Hello, strategists! ːuseː
I have recently talked to ProgSys, one of the devs of Lambda Wars.
There are various things to take not of about the current Lambda Wars situation as a whole, but there are also things that may need a change.
As a developer, myself, I can understand any other developer in a team in terms of their visual of a project. With Prog we discussed the reason, for why did Lambda Wars go so 'dead' over the past half-year, if it ain't longer than that.
Everyone has their views of the game from a different perspective, myself included. I think this is what made people go unmotivated in our team, at least be it one of the reasons.
But that aside now, there are things we've seen fit as a change for Lambda Wars gameplay-wise.
As some or most of you know, I tried to rework 'Destroy HQ' game mode, renamed it to "Competitive" and gave it a slightly different gameplay, unlike "Annihilation".
So here are things that me and Prog discussed about the change:
"Competitive" and "Annihilation" difference:
Since "Competitive" is a rather big word, it may have to be a game mode to play after you've practiced in "Annihilation" for long enough.
The main reason I decided to change Competitive in such a way that the good old Rebel HQ is the main building once again is because "Competitive" goal is to destroy the enemy HQ (i.e. not Scrapyard). Thus I thought, why would we want to chase after some crappy scrapyard that can be rebuilt literally anywhere.
"ProgSys: and having the scrap pile as HQ just breaks my heart"
(Note: ProgSys is the one who made all the Rebel&Combine structure models you see now in the game)
The main problem that comes with this is the gameplay difference.
Apart from the Rebel HQ in Competitive (unlike "Annihilation's" scrapyard), you also have Vortigaunt Den, which produces both Vorts and Dogs (which is the purpose of HQ in "Annihilation").
As said before, you have to prepare for "Competitive" while playing "Annihilation". That said, "Annihilation" should be the 'light' version of "Competitive".
On the other hand, "Annihilation" is great for the "just for fun" experience. You are not limited in unit production and can spam 12 striders or 20 hunters every game.
So here comes the another problem. Two different game modes that are nearly identical.
Question: Do you like the way the difference of Annihilation and Competitive is done now?
Resource management:
As those of you who played before Scrap piles became used by the Combine, the gameplay for Combine was slightly different.
The Power Generators used to be the main way of gaining power as a resource. Thus, you could basically spam power generators and get a lot of power without having to move out of your base.
"ProgSys: I didn't like the changes to combine resource system, they are like rebels now"
A fair point. But it also changed the way Combine have to play. If you need more power - you get it by building scrap collectors.
We once had tested "Big Power Generator" that not only had produced more power (5/sec), but also had a large radius of power distribution to buildings.
This is one of the things I wanted to take into consideration: perhaps we could bring that big power generator back?
Brainstorming:
"ProgSys: i would like the entire power managment of the combine to me like in Supreme Commander where each building/production consumes energy and if you don't have the enery they work slower"
"ProgSys: there would be multiple power buildings staring with a small one and progressively unlocking bigger ones."
In fact, I have never played Supreme Commander before, but the idea itself sounds cool to me. I believe it will make playing Combine harder and you would need to manage the power distribution a lot.
The only problem is nobody will probably make it (Sandern "I iz waitin' Sorze 2!" ːsteamsadː).
(I mean, I am also learning Python, only for the purpose of working with Lambda Wars. But like, come on... what can a newb like me do?)
Rebels limits on Scrap resource:
I suggested that Rebels should also have a limited resource gap, just like Combine have.
The reason to it is the amount of scrap Rebels gain per second. We've tried many approaches to this, such as reducing the scrap gain.
"ProgSys: about the rebel scrap limit not sure need to think about"
"ProgSys: they kinda have already many limits, they are harder to defend, they are a finite resource, and there is a limit how many workers can gather at a point"
"ProgSys: there is already so much you need to think about"
My main point here is this: as Rebels you already gain scrap fast enough, and you can also upgrade your units even faster (for instance, as I had barracks, soon enough I could also afford a munitions depot).
TL;DR: Its a long text to read, so if you don't care about Lambda Wars development or are lazy enough to read it, don't bother. But the main point here is me and ProgSys discussed what could be done with Lambda Wars at this point:
-Changing resource management
-Changing the difference between Competitive and Annihilation
-Some brainstorming
-Balancing out Rebels
Personally to Sandern now:
22:17 - ProgSys: well if someone shows him some new building models he will not resist 22:16 - Mr. Darkness: Hahaha 22:16 - Mr. Darkness: :) 22:16 - Mr. Darkness: Does the same work with maps? 22:18 - ProgSys: if it is a good map 22:17 - Mr. Darkness: fair enough (Ey, come on dude! If I show ya a good map, will you make something in return, yo? ːSBHorseː)
That's that.
-Mr. Darkness