Lambda Wars Greenlit

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Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby Ennui on Sat Jan 11, 2014 4:19 am

Hey folks.

Long time Interloper here though I won't deny it's been a while.

I've been working on a mod called Half-Life 2: Wars since early 2008 and we recently rebranded to the name Lambda Wars for our bid on Greenlight. We're an RTS mod for the HL2 universe and that's really all you oughta know.

Well, it worked. We were Greenlit a few days ago!

I'm asking for people to play our mod and give us some feedback - the gameplay needs some work as the focus has been on engine and assets so far. The latest release version is Beta 2.3.1 but the developer build is also public to anyone willing to use SVN - if you want to help us playtest just get SVN set up and get in touch!

website: lambdawars.com
forums: lambdawars.com/forum
moddb: http://www.moddb.com/mods/lambda-wars
Latest release build (put in steamapps/sourcemods): http://lambdawars.com/getlatest.php
Dev build SVN info: http://hl2wars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=972

We'd love your feedback and for you to join in tests. Now that we have been approved via Greenlight we're aiming to hit Steam in March-April once we do some more balancing and a bunch of work to integrate Steamworks and overhaul parts of the UI.

Video:



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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby Botolf on Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:46 pm

Congrats! Been an eon since I checked out Lambda Wars last, I think it was roughly around the time there were some horde maps added (quite a bit before the implementation of the deferred addon).
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby ErikKiller on Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:18 am

Excellent news! Congratulations.
Are you ditching the HL2 maps now that you're Greenlit?
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby MrTwoVideoCards on Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:31 am

Wow nice job man! I've been following the progress of this mod a lot, and I'm always stoked about the continuous code changes you've made. Hopefully the full source will allow you to do some cool stuff.
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby SM Sith Lord on Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:41 am

Congrats Ennui. I've seen all the updates that have been going into that lately, and how nicely they were made public, all took a lot of work I'm sure.
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby Knights on Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:24 pm

I think I remember playing this.... NMRIH got on steam and now has a crazy large player base. Should be good for it...
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby LordDz on Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:18 pm

I just tried the beta version from the site and I must say I liked it. However, it had some flaws some of which you probably already are aware of but here comes a mini-rant/suggestions.

1. Units attack stance. There is a hold ground button, (wasn't aware of that at first), but it would be better if it was the standard behavior for the units, as I was playing the spwalley map, placed my rebels behind the wall facing the invading combines, the combines attack and my rebels run from the cover to get close to melee range of the combines, getting themselves all killed. Look at how Company of heroes does things, if you place your units somewhere, they generally stay there, moving just a bit in case a grenade/mortar lands on them.

2. Same map, please add more of an indication that your poor civies are going to get a cheap attack from the flank. The "Behind you!" sound helps a bit, but at the first time I heard it, I thought it was the rebels who said it, not the map, I looked behind the rebels, found nothing, and then my objective failed as two combine units had attacked the house from the flank with no indication that they would spawn there. Please add a hint or something at least on easy/normal.

3. At the same map, remove or replace the prop_physics in the house to be static, they made moving inside the house a bit of a pain with the table blocking my rebels.

4. Control Groups (crtl + 1, 2, 3, etc) for buildings, they only worked for my units, should probably be easy to fix.

5. Camera centering when having more than two units selected.

6. Damage for units in the training tab, as right now what's the difference between the RPG trooper and the Veteran as per the description?

7. Medics doesn't fully heal infantry. If a unit has less than 35 health lost, say 140/160, the medics doesn't autoheal him. I'd say, make the medics heal the closest units with >= 35 health lost, then heal the rest to full.

8. Maybe move the difficulty selection bar a bit further away from the launch mission button? I accidently hit the launch mission a few times when going for the difficulty.

9. Grenades are VERY powerful against the CPU since they don't move away from them when thrown at them.

I hope I don't come off as an ass, I'm aware it's a beta but thought I should share my first impressions of it. :)
I'll probably make a map or two for it later on, if I get time for it.
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby Ennui on Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:30 am

LordDz wrote:I just tried the beta version from the site and I must say I liked it. However, it had some flaws some of which you probably already are aware of but here comes a mini-rant/suggestions.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate it! Our main focus right now is split between integrating Steamworks and overhauling parts of the game (menu, matchmaking, lobby, server browser stuff and engine things) and playtesting / balancing / adding and removing things to improve gameplay.

LordDz wrote:1. Units attack stance. There is a hold ground button, (wasn't aware of that at first), but it would be better if it was the standard behavior for the units, as I was playing the spwalley map, placed my rebels behind the wall facing the invading combines, the combines attack and my rebels run from the cover to get close to melee range of the combines, getting themselves all killed. Look at how Company of heroes does things, if you place your units somewhere, they generally stay there, moving just a bit in case a grenade/mortar lands on them.

We're looking into more sophisticated unit UI. Currently they attack anything in range if they are not set to hold ground, and their vision is usually longer than their weapon range thus the movement.

