Windy and I would like to have:
- More medium size mpi maps.
- More races to choose from, like battling Hadeans vs Mechana, or Zemod vs Chinese.
- New races in mpi, like whatever new ones might appear in the single player side of the CP.
We like doing things together, so playing single player missions isn't really a must for us but I thought it would be nice to introduce time travel to gain alien technology, maybe even from Cthonians themselves. New types of battles that introduce huge robots. Since something like that would cripple some computers, and we have the command vehicle now where anyone can be in a satellite view, maybe the battle could rage as normal until the tech is just right then you build the giant robots and everyone goes to satellite view to keep the computers from crashing.
I've always liked the idea of the Cthonians "light of enlightenment" that is in the Scion end stories. Since bio-metal is supposed to be alive and have hidden tech inside it already, would be nice to see hidden codes stolen from Cthonians in the past to activate a sentient being with the bio-metal that can update the EDF of any other hidden threats in the Universe and shine the light of enlightenment on anyone wanting evolve.
Updated your post with return characters and bullets - I hope you appreciate the change :-).
My thoughts:
I definitely would like to see more races and varied match-ups with them as well. It would be the coolest to have all the races playable - even if that means some of the races featured in the story line need additional assets for being used by human players.
I like your idea about the time travel to get new technology. It sounds like it would be a great story idea - or at least a race-specific play-style.
Having huge robots would be totally awesome one way or another! That would make a large, advanced race seem truly powerful.
The light of enlightenment sounds like a good main plot element to the story. Something of that magnitude might work well as a "golden fleece" (aka ultimate goal) or a goal needed to be reached to overcome a powerful enemy.
Also, time travel would allow you to write the NSDF and CCA in, just a suggestion that could I think be cool. American modern ISDF troops could get thrown back through time and get captured by the Russians.
Time travel could be awesome actually, you could have all sorts of races to fight against with the main "baddies" constantly recurring.
I should just throw in here that time travel will never be possible, and we know this because if it was, they would have come back and told us about it!
Quote from: AHadley on July 02, 2009, 09:02:14 PM
I should just throw in here that time travel will never be possible, and we know this because if it was, they would have come back and told us about it!
I beleive travel to before the point that the time machine was turned on is impossible in the early stages. And after that, well, what do you think shadow people are, ghosts? They way they always dart away when seen? They don't want to be observed?
Shadow people? As far as I'm aware they are a space where light cannot reach because a real person is blocking the way :P
And if what you are saying is true, then how come the CCA and NSDF haven't come forwards to say about it? It's all rather confusing and if things go into time travel people will get very confused very fast.
Quote from: AHadley on July 02, 2009, 09:32:21 PM
It's all rather confusing and if things go into time travel people will get very confused very fast.
And we might end up will stuff like:
- We win the war cause we went in time to make sure it never happened.
or
- The war never happens because someone makes sure Biometal never exists.
I personally like the idea of Parallel/Alternate Universe Hopping, you can say there is a time delay AND what you do in one Universe doesnt effect the other (technically).
Plus, you can still say that new tech is aquired from Alt.Universe Cthonians who were able to destroy the Furies without blowing up Cthonia... or something. ;) (Just pitching the idea)
Well, it could be that the CCA and NSDF:
a) Don't actually know about time travel, they just encounter biometal ships from the future and get overpowered by the superior technology, not knowing what it is.
or
b) Get wiped out to a man before they can open a comm channel.
As for explaining the time travel, you could make the means of the time travel some very sophisticated star portals made by the Cthonians.
My personal idea for a time travel based story goes like this:
In a addition to the Olympians and the Hadeans, there was a third, far smaller, faction of the Cthonians (not got a name yet). Their technological prowess exceeded that of their kin to such an extent that they found a way to make portals that join two parts of space and time as well as some truly powerful weapons of war. Most of the portals did not cover time, and were the starportals that the EDF has already encountered, but a few ripped apart the boundaries of time itself.
The Hadeans attacked for the this technology but were too late. The third faction had locked the time portals and hidden the keys in a complicated sequence across the history of the universe. With their homeworld and its production facilities hidden at the end pf the trail. To even the balance of power, they gave the key to the first portal to the Olympians. With the Hadeans controlling the territory with the portal and the Olympians holding the key neither side could access the technology, which is a good thing for the other sentient species of the universe.
