January Update – A New Set is Imminent
It has been a year since I laid the foundation for a new UDB in EDCE. I dabbled a bit with the Falklands map set to get a feel for if this would work and I got positive feedback from that experience. It was this time last year I truly committed to starting this set and put everything else on hold pending it’s completion. I knew it was going to be a long-term commitment, at least six months to a year. I released the graphic set and truly dug into this 9 months ago. Now I’m happy to report that the alpha release is imminent. I expect to have it posted within the next day or two.
One important note to make. It’s an alpha release. That means its in a playable state but far from the complete version I intended when I started. Moreover, it means only basic play testing has been done so expect lots of errors. This decision was driven primarily by two major setbacks which changed my mind. First is the limitations on unit morphing. This bug means I will have to re-think the air component of this set and that will take some time. However, this AI doesn’t care about this issue, and as long as players knows about it, the issue doesn’t affect play-ability.
The second was when I discovered how complex the individual power calculations would be. I originally intended the set to match real world damage assessments, but the number of values I would have to chart proved it would take me months just to complete that, as the source data was too messy to simply compile. I’d have to write a processing script to do this right. I opted instead to use quick estimates and make modifications through play testing.
As soon as I have the zip compiled as well as some basic notes and screenshots, expect in on EDIBLE. I plan to keep making incremental updates to this, but I am also ready to move into some smaller projects that are long overdue. If there is one thing this experience has taught me, it’s to appreciate the value of smaller updates and mods in between larger ones.