LordDz wrote:2. Same map, please add more of an indication that your poor civies are going to get a cheap attack from the flank. The "Behind you!" sound helps a bit, but at the first time I heard it, I thought it was the rebels who said it, not the map, I looked behind the rebels, found nothing, and then my objective failed as two combine units had attacked the house from the flank with no indication that they would spawn there. Please add a hint or something at least on easy/normal.

We are working on improving various UI elements including sound alerts, icons and other visual indicators. Please go to our forums and make a list of suggestions you might have.

LordDz wrote:3. At the same map, remove or replace the prop_physics in the house to be static, they made moving inside the house a bit of a pain with the table blocking my rebels.

Navigation/pathing is a very large issue in general and is being addressed.

LordDz wrote:4. Control Groups (crtl + 1, 2, 3, etc) for buildings, they only worked for my units, should probably be easy to fix.

Control groups work for buildings (or should). Please post in Bugs and Support on our forum as this is an isolated case. Generally you should be able to assign any unit or building groups to hotkeys 1-7.

LordDz wrote:5. Camera centering when having more than two units selected.

Yes. Planned.

LordDz wrote:6. Damage for units in the training tab, as right now what's the difference between the RPG trooper and the Veteran as per the description?

If you visit our forums you can find regularly updated stats/units/abilities stats tables.

LordDz wrote:7. Medics doesn't fully heal infantry. If a unit has less than 35 health lost, say 140/160, the medics doesn't autoheal him. I'd say, make the medics heal the closest units with >= 35 health lost, then heal the rest to full.

They work similar to medics in HL2. There are upgrades at the Triage Center to improve their performance. Again, I recommend suggestions on our forums just because they are more likely to be taken into account.

LordDz wrote:8. Maybe move the difficulty selection bar a bit further away from the launch mission button? I accidently hit the launch mission a few times when going for the difficulty.

Our UI (menus, settings, browsers, lobby etc) will all undergo a massive overhaul now that we are Greenlit and have Steamworks. We are reimplementing most things in HTML5/CSS3/JS via CEF. This is part of the reason we don't expect to hit our Steam release (despite being Greenlit) until Summer-Fall 2014.

LordDz wrote:9. Grenades are VERY powerful against the CPU since they don't move away from them when thrown at them.

I hope I don't come off as an ass, I'm aware it's a beta but thought I should share my first impressions of it. :)
I'll probably make a map or two for it later on, if I get time for it.

CPU AI is very simple. We completely rewrote NPC, AI, pathing etc and it's not perfect. We welcome suggestions. But really you should play with other players that's how it's intended. As I mentioned tho, improvements to navigation mesh and pathing AI are top priority these days.

Thanks so much for some real feedback! I do prefer if you post in our community forum just as it is easier to keep track of feedback. The dev build SVN details are also available in the General Discussion forum.

Also we need great mappers interested in the challenge of optimization for very large RTS style Source engine maps. Don't be shy. We'll be on Steam and you can put that on your damn resume! Email lambdawars@gmail.com for serious inquiries (not just mappers but also artists, animators, sound engineers etc).
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby LordDz on Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:26 am

Will register on the forums.
And yeah, I tested control groups later. Why doesn't CRTL + 8, 9 work? That's usually the spot where I place my barracks :P
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby Sandern on Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:32 pm

Ennui wrote:
LordDz wrote:1. Units attack stance. There is a hold ground button, (wasn't aware of that at first), but it would be better if it was the standard behavior for the units, as I was playing the sp_valley map, placed my rebels behind the wall facing the invading combines, the combines attack and my rebels run from the cover to get close to melee range of the combines, getting themselves all killed. Look at how Company of heroes does things, if you place your units somewhere, they generally stay there, moving just a bit in case a grenade/mortar lands on them.

We're looking into more sophisticated unit UI. Currently they attack anything in range if they are not set to hold ground, and their vision is usually longer than their weapon range thus the movement.

Currently the unit behavior is closer to Starcraft (2), where units will attack and chase nearby enemies when in the right range. However if you order units to "cover spots", they will automatically hold position.

Ennui wrote:
LordDz wrote:3. At the same map, remove or replace the prop_physics in the house to be static, they made moving inside the house a bit of a pain with the table blocking my rebels.

Navigation/pathing is a very large issue in general and is being addressed.

That's not a navigation issue, but the inside of the room is just too small on sp_valley. I think it would actually make sense to remove those props (or make them static) in this case.

Ennui wrote:
LordDz wrote:5. Camera centering when having more than two units selected.

Yes. Planned.

This already works. Double tap the control group key or click the portrait. Holding the key or mouse button will make the camera follow the units. The camera is centered on the averaged origin.

LordDz wrote:And yeah, I tested control groups later. Why doesn't CRTL + 8, 9 work? That's usually the spot where I place my barracks :P

Apparently I never bothered to add the default bindings for 7, 8, 9 and 0 keys. Just fixed that for the next release :)
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Re: Lambda Wars Greenlit

Postby LordDz on Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:52 pm

What I meant for the camera centering is that it doesn't focus on either units, instead giving the middle area of the units. If I double hit 1, I want to go to my control group 1, not the middle of it if there is 1 unit away at the other side of the map :)
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