Staredit Network

I see, lol


It's a nice idea but that just adds more triggers and possibly more lag to the game and the mech speed is crazy slow, the cockpit dragger will add lag for sure

You could have some cool down parts that are used in intersept mode

Actually I was thinking recalls would be a bit annoying but it can't be more annoying than modes shutting down through my idea (which is functionally the same thing). That actually might work, though. Combined with my idea for switching to intercept mode to cool down it adds a certain strategy to keeping your mech running by timing cooldowns.


The mech as a whole has a single overheat meter. I'm thinking losing parts should only penalize for redeployment, as it does now. For that I'm probably gonna keep the existing deployment countoff timer system, just make it a whole lot faster for standard deployment (except for parts lost or overheat). That way I can keep it so players can't simply redeploy quickly to heal after losing a few parts, and the overheat meter causing a recall can be made to prevent a redeploy for x amount of time.


Of course, all this comes with the assumption the overheat/deployment gas countdown can be upgraded. DM and a few others suggested coolant parts (or like you called it a Fan), but I'm actually not too keen on adding new mech parts if I can avoid it. I think instead I'll make the upgrades virtual ones. You buy them like parts, but you never actually see them on your mech (not that they'd physically do anything anyway). The more you have, the faster your cooldown (stacks with cockpit cooldown rate). However you'd still want to buy better cockpits as it's more cost efficient than buying huge amounts of coolant upgrades. Maybe I can make them get more expensive the more you buy too, to help with that.


Anyway excellent ideas. It helps a lot to have feedback on this stuff.

ADDITION:





Minor Update: Ok I'm still attempting new ways to fix the lag issues, but until I can determine what might be the primary cause I can't really do anything about it. I don't think trigger quantity is so much the cause though as simply what the triggers are doing. I believe eliminating some wasteful background activities might help fix things up a bit.

I will be releasing a patch soon containing all the possible lag fixes I can come up with. This will be my hopeful attempt to address the problem and also to test to see if I'm getting warmer. I'll need testing help with this later to see if it makes any difference.

This is just something minor, but as for the Guardian, it is more powerful than any other unit, even the battlecruiser. It might only be beaten by the nuke. To destroy your opponent's base, all the parts you need are shield armour, and 1 guardian. As it has more range than any missile turret, you can take out any unit you can find, while deflecting damage with your shield. Because the map is big, opposing mechs don't reach you before you have destroyed your opponent's base. I would reccomend either changing the guardian with a hero mutalisk, or making the map smaller.

Then add gols that patrol that area with long range ;D

Relax I said I was done, anyways if you had any respect at all for mappers, it would be of their originality. Wich I has much of, and you can count of seeing my maps being copied. can you say the same about yours? You may or may not care if your stuff is copied, but this actualy means alot. But yeah i'm sorry for being an ass.

The guardians might be a bit powerful, yes. They're ground only though so I wanted them to be worth their cost (you can't use them in mech battles except as meat shields or against the rare unarmored ground cockpit). Perhaps they take a bit too much work out of siege, though.

I'll probably buff defenses or nerf guards soon. I actually want defenses to be vulnerable, though, but not tissue paper.
Most people create out of ego. If I were to do that I'd have ended up making nothing but derivative bounds, defenses, rpgs, madness, etc. Chances are if I'd done a proportionate number of those types of maps to what I've done now at least one of them would end up being copied.

However I've often questioned the philosophy of creating out of ego alone (self) vs. not. What I'm concluding (and only recently) is that nothing we do is truly selfless really, but putting aside a certain amount of instant gratification to expand on a general level (notice the vast majority of my maps are concept/experiment stuff) improves the quality of things around you. That's what my real goal is.

However, I'm starting to ask now what quality is to the mapping community if there's barely anyone in it to appreciate it. That's why with Rush and MechnoGears I'm starting to shift away from concept/experiment and make something that's actually playable. Rush almost hit the mark, and MechnoGears is not there yet too, obviously, but damned if for all the time I've spent here I'm gonna do anything less than perfect. On principle though I refuse to do anything that doesn't achieve some kind of new ground. Hopefully this time not at the expense of popularity, though.



Now, about that lag fix...

The pointer system you used is a lot different from what I had in mind, although it allows you to keep most of your work.

What I had in mind, is that each part you have adds weight to your mech, and as you get more parts, you get a slower pointer unit, the drag system is completely removed, and you don't have to worry about range. The units would all be teleported to your pointer unit continuously. That way a person with a single colosus armor, and a high speed cockpit, goes much faster than a person with 14 colosus armor, 14 regular armor, 14 BCs, and 14 guards.

EDIT: I've always disagreed with dead mechs getting back their parts, as well as deployment. Actually, I think a good idea would be if your mech appeared outside your HQ, and you walk up to it and enter it. If you get out of your mech, it gets left at it's location.

Actually, one problem, the pylons are waaaaay too weak. I was attacking a base, and could kill it in 4 hits with guard, that allowed me to get past numerous defenses effortlessly.

Teleport won't work. Try moving 2 air units to the same spot to find out why.

oops, didn't see you were active, I edited instead of replying

ADDITION:
perhaps if all the air units were concealed, and then when you switch mode, they appear, one by one. Actually, that would add a new element of strategy, try to kill all a players weapons as his mech switches mode, and before his armor deploys.

ADDITION:
Wait until the weapon reaches the center of the location, then deploy the next one... that way weaker weapons deploy faster.

Progress Report: I will be taking a break from the map for a week or so to get some RL things squared away. I've finished getting all the things I could find that might be lag culprits taken care of, but I don't know if it will have much impact or not. There's still a LOT of triggers running that I can't do much about without affecting gameplay. But hopefully with the combination of tweaks this time around there should be some difference. We'll see.

Hate to say it, but unless this lag can be fixed I'm going to have to reconsider how far I'm willing to go with this map. My goal is to not do another experimental/concept map and instead create something actually playable, but the lag as it is won't let me do that. At least not for everyone. I can tolerate some complaints, but persistent complaints like there is now is unacceptable.


I will get it up to Mk.2 at least, but unless a miracle solution is found that is probably as far as I'll take it. Rather start on Rush Ep.2 or something instead.

I say it runs fine, as long as all the users are on fast comps.

Sorry to get a bit off topic but are the testers still the same for this version?

Yes, but there won't be any formal testing for a while. I have some RL issues to take care of first, and then I need to make sure the lag fixes work and get the early gameplay added.

Tux is getting laid! (Not really)

We'll always be ready to test your map for you tux ;P

Got a trigger lag test map made. Guys mind helping me by trying it out on your computers and telling me which tests lag and which don't?

I'll give it a shot on my P2 right now, and my P4 later.