Campaign unit limit 40 for difficulties "Hard" and "Insane"

[wzdev-ci]

resolution_closed type_patch (an actual patch, not a request for one) | by Forgon

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In early versions of this game, players could manufacture no more than 40 units in the campaign. Currently, 100 units are possible.

This makes it significantly easier to complete missions, especially with teams Beta and Gamma, which can make use of numerous VTOLs as well as land units. It also reduces the incentive to train units and repair them.

Thus, the old campaign unit limit of 40 should be reinstated for the difficulty levels "Hard" and "Insane".

Alfred007 suggested the following unit limits based on campaign difficulty:

• Easy: 100
• Medium: 80
• Hard: 60
• Insane: 40

I find these limits not challenging enough and suggest these limits instead:

• Easy: 80
• Medium: 60
• Hard: 40
• Insane: 40

The inspiration for this patch is this forum post by user xNEXTx, who wrote

In my opinion, the most important problem of balance in the company is the army limit of 100. Having 100 units is not a problem to overcome any defense and enemy units. When before still on PSone played and had 40 units this was difficult. I agree that in case of 40 units did not make sense to build VTOL and cyborgs, but the game was interesting. Now: Built limit of 100 units the army and "was crushed by a crowd" of computer. The game company was created for 40 units. Deviation from this limit leads to a broken balance. 40 it's a little army, but it's right for the company.

The new unit limits would also apply to the tutorial "Fast Play".

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Issue migrated from trac:4862 at 2022-04-16 13:34:28 -0700

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Forgon edited the issue description

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Berserk Cyborg commented

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The tutorial does not use rules.js.

Other than that, making the campaign as original as possible is always welcomed.

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alfred007 commented

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I didn't know that. Interesting. To have a difference between these two difficulties I suggest to set the limit for "Hard" to 60 and only for "Insane" to 40. And maybe we'll go further and set the unit limit for "Normal" to 80 and only for "Easy" to 100.

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alfred007 commented

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I don't know how to create a patch so I attach the rules.js file with my suggested changes.

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alfred007 uploaded file rules.js (10.4 KiB)

Unit limit as suggested in my post before

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Forgon _uploaded file campaign_unit_limit.patch (1.3 KiB)_

patch file based on revision 400191c9c47a4e39aeb12240283f355a57e30290

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Forgon edited the issue description

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Forgon edited the issue description

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Forgon commented

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Replying to Warzone2100/old-trac-import#4862 (comment:2):

The tutorial does not use rules.js.

Other than that, making the campaign as original as possible is always welcomed. Thanks, I have corrected the mistake you found.

[wzdev-ci]

Forgon commented

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Replying to Warzone2100/old-trac-import#4862 (comment:3):

I didn't know that. Interesting. To have a difference between these two difficulties I suggest to set the limit for "Hard" to 60 and only for "Insane" to 40. And maybe we'll go further and set the unit limit for "Normal" to 80 and only for "Easy" to 100. I think that these limits are too soft on players. Anyone who sets the campaign difficulty to "Hard" should expect a challenge, and with a unit limit of 60 players can still afford a large air force without significantly weakening their army.

In most video games I know, "Hard" allows the enemy to play at its full strength, whereas "Insane" provides it with unfair advantages. And playing with only 40 units is not unfair to human players.

[wzdev-ci]

Forgon commented

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Replying to Warzone2100/old-trac-import#4862 (comment:4):

I don't know how to create a patch so I attach the rules.js file with my suggested changes. Creating a patch is easy. I suggest you try it. On Linux, I would do the following:

1. Clone our repository.
2. Change the file(s) and execute git status to list all current changes.
3. Run git add filename for each file that should be part of your patch.
4. Execute git commit and enter a meaningful commit message.
5. After committing, run git format-patch -1 HEAD --stdout > filename.patch.

[wzdev-ci]

alfred007 commented

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Replying to Warzone2100/old-trac-import#4862 (comment:8):

Replying to Warzone2100/old-trac-import#4862 (comment:3):

I didn't know that. Interesting. To have a difference between these two difficulties I suggest to set the limit for "Hard" to 60 and only for "Insane" to 40. And maybe we'll go further and set the unit limit for "Normal" to 80 and only for "Easy" to 100. I think that these limits are too soft on players. Anyone who sets the campaign difficulty to "Hard" should expect a challenge, and with a unit limit of 60 players can still afford a large air force without significantly weakening their army.

In most video games I know, "Hard" allows the enemy to play at its full strength, whereas "Insane" provides it with unfair advantages. And playing with only 40 units is not unfair to human players.

I'm always a fan of a real challenge. To have a difference between "Hard" and "Insane" I suggest to set the limit for "Hard" to 50 units. From "Normal" over "Hard" to "Insane" the enemy factory output increases, the timer decreases, your power output decreases, and your unit limit decreases step by step. Makes sense in my eyes.

What happens with the transition levels alpha12/beta1 beta11/gamma1? In the story for beta 1 you can bring in 4 transports from alpha base and the fifth get shot down. With a unit limit of 40 for "Insane", you can't start a fifth transport but he will still be shot down. We get a problem with the logic. Also, the question is what happens to the units in the transport to beta 1 when the unit limit gets exceeded because of the units that already exist in beta 1? Do you have a short time more than 40 units or are you limited with the units you can put into the fourth transport? And what happens when you rescue the units from beta 2? Are some units disappearing or is the unit limit shortly exceeded? In gamma 1, are you able to produce new units even when you put 40 units into the transport or not?

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alfred007 commented

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I had a discussion with Bethrezen about the unit limit and he's afraid that this would reduce his tactical flexibility. How difficult would it be to implement a new option in the options menu where the player can choose between different limits or unlimited units?

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alfred007 commented

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@Forgon

I think you should move this as a WIP Pull Request to Github. Trac is closed and I think your idea is worth discussing it in GitHub.

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Berserk Cyborg changed status from new to closed

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Berserk Cyborg changed resolution from ` toclosed`

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Berserk Cyborg commented

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PR in GitHub for this.