From what I've seen, people rarely hang out in the lobby waiting for someone to play with, and instead arrange games beforehand.

Even then, there aren't really that many people who play online and aren't staff.

The amount of online activity indeed has been very low for the past few days. A few weeks ago I still saw some people in the lobby playing every once in a while though, so it could be just temporary.

I'm also expecting online activity to skyrocket when 1.12 is released, but we're currently in the middle of development so it'll still take a while.

hello. i played the mod and it is very good. here my suggestions:

1) decelerating humm vees are ineffective...please make vheicles normal movement, acceleration has no sense, only hestetics.
2) make nod buggy transport 1 infantry instead light tank. in this way you will see more nod buggys and it is better...maybe slow down rate of fire to make them more weaker than hummvees.
3) stealth apc is too similar to stealth tank. make it a subterrean apc, and maybe with less transport capacity (2 or 3). transport capacity is a GDI prerogative.
4) artillerys: mantain damage and range, but lower the speed and turn-speed and also the cost (original was 450). may be make a minimum distance shot since they are a ranged unit.
5) hover mrls: this unit is weird. and too powerful. tranform it into a normal hovercraft with infantry and vehicle tranport capacity. cost low (400 or 500).
6) nod naval units: id prefer similar to soviets in RA. make a submarine, with true stealt capacities. submarine can only attack ships with good damage. the second naval unit may be the stealt ship (with smaller size) with less damage capacity, that one is too powrful, at least half or less damage.
7) gdi naval units: the hovercraft. the cruiser. the gunboat. the destroyer: unit capable of stealth detection for anti-subs. the leviathan: a huge unit (the biggest of the game), only 1 buildable, cost 5000, very slow, and massive. may be, can produce units itself !
nod chemical missile, similar to the one in tib-sun. it is good for nod have weaker units and a lot of time-option units, like the nuke, the chem-missile, the sub-reinforce, the viceroids and so on. to make nod chem missile it needs the waste facility, but easier to collect than in tib-sun. make the clouds more slow and more duration (3 times at least).
9) hole monsters. they make material to collect for nods. they never die at all, but near: whean destroyed they slowly get smaller, till they disappear, and reappear in the same position anfter a while and start growing up again. make tham lethal to vehicles runn over.
10) make heavy tank buildable for gdi, and cost is only 950. to build they need a difficult structure or a capture of opposite structure.
11) make v2 buildable for gdi, the same as hevy tank, but they will cost a lot, at least 1200, because the long range is not a prerogative of gdi.
12) make the medic and the mechanic for gdi to heal units. take out the mobile repair vehicle for nod, it is better for nod philosophy, they dont care much for healt.
13) the field repair is get when building the repair bay (so someone will build it!). and whit the repair bay a the tech you can get also the mammoth tank.
14) migs buildable (the same difficult way for v2 and hevy tank).
15) spy for nods. if infiltrates a certain building they get a GDI costruction option. spy is stealth and cost 900.
16) toxine warriors for nods: infantry that can drug the opponent infantry to get allied. cost 800. no damage.
17) make the cyborg commando a bit bigger to not confuse it.
18) make a big land unit for gdi, big as mammoth tank, vith other purposes, may be the disruptor of tib-sun. make it slow and expansive but very powerful.
19) make a system to detect the last stealth unit. in c&c generals, the player loses when lost the the last building. may be the same, you lose if you loose all buildings and all mcv undepolyed.
20) make random map generator.
21) make oil derriks capturable.
22) take out the hover telsa for nod, and turn it to a crate unit.
23) tesla tank is buildable whit difficult buildings.
24) a innovative tech system: the first time you build tech centre it cost 500. you will get a random construction option (if it requires another one you dont have it will be darkned). you can now update tech centre as many times you want. every new time it sill cost more 500 plus the last one (so the second costs 1000, the third 1500 and so on) and every time you get a random new construction option. the random construction option may be only a building.
of cours, there will be a lot of more buildings, most of them required for special units. examples: stealt generator to make stealth tanks; subterrean hideout to make termites and sub-apc and the sub-reinforce; bio research to make viceroids, chem warriors , and chem missile (the bio has his own weed heater) ; temple of nod to make nuke, ssm, driver, spy and cyborg; and so on also for gdi. you will invent it.

thankyou for attention.
goodplayer

Most of these suggestions have no regard for game balance at all and others are simply impossible, don't make sense or simply don't add anything positive to the game.
Take in mind that DTA is built on Tiberian Sun's engine, which means that there's limitations to some of the things that can be done.
Additionally everything that's currently in the mod was implemented with game balance in mind, so that neither factions truly over power another, while still playing very different. Adding certain new units merely because it'd be cool can either disturb this balance or it can make the factions less diverse, so whenever units are added or changed it needs to be thoroughly thought through.

i know. in fact my suggestions are not unbalanced :_ you have to think wich structures or units are the best, and so, put the news as the bonus, not really the main usage. but some things, like the deceleration are very frustrating...
and hover mrls is very unbalanced and powrful. use the same template and make it the disruptor, with less range, this is my suggestion, and make a true hovercraft with transport capabilities.

