Just had fun testing The Expirement Lab, non-coop skirmish

thehx · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 24 Feb 2016

TL;DR: Soviet bonus chem-momma-tanks are broken; GDI "hello from TS" hover missile launchers are less interesting compared to other sides' bonus units.

The neutral lab is supposed to provide whoever captures it with additional units, just like RA2YR Secret Lab tech building. And it does, yes, but for some reason, Soviet bonus tank...
(seriously, Chemical Mammoth Tank? I mean, is that a creative implementation of air conditioning? Well, it's a brutal russian tank crew, after all... Laughing

)
...appears to be broken. It is of course still scary AF, but its effective range against ground units is around 1 cell or so. And I must say, the air conditioning is really broken, as the tank takes damage from, ehm, its own farts. Just try it yourself!

Also, I have noticed that Nod's beam tractor is kind of overpowered if massed properly -- a pack of such "mobile disco toolsets" (as in HoMM, 10-19) literally does not give an F about what is being thrown at them, as long as it is not airborne or underground...

Compare that to the GDI's bonus hovering chinese fireworks shop which has the range that is slightly above average, and, moreover, on non-naval map, does not provide the tactical advantage of similar scale. I mean, why would I not spam Mammoths/regular GDI firework shops instead?
As a side note, I imagined that said GDI hover missile launchers would be armed with chemical warheads (the said lab was a chemical lab, no?), but then I thought, "it is GDI, they won't use such weapons, or at least they won't call it bio/chem weapons".

As for Allied side... At first, I was like "0_o wheres mah teleporting tactical nuke launcher, no fair, even GDI had something from dat lab!".
But then...
I lol'd, as these Power Chrono Rangers are totally fun.
First, They are stacking better than mutas in SCBW, as there is no 11-unit limit.
Second, the harassment factor is so great with them that, if there were the "archon mode" in TS engine (and thus, in DTA), said insta-blinking infinite mana jeeps would be just deadly if the opponent side does not have access to Ion Cannon.

Also, this map is non-naval, so perhaps you'll enable building GDI Comm Center from captured MCVs?

^Rampastein · Rampastring **Joined**: 11 Oct 2008 **Location**: Gensokyo

We'll fix the Chemical Mammoth tank's range, thanks for reporting it.

thehx wrote:

Compare that to the GDI's bonus hovering chinese fireworks shop which has the range that is slightly above average, and, moreover, on non-naval map, does not provide the tactical advantage of similar scale. I mean, why would I not spam Mammoths/regular GDI firework shops instead?

The Hover MLRS is much faster, costs less and also has much more health. Its only downside compared to the rocket launcher is that its damage is significantly lower. Although you do have a point in that the Hover MRLS is a bit silly for a bonus unit since the map has barely any water.

thehx wrote:

Also, this map is non-naval, so perhaps you'll enable building GDI Comm Center from captured MCVs?

That limitation has nothing to do with naval maps.

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thehx · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 24 Feb 2016

Quote:

That limitation has nothing to do with naval maps.

hmm. So if I rewrite the rules for that particular map, would I possibly break something as a result?

PS. Please excuse me for my further pursuing of that question without actually digging in rules.ini like any normal modder should have done first.

PPS. Is there a way to actually capture a naval yard?

Bittah Commander · Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:47 pm Post subject:

If this only concerns the non-coop version of The Experiment Lab, you can just copy the map to the "Custom" folder, then open the map with a text editor and then replace all instances of Projectile=Cannon with Projectile=TracerM to fix it. This way there won't be a version mismatch and you'll still be able to play online without issues (you can play the fixed version online as well). You'll be able to select the modified map by first selecting the "Standard" game mode (or if you replace GameMode=standard with GameMode=Custom Map in the map's code, you can instead select it from the "Custom Map" game mode, like all other custom maps).

And no, there's no way to capture naval yards because engineers can't walk on water and there's no other way to capture structures.

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