_WEAPON and used the original antinuke weapons
(AMD_ROCKET and FMD_ROCKET) instead on the mobile antinuke vehicles.
NOTE #2: (Flakker Ship Weapons Removal and Alteration)
The missile weapon used on Arm Flakker ships (and also reused on Core's Flakker
ships as well) has been modified to make them a 2-weapon unit instead of a
3-weapon unit. This was done by halving the reload time for the weapon, thus
making it roughly equal to the original 2 weapons it replaces. The scripting
model for the AA ships also had to be changed so the single missile weapon
appeared to be firing from different turrets.
NOTE #3: (Core LLT Laser Weapon Removal)
Replace Core's LLT weapon with Arm's LLT weapon on the Core LLT. This is done to
save yet another precious weapon id number, while having only a very minor
effect on gameplay -- and what little effect that is should be benificial for
Core. Core has a hard ENOUGH time dealing with Arm level 1 swarms without being
stuck with a poorer LLT than Arm's (in multiple ways) that has a "laser beam"
that is so slow you can see it travel from firing point to impact. The
differance in the 2 weapons is in a weapon projectile velocity of 800 (for
Core's) versis 900 (for Arm's), so only someone running at -9 speed can see the
speed differance if the 2 LLT's were firing side-by-side. However, in combat
this should allow the Core LLT to nail Flashes a little bit better instead of
consistantly shooting behind them. See also "Slow Light" changes.
NOTE #4: (Arm Hawk 2nd Missile Removal)
The 2 different Hawk missiles (ARMVTOL_ADVMISSILE and ARMVTOL_ADVMISSILE2) have
a tiny differance in top speed (559 vs 554 -- less than a 1% differance), I
removed the 2nd missile because for all practical purposes they are identical.
Many things in the game are rounded down to the nearest multiple of 32 (the
tilesize) and speed is probably one of them.
NOTE #5: (Rapier 2nd Rocket Weapon Removal)
Rapiers, in OTA had one bomber-like property -- the first volley of a Rapier
rush could often be devestating because it's fired in a single instant, instead
of like a Brawler which had to chew on things awhile to actually kill something.
In internet games with reasonable pingtimes (around 500-1k, not uncommon from
modems) Rapiers flying over an enemy base in a single volley would level almost
all frontline defenses -- before the frontline defenses even had a chance to
return fire, because of the lagtime. OTA Rapier rockets were notoriously
innacurate though, particularly the slow one. To make matters worse, the slow
rocket, which seemed to be the one it always fires first, ussually misses
because it runs out of fuel and falls short of its intended target IF it was
fired while on the move. (Stormtrooper syndrome: the first shot always misses
because it's just a warning shot.) Simple solution, do away with the slow rocket
and give the faster rocket a firerate double what it has in OTA -- plus make it
fire from different firepoints on the Rapier like the 2-weapon Rapier did.
What this will do is make the Rapier's first shot more likely to hit, while
spreading out its damage over time instead of instantaneous arrival of 250
damage if both rockets hit (which seldom happened with its first volley but
ussually happened with its 2nd and later volleys at the same nonmoving target.)
Having the Rapier fire slow-moving warning shots that ussually missed (by 50+
pixels) qualifies as a game bug. I'm treating it as one and fixing it... with
the added side-effect of freeing up another weapon id as well. The slow rapier
rocket will become part of the old weapons file to maintain backwards
compatibility with whatever 3rd party units use it however.
NOTE #6: (Arm Fibber fake torpedo addition)
This adds a NEW weapon (well, actually a previously removed weapon is added
back...) that allows the Arm Fibber to tag along with attack forces and also
causes it to stop sonar jamming if it gets too close to enemy units.
See Arm Fibber Sub Changes for further details...
Target Fixation on Weapons Fix:
------------------------------
NoChaseCategory=MOBILE;
has been added to all fixed defensive buildings' FBI files so they won't
continue tracking a single enemy unit when it moves out of range. Instead, it
will be free to target another enemy unit as it moves into range.
