I won't be able to test TVg with the guys I normally due for a few weeks. However I may be able to get a game or two of it up before then.

That's a shame Kenquinn, but thanks for telling.

ACU jumps into the air, hovers and unleashes a barrage of bullets, with catastrophic results. Each faction has its own version with distinct differences.

Bulletstorm, another new ability coming soon.

My visual effect knowledge increases daily and I'm absolutely stunned with what GPG made possible in this game.

On another note, ArmyXP, since I'm quite clearly again am obsessed with cool visuals, I do appreciate if those who will play with ArmyXP chime in and state ideas for me to work on. In other words: YOU!
There still are a few issues to work out with it, too.


Have fun~

You still need to add a notification for when you swap between mass and energy storage veteran. Like the one you get when swapping between Multiplayer and Singleplayer balance.

Did you just imply that their is a public version of the ArmyXP TVg Ghaleon?

All that and no word on the new shiny, shame on you Kenquinn.
I can add the notification, just never thought it be needed, but takes only a few lines.

I haven't released it, but could have on Monday, had jumping cleaned and most showstoppers for release done with, only score ui could improve some.
i said "will" play, as in future tense.
Just think of all units gaining a level at set intervals when armies gain xp. all else is open to debate.

I do want to release a testbed version 4.86, for people to play with and offer Feedback.
For once I really can't set on a good approach for ArmyXP. While it is very nice to have coherent highpowered armies, it is obvious some units and buildings might get too much of a boost when just gaining a level directly on each Armylevel increase.

So before I get off into yet another rant, I'd really like to listen to other people's thoughts on the matter, since really, I myself will likely be far more immersed in watching the new fx and abilities I cook up..

I was in a hurry when I wrote my message Ghaleon so I did not comment on that interesting ability. However what I really want to see, instead of a Bulletstorm is a BulletMagnet

About the army XP I take it the only way to gain XP would be from killing units? About the army level ups causing lag one way to solve it would be after gaining an army level x number of units level up a second. This is not an ideal solution, however I think it is better then making every unit need a kill before leveling up.

Ah well, seem I'm doing the new abilities for myself plus the silent majority then. But no, really please drop a line if you care.

Right now all kind of XP gained adds to ArmyXP, exceptions and such require ~some more work. Fun bit, on levelling up some unit due to raised ArmyLevel, ArmyXP itself again increases :p.

That BulletMagnet, yes indeed sounds like a very good idea
I wonder why nobody made one so far

On another note, I just fixed another BO acu incompatibility issue.

Does this mean I'm getting a unit made after me? *grins*

Wow Thank you very much Normalius! That's a really cool bunch of ideas.
I've filed your ideas and will think on them, custom units have to be in a separate mod, though.
Thank you for your support, you're welcome!

hehe BulletMagnet, been toying a little, not enough to release it.
It'll probably be an ability though.


2010/08/13 Friday, Released TVg 4.86:

For a detailed changelog please refer to the second post or better the included readme, also included is a text detailing jump costs.
There are a couple of issues I want to iron out, mostly balance costs and some features are not done yet. Else this would've been 4.9.

ArmyXP didn't make it this time, design wasn't finalized, testcode produced inconsistent Warnings, UI was nowhere near done, sorry.
Also the sideways multiple ACU Avatar Display was bugged.

The Major selling point of this release: Two new abilities and Jump visuals overhaul, moving much more realistically than before.

• Dance of Death: ALT+click on Jump Button will trigger this ability, ACU/SCU locks on to a nearby Target and slowmotion-jumps around it until it is dead, firing at 4 times its normal speed, MP costs are 300 mass per 1K HP of the target.
  
• BulletStorm: to trigger press CTRL+click, costs 7 times as much as a standard jump in MP. Stunning Visuals, massive effect well worth the cost. includes faction diversity.

GroupXP is toggleable in Singleplayer, if you want to test how it affects your sim when enabled.
+a Bunch of minor fixes, many ui and visual tweaks.

Bravo! An Excellent Mod! I love the Bullet storm effect, Its very helpful XD

Glad you like it Brandon007 It's a pleasure to look at, really.
oh and I do offer non-Vault Download Links.
It's useful, good to know, I don't mind more feedback on it's cost/effectiveness for MP.

Done some more testing, next version will include a better cloaking mechanic fix. BulletMagnet ability also looks more and more likely, still need to do some more UI work for it, ideally. If I get the UI code working perfectly, which I am quite sure I won't anytime soon, I'd also be able to offer a bunch of Projectile redirection effects as user selectable abilities rather than just automatically on Auto-Revive.

ArmyXP, I guess I'd need to ask elsewhere to get good feedback for specifications.
I myself am far more motivated to make a lot of abilities and enhancing usability with custom scripted maps and campaigns.

