Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:51 pm Post subject:
RepairRate
One thing I've noticed in my mod and TS in general is that attacking bases is really hard. Unless you have a very large attack force or artillery, attacking bases doesn't pay off. By the time you take down one structure the AI has built another one in its place. I think the problem is that structures repair too fast. You might have 3 tanks shooting at something and the hp barely goes down since the repairs keep the hp going up faster than you can deal damage. Repairing almost acts like some sort of defensive shield mode.
Tried doubling RepairRate from the default .016 to .032 and I think it makes attacking bases feel more exciting and dynamic and less of a boring grind. Now hit and run attacks and attacking with smaller forces can deal some damage to a base. Also I think it makes repairing seem more like repairing instead of extra armor / defence. I guess the alternative would be to lower the hp of structures in general, but I think that has a different outcome. It would make buildings more vulnerable to things that deal a lot of damage quickly (like Orca Bomber raids) where repairing doesn't really help you out. Increasing RepairRate also makes things like the chemical missile more worthwhile, since the opponent wouldn't be able to recover from it as quickly.
I guess the whole quick repairing thing has always been a part of C&C, but somehow I feel it's overly pronounced in TS. Maybe the slower gameplay of TS highlights the issue more, since RA2 uses the exact same value for RepairRate but it doesn't seem as annoying in it. Though I kind of like the slower pace of TS, but attacking bases has always been very annoying in it. Another similar issue that always kind of annoyed me in C&C is how quickly you can sell buildings, which sometimes results in silly situations (like selling structures out of the way of a superweapon after it has been launched). But again this is something that has always been part of C&C. I don't think there's even a way to make selling of structures take a longer time?
According to ModEnc RepairRate also affects units with SelfHealing, which is an unwanted side-effect since self-healing is pretty slow as it is. Any way to mess around with the other repair keys to balance it out? Shame that URepairRate / IRepairRate isn't used for SelfHealing units. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
If what you say about SelfHealing is true, is IRepairRate only used for the hospital? It seems to be really fast at healing infantry, but I've noticed infantry with more HP take longer to heal. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Instead of Selfheal you could use a DamageParticleSystem with negative damage to this way heal the unit in any speed you want. Only downside is the unit flashing up when it gets healed with this.
You can also play around with the RepairStep key which is used for repair bays and on buildings only. IIRC Selfhealing is using a hardcoded value and not RepairStep (since selfhealing is a lot slower than building repair).
In theory, by lowering RepairRate (to speed up repairing) and lowering RepairStep to reduce the amount of repaired hitpoints, you should be able to slow down building repair and increase SelfHeal repair.
SuperJoe wrote:
But again this is something that has always been part of C&C. I don't think there's even a way to make selling of structures take a longer time?
Raise BuildupTime. This way buildup and selling will take longer. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Raise BuildupTime. This way buildup and selling will take longer.
Does this work in TS? IIRC, nothing happens in YR.
It does work in RA2/YR. Increasing the value does slow down buildup time (it's measured in minutes), but if you increase it a lot the buildup sequences get very choppy unless you remake them with more frames.
Another thing to keep in mind as well is that atleast in RA2/YR, factories such as Barracks/WF can produce units right after they've been placed, not when their buildup has finished. With the fast buildups of vanilla game that isn't really an issue but if you slow them down enough... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 12:19 pm Post subject:
Re: RepairRate
SuperJoe wrote:
Tried doubling RepairRate from the default .016 to .032
increasing the rate makes it go faster.
Slowing down the repair rate of buildings was one of the first changes in my mod. As you said its very anoying how tanks fire at buildings and they take barely any damage because of the fast heal.
The AI in my mod also builds its own defensive turrets which have much higher cost.
Lately I've been thinking of giving all buildings self heal as well as a very expensive and slow repair or something like that. _________________ Free Tibed!
EA for worst company of the decade! QUICK_EDIT
If what you say about SelfHealing is true, is IRepairRate only used for the hospital? It seems to be really fast at healing infantry, but I've noticed infantry with more HP take longer to heal.
According to ModEnc and my own experience IRepairRate only does affect Hospital=yes structures. TiberiumHeal covers how quickly infantry (and vehicles) heal from tiberium. Also I tested and confirmed that RepairRate affects building repairs, repairbay repairs and self-healing units. And as LKO said, RepairStep does not affect self-healing units (tested this one too). Wonder if the hardcoded self-healing step value could be "easily" hacked (looks at AlexB )
Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
Instead of Selfheal you could use a DamageParticleSystem with negative damage to this way heal the unit in any speed you want. Only downside is the unit flashing up when it gets healed with this.
This wouldn't work for infantry though.
Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
Raise BuildupTime. This way buildup and selling will take longer.
It also affects deploying units which is bad. Even when I increased the value by 5x buildings still built up quite fast, but the buildup anim was already horribly slow.
OrangeNero wrote:
increasing the rate makes it go faster.
No, a higher value means the repair takes longer time. You can quickly test it. The value is the delay between applying repairs.
Was thinking of a weird idea for a TS oil derrick, with the RepairPercent key. If you had a pre-placed building in a map that had a negative cost, then capturing and repairing it would give you money. But unfortunately they have a check for a negative repair cost:
Quote:
Also, if the result is less than 1, it is bumped up to 1.
It does if the particle is smoke-type. Also, I've noticed in some cases even damaged, vanilla TS cyborgs display particles. I can't remember if they were preplaced or what was the case that made them special, but I'm certain I saw them spawn sparks when damaged. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
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RepairRate
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