What is Warmonger? It is a Total Annihilation modification designed to promote tactical diversity by a) Equalizing the relative skirmish performance of level 1 units b) Increasing the skirmish abilities of advanced support units c) making the expensive advanced super toys more accessible. Why equalize the performance of the level 1 units for skirmishing?

TA's economy based gameplay rewards the players who expand their economies the fastest at the same time limiting their enemy. Think about it, if you want to take land and keep the enemy from doing the same, the most efficient way is using the best skirmisher. If there is no "best" skirmisher, my theory is that units will be used proactively based on their differences. Flash tanks still raid *fast speed, buildtime, excellent firepower* and Thuds still assault entrenched defenses *longer ranged, plasma based. Knowing, for example, that a relative cost and BT worth of Thuds can fight the same relative cost and BT worth of Flash tanks on the battlefield, would you be more likely to try and use thuds to assault an enemy position if doing so would disadvantage your enemy? Well, you'd be less likely if the slower Thuds would be devoured by flash tanks at a very poor relative cost and BT ratio.

Why increase the skirmish abilities of advanced support units? 

A unit's merit can be weighed by its contribution to the battlefield. If it doesn't contribute to the battlefield, it is unlikely to be built for its special purpose alone. *E.g.: The slow reload + cost and BT of the OTA shooter makes it useless, buy something else*

Why make expensive techs more accessible?

The advanced units/structures that were reduced in price do have an ability to influence the way specific games are being played. Unfortunately, they cost too much for the relative influence they give. Decreasing their costs instead of buffing their performance is Warmonger's approach to getting them into play so they can assert their influence. 

So, what's changed in comparison to OTA?

Missile Trucks: Have been reduced slightly in speed, and in turn rate. The immediate effect on gameplay is their inability to escape as easily from other units and whittle them down before they can close the distance. They can still do considerable damage, and are worth building en masse, but are more fair now. You will still build them for area control; air defense and as support units.

Medium Tanks have been given a slight movement increase, so they have an easier time getting into position to deliver dammage, making them useful for things such as flanking support units, or running amok in a missile tower forest. Medium tanks also have a slight increase to rate of fire, as the old rate was a liability considering they miss often on the move. You're probably asking now, well, if all the units are relatively equal when fighting each other, what's the difference between the medium tanks and the scout tanks? 1) Scout tanks are still faster, built faster and cheaper, which is more important for raiding. More successful raiding is accomplished by having more guns get quicker to their raid areas. 2) Medium tanks concentrate fire power better, so in larger numbers began to gain an advantage over using scout tanks exclusively for combat, as well, with a ballistic weapon and more armor, they can tackle defenses more efficiently then the scout tanks. 

FAVs: A little faster building, and a little more firepower. A group of 4-5 should be able to take out a normal level 1 unit and continue on with their mission. As well, when you need some cheap spotter fodder, they don't waste a disproportionate amount of time being built in a factory considering their combat abilities. 

Leveler: This can now be considered Core's formation unit. It's poor armor/cost ratio prevents a few lone levelers from being a threat, however, with a slight increase in weapon range and shot velocity and a boost to max acceleration, a group of 5-6 levelers can be a threat with the power of their initial volley. However, they aren't invincible in formation, they still have weak armor for their cost, so a concentrated retaliation, or flanking maneuver can remove them with minimal damage.

Infantry bots: Pee-wee and AK
They are still weak and die in droves, that's what infantry are for :). However, their M cost and build times have been reduced. They have quite respectable firepower considering their cost and ability to be put into play quickly. The AK and weasel share the same weapon, so the boost to the weasel puts the AK closer to pee-wee performance. 

Warrior: The warrior was one of those units out of touch with reality. :) Horrible armor to cost ratio, wacky weapons and high build times made them virtually useless. In Warmonger, the armor to cost ratio has been brought back inline with normal kbots, and they have been given slight increases to damage, max velocity, and come out of the factories at a more realistic rate. Consider them all around average now, not excelling in a single area, but they can complete a variety of mission types with their EMGs for skirmishing, and their plasmas for entrenched defenses. 