On jumping for Mech Marines, I might do that, still. Left in some code I added when I started on it. But I really do wonder if it amounts to more than a gimmick.
Also wonder if I should keep in the BS and DoD abilities for them...
Let's say DoD from level 11~21 upwards, Bulletstorm on 51+?.
DoD would look particularly awesome with tons of tiny Mech Marines slowmo-jumping around a target firing at it.
Anyhow, what kept me from doing it in the first place was the UI to Sim stuff, that's really a pain and I do not know if I can bring myself to look at that portion of code again.

Does this work with BlakOps and 4th dimension?

Some Blackops units have issue(The Basilisk and Artemis come to mind) and their are a number of bugs with BO:ACUs. Which will not be getting fixed.

4th Dimensions should work fine with this, however the transformer Sera plan may have issues similar to the Basilisk.

Janez, In general 4DC, and all Blackops projects work fine, the issues Kenquinn mentioned are minor, nitpicks. It's about mentioned units not keeping their levels, Considering there's dozens of units in these mods which work without any issues I'd say it is as compatible as can be, from my side.

I'll be working on improving compatibility, thanks for reporting the issues Kenquinn.


There's a bit of debug code in 4.86 left over, I was considering to release a fixed version now, but unless someone notices the issue, I might just wait so 4.87 means something.
A cookie for the person to notice the flaw. ^_^

Can i ask how do i perform BulletStorm?

In Single-Player you can immediately, by selecting an ACU, keeping CTRL pressed and then clicking on the jump button for no cost.
In Multiplayer your ACU has to first reach level 31, a SCU level 6 (visible in the UI), When the jump button appears you can use CTRL+click to trigger it, too. However in MP it will cost mass to perform, at level 6 for a SCU around 10 000~ mass and at 31(ACU) ~60 000 mass.
The exact costs are also detailed at the end of the "jump costs.txt" file included with TVg V4.86.

Thank you for your interest Janez, if there are other questions I'll answer them gladly.

I have seen on those pictures that ACU is spitting some '****'.(In first pag, ACU against megalith) What kinda upgrade is that?

Otherwise GJ. Realy good mod. =)

ITs not an Upgrade. Didnt you notice the ACU's level? The higher the level gained, the better the weapons.

Actually, you're both right, it's the unit's level as well as the Rapid-fire upgrade on the Aeon Commander. I've changed it so the Aeon Commander has a massive RoF (costs are adjusted, thing costs 5k mass and energy costs similarly boosted), which results at higher levels in that stream of bullets, Without the upgrade even at that level, it'd not be as coherent.

If Resin_Smoker was refering to stock TVg, before Ghaleon tries to add ArmyXP. PD gaining to much XP is not that much of an issue.

A T2 PD needs to kill 15 T1 tanks or 8 T2 tanks to gain their first level. It amount you need per level increase by 7.5% if my memory serves me.

So attacking a base will net PD some XP but not enough to give them a huge advantage. It is true people try and turtle more with TVg due to the Mass/Energy production boost. That does not mean it can't be played competitively. No many people do, but I would love to find some people who want to play a TVg game to win as fast as they can.

On a side note for normal multiplayer games. The cost of getting Ras for ACUs/SCUs should scale with its level. Right now you can get a massive resource boost for a cheap cost at high levels.

I've never actually played SupCom online, I don't with most RTSs. Probably becasue I play to enjoy the game, and to me, enjoying means slowly turtling up to a huge base, not learning super fast build orders, so I'd just get slaughtered in online games. Its good fun to play with friends though, esp with TVg.

Normalius, I'll definitely consider the ideas you offered, I like the prospect of this quite a bit, while new units are outside the scope of this mod, abilities to accomplish the extra strategic elements are not. I'd need to get a handle on certain ui matters first though, this has delayed many planned features so far.
And yeah, PD's can still be broken, regardless of their level.

Kenquinn, good catch, I was considering to do this early on, but doing it would limit options some players might like to have. picking an option making this one more balanced while not destroying possibilities is a challenge.
I might put in the effort needed to make this mod more suitable for competitive gameplay, to some extent.
Total Veterancy never struck me to be suited for this kind of gameplay, with no levelcaps, economy scaling and all the other variables thrown in, keeping it exploit free would likely reduce it to not much more than the supcom2 veterancy implementation. I might be wrong though.

As Iviv wrote, I also enjoy slowly turtling up, it's especially rewarding thanks to the scale of the game.
While I used to play online, I've since been mostly happy to do mission maps.
On that note, I'm working on a map I did the terrain for ages ago, writing the script from ground up takes a lot of time and nerve. just in case if you wondered where I'd been these days.

still a wip

Nice job.