Thanks for the input folks.

flak_monkey wrote:
The new fire flies are static. no wing movement, same profile, like a picture that just follows you around.
- Fire razorflies will be removed from the server temporarily until its animation can be fixed. I'll probably add in a tech pupae or tech fly in place of it.

dragon7350 wrote:
-Grave Minigun (aka vorpal) is a bit overpowered due to craftsmen with giving double damage + beserk attack speed buff.
- The damage bonus on Grave is 10% per plus, same as Vorpal. However, I didn't take into account the rapid fire weapons. I'll probably reduce the damage bonus. Also, Grave showed up for the Extreme WM subclass (which it shouldn't). I will try to resolve this, but it will require another build.

dragon7350 wrote:
-The fire and ice monster textures are too large and are causing fps drops. I sent Jefe a smaller package. He said he'd put it up by this weekend. I'll go ahead and send you the link via email for backup.

-During testing I noticed that there is noticeable lag when gasbags shoot. They leave a ring of smoke puffs each time, and it drops fps considerably.

-I played a game and used a Matrix-enchanted equalizer. I used it to stop all projectiles on the skaarj wave (wave 8?) and the fps lag was atrocious.
I personally haven't experienced much fps drops when ice or fire monsters are on. But I'm all up for smaller package size. Same for the gasbags-- I personally haven't noticed much. Have you been playing on the same machine?

Holding a matrix weapon to stop projectiles will definitely cause fps to lower. This isn't really something I can fix since that's just the nature of the game. The longer projectiles stay airborne, the lower the fps (hence, big maps like Hangar are fps killers).

dc_demonslayer wrote:
As I said in my e-mail--somehow, the server seems much harder.
Holding all else constant, the server most certainly will be more difficult than the last build. Fire monsters burn, ice monsters freeze, and tech monsters do extra damage to engineer constructions.

Most likely, I will be leaving the monsters as it is (unless there is a huge balance issue) and focus on tweaking abilities and subclasses instead to make them sufficient.

That being said, here are a few things I've noticed myself regarding classes:

- EXP from remote artifacts from Craftsman are too high. It will most likely be reverted to the original values

- EXP for healers is a bit too high. The max level on experienced healing is currently 15. Most likely will knock it down to 10 or 11

- Stinger sentinels are weak, even with three of them. Will probably up the damage and/or firing rate

- Retaliation weapons will be removed

- Craftsman can currently create everything from magic vault (except Grave and Twin Core). My reasoning when making this was that 1) giving them every magic modifier would be more of a nuisance than it would be helpful; 2) people would most likely only craft helpful things, like infinity or lucky, instead of quickfoot or knockback, and; 3) aside from the magic modifiers, it really is a vanilla class with no extra damage buffs. Should craftsman be able to make magic vault items, or only basic items?

- I earned 100% proficiency during one match by the end of the map. Tanks (the most powerful WM subclass) start out with 100%. I think this is fair for proficiency-- I had to actually fight instead of didly-daddlying and only use one weapon most of the match. Thoughts on this?

- Hybrid engineers (General subclass) can make up to 4 defense sentinels. I'll most likely knock it down to 3. Also, the max level on spider steroids will be reduced (ie, it'll take a bit longer for your defense sentinels to pump up the mines).

Those are the things I can think of for now. Leave your inputs. I'll try to get the server updated tonight or tomorrow night. However, some items won't be able to be fixed until a new version rolls out which may take a while.

On general, I was able to have to defensive sents along with the turret. Now, I can have either 2 sents or 1 blaster--is this intentional?

dc_demonslayer wrote:
On general, I was able to have to defensive sents along with the turret. Now, I can have either 2 sents or 1 blaster--is this intentional?

As a regular, pre-subclass General, you can have two defense sentinels. As an Engineer hybrid (of any kind), you can have up to four defense sentinels, 3 defense sentinels and 1 blaster, or 3 defense sentinels and 1 lightning. I'll change it so that hybrids will only be able to summon a max of three defense sentinels or two defense sentinels and 1 offensive.

Also, enhanced damage bonus and damage reduction on warriors will be reduced.

I have been busy all summer. Work and wife take up all my time. I barley get a minute to turn on my computer to clear email and do any banking. I do miss playing. Just finished dishes and the 3 S's, so time for a bit of fun.

Part of what was making it harder was that the bots had all lost their skillsets in the upgrade - this means they die quickly and then all monsters will be focused on the lone player. Bots really can't pick a safe (no ultima/deemers) skillset, so they must be set up manually. For people playing the general class in particular this makes the game harder because they need more time to set up if they are using a base. I'll be redoing the main bots here shortly.

