APB Dev. Blog :: January 26th, 2010 Options

Hi everyone, CJ is having me do the blog this week, so without further ado...

The Great Reforestation Project

As you may have sussed from last week, we're going back in and replacing all of the old, ugly trees with new, pretty ones that are more believable as trees, creating forests that actually look believable. This takes some time to get the tree placement right, but the results are pretty spectacular. Here's a couple of screenshots from The Woods Today, which recently got itself a facelift:

As usual, click the images to view larger ones

Heck of a lot better than the old ones, eh? Makes sense that a map called "The Woods Today" should be an actual forest. Not only do they look better, but they will serve a gameplay purpose as well. Forests will naturally be difficult or impossible for tanks to enter, but are easily navigable on foot. In addition, they provide excellent visual cover against Snipers. This is looking up at the hill that those nasty Allied Snipers like to shoot at you from:

Progress on this takes some time, but we'll be happy to keep you updated.

Version 1.4, aka Nuclear Winter

That's the tentative name for the new patch, anyway. This, again, is not Gamma, the one we keep talking about, but it will address issues from Cold Fusion (version 1.3) and will additionally include a few new maps and features. We don't have everything nailed down yet, but here are some of the things that we're probably going to do:

• Reduce Sniper health to 45h/45a (was 60/60) -- I've actually been meaning to do this for a long time, but I always forgot. They were never intended to have more health than Rifle Soldiers since Beta rolled around, but I kept forgetting to actually change this.
  
  
• Tesla Tank will probably get reduced health due to its new range improvements (which I like, and we are keeping). Maybe 150h/a or maybe 125. We need to test it. It's intended to be a fire support unit, similar to a Phase Tank, not a main battle tank.
  
  
• Rocket Soldier rockets may travel a bit faster or a bit further, currently Heavy Tanks totally cream them and that's kind of annoying to just die over and over again after only getting one or two rockets off. I'm not sure about this one yet, though.
  
  
• The Mechanic will get a small range increase so he does not have to have his hand up the ass of a tank to repair it. This will solve some issues with not being able to repair tanks that are actually trying to stay next to you to allow you to repair them. This isn't common, I admit, but it does happen.
  
  
• Tanya is just going to get one charge of C4 that will fully destroy a building again, instead of the two she currently possesses. This may make taking down buildings for her a little easier. Not much, but a little. If she can get inside, that is.
  
  
• The economy will probably get a bit slower. I like the faster Ore Trucks because I don't like waiting before I can buy things, which was the point of the faster Ore Trucks, but their individual dumps may be worth less money.
  
  
• The range of the Medium Tank and the Heavy Tank will be equal, or at least closer, so that the Medium Tank doesn't have to take a couple hits before he can retaliate. (In other words, we overreacted a bit in Cold Fusion.) The Light Tank might get a similar range increase, but it won't match the Heavy Tank.
  
  
• Phase Tanks will be a bit more powerful against buildings. Currently they're quite weak.
  
  
• The way points are awarded may be re-evaluated. We're thinking of making it so that actually destroying a building yields a large point bonus to your entire team (which should cut down on "point-whoring" a bit -- no more MAD Tanks earning thousands of points and stealing wins from the Allies for just getting lucky). I don't want to promise this just yet, because we're stuck with an older version of our code which may not have the 'award points to team' feature, but I'm pretty sure it does. If not, we may bring back the destruction bonus for buildings as a necessary evil.
  
  
• Oh, we're gonna re-open the 'back' entrance to the Soviet base on KOTG.

Anyway, that's what's on the plate so far for 1.4 and that about does it for this blog. Please be sure to give your feedback!

The new trees are awesome, and I'm glad snipers are getting a slight nerf.

Oh, we're gonna re-open the 'back' entrance to the Soviet base on KOTG.

So now the flame towers will actually be able to shoot at stuff that is already inside the base? I never understood why the Soviets got that buff/nerf in the first place, since any Ally with brains would bring a LT or med, down the wall, and get in anyway, especially since it is so hard to see enemy attackers from inside the base thanks to the walls.

The range of the Medium Tank and the Heavy Tank will be equal, or at least closer, so that the Medium Tank doesn't have to take a couple hits before he can retaliate. (In other words, we overreacted a bit in Cold Fusion.) The Light Tank might get a similar range increase, but it won't match the Heavy Tank.

Needed changes. Just make sure to balance test them properly this time (Please?), instead of rushing the patch out buggy and imbalanced.

This post has been edited by Glaed: Jan 26 2010, 04:29 AM

Yay new trees! But wouldn't all those trees cause an awfull amount of lag, if you get near them ?

Awesome updates

I love the new looks trees, and the cover they will now provide was needed.

