Nightmare Albion is a total conversion mod that seeks to improve the gameplay by tailoring each faction in such a way that they gain a kind of specialty. The specialty is in tandem with the factions' vanilla design and motivation. (see below for details).
[The faction's focus]
The UEF focuses on building impenetrable fortresses and with their superior defensive
capabilities they will go where ever they please.
The Aeon follows in the footsteps of the illuminate, their faith makes them strong and,
like a tidal wave, overwhelm anyone that underestimate them even slightly.
The Cybran half man, half machine have far excelled human beings. They are outstanding in
stealth operations and have a perfect aim that guides them to victory.
The Saraphim is on first sight a fragile race, but thats hardly the case. They
learned through space and discovery that survival is the most important aspect of life.
They are immortal like beings, in search for something greater and nothing can stop them.
Additionally:
The units and buildings are scaled in the four known tech levels "T1, T2, T3 and T4", but the huge gaps between these tech levels is so great that it would render tier 2 and tier 1 useless in late game. The gaps between the tech levels are now greatly reduced and the focus lies more on the capabilities of the individual units. As units go up in tier, so will their range for example.
Stealth is also more improved and more appealing than it was before. This is mainly done by decreasing the radar and omni range of the omni sensor arrays of each faction The Cybran stealth fields have been enlarged and the onmi range reduced to 120, because stealth was very easy to counter and would render the Cybran expertise in stealth very useless.
The way units gain veterancy stays the same, but every unit of the three tech levels gain their veterancy bonuses at 2, 5, 9, 14 and 20 kills. Experimentals need 25 kills for each level. Commanders and Support Commanders level at 10, 22, 38, 58 and 82 kills. With each level the units gain +25% hitpoints and +25% damage bonus.
For details of what and how it impacts the game is described below.
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In the grafic below is an imaginary neutral faction set to fight itself. It shows how many salvo's one unit has to fire before the opposing unit is destroyed of a certain type. Most units need 4 salvo's to be destroyed, so the units deal a 1/4 of the hitpoints (Units of the neutral faction don't have hitpoint regeneration). The damage output and hit points the units have are the same in in tech 1 to tech 3, however as players get to higher tier those units gain more range and thus able to land extra hits on the lower tier. This will be the main advantage when deciding to upgrade, as it also still permits lower tier to have a fighting chance. The factory produces faster as well, which also can stimulate to produce lower tech. Only the direct fire units are used in this grafic, the other units that use other weapons will use a special modifier based on their specific role. These special units will use this template as a base.
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</General Unit Blueprint\>
/[Amount of salvo's required to kill opposing unit]\
<// The opposing tech type units \\>
Neutral | \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
vs | \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Neutral |T1L|T2L|T3L|T4L|T1A|T2A|T3A|T4A|T1S|T2S|T3S|T4S|T1D|T2D|T3D|T4D|
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T1 Land | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T2 Land | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T3 Land | 4| 4| 4| 4| - | - | - | - | 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T4 Land | 2| 2| 2| 4| 2| 2| 2| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 5| 5| 5| 5|
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T1 Air | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T2 Air | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T3 Air | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T4 Air | 2| 2| 2| 4| 2| 2| 2| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 5| 5| 5| 5|
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T1 Sea | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T2 Sea | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T3 Sea | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T4 Sea | 2| 2| 2| 4| 2| 2| 2| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 5| 5| 5| 5|
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T1 Def | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T2 Def | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T3 Def | 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8| 12| 12| 12| 12|
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T4 Def | 2| 2| 2| 8| - | - | - | - | 4| 4| 4| 4| 8| 8| 8| 8|
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Values of choice were: hitpoints(hp), hitpoints regeneration (hp regen), damage output (dmg), fire rate (fira), range, speed, turn speed, mass&energy cost and buildtime. Hp, hp regen, dmg and fira are the values that matter the most in a battle and thus have the most impact on the experience than the other values.
I've translated these focuses in the following variables:
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</ The Unique Faction Modifier \>
|| HP Mod || HP Reg Mod || Damage Mod || Attack Speed (AS) Mod
_________________________________________________________________________________
|> UEF || x800 || 0.1% Of Max HP || x600 || x1/2 Per Tick <|
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|> AEON* || x600 || 1% Of Max HP || x200 || x1 Per Tick <|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> Cybran || x400 || 10% Of Max HP || x800 || x1/4 Per Tick <|
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|> Seraphim || x200 || 50% Of Max HP || x400 || x3/4 Per Tick <|
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|> Neutral || x500 || 5% Of Max HP || x500 || x3/4 Per Tick <|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Aeon's factories gain an unit production speed boost of 1.25x times faster than the
other factions. For details on why only Aeon, check below at the [small example] section.
Many units have very specific roles they fill in the army. Every non-direct fire attacker
is considered a special unit with a certain role. In the modifier list below are the
special unit modifiers for units that have an specific role.
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</ The Special Unit Modifier \>
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Direct Fire Weapons // Uses General Unit Blueprint as base.
Indirect Fire Weapons // 1/2x base hitpoints.