Zero-tolerance Weapon Bug:
-------------------------
MANY units in the game have a terrible target-tracking problem because of an
overprecise TOLERANCE=###; line in their weapons file. More specifically, for
many original TA units (but not for any of the downloadable add-on units) there
is no TOLERANCE=###; line at all! This means the turret/torso of the unit had to
be precisely aimed on the center of the target before it would fire its weapon.
A good example of this is the commanders' lasers, Arm Zeus, or Core AK. They
would track a target but seldom fire at it if the target moved by them quickly.
I might not have considered this a bug, except for the fact that Cavedog has
included a TOLERANCE=###; line for all but 1 of the downloadable units released
AFTER the original game came out. I added a low tolerance to all the
tolerance-lacking weapons.
Advanced Bombers Laser Change:
-----------------------------
All the impact pictures and impact sounds on advanced bombers laser have been
removed, they were a major source of lag when 10+ advanced bombers attacked at
once.
Anti-Aircraft Missiles Change:
-----------------------------
Despite the obvious problem of all anti-aircraft missiles not doing extra damage
to all aircraft, especially 3rd party ones, this is not really a bug. The
Seaplanes found in TA:CC are an example of how Cavedog tried to work around this
problem. They take less damage from anti-aircraft missiles than other Cavedog
aircaft, but they have less health so it averages out. The problem is, it looks
like Cavedog intended to add them to the special damage lists (and added them to
the stealth fighters' missiles) but not to anything else. This is incredibly
imbalancing because stealth fighters can destroy them easily - often with only 1
missile hit, while they need 4 to 5 hits to kill 1 stealth. However, they still
have a weakness to flakker weapons which do full damage to them. All other
weapon types kill them easier too.
I removed the special damage lines for ARMSEAP, ARMSFIG, ARMSEHAK, CORHUNT,
CORSEAP, CORSFIG on these weapons:
ARMVTOL_ADVMISSILE (ID=112)
CORVTOL_ADVMISSILE (ID=113)
CORAH_WEAPON (ID=199)
Flakker Weapon Changes:
----------------------
It's been pointed out that flakkers are often as dangerous TO your base as it is
to enemy aircraft. As a fix, I'm adding a "unitsonly=1;" line to all flakker
weapons. This will prevent the flakker weapon from detonating when it hits the
ground or when it hits DT. Zero-damage lines have also been added to the tall
buildings that were typically affected by the flakkers - now if for some reason
the flakkers do hit them, the damage the buildings take is zero. The flakker
weapon names and weapon id numbers are:
ARMFLAK_GUN ID=42
CORFLAK_GUN ID=43
ARMyork_GUN ID=116
CORSENT_GUN ID=133
(Note: The other flakker weapons in the game have been absorbed into the above 4
weapons, so all flakkers used in the game are affected by this change.)
This may not be considered a bug, but is a big game balance issue - because
what's the point of making an anti-aircraft weapon that destroys your base when
it misses? This is like an antinuke that nukes your base if it misses an
incomming nuke!
What if the reason why flak weapons refuse to aim at stray enemy aircraft is
because of their aim-to-miss logic routines? They first have to pinpoint the
enemy target, then calculate (randomly) some aim-to-miss variable, then because
the resulting inaccuracy is greater than their TOLERANCE the turret has to
reaim, only then can the flakker fire. By the time their calculation is done,
their target has moved so they have to do the calculation again. All because of
this line: "accuracy=1000;" After extensive testing, I removed the
"accuracy=1000;" line on the flakker weapons to combat their refusal-to-fire
problem. This helps but does not remove the failure to fire problem caused by
the TA engine (it's the target fixation bug all over again.)
EMG weapon Changes:
------------------
I edited the Flash tank's, Brawler's, and Warrior's EMG weapons to not make any
impact noise (soundhit=; in their weapon file) -- this should decrease cpu and
soundcard lag caused by these weapons immensely. However, you should still hear
them firing JUST fine.
I changed their sound behavior with:
soundtrigger=0;
which makes only 1 firing sound per burst of shots.
An altered sound file was made which plays the sound of an entire burst of shots
as a single wave.