EDIT: Done. Also gave warriors Denial 3 back which they sorely needed and reduced their Advanced Damage Bonus and Advanced Damage Reduction somewhat. Also, yesterday I restored the Mech subclass, and uploaded an optimized texture pack for the new monsters. You should see less of a stalling effect when the package is first loaded.

By the way, I also gave the base General class the defense sent ammo and adren abilities back. If there are any other base classes aside from warrior that are missing something that they used to have, let me know. In most cases, they should still have all their previous skills and abilities.

Also regarding the difficulty thing, It seems that the tech monsters have been buffed - I was soloing my vanilla gen last night and they were destroying my constructions extremely quickly. It might be necessary to give the base gen 3 def sents, since this does make it considerably more difficult to keep a base going.

EDIT: Actually, checking again, I see that the construction health bonus was lowered to 3 from 5. Fixed.

Hi folks, 204 has been updated to 204a and includes the changes I've mentioned in previous posts:

- Firing rate for stinger sentinels increased from 1 second to .75 second
- Beam sentinel damage increased to 140 - 160
- Aim error for stinger and beam sentinels eliminated
- Grave and Twin Core are no longer part of Magic Vault. One, I couldn't figure out why it was showing up for other classes. So I took the easy way out. Second, Grave is basically Vorpal which is non-Magic Vault, and Twin Core is both heat and freezing, also non-Magic Vault. You can now also toss these weapons.
- Damage bonus for Grave decreased from 10% per plus to 5% per plus, vorpal chance increased from .25% to .40%
- Experienced Healing for Healers capped at 12, down from 15
- EXP for remote damage and remote invulnerability for Craftsman reverted back to 10. You get EXP while the remote is active on your teammate.

Present blocks are also back for the holidays, and we included some new things too like Present Titans, candy cane sentinels, and festive rockets.

The only major changes are new elemental shields. I know it's difficult to survive later waves without an engineer and without globe. These shields provide up to 50% damage reduction from specific elemental attacks.

Again, please let me know if there are any issues. Enjoy and happy thanksgiving!

Some changes:
- Added back in metal blocks for engineer subclasses and wooden blocks for generals and engineer-hybrids. No gameplay changes, just visuals to differentiate blocks.
- Spider steroid level on WM/ENG hybrid increased from 2 to 3.
- For hybrid engineers, defense sentinels now cost 2 points instead of 1. You can still make 4 defense sentinels, but if you have an offensive sentinel out, you can now only make two defense sentinels instead of three. The previous loadout was exactly similar to a pre-subclass engineer, so a hybrid being half-engineer, this is more fair.

- Damage for engineer subclasses tweaked a bit:
* Base engineers are vanilla: no weapon buff, no turret buff, no sentinel buff
* Auto engineers/Mech: 25% bonus in sentinel/vehicle damage; 25% less in weapon and adrenaline damage.
* Engi weaponry: 50% bonus in sentinel/vehicle damage; 50% less in weapon/adren.

- Added stinger sentinels for mech subclass; blocks now cost twice as more, so now a mech can only make 7 blocks instead of 15.
* Side note: Auto engineer and Mech engineer are virtually the same, except mech engineer gets extra turrets, vehicles, and abilities (regen + vamp). It's better to be a Mech engi while we come up with something for Auto.

- Weapons proficiency: I noticed an extremely large difference in performance between the berserker subclass and proficiency subclass. Here is the equation for weapons proficiency:
% increase in damage = # of kills * ( ability level * level multiplier)
* Max ability level for proficiency is 7, and level multiplier was .0005. This means that for 100 kills at max level, the % increase in damage for a weapon is 35%, which is still well below an Extreme WM's starting damage of 50% (while Berserker gets 75% and Tank gets 100%).
* To make it more fair, I've increased the level multiplier from .0005 to .0006. So 100 kills at max level proficiency will get you 42% damage bonus rather than 35%. 200 kills (84%) is fairly standard to get in one map if you use the same weapon; 300 kills, or 126% bonus, depends on you and the kind of map you're playing. Proficiency is capped at 125%, however.

- Removed redeemer from ice nali fighter.

As always, let me know about further balancing issues or bugs.

Did I say 100 kills is standard in a map? Try 200 - 300. Will adjust proficiency to reflect this.

Edit: Previous post updated.

hollon wrote:
Did I say 100 kills is standard in a map? Try 200 - 300. Will adjust proficiency to reflect this.

We know you can only do 100 or so but the rest of us are a little bit better, hehe.