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'''== Project conceptual notes, by Argh =='''
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NanoBlobs is an attempt to build a "new-new" RTS game, and to demonstrate some concepts for AI developers in a simple, straightforward game design.
== Project conceptual notes, by Argh ==


This is a fairly lengthy (and, if you are not a wanna-be game designer, fairly boring/philosophical) description of the NanoBlobs project.  If you are looking for a manual, look at the manual that comes with the mod.
Here's a unit breakdown, based on current balance. This is all likely to change- NanoBlobs is in a bit of a transition period.  


I came up with the idea for NanoBlobs after putting some thought into what AIs would really work with best.  AI developers for Spring were still having trouble getting their AIs to play humans well, and I thought that this design might show them some things that aren't inherently obvious- such as the relative strengths and weaknesses of an iterative code process vs. a human mind.
=Economy=


After some thought, I built a very simplistic game design where mobile units of a single type, capable of attacking each other, would build "clones" of one another, and then attack.
'''Lords''' are your commanders. They have a powerful weapon that kills things on the ground, are pretty tough, and can build things quickly, but they are very vulnerable to some units (Knights and Demons, especially). Lords can hover on the surface of water.  


This worked fairly poorly, from a game-design standpoint. While it was ideal for AIs (after all, if there's any way in which an AI can exceed people, it's in micromanagement and automated processes), it played very poorly for people- very simply, it lacked any variety, and wasn't much fun. Thinking on this (at least, to me) fairly philosophical question of "deep gameplay", I then proceeded to map out several archetypes that are found in many RTS games:
'''Sheep''' are your economy and your principal way to multiply your build-power. Sheep are very likely to either disappear entirely... or change in role, soon, but for now they are still in the same role they've always been- weak, defenseless, and totally necessary. Sheep can hover on the surface of water.


"Serf" archetype:  The Serf, named many things in many RTS games, is a simplistic, non-combatant (or very weak combatant) unit that mainly exists to provide resources. Since it isn't possible (yet) to do resource-gathering in the Spring game engine, I decided that the Serf archetype would have to produce all of the economic resources required, and I made this unit completely defenseless, easily killed, and a fairly weak builder. This unit has been renamed the "Sheep", because, like a Serf of feudal days, a Sheep is a fairly defenseless creature that can be vital to the economic health of a kingdom.  That, and I didn't want people feeling I was making a sociopolitical point ;-)
'''Autofacs''' build armies automatically (with "repeat on" and queues, of course). Nothing special about them... right now. This is also likely to change, but I'm not getting into that until I have the new things done.


"Wolf" archetype:  This archetype can be found in most RTS games.  In most games, these are light, fast units, capable of raiding your opponants' economy.  For NanoBlobs, I picked the name "Wolf" because it stands in direct opposition to "Sheep"... and fits the general premise.  Like real-life wolves, my objective was to make them work better in packs than as individuals.  Thus, they are small, relatively weak attackers, but they move swiftly, and can concentrate rapidly.
=Defense=


"Knight" archetype:  Knights are close-quarters experts, able to take a great deal of punishment. There are many examples of these units in RTS games, from the Paladin/Troll of Warcraft 1/2 to the Zeus of Total Annihilation, to the many direct equivalents found in Kohan II.  I decided that I would accentuate the traditional archetype, and by using the current capabilities of the Spring game engine, I developed a unit that can heal itself extremely rapidly, that also takes damage very selectively from certain units. Knights, in the NanoBlobs game design, are powerful assault units that can break through static defenders and destroy them.  Knights were/are the most difficult units to balance, in my opinion, because they required a very fine appreciation of their niche role.
'''Holders''' are stationary, not-so-powerful towers. They can kill Wolves and other light units easily, but fall to Knights. Massed, they can stop small rushes, and backed up with SpireRooks and MegaSheep, they can stand anything but a Demon, but not by themselves. Like everything in NanoBlobs, they have strengths and weaknesses.  