Arty bots: The Hammer and Thud are liability units in OTA. They had poor cost to armor ratios, and poor skimirsh abilities, almost insuring they would never live to make it to a target area. In Warmonger, they have a much faster reload, slightly increased shot velocity and a slight range increase. They are now more then capable of holding their own on the battlefield against other units, but still have a slow torso turn that leaves them vulnerable to moving units. They work better in larger battles where maneuverability of enemy units is more limited. 

Level 2
The bulldog and reaper fall under the same philosophy as the medium tanks. They have the ability to be a good unit, but in OTA they can't maneuver to deal their damage. In Warmonger, they get a slight max vel increase, and when you consider their armor, this makes them a perfect overrun unit. They can move fast enough to close the distance with defenses, or flank around an enemy force and punish the support units. Consider them an all around workhorse unit, capable of holding their own vs. other units and defenses, but not overtly excelling in any area.

Mobile Artillery. I like the idea of inaccurate area saturation units, but in OTA these units can't work that way with their limited range. Their Warmonger range is increased, and they also get a slightly better rate of fire. They keep their inaccuracy, and can flood an area with anti-matter shells from the safety of your base, or screen of protecting units. They work wonders on heavy hitting; medium armored units such as Mavericks and Shooters, and can chew up slow Core units over time without worrying about direct retaliation. 

Copper Head and Phalanx build faster as do the mobile anti-nukes, no need gumming up a factory that can be building combat units, because if they do gum up a factory for too long, they won't be built.

Spider: Range increase. Now you can stun things before they kill you. Doesn't work well in large battles, as the spiders generally continue to hit the front line stunned units, while the enemy support units blow their doors off.

Triton and Croc: With an M decrease, they fall back in line with the other tanks. Consider them medium-heavy tanks that are also coincidentally amphibious if the need arises.

Penetrator: Faster turret, slightly decreased build time and M cost to make it fall back in line with other fragile support units.

Zeus and Pyro go the way of the level 1 infantry bots, cheaper and quicker building, so they can basically be used as suicide troops to greater effect. The pyro needed a tolerance boost to be able to actually fire its weapon on the move, and it is quite a nasty weapon now. 

Mavericks got a slight build time reduction. They have firepower, but considering their armor, they aren't that effective without being able to produce a few more quickly. 

Fido: Only needed a slight range increase and slight BT reduction to be viable. Think of them as Arm's version of Morty. A little less range then the morty, but direct fire and slightly faster.

Shooter: The shooter could actually be useful if it didn't take 8 minutes to build and shot faster then once every 20 seconds. With a build time closer to Maverick levels and an 8-second reload, they are useful support units now. However, they are still VERY expensive for the armor you get. Don't expect them to live long when spotted, or if the units they are hiding behind come under air or artillery attack. 

Can: So much potential, but slowly, as new units were released by cavedog, they became more and more obsolete. A little bit of extra speed and range go a long way to making them a desirable unit now. Consider them as Core's maverick. Slower, but with more armor with a slightly lower range and damage per second. The can now uses 250 energy per shot, so a large group of them can't fire indiscriminately without some E investments.

Sumo: The sumos problem is easy to fix, double the firepower, and anything that gets in range is dead before it can do any damage. :) Put them where you don't want the enemy, and as long as the sumo lives, the enemy won't. Great for base defense. Now with air lift capabilities so you can get them where you need them. Whining about base airdrops is encouraged so people remember to build adequate defenses.

Zipper and Freak. Now have stealth. There was no way of balancing their combat performances without making them lighter versions of the pyro and zeus. However, putting stealth on them makes them somewhat useable as mid game raiders. 

Star Bursts: Dominator, Merl and Diplomat are virtually useless in OTA in a standard unit battle. Generally they would be a privilege unit for the person who is going to win the game anyway, after pushing the enemy into a fortified corner. Warmonger increases their skirmish prowess, so they can participate as support units in land battles, as well as retain their base busting abilities. They all have a higher rate of fire, so they can dump more missiles into the enemy's positions, which makes a big difference in large skirmishes. The dom's AOE is doubled, and it is murder on traffic jammed units now. The Merl and Diplomat now have weapon range radar. 2 reasons for this. 1)When engaging an enemy base, their protective unit screens often die by the base defenses before the merls can get into position to fire. With radar, they can fire into an unjammed enemy base without the need for spotters. 2) They make a very nice combination with radar targeters. :)

Navy

PT boats: Reduced in armor for several reasons. 1) To make it harder to choke off an enemy on an island map early on 2)To make subs far more dangerous to them 3) To allow other naval fleet configurations a better chance of battling an equal cost of a PT swarm. Additionally, to compensate for the armor loss, the damage the PT laser can inflict has been increased, so small-scale battles generally end with the same results found in OTA. In a nutshell, PT boats now can be demolished by concentrated firepower, so high tech fleets can be viable in a naval exchange (depth charges are a threat), and so shore defenses can drive off a PT siege without having to resort to plasma batteries early on.

