211 replies to this topic

[Moustachio86]

Yes, I see where you're coming from, definitely and I do agree. I just think technically it's impossible to negate enemy culture while retaining friendly culture.

[MasterOfShips]

Yes, I see where you're coming from, definitely and I do agree. I just think technically it's impossible to negate enemy culture while retaining friendly culture.

*shrugs*

Yeah... what can you do? Also, loving DIanno's post about gameplay mechanics. Can't wait to see the Covies released.

[Unikraken]

Culture is in important component of the game and removing it would break some parts of it. We have this discussion far too often for my tastes. Accept that culture is staying in, as a team lead decision. We're sacrificing .00001% of canon to ensure the mod is functional.

[JasonAHawkins]

Maybe the the defensive co-ordination structure for the SMACs could have a enemy culture repel rate up to max to keep Covie influence and or innie influence off the planet.

[MasterOfShips]

Culture is in important component of the game and removing it would break some parts of it. We have this discussion far too often for my tastes. Accept that culture is staying in, as a team lead decision. We're sacrificing .00001% of canon to ensure the mod is functional.

Already did. Can't wait to smash some Covenant uglies.

[Unikraken]

Also, in terms of variety of ships, has anyone got an idea of what we're looking at? Obviously with UNSC the guys have managed to keep fairly true to Sins balance but from what I understand Covenant ships are all fairly multi-purpose.

Look on our ModDB page for renders of ships done so far. As for roles, each ship will have a defined role that their unique ability will help flesh them out. There are really only a handful of canon ships, so we have room to dick around, so to speak. Roles are pretty cut and dry, because the AI need them to function and we have a stated promise to not only keep the AI function, but improve it's use of our ships where we can.

[Defender0]

Look on our ModDB page for renders of ships done so far. As for roles, each ship will have a defined role that their unique ability will help flesh them out. There are really only a handful of canon ships, so we have room to dick around, so to speak. Roles are pretty cut and dry, because the AI need them to function and we have a stated promise to not only keep the AI function, but improve it's use of our ships where we can.

i believe there is only one exception to this in the covenant, which is the resolve class. Dianno combined the light bombardment frigate with the engineer cruiser, since the covenant did not have a ship specifically designated as a bombardment ship. However, with the capital ships, it is basically what Uni is saying, as each covenant capital ship corresponds to a vanilla capital ship role (colony, battleship, carrier, etc.)

[Moustachio86]

That's fine, I was just wondering.

Looking back through this thread, I also saw a post about how Covenant ships would repair themselves faster due to the presence of engineers. Personally, I like this, is this an option? Perhaps for research? It could tie in with planetary effects as well, such as catastrophe recovery or even cheaper infrastructure upgrades. Engineers do seen to open up a fair variety of possibilities.

[Defender0]

Covenant ships would repair themselves faster due to the presence of engineers.

im not sure about hull repair, but i have noticed that, on the bigger covenant ships (especially capital ships), the shield regen is incredibly small (around 200 points every time passive regen kicks in) for a ship such as the assault carrier, which has 30K shielding, so maybe we should increase the shield regen for covenant capitals. Or, maybe we could have a research option that enables the covenants shields to regen faster?

[JasonAHawkins]

Like finding undamaged forerunner shield generators or Huragoks are made out of better organic materials.

[Defender0]

Like finding undamaged forerunner shield generators or Huragoks are made out of better organic materials.

i was thinking something along the lines of something similar to the research option "shield of the forerunners" from halo wars. it essentially doubled shield regen of covenant units in the game. I was suggesting we do something similar to that for the covenant, or we give the covenant a higher base shield regen rate.

[JasonAHawkins]

How would the research structures work exactly? Since the Covenant are not very innovative i am guessing that the labs would hold common forerunner artifacts examined and taken apart by San 'shyuum engineers.

[Defender0]

How would the research structures work exactly? Since the Covenant are not very innovative i am guessing that the labs would hold common forerunner artifacts examined and taken apart by San 'shyuum engineers.

Im just suggesting an initial idea, im not going to even go near the specifics of how it would be done yet. I just want to know what people think of this and whether or not it is a good idea

[Unikraken]

We'll address hull/shield repair mainly through research. We can't have you start out with everything you want at the start of the game.

[Moustachio86]

We'll address hull/shield repair mainly through research. We can't have you start out with everything you want at the start of the game.

Suddenly feel the urge to do the JFK voice from Black Ops Zombies:

"BUT I WANT IT!"

[Moustachio86]

Also, out of interest, what's the plan for glassing? Is it going to be like the Novalith effect where you can't colonise for X amount of time then added effects afterwards?

[Unikraken]

No, the specifics of it are still in debate, but basically it'll do planet damage and lower max population, the population effect will be timed, probably close to 5 minutes, so that even if you manage to repel the attack or recolonize the planet, it'll be economically stunted. Each shot will do X amount, it'll require several ships to kill a planet in any decent time frame. Glassing is basically an economic attack. You'd push into an enemy planet with a high pop bringing a lot of credits to your enemy and glass it, then retreat or move on. Even if they retake it they'll be hurt for some time.

[CanadaMan7]

Even if they retake it they'll be hurt for some time.

Yup. The very presence of the glassing ability as a Covenant player will make you stop and consider if you're going to expand in that direction.
Its a good option if all seems lost on that front and you know you're not going to hold the planet. Or perhaps you just want to screw over the other player, either one.

[ShadowOfIntent]

With the Covenant culture effects, if you guys have something that slows ship or building production time, you could name the research "Infiltration Teams" where the culture effects are like sabotaging the other player, rather than the Covenant culture actually influencing the UNSC colonists to join the other side.

[Unikraken]

It could simply be that colonists are leaving known space, rather than joining the other side.