"Archer" archetype:  Archers can be found in most RTS game design.  Whether or not they are called "archers", they serve the same purpose- long-distance fire support. My main concern with this unit, really, was that they could serve their role, but not be unbalanced. Therefore, they, along with the SpireRook and Knight, form a delicate troika of balanced forces, at the center of the game design.
'''SpireRooks''' are slow, powerful units that shoot infrequently, but their weapons can kill Knights in a hit or two, and they are more than cost-effective against SquareRooks and Demons. Their main weakness is that they are very slow and large targets, but they also are specifically weak against Striders. SpireRooks are completely amphibious, and can go underwater.  


"Rook" archetype:  Rooks are usually boring, non-moving units in most RTS games, called "turrets". In most games, players simply "spiderweb" their opponants with these static defenses to control ground.  However, last year I played a game called Metal Fatigue that, while tragically flawed in many ways, provided a better model.  In Metal Fatigue, there were "mobile tower" units that could both move *and* hold ground.  They were implemented very, very poorly (in short, without too much micro, you could very easily own any size of normal ground force, if you collected a half-dozen towers and a half-dozen mechs armed with appropriate weapon mixes) in that game, but they gave me an inspiration for a unit that was mobile, could do area-control, but was not fast enough to act as a tactical weapon.  Thus, the SpireRook was born.
'''MegaSheep''' are defensive plasma artillery. While they can be used on offensive operations, they are slow, and they produce resources, so they are often better kept behind a line of Holders, where they do a great job of killing Striders, Knights, and TriRooks.  


"Lord" archetype:  one of the great legacies of the Total Annihilation game design, and (here I'm going to offend OTA fans, but I don't really care) one of the few areas in which TA was really all that original in concept or execution... was in the amount of special power invested in the starting unit, known as the Commander.  I deliberately decided to preserve this unique unit's feel in NanoBlobs, as it was one of the better ideas in OTA, and I think that it contributes a great deal to the game design.  OTA fans will see immediately, however, that I have made some significant changes to this archetype.  For one thing... in the very few games that have even slightly attempted to emulate this feature of OTA, the Commander archetype is invariably slow.  In addition, the unit is usually only able to build on a rough par with later, stronger builders.  Turning this on its head, I made the Lord a fast unit that can rapidly move around the battlefield, seeking places to build new units and re-arrange the structure of the battlefield.  I am not sure how quickly players will take to this feature, if they ever do, but I was quite pleased with the overall feel- the Lord is a strategic unit, not merely tactical, and can very rapidly restructure a warzone.
=Offense=


There are other units in NanoBlobs, to give the game additional structure and variety of play, but these are the primary concepts that I built the game design around.  I hope that anybody who reads this gets a better idea of what went into this very unusual game design.
'''Wolves''' are cheap, disposable scouts. They can kill weak units or slow-firing things if they are left undefended, but are not powerful combat units. However, they are very cheap, build fast, and provide your enemies with one more target. Always have an Autofac or two building Wolves... their value as scouts and as "chaff" is very important, even if they have low combat power. Wolves can fly.
 
'''Archers''' kill Wolves, and move quickly enough to keep up with hordes. They are completely useless against all other units at this time. Mix them up in the queue at the Autofac with other units, like TriRooks and MegaSheep.
 
'''Knights''' are your hard-core rapid strike force. Armed with short-range flamethrowers and unbelievable healing powers, they are quite capable of taking apart a base in seconds if they aren't killed on the way in. While Knights are quite killable in this version, they are still very, very dangerous if used correctly.
 
'''Striders''' are both weak and powerful. They have been optimised for the current build of Spring's aiming code, but due to the low size of their weapon arc, they still require some micromanagement to really use effectively. Striders have rapid-fire burst chainguns that are quite capable of killing any unit in the game except for Wolves. They are fairly slow, but have a lot of hitpoints for a small unit, and take less damage from certain types of weapon. They are unbelievably deadly on flat terrain, but much less useful on rocky or broken places. Used correctly, Striders can smash open a defense very quickly. Used incorrectly, they are a waste of resoureces and unit-count.
 