Transports: These were reduced in cost and build-time. They were basically too much of a liability for the cost penalty incurred and the amount of time they gummed up a naval factory.

Destroyers: The area effects on their cannons were increased, so they can bleed through fortified defences easier. Additionally, with the decreased armor on the PTs, depth charges put the price/performance ratios at fairer levels.

Sub killers: Now kills a normal sub in one shot. This is another important consideration, as normal subs can now sink a PT boat in one shot with their reduced armor.

Aircraft Carriers: They have been given increased radar ranges.

Jammer Ships: They have been given an increased jam radius.

Starburst Missile Cruisers: Have been given improvement in the launch rate of their two rockets, as well, the rockets have gained more area of effect.

Battleship plasma has gotten an increased rate of fire.

Leviathan has been given an increased rate of fire.


Defenses

LLT: The basic problem with the LLT is you need a very fast, cheap building unit with enough firepower to repel raid attempts. The llts are this now, with decreased build time, more firepower and reduced M cost. One problem, this is also the description for the perfect forest defense unit. So, some limits needed to be put down. For one, with a very cheap metal cost comes reduced armor, a few LLTs can hold off a few units, but they break quickly now, making them less useful versus anything that can shoot them back before dying. There is also the matter of preventing their proliferation; building one reduces you E-storage by 50. So in a 1K 1K game, 3-4 early LLTs which can be built by the comm, are dirt-cheap and lay a smack down on scout tanks. But try 9-10 and see where you're at. By the time you've built an e-storage to overcome this limit, the enemy should have no problem overrunning your limited range LLTs with concentrated units. However, this doesn't make them obsolete, they have heavy firepower, and make the perfect supplement for HLTs, which the enemy will be more likely trying to kill 1st.

MTs: Armor reduced 50%. Some people argue that it is the weapon, and not the frailty of the MT that make it too good. I've learned to disagree, with 50% armor, they can be silenced before they do any damage if something can reach them. With our test games, MTs do not do well without something up front to stop the enemy from reaching them.

Torpedo Launchers have been reduced in M cost so you can have at least a little naval defense early on.

MRPCs: In OTA I find they are only used as creep weapons. They are far too expensive to be used for early defense. So, the MRPC ranges have been exchanged with the PUMRPCs, MRPC M cost has been cut significantly, as has their armor. This of course, also gives the PUMRPCs a significant boost with the new range, making them well worth their 2000-M price tags.

Doomsday and Annihilators have always been bomber magnets, and their price did not justify their performance. With M costs cut in 1/2 in Warmonger, their performance justifies their cost and makes their loss less painful.

Toyz

It's now more of a decision about what kind of super weapon you want to pursue for those longer games. Ballistic Missiles? Krog? SLRPC? Radar Targeter? 

They are all more accessible now. 

Nuke silos and antis have been reduced it cost and BT so they can make it into most games. The missiles still cost an arm and a leg, but getting a silo completed by the 15 minute mark is no longer a problem, if you have the 1000 E required per tick, investing it in a nuke is no more advantageous then putting it into a MMM. Problem is, usually you have more important things to be doing then power assisting a nuke launcher. A single advanced unit can get a nuke into the game while you tend to more important matters.

Neutron: Serious AOE increase to compensate for the fact that it only kills arm units. In a battle versus an arm swarmer, the neutron may be a more viable alternative then the nuke since it can take out more units per shot. 

Stunner: The stunner now enjoys a larger area of effect, as well as a longer duration to the stun time.

Radar targeters have had a serous BT reduction and M reduction *50%*. After all, the energy drain is insane, and requires you to have significant infrastructure before you could even use it anyway. They are more viable to get into the game now.