In the 3 EMG weapons (Flash/PW, Brawler, Warrior) files, I removed:
startsmoke=1;
Those tiny smoke puffs were very hard to see on 640 x 480 - on anything higher,
nearly impossible.
Also, I removed the wave for weapon impact (changing it to):
soundhit=;
All the impacting pictures for EMG have been removed as well, they were also a
major source of lag. Unfortunately, the impact smoke animation is still visible
-- that can only be removed by using +SFX while ingame.
That is all I have done for the lag on emg units.
Landmine Explosion Changes:
--------------------------
OTA landmines have MUCH smaller explosions than many other units, so landmines
explosion weapons have been replaced with existing explosions. My justification
for this change is based on 2 possible assumptions of TA explosions by Cavedog
landmine designers:
1.That explosion radius is the Area of Effect value in pixels found in the
weapons files.
2.That the damage a landmine will inflict to units in its explosion is the value
given in the landmine's explosion weapon file.
Both 2 assumptions are incorrect.
1.An explosion's area-of-effect is the diameter in pixels found in the weapons
files. This reduces the area to 1/4.
2.The damage a weapon does to a unit also depends on edge effectiveness, which
can reduce the max damage value to a tiny fraction. By default, edge
effectiveness is 0% -- meaning something at the very edge of such an explosion
would take 0 damage. Landmines have a low 5-15% edge effectiveness. Damage falls
off linearly with distance from center.
All of the original landmine explosions, except for the nuclear mines, were 250
pixels or less in diameter. Even the nuke mines only had 350 (Arm) and 400 pixel
diameters, while a nuke missile has a 512 pixel diameter. Plus they did 1k
damage less (1.2k less for Core) and had reduced edge effectiveness (15% vs 25%)
to make their smaller explosions far less explosive than a nuke missile.
For the non-nuke landmines, this means that the EFFECTIVE destructive area
(capable of killing most level 1 units) for even the most powerful of the
original landmines is less than 100 pixels in diameter.
Landmines were probably only tested at 640x480 with permanent LOS and not
seriously compaired to other weapons in TA.
The most devestating landmine after the nuclear landmines does 200 to 2,000
damage. A single landmine may not kill a Flash (625 armor) and definitely won't
kill a full-health Bulldog (2,102 armor.) Some of the lesser landmines are lucky
to kill a Flea (75 armor.)
By using existing weapons and explosions in the game, I was less likely to use
anything too powerful for landmine explosions. For starters, the nuclear
landmines now use the EXACT same explosions as the nuclear missiles. The others
are less deadly than that. Core's 2nd deadliest and expensive landmine after the
nuclear mine uses the crawling bomb explosion which does less than half the
damage of a nuclear missile explosion. (2.5k damage vs 5.5k damage) ARMMINE5
(Precision -- Arm's 5th landmine) has a deadlier explosion than the crawling
bomb, (4.5k damage vs 2.5k damage) but concentrated into only 40% the area -- so
it partially balances out.
All the other landmines use explosions equal or less in area of effect than the
crawling bomb explosion -- which covers about the same area as a nuclear missile
explosion. The real crawling bombs cost far less than the landmine which uses
the same explosion. And the cloaking costs for landmines is the same as the
originals.
Weapon Area of Cost Reload
ID Name Range Damage Effect Metal Energy Path Time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Landmine Metal Cost Energy Cost Cloaking Cost