'''TriRooks''' are the newest unit in NanoBlobs. They are very powerful attack units, but lack the armor to be all-out assault tanks. However, their weapon has good range, a rapid rate of fire... and due to its hovering nature, it can go over terrain that normal units can't see over... very, very handy. TriRooks require finesse to really use well, however, because they are a big economic drain. TriRooks are swimming units, and are effectively both ships and tanks.
 
'''SquareRooks''' are a general-purpose artillery unit. Lacking close-in defense, and vulnerable to Knights and Wolves, they are still worth using, because they have weapons that can kill Striders and other light unit types all day long. However, they fare poorly against Holders and SpireRooks.
 
'''Demons''' are the ultimate can-openers. They have a long-range popup missile that does decent damage to anything, but fires slowly. More importantly, however, they have an amazing DemonGun that can tear up massed units or defenses in a real hurry, and also has an effect over time, instead of being nearly instantaneous. Unlike other weapons it can keep killing units further back as they move through the deadly zone. Demons require protection from Knights, and aren't terribly fast, but they can also swim like TriRooks.
 
=Gameplay=
 
NanoBlobs is, basically, a new kind of game design. I started it out as a way to talk to the AI developers about making better AIs for Spring, but it's a lot more complicated than that at this point.
 
Basically, on anything but a small map, NanoBlobs is a completely strategic RTS. You're not going to want to micromanage your units, or worry about losing a few (thousand). Instead, you're going to block, scout, feint... and then attack, after finding the weak spots in your opponent's current streams of units.
 
NanoBlobs expects players to already know how to queue up multiple build orders, do things like the good ol' "bomber/guard" trick from OTA, and other Gnug skills. NanoBlobs is not terrifically noob-friendly, and requires that you actually pay attention to the massive battles... and plan well in advance. You can't win through just spamming one unit, and you can't win by playing defensively, and building up to Tech X, or slowly choking your enemy out of metal spots, or any of that boring crap. No. In NanoBlobs.. you win by killing the enemy... period. No tactic is "lame". Everything has a fairly obvious counter... plus a lot of subtleties. It's not "realistic", it's not an attempt to be anything but a pure battle experience.
 
Typical new players get stuck on three things:
 
1. They are like, "uh, where are the mines and tech levels". Uh... there aren't any. GET MOVING 
 
2. They try to build defenses and hold until they have Demons. This is dumb, because then their opponant can steadily hopscotch new Autofacs nearer and nearer to them, and crush them with sheer firepower.
 
3. They think that .cheat .nocost is on, and spam in an unintelligent way. There ARE COSTS to most major units, and the gradual drain on your economy is a major part of gameplay, which future versions are going to emphasise more 
 
The best thing to do, playing this game, is to decide where your first base will be... get it built before the enemy's first Wolves arrive, and then begin spamming out streams to scout and to hold as much of the map as possible. NanoBlobs is very much about map control- not so that you can get metal, but because that prevents the enemy from getting around your flanks.
 
After that, then what? Well, here are some classic options:
 
1. Rapid-build 50 Knights, then throw them at the weakest part of the enemy's lines. One Knight can destroy a base pretty easily. Really. Just give 'em a path, tell 'em to Roam, and then get on with something else... like sending all available Wolves ahead to distract their defenses  
 
2. Spam out Wolves, MegaSheep, Knights and Archers in a mix, to keep the enemy engaged and pinned, then build up a force of SquareRooks and a couple of Demons. Use the Squares to punch a hole in the enemy streams, then use the Demons to kill their defenses. Just make sure to guard them against Knights.
 
3. Use your Lord to roam around, spiderwebbing Autofacs all over the map, anywhere the enemy doesn't contest you, and gradually spam them to death.
 
4. Use your Lord or a bunch of Sheep to build Holders to support your forces in a combat area, or to create a fall-back line that you can retreat to. Just because you can send thousands of robots to their death doesn't mean that the occasional retreat isn't a good idea.
 
