Re: Bugs in Bellum Aeternum

[Eric McDonald <mcdonald at phy dot cmich dot edu>]

Hi Lincoln,

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003, Lincoln Peters wrote:

> I probably had a mixture of 20 cavalry and armor scouring the place with
> 1 Field HQ in place.  As soon as I found that it wasn't working, I
> scrambled another Field HQ to the area as quickly as I could.

Yeah, that is a lot of cnc being consumed in one area.

> > When I have playtested, I have generally thought that there was 
> > still too much command-and-control ('c') floating around, and have 
> > been contemplating tuning it down even more. But your comment is 
> > giving me second thoughts about that.
> 
> Well, I'm still learning the game!

I am too. Just because I made it doesn't mean that I can 
anticipate how everything is going to mesh. Hence the public 
beta....

To be honest, I have been doing more intensive play-testing 
(playing it like a game, rather than treating it like an 
experiment for certain features) lately, and I am beginning to 
agree that the amount of available cnc could be tweaked slightly 
upward rather than downward.

> > I also had that concern, which is why I opted to use the 
> > acp-damage-effect interpolation list, so that when Ruins HP 
> > reaches 2, then its ACP goes up to 2, thereby allowing it to 
> > finish itself off. In theory.
> 
> I don't think that anyone has ever used acp-damage-effect to give a unit
> more ACP when it is damaged (although it might be appropriate in fantasy

It is admittedly somewhat of a hack, or "novel use" as I will 
prefer to call it, if it works. (Still haven't tested it.)

> You could use a line such as:
> 
> (add ruins possible-sides "independent")
> 
> I think that panzer.g also does this.

I'll look into it, especially if it forces a wrecked-type to 
change owners (from a player to independent).

> It is, but just barely.  It combines the idea of a simple tank game with
> Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy elements, such as robotic units that
> resemble werewolves, giant spiders, elementals, etc.  And the AI is

Nifty.

> > I could change the terrain generation params to make continents 
> > that are smaller than the country radii. I think that would solve 
> > the issue.
> 
> Although there would be fewer towns in the vicinity that could be
> captured early on, at least without the aid of transport ships.  Perhaps
> it would be appropriate as a variant.

You might want to try playing the game with the "Large Continents" 
variants turned off (it is on by default).

> > Also, I already plan on adding a sea transport to each side's 
> > initial reportoire of units, so that sides which start out on  
> > islands will not be as disadvantaged.
> 
> That sounds like a good idea.

I added a sea Transport, Patrol Ship, and Frigate to the starting 
pieces for each side. (If you try laying any Sea Mines with the 
Patrol Ship, you might notice that the Xconq build code gets a 
little bit over-zealous.)

I also experimented with your suggested change of increasing 
Town's capacity to prevent traffic jams. It worked okay, but what 
I ultimately ended up doing was decreasing the size-in-terrain for 
Ruins, Towns, and Bases from 16 to 13. This allows 3 other units 
to pass through the sector (without incurring any mp-to-enter/mp-to-leave 
penalties).

And I modified the zoc-range for Ruins and some other units. One 
thing that can occur now is that enemy land forces can force their 
way into the same hex as one of your Ruins or Towns.

I cut down the retreat-chance for air units when they are 
attacking city units. I still would like them to have some retreat 
chance, because if a Capitol or Metropolis is not producing 
anything, it has a lot of ACP to expend on AA activities.

Some other major changes:
* Reduced the build time for paratroopers, marines, and many of 
the sea units.
* Beefed up Fighters' ground assault capabilities. This makes them 
a stronger alternative to Escort Fighters, in spite of the 
difference in range.

I will commit all of this to CVS in another hour or so.

> > I can fix that by altering the description-format property for 
> > Capitols.
> 
> That would be great.

Also did that.

  Thanks,
   Eric