TA-Excess v1.1 readme


Important changes in v1.1 (8.4.2007) :
-Patch005 integrated into v1.1.
-Most GoK textures reworked and sizes optimized.
-Minor fixes in GoK weapon explosions.
-Changes (and bit of cleaning) in movement class list and movement classes of units; Kbots should be better moving on hillsides now.
-Most Tracked and wheeled combat vehicles have higher max speed.
-All noteworthy mess in Arm and Core build menus cleaned.
-All hovercraft returned back to normal...
   -Hovercraft hover once again instead of flying!
   -Hovercraft now have high movement speed, but low acceleration and turn rate.
   -Hovercraft are now rather quick to build. Also hover platforms are cheaper now.
   -GoK lev-tanks' models, scripts and statistics completely reworked. Basically Corsair and Sky Dragon got replaced by Faerie and Avatar.
   -GoK lev-tanks are a bit faster and better at moving on uneven terrain than their Arm and Core counterparts.
   -GoK can now build lev-tanks from naval scaffolds also.
-Changes in some GoK heavy tanks...
   -Daemonknight and Abolisher reworked. They aren't tracked tanks anymore; instead they're now faster, not as heavily armored runnerpods.
-Changes in GoK aircraft...
   -Scourge is no more stealth. Costs and build time reduced.
   -Ghost, Spectre and Revenant are no more stealth, but have weak cloaking. Ghost has bit more armor also.
-Changes in most static defense turrets...
   -LLT, Sentinel, Defender, guardian and such are approximately 50% more durable and 25% more expensive and slower to build.
   -Anti-air, long range and whatever high-tech stuff there was were left to be as earlier.
-Energy and metal storage buildings are now small and dirt cheap.
-Buccaneer (strategic stealth EMP bomber) added to Arm arsenal (or merely replaces Stasis).
-Wisp (mobile radar jammer), Kharon (barrage battlecruiser), Silversword (heavy support lev-tank) and Cell (resource storage) added to GoK arsenal.
-Removed several units...
   -Arm Python, Ameroth, Raptor, Stasis, Hailfire.
   -Core Killer Bee, Mauler, Absolutor, Halberd, Pioneer, Loki, King Thud.
   -GoK Amok.
-Some balancing and changes here and there...
   -Generic weapon power/effectiveness boost to most heavy units!
   -Most weapons no more need any resources to fire!
   -Lightning gun now hits only units, not landscape or wreckage!
   -All flame thrower weapons now have cone of effect instead of hitting only one target!
   -All paralyzers and EMP weapons are less effective against some heavily armored units, shielded units, field commanders and such.
   -Arm Phoenix and Core Hurricane have now stealth, more armor, more firepower and are consequently a lot more expensive.
   -Arm Vulcan, Core Buzzaw and GoK Liquidator now have much longer weapon ranges!
   -All Nanopads are now very cheap and weak; nanotowers are now faster to build and more efficient.
   -Arm Salvo weapon changed. It's missiles are now powerful, but slow and costly to build. This is basically because it was too easy to spam enemy's missile defences with these.
   -Arm Stunner EMP missiles are now cheaper and faster to build.
   -Arm Devastator secondary weapon changed to heavy railgun.
   -Arm Rogue statistics changed to make it better fit to recon assault role as it says it should be.
   -Arm Shimmer now has flechette cannon as it's weapon. Costs and build time reduced.
   -Arm Zipper has now lighter armor, but is cheaper and faster to build.
   -Arm Orion is now more durable and much more powerful.
   -Arm Liche is now cheaper and more durable. Its cruise missiles changed to be long ranged but slow. Weapon model changed.
   -Arm Razorback, Maverick, Raptor, Killer Machine, Scar and Fido are now faster to build.
   -Arm Nightstalker and Core Hellraiser are now more durable.
   -Arm Condor, Core Scythe and GoK Wraith are now more durable. Condor main weapon is now lot more powerful. Scythe blasters are now better.
   -Arm and Core Adv. GN construction planes are more durable.
   -Arm and Core labourer units (FARK, Linker, Yelkin and Fabricator) had a gazillion weird things in their statistics. Now they're generally less efficient, slower, weaker and cheaper.
   -Core Freaker shoots laser again. Costs lowered significantly.
   -Core Goblin is now bit more expensive and lot more durable.
   -Core Mutilator is now lot faster to build.
   -Core Bolt Thrower is now cheaper and bit more powerful. Most notably it's a lot faster.
   -Core Massacre is now bit more durable, powerful and longer ranged.
   -Core Cyclone is now more powerful.
   -Core MAK is now cheaper.
   -Core Immolator is now significantly cheaper and a bit faster to build.
   -GoK Zealot are no more amphibious, but are cheaper now.
-Core Wernoc's Revenge wreckage's metal amount fixed.

