Summer Fire Ii

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Summer Fire deuce bitches, anyways, this is layout testing. What I mean by layout is, position of stuff on the map. Stuff like player starts, towns, money buildings, rivers, mountains, bridges, obstacles in general. Tracking so far? Cool.

It's finished now, has random weather and a day night cycle using black and white mode. I revamped it, it's even better than before.

So here it is,

New version on moddb, http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-finest-hour/...fire-ii-trident

 

Leave comments suggestions bug and replays of awesome matches. try to remember the map is designed for 3 players, though it works with 2, I don't feel you'll get the full experience, or it will seem really stacked towards 1 player (see replay)

 

Edit: Screen shots!

Edited May 16, 2010 by Comrade Raptorkov

[DirtyHarry 0]

Looks awesome, will try it in weekend.

 

 

Neo, raptor, uni, anyone, i challenge you.

 

If you win, raptor will make a free plated gold name card for you on the map.

 

 

Gr. DirtyHarry

[-UNI- 0]

FUN! Especially now when i have new computer..

 

I want footage for blitz vid and best footage is player vs player

 

Raps map was good for 1vs1 but needs testing 1vs1vs1 maybe things change or not.

[killakanz 0]

Rap, do you have any more good action replays?

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

No, I'm afraid I don't. This is only the second game I've played since I shipped off last year.

But I hope you enjoyed watched me and uni battle it out.

[killakanz 0]

Well, now that I've finally got Blitz working once more and sat down to watch this battle, time for a few pointers.

 

Firstly, great fighting. Great sense of never giving up until you had absolutely nothing left. Some epic battle scenes.

 

However, I think that both of your command skills could use some improving.

 

Raptor:

 

Great mix of units in your formations, I particularly liked your idea early on of escorting your tigers about with a platoon of Pz3s, however a single Tiger and 3x pz3 escort wont get far alone. Then later as the formations grew larger I noticed a few times that groups of tanks were being led into the battle by Hummels and Sturmtigers. Surely they should follow the panzers, not lead them? Some nice shelling of Uni's southern town, but again you left your sturmtigers exposed, with your panzer groups sat idle behind them! Uni noticed this and hit them on the flank, they were long since dead before you could react.

You spent a lot of money and effort getting a Maus or two to the front lines. Didn't seem worth the bother did they? One of them never even got to fire a shot, except for a few smokes, it spent all it's time turning it's turret to aim for Uni's tanks that were just charging past it. When you finally got the breakthrough, what units did you have charging into Uni's base? Stug3, panzers and panthers. Maybe you should have focussed more on building them?

 

Airpower, you did some nice scouting with your planes, but too often you didn't ensure good fighter cover for your advancing tanks when you launched attacks. By the time you could get fighters into the picture, Uni had decimated your panzer groups with IL2s.

Dropping fallschirmjager into a town that you know well enough Uni holds is always a silly idea. You tried it at least 4 times and they all died before touching the ground.

 

Some good use of statics (pak38, 88mm etc), which led to some excellent town defending, however I do feel you could have used more, especially getting some 88s deployed to assist in your tank attacks. I also think you tend to get some howitzers to shell an enemy position and forget about them, leaving them to keep shelling that spot long after Uni has left it when they could be hitting other targets.

 

Strategy in general though seemed to much of 'keep pushing the meat grinder'. There were some hints of other strategies attempted, including one excellent flank move into the back of Uni's base without him spotting you. Why oh why didn't you try that again?

 

-----

 

Uni

 

Again, great mix of units, I certainly feel you did a better job at keeping your more powerful tank destroyers behind the T34s and the various other battle tanks. Also some excellent use of Kats, but you did tend to bunch them up in too big a groups. There was one moment when a single Sturmtiger shot wiped out 10 of them.

Very dogged defense, but even still you seemed to totally ignore the left hand side of the map. Raptor was able to slip some tanks down that side into your base, and after that you still seemed to ignore that side. You seemed totally focussed in the middle.

Your first large scale attack on his southeast town went quite wrong. You were late in bringing in artillery and didn't seem to focus on the more important targets. When that attack died out, you seemed to switch to defense and remained that way for the rest of the game. I feel you lacked the aggression to win this game, Raptor stating taking more towns from you and you didn't roll up any counter attacks at all. North west town fell to a few panzers, you could have easily counter-attacked and took it back. You didn't.

There was one point in your defensive game where Raptor committed pretty much all his forces in attack and you wiped them out, and had enough forces of your own surviving on hand to deal him some serious damage, maybe even to win. I really thought you were going to counter attack, I thought to myself "oh dear it's all gone very very wrong for Rap", but that drive never happened. Instead, you sat back and waited for Raptor to rebuild his forces and attack you again.