i played c&c since 1996 and i know very well the game and the philosophy of the factions. in terms of play the best is c&c generals, but in therms of atmosphere is the original tib dawn. i downloaded and played OPEN RA to play mods for red alert and C&C, but they have no implements, the only good thing is capturable oil derriks. you are doing a very good work.
i hope you will make a map generator (wich is in the enigine of tib sun) and all feautures like chem missile. for balancing you have only to work and think a bit more, but it is non impossible.
you are working well, you make artilleryes a good ranged unit (in original c&c are near useless), my suggestion is make them slower and cheaper (450), to intend the dislikes of nod for vehicles. nod units are more nasty and weaker, i see no meaning for tesla hover, if you put tesla tech you have tu put it in the gdi faction for me. nods have laser.

in my opinion for a good game replayability is important that not in every game you will build all the options.
if you plaied axis & allies, (i use tripleA to play) you will see that tecnology is very good if randomized. and every game is different.
dont think im a newbye that writes the first time. im a player that played a lot of games of every genre and probably im older than you.
i made a board game for c&c in the past, and i know the probs related to balance...

other things are: why changed the image for the mammoth tank? sam sites are better if closed and open only when fires: i know there will be a prob of engine, but if you could bring them to the origin is better: i remember the fear when i first see them open and fire to my orcas. i know there is a prob of speed also, while opening they loose the target, but mabe be you can accelerate the missiles...good for the price, 500 is perfect, the original 750 was too much.
thanx for attention
goodplayer

Many of your suggestions in fact are imbalanced, but at the moment I don't have the time to explain why about every single one of them. For one buggies with a passenger would be way too fast and cheap, meaning that they'd make engineer rushes way too easy and in addition to that it wouldn't even make sense for a buggy to be able to carry a passenger to begin with; where would this passenger even be sitting?


And acceleration helps with making vehicles more diverse and appear more realistic.


The Hover MLRS is inaccurate and in groups it will likely damage your own units as well. In the many games I played with it, it has felt well balanced.
And if with a true hovercraft with transport capabilities you mean one that's able to carry vehicles, that's impossible with the TS engine. If you simply mean one that's capable of transporting infantry; the normal APC already has that role and I don't want to clutter the sidebar with units that serve the exact same purpose.


There already is a map editor; just look in the FinalSun folder. Or if you were talking about a random map generator like TS has, it's impossible to make it function correctly with all of the new terrain.
And Nod currently already has 2 superweapons; adding a third would make it imbalanced compared to GDI.


Artilleries are currently well balanced in Enhanced mode in comparison with the other balance changed and added units. Their speed is already the same as in Classic mode and their turn speed was intentionally increased after it became apparent that it was far too vulnerable.

And the Tesla Hovercraft fulfills 2 roles; it's Nod's only effective anti-air unit and also their only amphibious unit, which is essential for the AI considering it has no other means to fight naval units. I'm already using quite drastic work-arounds to get naval units to work with the TS engine in the first place and part of the downside of this is that the AI can't build them at all (if I'd allow them to build them, they'd start producing ships from the war factory and tanks from the ship yard). I do agree that the Tesla hovercraft is a silly unit, but its presence really is necessary to maintain a proper balance and not making it easy to just destroy a Nod AI base from the water because it has no means to defend itself against it or retaliate.


I've been playing C&C as long as you and I'm not sure whether or not you're really older than me, but that's irrelevant anyhow. I've been working on DTA since before 2006 and I started modding TS about 3 or 4 years before then.
I don't know axis & allies, but randomized technology isn't possible with the TS engine and as mentioned before, making a lot of units with the same role available for a single faction will only clutter the sidebar with pointless units, considering only one of these units will be built anyhow. Additionally having multiple units with the same role will also make it a lot more confusing for players to know exactly what unit would be effective in what situation and wasting time having to look through many of these same-purpose units on the sidebar to find the one you actually need isn't going to make the game any more enjoyable either.


you already answered your own question there. If it was possible I'd have done it already.