5. Use the units that can swim to go around enemy land forces and crush them 
 
... and lots and lots and lots of variants. NanoBlobs looks simple, but is not simple. Each unit has a lot of subtleties, from economic balance to what terrain it can handle to how fast it is. I've really tried to make sure that you never go, "hey, that's redundant", or "wow, that's useless" with the mod.
 
All of that said... this version's balance is still very rough, so please don't flame me when you find an obvious flaw (point it out though, I will keep it in mind). And I am contemplating some major changes for the future, to further reduce lag for low-end players... and when the new version of Spring is out, I will be making very heavy use of the new UnitIcons feature, so that you can direct your battles "from orbit".
 
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[[Category:Mods]]

Latest revision as of 18:06, 8 August 2009

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Project conceptual notes, by Argh

Here's a unit breakdown, based on current balance. This is all likely to change- NanoBlobs is in a bit of a transition period.

Economy

Lords are your commanders. They have a powerful weapon that kills things on the ground, are pretty tough, and can build things quickly, but they are very vulnerable to some units (Knights and Demons, especially). Lords can hover on the surface of water.

Sheep are your economy and your principal way to multiply your build-power. Sheep are very likely to either disappear entirely... or change in role, soon, but for now they are still in the same role they've always been- weak, defenseless, and totally necessary. Sheep can hover on the surface of water.

Autofacs build armies automatically (with "repeat on" and queues, of course). Nothing special about them... right now. This is also likely to change, but I'm not getting into that until I have the new things done.

Defense

Holders are stationary, not-so-powerful towers. They can kill Wolves and other light units easily, but fall to Knights. Massed, they can stop small rushes, and backed up with SpireRooks and MegaSheep, they can stand anything but a Demon, but not by themselves. Like everything in NanoBlobs, they have strengths and weaknesses.

SpireRooks are slow, powerful units that shoot infrequently, but their weapons can kill Knights in a hit or two, and they are more than cost-effective against SquareRooks and Demons. Their main weakness is that they are very slow and large targets, but they also are specifically weak against Striders. SpireRooks are completely amphibious, and can go underwater.

MegaSheep are defensive plasma artillery. While they can be used on offensive operations, they are slow, and they produce resources, so they are often better kept behind a line of Holders, where they do a great job of killing Striders, Knights, and TriRooks.

Offense

Wolves are cheap, disposable scouts. They can kill weak units or slow-firing things if they are left undefended, but are not powerful combat units. However, they are very cheap, build fast, and provide your enemies with one more target. Always have an Autofac or two building Wolves... their value as scouts and as "chaff" is very important, even if they have low combat power. Wolves can fly.

Archers kill Wolves, and move quickly enough to keep up with hordes. They are completely useless against all other units at this time. Mix them up in the queue at the Autofac with other units, like TriRooks and MegaSheep.

Knights are your hard-core rapid strike force. Armed with short-range flamethrowers and unbelievable healing powers, they are quite capable of taking apart a base in seconds if they aren't killed on the way in. While Knights are quite killable in this version, they are still very, very dangerous if used correctly.

Striders are both weak and powerful. They have been optimised for the current build of Spring's aiming code, but due to the low size of their weapon arc, they still require some micromanagement to really use effectively. Striders have rapid-fire burst chainguns that are quite capable of killing any unit in the game except for Wolves. They are fairly slow, but have a lot of hitpoints for a small unit, and take less damage from certain types of weapon. They are unbelievably deadly on flat terrain, but much less useful on rocky or broken places. Used correctly, Striders can smash open a defense very quickly. Used incorrectly, they are a waste of resoureces and unit-count.

TriRooks are the newest unit in NanoBlobs. They are very powerful attack units, but lack the armor to be all-out assault tanks. However, their weapon has good range, a rapid rate of fire... and due to its hovering nature, it can go over terrain that normal units can't see over... very, very handy. TriRooks require finesse to really use well, however, because they are a big economic drain. TriRooks are swimming units, and are effectively both ships and tanks.

SquareRooks are a general-purpose artillery unit. Lacking close-in defense, and vulnerable to Knights and Wolves, they are still worth using, because they have weapons that can kill Striders and other light unit types all day long. However, they fare poorly against Holders and SpireRooks.

