September 20, 2005

-CannisRabidus

Enter the Stolen Tech Tesla Commando. The long-time Stolen Tech expansion continues: this time it's the Tesla Commando. Right now, I am adding him as a possible Secret Lab boon, just as I've done with the other new tech steal guys, until the stolen tech expansion is complete. Ultimately when that expansion is finished, he will become trainable when the owner of an Allied Barracks infiltrates a Soviet Battle Lab. The Tesla Commando carries a self-contained Tesla cannon, and wears a light-duty insulated suit to protect him from errant discharges. His cannon is specially tuned to target infantry and vehicle units only; to destroy buildings, he must get up close and personal to use his C4 explosives. The Telsa cannon is not really designed to be used as a hand weapon, but it can be used that way in a pinch, should the Tesla Commando be set upon by enemy units while moving from place to place. Unfortunately, the cannon isn't as powerful as a standard Tesla Trooper's weapon under those conditions. Where the Tesla Commando really shines when in a deployed configuration. Then his barricade renders him uncrushable, and his Tesla cannon's power and range reaches its full potential. Long-time visitors to the site probably remember the plans for the tech steal guys, but another review wouldn't be a bad idea. Again, I won't be doing this until I have all 9 tech steal guys completed... as you can see, there are still 2 to go. Allied Barracks + Steal Allied Tech = Chrono Commando Allied Barracks + Steal Soviet Tech = Tesla Commando Allied Barracks + Steal Yuri Tech = Psi Commando Soviet Barracks + Steal Allied Tech = Chrono Ivan Soviet Barracks + Steal Soviet Tech = Cyborg Ivan Soviet Barracks + Steal Yuri Tech = ??? Yuri Barracks + Steal Allied Tech = Psychic Legionnaire Yuri Barracks + Steal Soviet Tech = ??? Yuri Barracks + Steal Yuri Tech = Telekinetic Adept

September 1, 2005

-CannisRabidus

The old poll, and the new poll. I've closed the Base Expansion Vehicle poll, and I've posted a summary of results. The comments got a little contentious at times, and there were many good points made for both sides of the argument. My warm thanks goes to everyone who participated. There was no clear consensus, and depending on how the results are read, either keeping BEV's in Balance of Power wins out by a 2-1 margin... or else it's evenly split if you consider the other positions in total. Either way, the facts are that those in favor of keeping BEVs in BoP couldn't quite maintain a majority, and the 28% in favor of limiting them to Beyond Revenge is not an insignificant number. Not insignificant at all, when you consider how rare it is for anyone to want to see successful additions removed from any mod! So, I'm going to have to think about this for a while. In the meantime, I've set up a new poll to play with. This time it's a popular question that's been asked in our forums many times over the past year or more, but never was quite appropriate since the Beyond Revenge additions were not completed. But now with all additions added, and sufficient time for everyone to have tried them all out, I think this is a good time for the question to be asked: What are your favorite Beyond Revenge additions? Just in case you have more than one favorite, I've set the poll so you can vote for as many of the choices as you want. If you want to vote for all 10, then you can, hehe. So vote away! And as always, comments are very appreciated, so if you have something to say, please say it. (BTW, if anyone is grumbling that I didn't post an in-game pic of anything, sorry. Next time, OK?)

August 15, 2005

-CannisRabidus

Fire! Fire! Now, if every time a certain type of building was damaged, fire always broke out in the same places, you'd think those locations would be fine places to install fire suppression devices, wouldn't you? But fire is seldom so cooperative. These are some of the possible damage fire arrangements for the Allied Barracks (there are a few more), that I've set up in my private beta of the mod. As you can see, sometimes there's one fire, or two, or three. Or none at all. Larger buildings will always display one or two fires; smaller buildings may only have a 50% chance of displaying any fire. For game performance reasons, no building will ever display more than three fires. Yes it's just eye-candy and doesn't really add anything substantive. But it's better than having several identical buildings all damaged identically.

August 2, 2005

-CannisRabidus

Enter the Technician. And, a new poll. Guess what. Version 1.8 of the mod is barely one month old, and development of the next version is well underway. Here's a little taste: The Technician is a special Engineer which may emerge from destroyed Construction Yards. He has more hit points than the standard Engineer (which is fortunate for him, since survivors of destroyed buildings tend to be badly injured). He is also faster. The addition of the Technician takes care of the goofy situation where all sides get Allied Engineers from destroyed conyards, and at the same time, gives a player (who's suffered such a catastrophic loss) a better Engineer to work with. Technicians cannot be trained; this is the only way you'll be able to get them. I've also posted a new poll. The results of the last poll can be found here. Thanks to everyone who voted! I am ecstatic to see how positive the responses were!! Anyway, about the current poll: Obviously, the Balance of Power mod should not include unnecessary additions, since it is a balance/bugfix mod, and not an addition mod. So it is arguable that the Base Expansion Vehicles don't belong in BoP, and should be restricted to Beyond Revenge game modes. What do you think? More information about the BEVs can be found here, here, and here. Please read the answers carefully before voting, and choose the one that best represents your opinion. If you play Beyond Revenge exclusively, then please choose the first answer.