Following the destruction of the Olympians and Hadeans by the Hadeans and EDF respectively, a scion patrol (I'll explain my reasoning later for using the scions) uncovers the key and locates the portal. They find out at a Hadean research facility nearby (the had been trying to find a way to open the portal without a key, but to no avail) about the trail and what it leads to. Seeing a chance to accelerate the growth of the already considerable technology of their race the current Padishah orders an expeditionary force to travel through the gate and locate the technology.
Complication, a new enemy arises (General Hoohah's suggestion (the Hzarzk) could be good in my opinion) and follows them though. This enemy finds the next key and the scions must pursue them to:
a) Stop them from completely screwing up history and causing a paradox.
and
b) Keep up with the enemies and try to prevent them from acquiring the technology at the end.
I really think that we should do a campaign from the scions perspective. It could be interesting because the IS/EDF has a load of established background but the scions don't seem to have much by comparison, so therefore we can add a lot of depth to them. They are also more technologically minded than humans and so that combined with the new technology means we could invent some very cool vehicles for them.
I actually like the hell out of that. It even sounds like a Battlezone II story line.
Me too. :-D
+1 storyline!
Personally i think time travel is kind of cheesy.
Honesty is good. I'm sure there are many ways to go with a story line. The one that wins the vote is all that matters.
I like that "goes back and makes sure biometal never exists."
One moment you are flying through a patrol, the next instant BOOM your tank is just instantly vanished and you are standing on the ground.
All the uppers are like WTH, and somehow need to figure out what happened and how to fix it.
Quote from: bb1 on July 15, 2009, 09:42:19 PM
I like that "goes back and makes sure biometal never exists."
One moment you are flying through a patrol, the next instant BOOM your tank is just instantly vanished and you are standing on the ground.
All the uppers are like WTH, and somehow need to figure out what happened and how to fix it.
Of course, that would cause a paradox if biometal had been used to stop biometal from existing. :P
Medium sized MPI's FTW! Though huge MPIs with fortresses and statues are nice, sometimes its also good to play a normal game vs a difficult AIP.
Quote from: Mr X on July 15, 2009, 09:46:43 PM
Of course, that would cause a paradox if biometal had been used to stop biometal from existing. :P
Not if by going back in time and changing it, you instead created a split universe where biometal still existed in your universe, but not in one you changed. In effect there would be no paradox. :-)
I love MPI's. it would be great if we could boost the limit on players but i don't think its possible without excessive re-programming.
I would think that any race that appears in the SP storyline would almost certainly become a fully AIP-supported playable race. I'm more than happy to do the AIP's, as its a learning experience for me as well, but depending on how many races we decide on, i would probably do them in the way Red Devil has for G66 2.0, as his generic AIP idea basically cuts the work in half.
Quote from: TheJamsh on July 16, 2009, 10:50:48 AM
but depending on how many races we decide on, i would probably do them in the way Red Devil has for G66 2.0, as his generic AIP idea basically cuts the work in half.
Get the scrapboost out of the AIPs (incase you'd do the same as the stock AIPs) and get a new scrap'slider' in the shell, that way you only need 1 AIP per race and still have pretty much the same as now has been done with 5 AIPs.
Like:
(http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/Scrapcheats.jpg)
The way RD has the G66 AIPs is that they work upon Generalized provide names and NOT by unit race names.
IOW: you can technically throw in a new race into G66, just give each unit the generalized provides and the AI WILL work. ABSOLUTELY NO EXTRA AIPS NEED TO BE MADE (unless your race uses a wierd build style).
Which it most certainly will.
you're shell above will need .dll to work fully though Red Spot.
In 2.0, each added race just needs its own set of 12 AIP's (01234ACELSXY), so it would work against any other race as long as its buildings/units have the generic provideName added. DLL tweak needed, tho.
I agree with RS. I almost added 2 more sets of AIPs to 2.0 to boost scrap when I realized Natty had already done that - very nicely - in the DLL according to difficulty level.
Quote from: TheJamsh on July 19, 2009, 03:56:34 PM
you're shell above will need .dll to work fully though Red Spot.
Correct, but I assumed this would need a custom dll anyway, so why not add a bit more detailed scrapcheat so you can save work on AIPs. Making the change in the dll is a matter of a few minutes, AIPs about 10 times that, if you make it in that time :)
About making AIPs use provide names, I've also thought about that but personally dropped it as I was afraid I would end up having a scion team fight like the ISDF and vice versa ...
Yep Yep Yep... DLL fun...
Even funner making it work well with all the existing stuff added into the 1.3s .