I love all the little edits, although i'm unsure about the mechanic range increase, I guess it depends how much you have changed it. I hope it is only tiny as you say.

Otherwise, it all sounds good. Again i love the trees.

Please see the below topic and address changes to the AI OT paths. They're quite buggy on some maps.

http://www.apathbeyond.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21252

Great blog! The trees are awesome. Changes which will take place in 1.4 Nuclear Winter are good. BTW "Nuclear Winter" sounds cool.

This post has been edited by Zeratules: Jan 26 2010, 06:35 AM

Aren´t these Tree´s FPS killing? anyway lovely Map

Will the new trees still mess up vehicle aim?

The trees aren't laggy. Not on my computer anyway. And you can adjust the geometry quality since we support LOD, so if you have an older computer, just turn it down.

The Great Reforestation Project

Nice, but the pressing question is if they will ruin people's aims.

Reduce Sniper health to 45h/45a (was 60/60)

Good change.

Tesla Tank will probably get reduced health due to its new range improvements (which I like, and we are keeping). Maybe 150h/a

Another good change. I think 150/150 would be fine. I just feel it will give Phases the upper hand against TTs in open battle.

Rocket Soldier rockets may travel a bit faster or a bit further, currently Heavy Tanks totally cream them and that's kind of annoying to just die over and over again after only getting one or two rockets off. I'm not sure about this one yet, though.

To me, the real issue is burn damage. Heavy at max range fires and sets RS on fire, loses 25% of health or so from burn, Heavy continues backing away and repeating, RS dies.
Atleast that is how I've been beating RS.

Perhaps a slight range boost could help, but terrain advantage makes RS nigh unstoppable, remember.

The Mechanic will get a small range increase so he does not have to have his hand up the ass of a tank to repair it.

Lol

Tanya is just going to get one charge of C4 that will fully destroy a building again

A good change, however much I personally liked ruining Tanyas by wrenching the building 3 times from the bottom.

The economy will probably get a bit slower.... their individual dumps may be worth less money.

That should be interesting. But donates will be a huge thorn in the side to any dump changes.

The range of the Medium Tank and the Heavy Tank will be equal, or at least closer ... The Light Tank might get a similar range increase.

Light Tank doesn't need buffs. The buff in 1.3.1 was unneeded IMO. As for Medium Tank, how will this impact its relationship with the Tesla Coil? Will the previous damage buffs be toned down if the ranges are increased?

Phase Tanks will be a bit more powerful against buildings. Currently they're quite weak.

Good change. This won't impact vehicles, right? I already see potential issues with the TT health cut and current Phase Tanks.

The way points are awarded may be re-evaluated.

Hopefully this change sees light.

Oh, we're gonna re-open the 'back' entrance to the Soviet base on KOTG.

Should be a great help to the Allies.

I suggest that the Hind gets a buff against Longbows. The damage they do to Longbows is just too low right now.

BTW, I like the Grenadier camera view. Is it unique, or the new standard view?

This post has been edited by EVA-251: Jan 26 2010, 08:10 AM

The tentative changelist sounds sensible to me.

I think messing with the economy again might not be a good idea though. It doesn't take that long for the Ore Truck to come back, and on most maps you can attack with infantry. But even on the large maps with defences, it's a time for the team to work out their strategy, and also for new players to join a fresh game without being disadvantaged. So the dead period does have it's advantages as well.

I'm also wondering about the Medium/Light Tanks, and whether the damage buffs will be reversed if the Med gets it's range back to something like it had before. And also how it will work with the Tesla Coil. The Allied tanks may still need the increased damage to compensate for the reduced Mechanic, I don't know. I would agree with EVA that the Light probably doesn't need any extra range.

Really hoping the points system can be reworked in the way that you suggested, because I've been going on about that for years. I assume that you mean that the points for damaging rather than killing buildings would be reduced as well, otherwise the thing about MAD Tanks wouldn't make sense?

I think he means the idea that was throw around a while back - a percentage of the points are awarded to the people who damage the building over time (a % that is 100% in CF) while the rest is awarded to the team when the building dies. This, I fully support...

And TWT - I normally play at minimum settings anyways, but even on them, it looks that amazing. I braved the 15FPS for a few mins to see it on high qual and...wow. Trust me, when you play it, you'll probably start rushing through the wood, and slow down to a stroll to enjoy the scenery :p

Blog = win. *waits a week*

We dont care what computer you have, you should know other peoples dont have a good pc @ [>]OCCULT[<]

We don't care what bullshit you bring up constantly, you should know how to make better posts @ [>]MRACKZ[<]

And, as I explained already, we have LOD settings on a quite bunch of things, trees included. And our low-end computer testers run it without much problems due to this.

Are there other tree´s on the map?