Friday Facts #220 - The best Friday Facts ever

[Jap2.0]

Has anyone got the same errors loading the fff page?

It kind of looks like something is blocking it on your end. Is it your antivirus? What browser are you using?

[TRUEpicness]

im on holiday next week :/
plz have wifi there

[Cazadore]

The artillery train brings back so many memories of TA and SupCom Arty Duells... esp because we have some sort of strategic zoom ! Visible bullets !

The biters need artillery aswell ! ; )

Holy moly my chin is lying on the ground because of the arty train AND the holiday exp. Release.

Best 15€ ever invested.

[stesi111]

Are 0.15 saves playable after 0.16 update?!

[Loewchen]

Are 0.15 saves playable after 0.16 update?!

Yes, but if you explore the map further it will look very strange with the new terrain generation.

[FasterJump]

Big bertha with strategic zoom, as a faf fan I like it!

About the speed of the arty train, isn't the gif in fast forward mode? the train seems quite fast too.

And I hope we'll still have concrete floor as an option along with the stone floor and the brick floor.

[hoho]

Well, not build the train at all, obviously. Remember the artillery train should feel like an upgrade not an expensive mistake

yes, using the train wrong will be a death sentence if one is unprepared. The devs should definitely try to somehow communicate to the player what does using the train cause.

The way I see it, the train should be either used either as replacement for turret creep or for clearing out areas around a to-be outpost.

How creeping works should be obvious and not cause too many aliens to attack at same time.
Clearing out the surroundings of a to-be outpost would mean players have to set up (temporary) *heavy* defenses around their artillery and be prepared for dealing with wave upon wave of enemies before they set up the artillery there.




One thing I hope the train will have is a toggle for turning automatic shooting on/off. Accidentally having the train shoot at stuff when you stop your train for whatever reason isn't exactly good game design in my opinon.

1) Drive a car into enemy territory
2) Place an artillery and kill some nests
3) Pack the train and drive away
4) Repeat

I would assume that biters would keep chasing after the player as they currently do.

This will also be very problematic in PVP mode I imagine.

Loads of stuff are problematic for PVP already. I would think that there would be special mods that alter or turn off some of such stuff in PVP.

[stretch611]

Looking at the examples on the FFF page again...

Is the first map mode capture an example of automatic mode and the second example manual mode? The second example shows some obvious clicking on the map that isn't present in the first example.

It also appears that the shots are fired in volleys of 3 rounds. Is that the case, or are there multiple artillery units on the trains that pull in to the station?

For automatic mode, will there be options at the train station to control when to leave? (e.g. "when done firing", "when ammo is empty", "no biters in range"; which are equivalent to "inventory empty", or "inventory full" on cargo trains. Of course leaving things like "time passed".)

Is there a requirement on the artillery to only fire into previously explored areas (or areas scanned by radar?) With the range of the shells and the ability to reveal terrain, wasting a few shots may explore the local area quicker than putting down radar.

And, I didn't mention it before, but yes, I am also excited about t-shirts... I'm sure that i'll buy one assuming that XXL is still available once I figure out that the store has opened. (as the handle suggests, I am 6'11" tall and the smaller sizes won't cut it. (roughly 2.1m for the metric users) )

[torham]

It also appears that the shots are fired in volleys of 3 rounds. Is that the case, or are there multiple artillery units on the trains that pull in to the station?

It looks to me that the train has got 3 artillery wagons, as the volley shots originate from different places on the map.

[Dixi]

I just like to say, that I'm so happy about announced 0.16 release.

[Ralph]

Also wanted to say Im very eager to playtest it as well ! Can't wait to experiment !

[Omarflyjoemacky]

The artillery train brings back so many memories of TA and SupCom Arty Duells... esp because we have some sort of strategic zoom ! Visible bullets !

The biters need artillery aswell ! ; )

Holy moly my chin is lying on the ground because of the arty train AND the holiday exp. Release.

Best 15€ ever invested.

OMG. Total Annihilation.. yes. Definitely reminder of Big Bertha.

Can't wait to fire that artillery!

[Shukka]

Merry Christmas to us, Thank you thank you.. I have been a long time fan, but have never posted till now. The new graphics look awesome.

[Andrzejef]

No seriously tho -
if we also could see the rounds flying in-game, not just on minimap, that would really add to the awesomeness. Especially with low whiiz-sound right before impact

Also - then some specialised rounds like HE/Shrapnel/Nuclear maybe (including its associated cloud of happiness, ofc) would also be of use.
Just like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdy1Yp1h5A

My, oh my. My head is spinning from all the goodness.

[Pure Ownage]

I think you could literary be the best developers ever

I would like to see research for upgrading the wagon/shells: fire rate, napalm rounds, range. Would make end game research more interesting.

[QGamer]

A bunch of people mentioned that the artillery train would need stabilizing legs to allow it to shoot at an angle relative to the rails. Here's my counter-argument:

You're on an alien planet and started with next to nothing. And yet after some time you've managed to create nuclear power, a portable fusion reactor, energy shields, laser turrets, construction robots, destroyer robots, nuclear missiles, belts that require no power source, fully automatic gun turrets that don't need power, burner inserters made only of iron plates and gears, and beacons. It shouldn't be too hard to make the artillery wagon have some type of internal compensation device that allows it to absorb the recoil.

One question: what happens if I have 3 artillery wagons and order 1 strike? Are 3 shells sent to the location? Or does only 1 wagon respond?

[torham]

One question: what happens if I have 3 artillery wagons and order 1 strike? Are 3 shells sent to the location? Or does only 1 wagon respond?

From the behaviour seen on the map, I would guess only one responds. When the train pulled into the station, all arties start firing, but they never send 2 shots on the same spot. This would suggest to me that they somehow communicate between themselves what they are targeting.

[ske]

"With great power comes great responsibility."

With those artillery trains, would you add giant worms that usually cannot be removed using any tower weapon?

This would create No-Go-Areas during the early-mid-game where you cannot clean up the map but instead have to build defenses around those areas. Also the giant worms could be correlated with some resources (uranium?) that the player cannot get until the artillery train does its job.

[Andrzejef]

I would like to see research for upgrading the wagon/shells: fire rate, napalm rounds, range. Would make end game research more interesting.

My god, yes. Napalm rounds.

[steinio]

A bunch of people mentioned that the artillery train would need stabilizing legs to allow it to shoot at an angle relative to the rails. Here's my counter-argument:

You're on an alien planet and started with next to nothing. And yet after some time you've managed to create nuclear power, a portable fusion reactor, energy shields, laser turrets, construction robots, destroyer robots, nuclear missiles, belts that require no power source, fully automatic gun turrets that don't need power, burner inserters made only of iron plates and gears, and beacons. It shouldn't be too hard to make the artillery wagon have some type of internal compensation device that allows it to absorb the recoil.

One question: what happens if I have 3 artillery wagons and order 1 strike? Are 3 shells sent to the location? Or does only 1 wagon respond?

Flux compensator fixes flux of all kinds even reflux.