Patch005 for v1.07 (28.2.2007) :
-GoK Sea Dragon fixed.
-GoK Corsair are now overall less efficient.
-GoK Zealot are no longer stealth.

v1.07 (21.2.2007) :
-New textures and animations.
-Most units' texturing and model refined.
-Droid walk animations refined.
-GoK Commander's weapon and model changed again...
   -Earlier weapon's bullet's .3do was corrupted; it was the cause of recent crashes.
   -Commander now has same chainblaster weapon that Blaster, Ravager and Predator utilize.
-All mines and minelayers are now waterproof.

v1.06 (13.2.2007) :
-Issues with having too many units solved...
   -Removed several Arm and Core units; namely Scrapper, Nashorn, Rondine, Metron, Slosher and Misanthrope.
-Spectre (gunship) and Zealot (melee droid) added to GoK arsenal...
   -Spectre's system name is GOKGUNSHIP. Revenant changed to be GOKASGUNSHIP.
   -Zealots only attack when enemies are nearby. Forcing them to attack ground or DT has no effect.
-Some GoK models refined...
   -Few units lacked team colored surfaces. In addition to fixing that issue, they now look better than ever.
-Blaster, Ravager and Predator units' disruptor cannon changed to new chainblaster. Models and scripts changed accordingly.
-GoK Commander primary weapon changed a bit...
   -Weapon will no more penetrate multiple units nor cause multiple hits to each. It seemingly caused crashes.
   -Weapon damage doubled.
-Arm Brawler weapon is now better. Arm Banshee weapon on the other hand is now worse.

v1.05 (3.2.2007) :
-New textures and animations.
   -GoK tracked combat vehicles now have animated track textures.
   -Due to caching and uncaching, I had to put "shadow hull" in each vehicle.
-Furnace (massive energy plant) and Architect (heavy builder vehicle) added to GoK arsenal.
-Core Adv. hover platform (and all units built by it) removed from game.
-Changes in GoK buildmenus...
   -All heavy artillery and high tech buildings like Pylon, Nexus and Citadel moved to Architect's menu.
   -Overseer (heavy builder drone) now has basically similar buildmenu as Architect.
-Changes in GoK Commander...
   -Model and script changed (to better?).
   -Primary weapon changed from Viper laser to new "gravity distortion pulse guns" (?).
-Major changes in prices of all heavy units; they're now cheaper and faster to produce.
-Some changes in GoK unit stats...
   -Basic builder units are now cheaper and faster to produce.
   -All photon torpedoes do little less damage.
   -Abolisher (and other units using same weapon) fire little slower.
   -Godhammers and Puncturers are cheaper.
   -Bloodletters are faster to produce.
   -Daemon Knight is cheaper, but ion blaster fires bit slower and has shorter range.
   -Everchosen beam does more damage and prism cannons fire faster.
   -Immortal ion blasters fire slightly faster.
-Some changes in Arm and Core units...
   -Arm Orcone and Core Karganeth are now bigger, faster, more powerful and slightly more durable. They're also amphibious now.
   -Arm Troll script finished.
-Arm Mercury, Core Screamer and GoK Stargazer weapons' damage against non aircraft units lowered.
-Metal amounts reclaimable from corpses updated.

v1.03 (19.1.2007) :
-New explosion animations.
-New sounds for weapons. Many old weapon sounds refined.
-Minor changes in many GoK units, few of which noted under...
   -Tempest and Carrier are less durable.
   -Morning Star and Daybreak are little more expensive and little less durable.
   -Blazing Orchid is less durable (and a bit more expensive).
   -Immortal is more durable.
   -Bloodletter is built faster.
-Patches 003 and 004 integrated into v1.03.

Patch004 for v1.02 (14.1.2007) :
-Stargazer (long range anti-air turret) added to GoK arsenal.
-Servitor and Drone build lists reorganized.

Patch003 for v1.02 (11.1.2007) :
-Fixes Carrier and Tempest.

v1.02 (10.1.2007) :
-Arm Havoc (assault helicopter) removed.
-Changes in Arm Atlas and Core Valkyrie :
   -Atlas now has stealth set on and a stunner weapon (Spider stunner); build costs multiplied!
   -Valkyrie got more speed, more armor and a rocket weapon (Tremor rockets); build costs raised.
-GoK Pounder (bomber) replaced by new, heavier (and more stylish) one, namely Ghost.
-GoK Drone model and script remade.
-Carrier added to GoK arsenal. Built from Fleet Bay. (Unit is rather experimental!)
-Pylon can now be built over water.
-GoK builder aircraft are now amphibious and are available in naval scaffolds.
-Everchosen is now amphibious.
-Changes in GoK weapons; PoL beam does less damage and doesn't shake ground, Interceptor photons now have short duration...
-Minor changes in GoK unit statistics; Pillar of Light being bit more expensive and such...
-Improvements in GoK unit texturing/models. New textures added.
-Heavy Assembly Scaffold had a little typo in yardmap; had not caused any harm so far, though.


v1.01 (29.12.2006) :
-Arm Scream (sonic tank) removed.
-Patch002 integrated into v1.01.
-GoK Wraith model and script remade completely.
-totala.ini included (for unit limit 500).

Patch002 for v1.0 (27.12.2006) :
-Word Bearer (assault dropship) added to GoK arsenal. Built from Starport.
-Changes in weapons; Arm Terminators do less damage, Arm Aiglons do more... All AA weapon lists updated.



