Conquest mode

[bigd]

So what improvements are planned for it? COnquest mode is kind of boring for the time being. It will be nice to have a global map where you move your units around in turn base. Take control of resource points and fortified them and take over outposts. The more territory the more income and man power.

[clfiskus]

I think conquest mode is good, but there can be improvements. Perhaps we can have pvp option, and when its time to choose what units are brought to battle, both sides can see what units the other is bringing, or not see what the other team is bringing at all.
Also i feel that this mode can be made on a larger scale, kinda like wargame red dragon.
It wud be fun to have like 10 or so flags spread out on a "combined arms" size map, and also to have like 150 CP or more worth of units on the field.

[TerrorFlatRider]

I love the conquest mode. Finally every life and movement counts on the battlefield. Keep the good work!!

[✠GER✠ ™k0b0ld™]

I like Game Mode too ...
I just wish it was filled with fight jets
Similar to the MoW Cold War.

Then I would be really happy about that!

[clfiskus]

can there be settings to increase the scale of conquest mode? like you can bring in 12 squads of inf plus a few vehicles at the start, Or basicaly around 200CP worth of units in a 1v1 . Along with that id like around 9 flags on a large map to have large battles. Trust me i think there are many who would appreciate massive battles in this mode.

[SirHinkel]

Originally posted by clfiskus:

can there be settings to increase the scale of conquest mode? like you can bring in 12 squads of inf plus a few vehicles at the start, Or basicaly around 200CP worth of units in a 1v1 . Along with that id like around 9 flags on a large map to have large battles. Trust me i think there are many who would appreciate massive battles in this mode.

You can mod the CP. Just check resource / set / dynamic_campaign.set. If you alter the stage_cp and the budget you can pretty much have unlimited resources. But be warned it will have an impact on the performance.

Originally posted by KnightCole:

Do the AI just mirror your army composition in that mode? I bought a .50cal MATV, they had a KORD Technical. 2nd game, I bought a Grenade Launcher MATV, they rolled me over with a Grenade launcher vehicle. I cant tell what infantry are what. Dont look that closely.

No player and AI buys are not connected in any way.

[clfiskus]

i believe that you can change the CP&MP settings in conquest, but only a little bit.The most you can set it to is like 50 Cp and 2000MP at start. i think it should be adjustable to like 200 Cp&10000 Mp. Perhaps we can have control over amount of flags on the map, say up to around 9. Lastly conquest mode can be improved if it was pvp.

[BHunterSEAL]

Originally posted by SirHinkel:

Originally posted by clfiskus:

can there be settings to increase the scale of conquest mode? like you can bring in 12 squads of inf plus a few vehicles at the start, Or basicaly around 200CP worth of units in a 1v1 . Along with that id like around 9 flags on a large map to have large battles. Trust me i think there are many who would appreciate massive battles in this mode.

You can mod the CP. Just check resource / set / dynamic_campaign.set. If you alter the stage_cp and the budget you can pretty much have unlimited resources. But be warned it will have an impact on the performance.

SirHinkel--I've been experimenting extensively with the resources available to Conquest bots and I'm not sure the mechanic is working properly. The AI resource budget doesn't seem to scale with the player's progress, and difficulty impacts are limited:

- The Bonus variable scales for the campaign resource setting only; difficulty is felt through StartMP (you start with less and the AI starts with more) and LoseMPGain (why not Win?), rewarding the player less at harder difficulties. This makes sense.

- The formula as given in the comments for Bot MP is mpStart * startMPBonus(1+"streak"), where "streak" is the (positive or negative) progression modifier based on the player's consecutive wins or losses. (Note that the comment actually reads StartMP, but this is the player's starting campaign resource value--I assume this was supposed to have been 'mpStart' from capture_the_flag.set. That file has mpStart and mpFinish settings for each difficulty.

- Neither mpStart nor mpFinish scale with the player's progress and army size; they only fluctuate with the player's win/loss streak. More importantly, for all difficulty settings, payback = 0,0, That would imply that the only MP increases the AI experiences over the course of a battle result from the MP total going from mpStart to mpFinish, with no refund for dead units. That makes sense, and puts the AI on even footing with the player as far as having a limited resource pool.

The result is that while the early battles on harder difficulties can be very challenging (since you get fewer resources, and the AI gets a bonus to its MP curve), but with a few missions' worth of income, the player has a major advantage since his resources keep growing and the AI has a static cap that takes a very long time to reach. The initial enemy waves are strong (because the AI is CP-limited and has plenty of MP) but eventually they run out of MP and can only afford to send an infantry squad every minute or so. By round three or four, battles are mostly walkovers.

Based on how the math works, would it make sense to remove AI MP income entirely (mpStart=mpFinish), and set mpStart= (the Player's current total force value + unspent resources) * (1+'streak')? The startMPBonus (resource) adjustment can be removed or reserved for future development, since the campaign resource setting is already captured in the player's force value. Missions would need to force-end if the AI runs out of MP and has no crewed vehicles or <2 or so soldiers. That way, the AI scales with the player while win-streaks captured the momentum of the campaign.

[MrThirtyOddSix]

I've addressed some of the concerns in conquest mode with my mod located here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1937997123

Now, you don't just want to set unlimited resources for AI, as they will just burn through them very quickly and will ruin any balance you have. You have to think in terms of units per amount of time, so that's where startMP and mpFinish come into place using 'growTime' setting. Decrease growTime and you will have AI spamming you with units, make it bigger and you'll put limit on how much MP can AI use per amount of time.

Then there is even whole other thing about which units get to be picked by AI. In vanilla CTA conquest, waves are set, with last wave being repeated over and over, and contains all faction units from infantry to MBT and helicopters. So you are technically at mercy of RNG here, if you decide to play like that. With my mod I've rebuilt these waves to have defined expectations for each wave: infantry, light then medium vehicles, then MBT and attack helicopters. Later one affects balance as well, as you don't want to spawn too many MBT as it is simply not fun to see three or two tanks pulling up to join the fight when you are already occupied with couple of other threats.