SLRPCs: Vulan and Buzzsaw sure do shoot alot, but their ranges are lower then the standard Intimidator and Bertha. Which is more practical for base assault in OTA? The Warmonger Buzzsaw and Vulcan retain their combat stats, but have had large reductions to build time and M cost. You can get roughly 3 berthas or intimidators for the cost of the Vulcan and Buzzsaw now. 

Krog: Krog's gantry is much cheaper. Krog himself has been reduced seriously in BT and M cost. Basically, krog's M cost was 1st put in line *decreased* with other kbots based on his armor. Krog's revised armor was then cut in half, and so was his build time. Getting krog into play should be possible at the same rate as going for a new SLRPC or Radar Targeter. Don't forget that Arm can field more shooters, and they shoot twice as fast at Krog's 15K armor. Krog is by no means an invincible death machine, but he can also be put into the game at the 25-minute mark or so on the right maps with the proper dedication.

Across the board changes and other things

Bombers and Fighters have had a 10% speed reduction. They are more vulnerable to AA, which is an important consideration considering bombers rarely die before killing something, and the fact that stealth fighters are very potent in their ability to concentrate firepower on something.

Radar ranges of ground units have doubled. This seems to be the only way to make them used, and there was considerable debate on Adv. radar towers vs. the ground units. They do balance out. Advanced radar towers are built by con units, which does not tie up a factory that could be building combat units. E.g.: Consider the coverage you could get by building 1 con unit and 10 advanced towers, versus 10 radar vehicles. It's roughly the same; however, the choice to build only 1 advanced con unit frees your factory to build more combat units instead. In test games, I find 1-2 ground unit radars are built, and when they are destroyed, the factory is used to crank out more. Advanced radars were still always used to provide radar for the base and area of influence.

Jammers have doubled in range: Makes it easier to hide stuff, and with the new radar ranges on ground units, it's important to use them on squads.

The vulture and eagle also have increased radar ranges, surpassing that of the advanced towers. However, to make things fair, they now have a script that makes it impossible to use their radars when on the ground, they must be airborne. There are several reasons for this 1) being higher in the air then ground units; they should have a larger radius. 2) There is no where for them to hide. You can't put them behind a protective cliff and have them work like ground based radar. When they are in the air, there is nothing you can do to prevent AA from killing them if spotted, except land, in which case their radar turns off.

The moho metal extractors needed some work. It does produce a bit more then a standard mex, but the cost of implementing it has been reduced along with its armor. It produces 90% more then a standard mex, and costs roughly 10 times as much as a standard mex, but its armor has been weakened, so it dies quite quickly under raid.

Mines: Mines were virtually useless in OTA. In Warmonger, there are still 6 mines. There are a few quick building mines with low maintenance costs. E.g.: One has large AOE and low damage, the other has low AOE and very high damage. There are 2 more powerful versions of this, but they take time to lay down, and have higher upkeep. Then there are the 2 special mines, Anti-matter, basically a large AOE mine with good edge, and the nuke mine. The special mines still build relatively quickly, but like the LLT, reduce your e-storage to prevent proliferation early in the game. You should not build a nuke mine until you have at least 1 E-storage, as it reduces your E store by 800 as long as the mine is in play. When it detonates, the E-storage is of course recovered. In the test games, I've seen all the mines in use. The AOE mines with low costs are generally used when predicting where the enemy will cross, and things like the fast building low AOE, high damage mines are used in emergency situations, such as when the enemy is breaching an area of control and will undoubtedly move many units through that area. Nukes are more useful in place like narrow valleys, as ground zero offers massive damage over the anti-matter mine. However, the anti-matter mine does have a very effective edge, and although the damage at ground zero is lower then the nuke, it does surpass the nuke at around 50% of the effective AOE, making it the choice for open fields and spread out enemy units. Try them out and tell me what you think, so far they seem to be working very well. 

Also included in Warmonger, is the ongoing work of Orion AI. It's a forced script that makes the AI build units and structures in certain orders by controlling what the AI can build, and by using multiple instances of the same units to gain further precision ofn weight and limit equations.

The working profiles include default.txt, seabattle.txt, acid.txt and airbattle.txt on the hard difficulty. 

Thanks for downloading Warmonger, 
Give me a shout on ICQ some time if you want an Warmonger battle.
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-L0RD 0RI0N