Demons are the ultimate can-openers. They have a long-range popup missile that does decent damage to anything, but fires slowly. More importantly, however, they have an amazing DemonGun that can tear up massed units or defenses in a real hurry, and also has an effect over time, instead of being nearly instantaneous. Unlike other weapons it can keep killing units further back as they move through the deadly zone. Demons require protection from Knights, and aren't terribly fast, but they can also swim like TriRooks.

Gameplay

NanoBlobs is, basically, a new kind of game design. I started it out as a way to talk to the AI developers about making better AIs for Spring, but it's a lot more complicated than that at this point.

Basically, on anything but a small map, NanoBlobs is a completely strategic RTS. You're not going to want to micromanage your units, or worry about losing a few (thousand). Instead, you're going to block, scout, feint... and then attack, after finding the weak spots in your opponent's current streams of units.

NanoBlobs expects players to already know how to queue up multiple build orders, do things like the good ol' "bomber/guard" trick from OTA, and other Gnug skills. NanoBlobs is not terrifically noob-friendly, and requires that you actually pay attention to the massive battles... and plan well in advance. You can't win through just spamming one unit, and you can't win by playing defensively, and building up to Tech X, or slowly choking your enemy out of metal spots, or any of that boring crap. No. In NanoBlobs.. you win by killing the enemy... period. No tactic is "lame". Everything has a fairly obvious counter... plus a lot of subtleties. It's not "realistic", it's not an attempt to be anything but a pure battle experience.

Typical new players get stuck on three things:

1. They are like, "uh, where are the mines and tech levels". Uh... there aren't any. GET MOVING

2. They try to build defenses and hold until they have Demons. This is dumb, because then their opponant can steadily hopscotch new Autofacs nearer and nearer to them, and crush them with sheer firepower.

3. They think that .cheat .nocost is on, and spam in an unintelligent way. There ARE COSTS to most major units, and the gradual drain on your economy is a major part of gameplay, which future versions are going to emphasise more

The best thing to do, playing this game, is to decide where your first base will be... get it built before the enemy's first Wolves arrive, and then begin spamming out streams to scout and to hold as much of the map as possible. NanoBlobs is very much about map control- not so that you can get metal, but because that prevents the enemy from getting around your flanks.

After that, then what? Well, here are some classic options:

1. Rapid-build 50 Knights, then throw them at the weakest part of the enemy's lines. One Knight can destroy a base pretty easily. Really. Just give 'em a path, tell 'em to Roam, and then get on with something else... like sending all available Wolves ahead to distract their defenses

2. Spam out Wolves, MegaSheep, Knights and Archers in a mix, to keep the enemy engaged and pinned, then build up a force of SquareRooks and a couple of Demons. Use the Squares to punch a hole in the enemy streams, then use the Demons to kill their defenses. Just make sure to guard them against Knights.

3. Use your Lord to roam around, spiderwebbing Autofacs all over the map, anywhere the enemy doesn't contest you, and gradually spam them to death.

4. Use your Lord or a bunch of Sheep to build Holders to support your forces in a combat area, or to create a fall-back line that you can retreat to. Just because you can send thousands of robots to their death doesn't mean that the occasional retreat isn't a good idea.

5. Use the units that can swim to go around enemy land forces and crush them

... and lots and lots and lots of variants. NanoBlobs looks simple, but is not simple. Each unit has a lot of subtleties, from economic balance to what terrain it can handle to how fast it is. I've really tried to make sure that you never go, "hey, that's redundant", or "wow, that's useless" with the mod.

All of that said... this version's balance is still very rough, so please don't flame me when you find an obvious flaw (point it out though, I will keep it in mind). And I am contemplating some major changes for the future, to further reduce lag for low-end players... and when the new version of Spring is out, I will be making very heavy use of the new UnitIcons feature, so that you can direct your battles "from orbit".


This site is kept for historical reasons, all mods here are incompatible to the current spring engine, maybe they work with an older version of the Engine. 
- please use Category:Games if you search for playable games!
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