Why, oh why!? :

Years ago I was playing UTASP with my friends. As we preferred playing medium sized maps or bigger 
(to me medium means something around 25x25) and UTASP allowed players to eventually reach metal productions like 600 per second,
it wasn't strange at all to see multiple Krogoths spearheading an ground assault force. Thus stopping attack with lvl1 units became
hopeless as one simply could not get enough of them to attack at the same time (except from air, which became severe balance issue).
Lvl 1 units simply had ridiculous weapon ranges and firepower (around 200 pix range and 6 damage per shot!?)
while lvl 3 units were unnaturally durable (had to hammer one Orcone with two vulcans for a minute!?).
Also there were units that were clearly better than others; most battles were just fought between Orcones, Rebels, Demon Knights,
Nightstalkers and Hawks.

Also something had to be done to the overpowered air attacks. As even mightiest ground force could be possibly stopped so that they
never got a change to do any damage while even the weakest air attack nearly inevitably did atleast some.

Another thing I disliked was how making metal from energy was almost without exception better option than digging it from
the ground. Mostly players just ended up sitting in their corners, building up fusion plants, moho metal makers and eventually
massive resource facilities. We needed to make metal extractors a lot more efficient and also some
excessive firepower and weapon ranges to force people to spread out!

We needed to balance out things in a new way...



Balancing  la Vohvelielin :

Many times over as much firepower for all units and less armor for big units. Armor value of an unit should be related to units size,
not its "eliteness"; actually there should be nothing "elite" or "super" at all, just bunch of small units, big units and something between.
Thus big units became casual sight on battlefields and small units being perfectly capable of beating them to a certain limit.

No unit in game should be useless anymore; this might have been reached through some weird changes (like Raiders and Reapers shooting with lasers)
or simply by boosting stats more than anyone would have expected (hell, even Jeffys are suited to combat now!).

Radars have now long sight ranges and theres also new extremely long ranged radars available. Also scout units are a lot better than they used to be.
Cloaking is now much less costly (and a lot more common ability among units) and several units have also stealth in addition, 
making it possible to sneak around completely unseen. Of course spot distances have been raised at the same time so that 
sneaking into others bases wouldn't be such a simple task.

As pretty much nothing is what it used to be and explaining everything (literally) would be an insane task, I recommend
to play and have fun finding it out by yourself.



The Guardians of Kadesh :

This is another project I added to my mod. Long story short, it's a new race you can now play with along the Arm and the Core.
Though playing with them is a completely different experience because of their overcomplex technology and less practical aproach to everything.

The word excess says it all.

Aiming to perfection in anything, they typically have no cheap (nor fast to build) option available.
Most GoK units are made for assault purposes, only very few being capable of firing indirectly over a long distance; even most basic GoK laser tank
is fearsomely effective when fighting on plain ground while photon torpedo tanks can deal with almost any threat, excelling in fighting on hills and in
midst of wreckage. GoK mobile units tend to be faster and less durable than Arm and Core equivalents. They also have slightly longer sight ranges.
GoK Buildings tend to be big and monumental, capable of multiple tasks (like GoK basic ground factory, Terra Platform, that is equivalent
of two Arm or Core ones, plus the fact that it builds both droids and vehicles; or resource control facility, Forge, that has both energy and metal batteries
plus that it's metal maker).

They certainly do have some serius firepower, but lack long range artillery and have no nukes at all (however, they do have antinukes),
merely relying on coordinated and sneaky attacks with mobile units. Nearly all of their aircraft are stealthy and some have cloaking as well.
GoK Dropships even stealth their surroundings so that transported units wouldn't be seen.
On the ground at the other hand they can send their stealth/cloak/nanolathe capable specialists ahead of main forces to put up some jammers. xD

Also GoK has some of the biggest war machines around in their arsenal; such like Everchosen (plain boring mecha, but atleast it's huge!)
and Tempest (who wouldn't like the idea of blasting enemy base into oblivion by a flying cataclysmic energy weapon!) to name a few.

As a result GoK is a bit hard to play (foremost against the Arm) on small maps.
Also starting with atleast 2000/2000 resources is recommended as basic GoK land factory is rather costly.
Personally I barely ever play with less than 10K/10K starting resources; that would be against the main point of Excess mod.



About the files, installing and stuff :

Mods files that should be there...
TA-Excess noCD.exe - New exe for the mod; to get GoK into menu and to discard any potentially harmful non-mod content around. Won't ask for CD.
TA-Excess.exe - The same, but with excellent soundtrack in case you happen to have your TA CD1 ready! \o/
GoK31.gp3 - Modified Rev31.gp3.
GoK.ufo - Contains all the stuff of the GoK race.
Excess.ufo - Contains rest of the mods stuff.
Totala.ini - For unit limit 500.

Mods files that could be there...
FeaturePack.ccx - Set of features I've bumped into during years; made my maps with it.
A set of .ufo files that are the maps I've made.

Make a clean TA install with CC and unzip all the TA-Excess files to the same folder.
Any non-mod units and weapons won't be used when game is run with TA-Excess.exe;
thus it should be completely possible to have other mods in same folder.



Thanks to zwzsg for help and new .exe and to DannyU for playtesting and debugging!
