Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 8:32 pm Post subject:
Grey Goo and (lack of) modding support.
Hello everyone! The lads at Petroglyph Games have released their latest game, known as Grey Goo. This real time strategy game comes with 3 asymmetrical factions (Humans, Beta and Goo), focusing macro-management over micromanagement (likewise Command & Conquer games and unlike Starcraft series) and featuring a quite advanced interface that, in my honest opinion, it should be a sample for their competitors. And the best of all, the scores are from no one else than the genious Frank Klepacki that all Command & Conquer fans knows very well. The main problem is really the price... oh... the price. For americans, it seems to be $49.99 and it includes the soundtrack of the game from Mr. Klepacki. Brazilians seem to pay a bit less (R$90.99 which is slightly more than 40 dollars). Here's a random review of the game from Total Biscuit:
And for those wondering.... will PPM do coverage of this game? The real question is... is it really moddable?
The game comes with a very limited map editor, just like any other game from Petroglyph. The developpers said that they'd love to see fans creating custom content for it, specially mods... but the main file for the modders (the famous config.meg) does have some nasty protection that hides the file contents and file names. We have started a research here to decode this file (guest posting allowed in that topic), but the community is not really enthusiastic about that at all. It is unclear if they developpers will launch better tools to customize the maps and the game itself.
But we are not willing to wait for them, as we have our weapons as well. You can now grab an updated Open Source .BIG Editor (Revision 78) that does open the .meg files from this game and newer games from Petroglyph, with the exception of config.meg from Grey Goo, End of Nations and perhaps another one or two of these games that they've launched few years ago and it went nowhere. It also saves .meg files with the Empire at War format, however, it is not clear if the games from Petroglyph do accept them (I could not test it yet). They seem to follow the standards of these games, calculates CRC correctly and order the file table based on CRCs, although the filename get ordered in a different way than Petroglyph does.
Anyway, help us and we will support this game. It's an interesting and fun game and it would be very interesting if it becomes moddable. QUICK_EDIT
I think it's quite good and feel like TotalBiscuit's assessment is quite accurate. I would say that while there isn't an real "iconic" unit outside of the epic units, but after playing a while a couple of the units stood out. Since I've only played the Beta since I'm still on the campaign, it's the predator and commando. That's just my assessment though. QUICK_EDIT
Truly i don't care about modding other game than old c&c but at least GG come with map editor but i don't know how flexible it is.
Personally i really enjoy the game even it come with a lot of problem but maybe because i didn't much expect about it from first place reason is I hate their EAW and UAW engine. [even i like the game]
[What i like]
- Simple game play which i looking for.
- Map environment isn't just for show but really effect to game play from bush , hill , narrow way which make wall very effect and scout feel very reward. [Most fun Map design in RTS i ever experience i hope all other RTS game should see this game as example].
- Free harvester unit make me not worry to much when enemy kill them all i need to do is try not to lost too many of them.
- Few units but none of them useless [agreed with lack of iconic unit and each of them work quite generic but combine with other feature make the game really fun even without it].
- Everything production done as mass. [yes each unit build quite slow but that because you can build many of them at once i love where the game show resource income and spend as "+# per second" it really easy for me to manage my production plan]
- Game speed which give me time to think and react when something happen and not to fast for me to micro unit while engage enemy force. [Many people may feel like the game so slow but IMO it's because camera show too much area of screen me player feel unit move too slow.
- Grand scale battle [even it smaller than supreme commander 2 but more often to see the battlefield spread across large area of map.
- Great Music! really suit my taste.
; ----------------------------
[What I don't like]
- Performance issue which often FPS drop to ground by no reason. [as i expect from Petroglyph Game but compare to EAW and UAW i feel like this game run smoother even so this need to be fix asap and i hope this will be last game from this company to have this issue...]
- 3 factions play little too much different on production management [it's little too gimmick for my taste].
- Lack of launch content [15 Super Hard Mission for campaign and only 8 Map for skirmish/MP ]
- Support only 4 player in MP [ even i understand why they do that but anyway.... ]
- Epic Unit very OP once you got it this unit can end the game easily what ever your enemy throw at you. [it's was fun when you use it but not fun when your opponent have it.]