ARMMINE1 32 M 1017 E -7 E
200 SMALL_BUILDING 480 900 205 - - B 3.6
184 ARMMINE1(Tiny) 480 400(30) 160 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect REMOVED!
ARMMINE2 61 M 1909 E -14 E
215 CRAWL_BLASTSML 480 1200 275 - - B 3.6
185 ARMMINE2(Area) 480 600(30) 200 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect
ARMMINE3 86 M 2688 E -19 E
63 CORMINE5(M-515) 480 2000(30) 250 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect
186 ARMMINE3(Focused) 480 1300(30) 130 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect REMOVED!
ARMMINE4 137 M 4294 E -31 E
27 ATOMIC_BLAST 480 2000 516 - - B 3.6
187 ARMMINE4(HE Area) 480 1500(30) 180 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect REMOVED!
ARMMINE5 132 M 4135 E -30 E
189 ARMMINE6(Nuclear) 480 4500 350 - - B 3.6 15% edge effect
188 ARMMINE5(Precision) 480 2000(30) 130 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect REMOVED!
ARMMINE6 498 M 22272 E -79 E
122 NUCLEAR_MISSILE 32000 5500(2900)512 2000 180000 L 180 25% edge effect
189 ARMMINE6(Nuclear) 480 4500 350 - - B 3.6 15% edge effect
CORMINE1 20 M 532 E -5 E
185 ARMMINE2(Area) 480 600(30) 200 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect
33 CORMINE1(M-104) 480 200(45) 175 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect REMOVED!
CORMINE2 48 M 1156 E -11 E
28 ATOMIC_BLASTSML 480 1000 260 - - B 3.6
36 CORMINE2(M-209) 480 400(45) 190 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect REMOVED!
CORMINE3 73 M 1704 E -15 E
201 MEDIUM_BUILDING 480 1400 325 - - B 3.6
37 CORMINE3(M-303) 480 700(45) 160 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect REMOVED!
CORMINE4 104 M 2342 E -21 E
202 LARGE_BUILDING 480 1800 400 - - B 3.6
61 CORMINE4(M-420) 480 1100(45) 140 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect REMOVED!
CORMINE5 264 M 7607 E -70 E
214 CRAWL_BLAST 480 2500 556 - - B 3.6
63 CORMINE5(M-515) 480 2000(30) 250 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect
CORMINE6 595 M 26172 E -123 E
122 NUCLEAR_MISSILE 32000 5500(2900)512 2000 180000 L 180 25% edge effect
74 CORMINE6(M-610) 480 4300 400 - - B 3.6 15% edge effect REMOVED!
Still-used landmine explosion weapons:
185 ARMMINE2(Area) 480 600(30) 200 - - B 3.6 5% edge effect
189 ARMMINE6(Nuclear) 480 4500 350 - - B 3.6 15% edge effect
63 CORMINE5(M-515) 480 2000(30) 250 - - B 3.6 10% edge effect
Core Pyro Weapon Changes:
------------------------
I removed the wave for weapon impact (changing it to):
soundhit=;
These shoot 17 times every 1.2 seconds - which in theory would make them a
bigger lag-producer than EMG weapons!
This has been changed to firing a burst of 5 shots over almost exactly the same
time period (0.7 sec instead of 0.68 sec) and damage-per-shot has been changed
so it is roughly similar to the original.
This weapon can now pass through more than 1 unit and continue on to max range,
doing damage to anything in its path.
"Slow Light" Laser Weapon Changes:
---------------------------------
All Laser weapons have been given a weapon velocity of 1,000 -- the same as the
"fastest" lasers already in the game. Light from one laser weapon should not be
slower or faster than any other laser weapon. When you see a rocket or missile
outrunning a laser bolt, (like on the Arm Pelican) something ISN'T right! This
is also a cosmetic change, but "slow light" causes an extreme lack of
believeability.
Balance-wise, this will have only a marginal effect on the game -- and mostly a
good one. Laser weapons will hit targets in range if they've accurately
targetted them, but (because missile weapons tend to be longer ranged and
cheaper than lasers) lasers will still probably be seldom used. Although this
might seem to give AA capabilities to laser towers, the turret tracking speeds
on most laser towers is still too low to track aircraft and I have NOT changed
that! And even with 1k laser speeds, aircraft can avoid max-range laser bolts if
moving at right angles to the laser turrets.
Arm Stunner EMP silo weapon Changes:
-----------------------------------
The Arm EMP Silo's paralyzation was changed so ANY units not mentioned in its
weapon damage file are affected by it - previously, they were immune. This will
affect almost all 3rd party units and any new Core and Arm units not
specifically mentioned as immune in the damage lists. Unless many 3rd party
units are used, this should have little effect on gameplay. I didn't do the same
to the Core Neutron Silo because it affects only Arm mobile units - not ALL of
Arm's units. Having the Neutron damage ALL 3rd party units would be imbalancing.