One big problem you were having though were Raptors relentless V1 attacks on your factories. You never moved them. You had a partisan attack on Raptor's base but didn't use them to kill the launch sites, another example of your lack of aggression.

 

-----

 

All in all, good game guys. Some epic battle scenes and a few excellent moves, but as commanding officers I feel you both stand some room for improvement.

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

I can still feel the rust, I hoping the community gets back to where it was before I left, but it seems for now not much is happening.

The main thing that really hurt me in that game was how my factories were all spread out. I feel if they had been closer together I would of been able to get a more diverse force rolling sooner. But I had to wait for unit groups to gather before pushing.

 

Partisans can't kill the v1s, just disable them for a moment. Not to mention all the guard towers I had scattered around with them. But a single Pe2 can totally kill a V1, or an IL2. And he could have easily killed the V1s closest to him with a couple tanks.

 

Considering axis is my best faction, I did pretty well. Uni usually gives me more trouble and I have a harder time keeping up.

 

One thing you didn't bring into account was the fog, the russian units have a better vision range than the germans, so most of the time uni is able to get off the first shots in battle. I really expected him to use more air forces. We're both pretty rusty and it shows. You may notice there are quite a few dry points in the match, usually when me and uni go at it there's always shells flying. It was a good game. I got monday and friday off this week, so 2 3 day weekends. Looks like I have plenty of time for some good matches. you're welcome to join us if you like. I've been looking for a 3rd player so we can really test this map out.

 

 

Changes I see coming so far, adding a couple more income houses. There is certainly enough for a 1v1, but for 3 players I don't feel there will be enough money on the map to support them.

I may also move the top right city more towards the corner to avoid getting a completely dead area on the map.

Adding another city in the middle, or dividing the middle city into several smaller cities.

 

I can't really get into all this until we get a 3rd wheel on the map, otherwise I cant tell the dynamics of it all.

 

I usually broadcast blitz matches, so check it out.

Xfire live

Edited March 5, 2010 by Comrade Raptorkov

[syndony 0]

I started a server and played about 4 levels. No problems so far... Later I had to go somewhere and when I came back, the server is on Desert Speedtrap. I noticed the pipes don't get a chance to play the pipe sound completely if at all.

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

I started a server and played about 4 levels. No problems so far... Later I had to go somewhere and when I came back, the server is on Desert Speedtrap. I noticed the pipes don't get a chance to play the pipe sound completely if at all.

 

What?

[DirtyHarry 0]

I started a server and played about 4 levels. No problems so far... Later I had to go somewhere and when I came back, the server is on Desert Speedtrap. I noticed the pipes don't get a chance to play the pipe sound completely if at all.

 

What?

 

 

Double What?

 

I think you are referring to another game, and should teleport out of here while you still can.

 

Gr. DirtyHarry

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Version 1.2 up, see first post for linkage (changed the old ones)

 

Changes V1.1

• Added more income structures
• Split some towns apart to fill in empty area of map
• Added trees, yes more trees
• Added hills/made terrain less flat

 

Changes V1.2

• More income buildings!
• Added some textures
• Bunched trees together into mini forests
• Continued splitting towns and spreading them about.

 

Further testing will provide me with more information for future changes, please post comments.

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Just played a 1v1 with harry, the map is an absolute blast to play. It seems to be well balanced for a 1v1 as well.

I didn't get a chance to take any screen as I was too busy fighting harry back.

[DirtyHarry 0]

I'd still add double bridges on that north right river side corner, perhaps indestructable - or a broader handmade bridge (terrain with grey texture and rails) to give that mid top player more of a shot to get that area.

 

I could hold you off quite easily from the right player position, both money wise and with defensive advantage.

In previous games with 3 players it has proven very difficult for the mid player to get the north right corner under control, and the right player can get too many flags easily under his control on his side of the river.

 

You could perhaps made a side arm to the river, so that both the mid and right player have to cross a bridge to get to the top right area, and have a difficult reinforcement situation.

 

Map seemed a bit laggy, did you optimize textures and kill of 3-way blends?

 

Gr. DirtyHarry

Edited March 30, 2010 by DirtyHarry

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Still working on the map, today I added the scripts for climate and through in some ambient sounds to bring the battlefield alive.

 

Still need testing with 3 players however.

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

New version on moddb, heres a replay 1v1 no inis

Game1

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Heres another replay, 1v1 again inis needed to view this one

game2

 

Lots of good moves from both sides, I managed to make a lot of money at the start with those paratroopers just harassing back towns.

Later in the game, allies proving their overpowered-ness, but still some good moves. I started to notice my panzer 4 were the only units that could even compete with the shermans. But a couple jets just blast and major air movement with ease. I quit because it was getting ridiculous.

 

Another replay, you'll need the inis again. game3

This match brought to my attention the lack of money on the map, so I'll be preparing a new version of the map soon.