(For TML's; deals 6x neutral base damage.)
(For T3 Heavy Artilleries; deals 5x base damage.)
(For the Salvation; deals 10x base damage.)
(Nuke launch installations also count, and have fixed
damage output of 50000. The Sara Experimental has
doubled damage.)
Tier 2 AA Weapons // 1/2x damage reducion.
Airial Bomber // Bombs deal neutral faction damage,
neutral damage x unit tech.
(For Torpedo Bombers; neutral damage x unit tech x 2.)
Protective Shield Units // Shield hitpoints = Current tech x base hitpoints x 1.2,
Shield regen = x1/2 shield hitpoints regen,
ShieldRechargeTime = 10 sec.
Unit Personal Shields // Will split total unit hit points with shield
hitpoints. ShieldRechargeTime = 4 sec.
Protective Shield // Shield hitpoints = Current tech x base hitpoints,
Buildings Shield regen = x1/2 shield hitpoints regen.
ShieldRechargeTime = 35 UEF, 25 Aeon, 15 Cyb, 5 Sara.
Scouts // 1/2x base hitpoints, deals 1/2x base damage.
light Assault Bots // 1/2x base hitpoints.
Slow T3 Assault Bots* // 3x base hitpoints.
Kamikaze Units // 2x base hitpoints, 3x base damage.
Air Crashes // 3x neutral base hitpoints = crash damage.
Commanders // x6 base hitpoints, x3 base damage.
Support Commanders // x3 base hitpoints.
Experimental Units // x16 base hitpoints, 1/4x base hitpoints regen,
x6 base damage of main weapon, x3 base damage for
other weapons.
Special Defences // Attack Speed 1/2x Per Tick.
Volitile Energy and Mass// 2x base hitpoints, On death deals hitpoints as
Production & Storage damage.
Buildings
Other Base Buildings // 4x base hitpoints.
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* They need to be able to absorb high amounts of damage or they become obsolete if
used against base defenses and T4 units.
It appeared that, when using the unit blueprint, the unique faction modifier and the special unit modifier, that the units of tech one were too powerfull in comparison with the higher tiers. Adding a unit tech modifier to slightly increase the higher tier effectiveness.
</ Tech Modifier \>
Tech 1: 1x hitpoints, 1x base damage.
Tech 2: 1.20x hitpoints, 1.20x base damage.
Tech 3: 1.40x hitpoints, 1.40x base damage.
The modifiers are applied according to this order: [General Unit Blueprint] => [The Unique Faction Modifier] => [The Special Unit Modifier] => [Tech Modifier].
</ Small example \>
How will this look like when in-game, since each faction is now very different from
one another. And how would these changes have affect on the General Unit Blueprint?
Lets say that each faction fights combat one on one with a tech 1 tank unit. How
many times must one fire to kill the opposing faction. In this case the opposing
unit does not fire back. The results are in the tables below.
[ Tech 1 Tank ]
UEF : 3200 HP, 3.2 HP Regen*, 600 Dmg, 0.5 AS**
Aeon : 2400 HP, 24 HP Regen, 200 Dmg, 1 AS
Cybran : 1600 HP, 160 HP Regen, 800 Dmg, 0.25 AS
Saraphim : 800 HP, 400 HP Regen, 400 Dmg, 0.75 AS
*HP Regen = at 1 AS.
**AS = Attack Speed (higher means faster).
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[one-on-one duels] [two-on-one duels]
| UEF | Aeon | Cyb | Sara | | UEF | Aeon | Cyb | Sara |
----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
UEF | 6 | 5 | 6 | - | UEF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Aeon | 17 | 14 | 40 | - | Aeon | 9 | 7 | 7 | - |
----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Cybran | 5 | 4 | 40 | 1 | Cybran | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Saraphim| 9 | 7 | 10 | - | Saraphim| 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
In one-on-one duels, it appears that the Saraphim are practically invulnerable to everyone except the Cybrans, that kills them in one shot. However, numbers do make a big different as one can see at the two-on-one duel. Because the numbers are small means that the fights won't take that long to see who wins. It would give the defender of a base still a chance to fight back, when his/her defense force has been defeated (unless one is overrun of course).
If they would fire upon one another who would then be the victor? By looking at the
previous one-on-one table and taking into account their attack speed differences.
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[one-on-one duels]
// Who wins from whom \\
| UEF | Aeon | Cyb | Sara |
-----------------------------------
UEF | T | W | W | L |
-----------------------------------
Aeon | L | T | L | L |
-----------------------------------
Cybran | L | W | T | W |
-----------------------------------
Saraphim| W | W | L | - |
-----------------------------------
W = win L = lose T = tied - = invulnerable
The three factions UEF, Cybran and Saraphim have each a strong and a weak opposite. Aeon however, pulls the shortest string here and loses to every other faction. To compensate this, Aeons factories will build units 1.25x faster than the other factions
as they will depend on numbers. This change is still in favor of their initial focus described at the beginning.
(edit) It is a lot of text, but hope it is still readable, So let me know what you think and thanks for taking the time to read!