Torpedo Weapon Changes:
----------------------
The area of effect for ALL torpedo and depth charge weapons is increased to 48
(or 64 for the advanced torpedoes on the ATLs and the Core Leviathan.) This was
done because sometimes torpedoes hit enemy units in the water but do NO damage.
It also makes force-firing of torpedos at fibbed subs worthwhile. This may make
it possible for subs to shoot their way through floating DT, but the number of
torpedoes required could be 10 or more, thus making it worthwhile only if
there's no other choice.
Because the edge effectiveness of all torpedo and depth charge weapons is 0, it
is unlikely that units will take even minor damage from a torpedo detonating
near them.
3rd party units don't work with Bugfix?
--------------------------------------
Some 3rd-party units may not work with this patch without changes IF they use
weapons removed by TA Bugfix. Like if a unit used MINDGUN as a weapon. I tried
not to take "sides" when deleting shared weapons id #'s. If equal numbers of
units used different weapons, the oldest (as in the case of ARMRL_MISSILE)
weapons id # was kept or the lowest weapons id # was kept in the case of
ARM_DISINTEGRATOR.
To make these 3rd-party units work with TA Bugfix, place the old weapons ORG
file in the totala directory and rename it a UFO file. This will ADD BACK all
the removed weapons with corrections to them as well. This should allow almost
ANY 3rd party unit to work with TA Bugfix. (And if it doesn't please email me.)
Unfinished work?
---------------
These are game bugs that I'd like to address/fix but do NOT know how.
MOST are because of problems buried in TA's game engine (the totala.exe file). I
can change what data TA uses all I want, but if the problem's in the game engine
the problem will often still occur after data changes.
1.AI antinukes that work in skirmish have not been made. I've made an antinuke
silo that doesn't use the stockpile=1; line in its weapon data (it is NOT
included in this patch), but it still seems to require the gui file and the gaf
file (for the antinuke missile itself). Also, the antinuke must build 1 fake
stockpiled antinuke missile (on the build menu) before the antinuke will work -
even though the stockpile=1; line is missing. The fake stockpiled antinuke
missile is never deducted when the antinuke fires.
2.BURSTED BOMBER BUG: Bombers could not have their bombs converted to a burst
weapon -- to remove the long-string-of-bombs bug (20+ bombs in a row without
pause, NOT the retargetting tactic which typically has brief pauses between
bombloads) that is used by players who think it's a legitimate tactic. Bombers
are powerful enough without this "tactic" especially in laggy games. I'm not
talking about the multiple-targetting micromanagement strategy where bombers are
ordered to bomb another target downrange after their first -- this is little
more than selecting multiple targets with shift except it removes the "stupid"
stage from bombers where they attempt to either stop and land or fly in a
straight line.
Bombers on patrol and fire at will, don't attack targets as they come into the
bombers' maneuver range. The fix I tried NEVER worked right, bombers would start
dropping bombs when they are damaged by an enemy unit. (This is REALLY bad if
they're patrolling over your base at the time!)
3.The Doomsday Machine doesn't always point it's big-blue-laser turret in the
direction that the big-blue-laser fires.
4.I tried changing ALL landmines found in the game from yardmap=o; to yardmap=y;
- because even units that didn't know the mines were there "knew" to drive
around them. The reason I changed it back was because yardmap=y; causes the
landmines to be near-impossible to hit with laser weapons. Only weapons which
affect an area when they impact were likely to damage the mines any.
5.The Arm Spider and Arm EMP Stunner Silo problem is that paralysis does not act
as a "STOP" command on units that are hit by them. And what's worse, with
micromanagement, paralysis can be negated entirely on mobile units. A fix for
this requires an EXE change which I cannot do! The ai's mobile attack force is
almost immune to paralysis, as each new attack order the ai gives totally
negates paralysis on ALL the mobile units!