Edited May 8, 2010 by Comrade Raptorkov

[Acevetren 0]

I got a question for the modding team of Blit 2. dont freak anyone. Why are the buildings so hard to kill? And the Ai permantly stations dozer behind there?

 

Regards; Ace

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Since when have fortified military structures been easy to kill?

[killakanz 0]

inis needed to view this one

...

Another replay, you'll need the inis again.

 

What INIs?

[Acevetren 0]

Since when have fortified military structures been easy to kill?

 

I know but it seems the ONLY thing good against them is a nuke, loads of artillery, or Churchill AVRE. This is taken from the view point of the Allies btw.

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

Magic bump

Well let's see, in the 2.7 beta, tanks attacks points were upped big time to make tank combat much faster. As a result, a couple tank blasts usully took out a factory. This was insanely annoying. and factories had a "hole" like gla buildings, that would sit there and rebuild after a while. Which I loved, I want it back. But korona decided, in all his wisdom, to take the holes super hp and just apply it to the normal structure, cut the hole, and make bombers just disable stuff.

 

Besides, factories are meant to represent a huge strategic asset. It's better to think of them as many factories or a complex, which would, in either case take a while to destroy.

 

This INI

 

New version is up, with a new feature I'm trying out, using black and white mode to simulate day and night cycle. It's pretty cool so check it out. I also did an entire revamp of the map. It's way better now, harry seems to think the map is bigger, however, I assure you it is the exact same size as before.

 

Edited May 15, 2010 by Comrade Raptorkov

[Korona 0]

Yea the #1 thing I disliked about holes was that you had to go back and re click all the units to be built again after the factory rebuilt. It was very time consuming. For blitz I have always wanted as little micro as possible. It's meant to be a game about placement, timing and tech. Strategic skills rather than UI skills.

[killakanz 0]

I'm still not 100% happy about bombers. Fair enough I guess disabling factories rather than destroying them adds some realism, but if you hit a bunch of tanks or infantry in a town area, they just disable for a bit then carry on without a scratch? I'm not liking that.

I miss the old days where you could reduce or eliminate your enemy's income from a town while wiping out a good deal of his presence with a good bombing run.

[DirtyHarry 0]

Hi,

 

Well the bombers are mainly an allied weapon, as it was in ww2, and they also got the main fighter power mid-late game - sufficient to stop axis or russian bombers.

 

I'd be unfair if the allies could bomb the enemies money supply and destroy it for ever, or until manually repaired with a dozer orso. The bombers only had temporary effects mainly on production, and the best way to simulate that currently is by disabling factories. Also bombing troops is kind of ridiculous.

 

However towns etc were bombed, (mainly only causing devastation, no morale or production loss) and it be nice if we could in blitz just for the effect of it on the battlefield. Also fortifications and lines were bombed, be nice to have that too. So you're right it's a miss. But with zh we have currently no way of simulating it correctly. as not to give allies a huge advantage, or make things too unrealistic.

 

Ah well,

 

If you have a good idea around the problems, please post ;)

 

Greetings, DirtyHarry

Edited May 27, 2010 by DirtyHarry

[Comrade Raptorkov 0]

About the bombers, they have become totally useless at this point. To the point where as if they actually hit your factories it's no big deal. I mean come on, their entrance and direction of travel is announced to everyone. Then all you have to do is drop a pair of fighters somewhere along route and bam they're dead. Even if escorted like you say too do, they will still get blasted in the cross fire and die. they move slow and have like no health to speak of.

 

Bombers shouldn't be announced anymore, back in the day, like killa said, they could annihilate a whole army, but now all they can do is stop production for a short while. The enemy doesn't call you up and go, 'hey I'm sending a squadron of bombers in this direction be ready for them', if bombers are announced wouldn't it make sense to have all aircraft announced. If aircraft wern't announced they could just sort of sneak up on their target. So by the time you usually see them it's too late to scramble the fighters. This would promote their use more and encourage players to have more consistent flak and fighter coverage.

 

I believe their damage should be turned back on but should disable factories as well. Not enough to destroy a factory but maybe damage it halfway. Since unless you're allies you can only field 1 squadron at a time with a considerable interval between them. And find a way to add a cap to the allied bombers. i mean really, build from 6 factories, bomb your enemy with 10 runs at once, have large groups of units delivered to your base (rather quickly I might add) and build a nuke all at the same time, and some maps do have the income to support this. It should be a huge decision for the player to go 'should I continue factory production and try to disable all his factories or should I just buy shipments and all but abandon my factories'

 

Since germany and russia have a similar decision to make somewhere down the line. Plus the shipments can be stacked, really unfair imho, everyone else has to wait for whats being built to finish before the next in que starts. Shipments can be easily balanced by making them take longer than a second to build.