- Unit Path finding sometime annoy me.
- Air Unit swing around UP and OP...
- Attack move command work quite stupid many time your unit decide to attack building instant of nearby enemy unit. [But still work better than attack move in TS,Ra2YR]
- Hunting last drop of goo is no fun when it happen. - -
My Personal score is 7.0
- Very good game with very well design decision which design around "simple & easy" concept or RTS but performance issue and lack of launch content ruin my experience but the game really playable. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Location: Moscow State University
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:09 pm Post subject:
The gameplay is certainly not Westwood style. All units move really slow, all production slow as well. It is really a pain to command a group of slow units to hunt for the last drop of goo. Units seem all on path finding ,always playing the moving animations though remained on the place, and if start walking, often got stuck by own walls. Sometimes when fps drops, damage calculation would be delayed and thus making bombers actually ignore AA defenses and always able to deliver payload. The worst engine problem I ever seen.
And all units look like turtles. Not quite easy to distinguish from a normal view. Of course I can do after hours of play, but at the beginning was hard. Cannot tell what this unit will do from its look.
For me it is hard to enjoy grey goo, especially when fps drops after 5~10 mins, units move slowly like turtles and AI begins to attack with "aurora"bombers.
Personally I don't have these frame rate drops at all unless looking at a very built up Human base so I must be lucky. The minimum specs are pretty high.
I think the gameplay is very Westwood C&C style. Simple chess-style units that each fill a role and do what they say on the tin. The base building is fantastic for all the factions IMO, very interesting, fun to use, asymmetrical mechanics. The resources work really nicely.
Feels like a more interesting modern C&C to me, where more than 1 unit is actually need to win a game. I've been having such a blast online. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Location: I'm too busy conquering the world!
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 6:58 pm Post subject:
I'm waiting for Grey Goo to go on sale. $50.00 seems pretty ridiculous for a game that have bugs. Perhaps $20.00 - $30.00 will be fine. _________________ Mod Leader and founder of World Domination
To expand upon what I said, I pretty much agree with what OmegaBolt and what Holy_Master said. I haven't had much problems with fps drops but I probably have a higher end rig.
I would say that $60 is expensive for most PC gamers, so I can't really argue other than pointing out that most AAA games release at a similar price. Whether it's worth it is really a personal question. I would say that the game is a quality over quantity thing. The singleplayer content is lacking but it's rather high quality.
I am absolutely loving the gameplay though. I like the differences in build systems and the gameplay pace is more my speed. I really don't like how fast Starcraft is and am completely terrible at all but the most simple micro. So I'd recommend this game for people that don't like Starcraft but like RTS games. QUICK_EDIT
Not to crowd the topic with fanboyism (because, let's face the game IS flawed. Short campaign, lack of maps like Holy Master said) but it is definitely a "beer and pretzels" game like advertised. Playing 2v2s in this is just brilliant fun with the constant skirmishes and tug of war going on while trying to start building your epic and hope to survive the 5 minute construction time. And then you get hit by a nuke from an enemy Hand of Ruk and it's epic vs epic and everything is just so epic. It's like so ztyping epic. QUICK_EDIT
Aside from Bolt's rather 'epic' description of the game, I think that Grey Goo is a positive forward step for Petroglyph, and moving forward they should listen to their community and customers in terms of moving the game forward. While it has rough edges (such as aforementioned performance issues) and limited quantity of skirmish maps, there shines a game full of interesting gameplay designed to be simple enough for everyone to enjoy, clawing at the back of your minds to fill the void that a lack of successful CnC titles has created. This is the first decent title that Petroglyph has produced since SW: Empire at Earth, and I think that given time they will really bring the game to shine.
I think I took a risk with the asking price, but aside from my own personal issues I feel like I really got a product with a shiny future. QUICK_EDIT
feels like a forced rehash of UAW, and it is still pretty much....well....i don't know how to describe it...characterless? unappealing? it certainly feels bland imo..... _________________ Hydraw Art on Facebook QUICK_EDIT
You cannot post new topics in this forum You can reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
Grey Goo and (lack of) modding support.