6.The Core Leviathan may be partially stuck out of the water and trackable like
a surface ship when it's in shallow water. This I have confirmed but am unable
to fix. So keep it in deep water when you have the option.
7.With the removal of the "commander" category in the ARMCOM.FBI and CORCOM.FBI
files, the Commanders are still selectable with CTRL+C, but CTRL+C no longer
centers the viewscreen on them. However, the viewscreen can still be centered on
them with the "T" key. Sometimes you don't want the viewscreen centered on the
commander when you use CTRL+C. It has since turned out that the "commander"
category in the ARMCOM.FBI and CORCOM.FBI files has another use as well -- it
prevents players from giving their allies (or enemies) their commander in
multiplayer games - especially commander dies = ends games! Because this is an
important limitation, I had to add the "commander" category back to the
ARMCOM.FBI and the CORCOM.FBI files.
8.There's a major bug in the TA exe which causes units to not fire at enemy
units, even though they should be able to. These units DO FIRE when issued a
"STOP" order or when set to Hold Fire and back to Fire at Will. It seems related
to the pathfinding bugs, and seems less prevalent at lower gamespeed/lower
resolution. Other than that, it's no worse in TA Bugfix than in OTA. Most of my
latest scripting efforts have been to find workarounds for this 1 bug. I call it
the "target fixation" bug, as I believe units are trying to target out-of-range
units and refuse to select new targets.
9.There is a major (in my opinion!) mission bug in every mission included in TA:
The ai will not automatically build MOST TA units added after the very first
v1.0 release! Strangely, there are a handful of units that don't have this
problem. These are:
armscorp, cormabm, cornecro, corplas, corscorp, cortruck
Probably can be built by the ai as well:
armscab, armss, armgate, corgate, corbuild (but only the Core ai would be able
to build it because of an anims/gui conflict!), and both the arm and core beac
and dev1.
NOTE: Normally most of these units aren't buildable, but once a download tdf
file is added to build them the ai WILL build them!
I am trying to make it so the ai can autobuild ANY allowed TA units in missions,
even if they're 3rd party units. This is IF the ai is allowed to build them at
all -- via the useonly files. Naturally, if the unit is grayed out the ai cannot
build it. SOME 3rd party units are auto-buildable by the ai, but why is unknown.
10.Practically every 2-weapon unit has been converted back to their original
designs (minus the 'fancy' 2nd attack button via the d-key.) I simply could NOT
get them to fire their 2nd weapons reliably otherwise. The good news, in a way,
is once I redo much of TA Bugfix it will be more like OTA than the last versions
were. But it'll mean getting the 2nd weapon on a unit to fire at a particular
target in a group will be difficult or impossible -- same as it was in OTA.
11.There remains unit scripting animation problems on the Arm maverick and both
sides C-ships. These units still WORK in the game, they just sometimes animate
incorrectly. I am looking into a fix for them, but the problem SEEMS
unresolvable.
Unitscripting is still very hard for me to do, but I'm learning/figuring out
what works (and unfortunately what doesn't) little by little.
Why I didn't go further:
-----------------------
To balance the units in TA requires first testing all the units in a less-buggy
state than they are currently in the original (v3.1c patch) TA.
(My patch is a good starting place for that... :)
It is impossible to apply a uniform balance to TA because the units are so
vastly different between sides (Arm vs Core) and in different categories
(missile units vs ballistic units). Interestingly, very dissimilar types of
units can be good at the same role -- such as raiding (destroying an opponent's
outlying resources.)
There's the safety-in-numbers balance issues as well, which typically is the
case for long-ranged but low damage-per-second weapons. (ex: missile tower) By
themselves they are weak if not very weak. But in groups of 20+ they become
difficlt to counter. It is difficult to weaken the strengths of a unit while in
a large group but not also weaken it when it's by itself.
There is also the issue of relative balance -- a unit may be nearly useless in
the hands of average players, but turn into something that is very difficult and
expensive to counter in the hands of people who know some tricks with that
particular unit. (Case in point is how some experts can get stealth fighters to
hover behind their ground force's frontline and pummel anything the ground units
spot.)