ok. you aswered well. may be you are correct, and a lot of my disagrees are from an aestetich side. but , if you dont get angry, i write again:
1) armor piercing shells. the first c&c was the better in this. tanks are armored and you will see this when artillery and explosive missiles fire at them with the result of near no damage. all the c&c games after the first lack this, and you dont sens more the armor of units, but only healt bar. you dont seem have put great difference from explosive missiles and piercing missiles. all the missiles in your game do great damage to armored units. the adv gt , the artillery, the mrls (and mey be the hover mrls), and gun boat, do a lot of damage to tanks. in a true game the player has to be forced to face the correct units to the correct armors. the rocket soldier has to be better than the mrls.
the purpose of artillery and mrls is building damage and infantry damage, and occasionally light vehicles damage. your artillery do a great amount of damage to tanks, and it is no correct: they have explosive shells and not piercing shells. in the firts c&c the dragon rockets (of rocket soldier, recon bike, stelth tank, orcas) are armor piercing and do great damage to armor, but minimum damage to infantry . you have confused all , and miss an important thing.
tanks have to be the main anti-vehicle units. only specialized units can take down them.
2) damage to soldiers. you increased the inaccuracy of damage from tanks to infantry. too much. this means tha a single minigunner can near take down a med tank. this is no balance. and in the real the tanks have a little railgun mounted.
when i modded c&c (the version of nyerguds) with an editor (not c&cedit, another one i dont remember the name, it has a blue interface) i put over tanks a machine gun. it is stupid to see tank fire shells to single infantry. but ok, i know this a game, and i like to see tanks fail whit the cannoning. but not too much.
3) you increased the rate of fire of apc, humm and buggy. the main purpose of this units is not soldiers-take down, but exploration. the first c&c woked very well at this. buggy and humm vees have great speed and low cost and low shigt, but explored well for the speed, and in packs they are great to take down soldiers becouse of the great manovrability. but you destroy manovrebility whit this weird acceleration. your apc works good. it is sufficient you meke these units the same of classic mode, there is no mean to tranform them.
4) you game is balanced for multiplayer game, but umbalanced versus itself. a lot of true tings are missed...
you can balance the game also putting tirannosaurus and monsters but it will be weird.
5) i hope you include an editor to change personally the parametres. so every one can have his own perfect game (may be only against IA).
6) is possible to have 3 sidebars? or to have time-options in the top as openRA do?
7) ok, for nod buggy, you are correct. but light tank cannot have nothing more than med tank. nor speed, nor damage nor nothing.
in tib sun the caryall can carry vehicles. why cannot you bring this option to the hovercraft?

goodplayer

Actually, one of the Hover(craft) MLRS' design points was that it can be used as a supportive anti-vehicle unit behind your main vehicle force. Without such an unit, GDI's combat dynamics would be all about just spamming Medium tanks. As such the Hover MLRS' anti-vehicle capabilities bring a bit more diversity to the gameplay dynamics, since a group of Medium / Mammoth tanks supported by a few Hover MLRS will win a larger group of units made of just Medium / Mammoth tanks.


It is. Tanks counter other tanks, to counter infantry you have to use anti-infantry units like Humm-vees and Buggies. Also, tbh the damage to infantry doesn't really matter since a single medium tank is able to take out dozens of infantry by simply crushing them (the crush logic is something I personally hate, but that's a classic C&C mechanic so it'll stay).


Yeah, and in TD (and our Classic Mode) they become entirely useless after you spend those 30 seconds exploring the map. In DTA's Enhanced Mode you use them not only for exploration, but also for killing infantry. This means that the Humm-vee and the Buggy have a real purpose to exist also lategame.


I'm not getting the point in this. We have pretty much everything from C&C covered in Classic mode, Enhanced surely modifies it but it's also meant to. We don't have any very ridiculous things like buildable dinosaurs either (although the Tesla Hovercraft is quite silly, you're exaggerating IMO).


Navigate to your DTA directory and open the "INI" directory inside of it. That's all you need to edit the game for the most part.


No.


Balance and game features aren't that simple and can't follow some kind of "bigger is better" logic. The light tank's passenger capabilities give the sides a bit more difference, gives Nod some more tactical options and make up for the lack of an earlygame APC (they do get the Stealth APC later though).


The carryall is an aircraft with some special magical WW code which makes it able to carry vehicles. That same magical WW code can't be used with ground units.

Btw, the acceleration balances different vehicles a bit (heavier vehicles accelerate slower than lighter vehicles). It also makes crushing infantry slightly harder, and other than that it's a nice little detail as well.

ok, i understand you reasons.
its only a different point of wiew. for me balance has to be less direct, more articulated. i like very much the massive use of med tanks. i think the problem of the game is the tactics. for example g&c generals changed a lot the tactics whit the capturable derriks. humms became important to explore, take down single infantry (whith some difficultys ) bring some soldiers etc... the game was very different, but was the best in terms of playability. the expansion zero hour, was worst, because brings in game specialized units, too much, and the use of the tank disappear. in a good game structure, the primary dinamycs are clear, and secondary things came out in a secondary point of wiew.
for me if i have to rearrange the role of apc, humm and buggyes, i will try to change some of the game, like capturable buildings etc...also the crates is a good idea, when i played your c&c i build a lot of humm or bikes and spread them around to the already explored areas, ready to collect crates that would appear. but whit the accelerating sistem, these units becam useless. some tanks are in fact quicker than nod buggy, nod buggy is useless, sometimes it go slower than artillery. for me you have to abandone the accelerating-rule.
in my opinion it is pretty to get engineers to humms and to buggys in early games, because you force enemy to protect base, and not to spread-building whitout care of our base. in multiplayer game the winner is always the one that not care for protection, but only for quikq conquest and building.
i dont have time or possibility to make my own game, so i can only suggest you samthing.
but i realize that my ideas are very far from yours, and probably it will need a second enanced version, (of course you are not interested to make)

goodplayer