Another form of relative balance is units relative to each other (assuming
equally competent players.) A Maverick may have one of the highest
damages-per-second of any unit in the game, but it's slaughtered by enemy units
that engage it from long range (such as Slashers) -- so is it too strong period,
or just too strong in a face-to-face fight?
Yet another form of relative balance is whether trying to balance units for
skirmish games (no lag), LAN games (low lag), or IP games (medium-high lag).
Aircraft bombers in skirmish and LAN games are much more stoppable, but in IP
games they become an almost unstoppable, uncounterable threat.
This patch is not intended to balance units in TA unless I can reasonably assume
the imbalance is caused by a game bug. And even in that case, I ussualy (but not
always) try to remove the bug and stop there. There's many units that I feel are
not very useful, even worthless perhaps since other units can better do whatever
that unit can do. However, I'm not going to decide what changes are neccessary
on unit stats to balance it with the rest of the game. I don't claim to be the
best TA player there is, and as such I don't know what stats to change to
balance units. It's my opinion that an "overfix" stat adjustment is far worse
than no stat adjustment at all.
How this file works:
-------------------
I wanted to make simple alterations to TA in a small file called rev32.gp3 and
have TA assume it was a later patch. But when I tried rev32.gp3 TA ignores it. I
am convinced that just like fixing the 8-bit limit of the weapons id #, tricking
TA into thinking it's a later version (v3.2) may be just as hard.
My entire modified REV31.GP3 is less than 2 megs, (previously it was much
smaller, but all the little changes added up!) but if it is combined and
repacked using all the data in the old REV31.GP3 it is over 5 megs.
Previously, I had released all my changes in an TA31_fix.ufo file and included
an installer that patched it into REV31.GP3, but MANY installation problems
erupted because of this.
I also wanted to make a patch fix that works for TA v3.1 without Core
Contingency. But currently fixing TA:CC v3.1 has proven rather difficult - and
with as much as I have added it's now nearly impossible to remove all TA:CC only
referances.
Legalese:
--------
You may distribute this file in any way that is legal.
(on the internet, on a floppy, on your computer, CD, etc, etc).
I relenquish all ownership of this file and would not mind seeing it used
elsewhere.
(but giving me credit as the compilier of the ideas in TA Bugfix if you use it
would be nice...)
Please send constructive criticism to my email address about this fix.
(Now if only these fixes were the offical TA patch...)
Credits:
-------
** Many posted messages on online BBS's about problems in TA got incorporated
into TA Bugfix. I can claim discovery of VERY few of the bugs mentioned in TA by
this file -- most were discovered by various TA players willing to post their
findings in the hopes to help others!
** Thanks also to anyone that has given me support on this project!
** Special thanks to Speed, the original creator of the ai nuke silos!
** Special thanks also to Joe D, without his programs NONE of this would be
possible!
** Special thanks to CyberKewl and Creeperman, who coded the COB scripts used in
earlier versions of TA Bugfix for me!
** Special thanks to Quitch(y) for his hard work on the Corpse Value Changes
list and his many ideas!
CyberKewl, webmaster of Total Annihilation Unit Creation Center (TAUCC), was a
major force behind the creation of this patch. (He taught me quite a bit of unit
'cobbling'...)
Creeperman has also done COB scripting work on this patch. If CyberKewl didn't
do the COB on a particular unit, Creeperman probably did. I've reworked
practically every script either CyberKewl or Creeperman did but it's the thought
that counts -- they pointed me in the right direction and gave me help.
Also, Mephistophiles has added both his input, time, and effort towards many
fixes in the patch.
Since I am sharing the fixes used in TA Bugfix with makers of UberHack, some
changes appear in both TA patches. I thank the makers of UberHack (Brave Sir
Robin in particular) for making an alternate form of TA for those that feel TA
is hopelessly unbalanced.
This text file was made by: David Sellick
I am also known as Switeck on chat forums and message boards...
(email: Switeck@hotmail.com)