Things that are frustrating

[Spactium Tiro]

I love the game. Remember that while reading my notes. I have played through all the levels but likely will never get all three stars on the last map on the normal setting. It is way too hard. Which leads me to - Here are things I find frustrating about the game:

1) The game is far too dependent on luck. If you are unlucky you can fail to complete stars even doing nothing wrong. I once got double nuked on the same spot in my home base wiping out the nice power plant bundle that I started with, could not move and could not defend from nukes.

2) The fog of war is way too light. There are 3 levels of sight - total fog (aka never seen), out of sight, and in sight. The light difference is so small I could not put them next to each other and tell you which is which.

<EDIT: Answered in follow up post that there is a fog setting as an option. Ignore. >

3) The reason I will never get the last 2 stars is that I just played the last mission, ran every unit I had over to defend my allies, the enemy sent a bunch of units, weakened the turrets, then nuked them. They can do that all day and I can never win. "I can never win" is the nemesis of good game design. Rock, paper, scissors does not only apply to units but also to tactics. If I choose rock, it always should beat scissors.

4) The AI knows everything about the map. There is no way to surprise them. I have tried an insurmountable army and splitting and attacking at multiple points. If you want to see this in action, play the "Acid Rain" map on normal, get 8x vehicles flying out the door and try and defend pink. You cannot do it. I don't mean you can defend them but at the sacrifice of something else, I mean you will lose every unit you build.

5) The AI is expert at attacking my units and getting no response. Even when my units are in range and can shoot, they often just stand there and die.

6) The AI on my team is expert at placing units that just find good places to die. One enemy helicopter can wipe out hundreds of my team's units. They may be allies but they more often cannon fodder than useful. Their tactical advantage is mostly bullet catching.

7) The enemy units seem better than mine. Maybe it is just the AI. But I can have a mixed set of units that gets wiped out by one artillery tank. I can have a hundred artillery tanks and one AI tank stays out of view and wipes out my 100 of the same unit. My units should be able to see the unit of the same type firing at them and respond.

8) There needs to be a better way to find damaged building not being repaired.

9) There needs to be a faster way to repair a whole set of buildings. Even if right click was repair, that would be enough.

10) In the "Acid Rain" map, are there rocks in the back that get damaged by nukes? It is annoying that I am repairing things that are stacked up such I don't even know what they are.

11) By relying so much on turrets for base defense, the mandated tactic is build lots of tanks. When ten helicopters get wiped out by one turret, you stop building helicopters. And when infantry get wiped out by harvesters, you stop building infantry. I once saw an enemy harvester wander into my base with the sole purpose of running over infantry.

12) Harvesters are idiots. I have seen 20 harvesters fighting over one spot when there is another empty spot right next to them. Harvester should make appointments and when a spot is filled for too long, they should move on to the next spot.

That is enough for now. I do love the game. With a few tweaks it can be more fun.

Brett Sperry once told me - "People don't buy C&C to get beat by C&C. People buy C&C to beat C&C." An important thing to keep in mind.

[Kings bloody Canyon, fellas.]

first of all this game still not c&c called "8-bit armies" i will answer everything you sems a newbie rightnow and you have to practice

[CakeIsAlright]

2) There's a Fog of War Alpha setting in the options. Try adjusting that to see if that helps.

3) If you've got 3 stars for all of the other missions, you'll have start with a bunch of units at the start for the last mission. It seems the AI doesn't play out the same every mission, and I know the situation you describe, as I thought exactly the same. Restart the mission and try different things.

8) When an event occurs, you can press space (I think) and it should take you to that location. If an enemy nukes your buildings, press space and repair your buildings in the area.

9) I think by default, if you hold Shift with the Repair tool selected, you can repair multiple buildings by Shift clicking them. Not exactly what you want, but certainly faster than selected Repair each time for the damaged buildings.

[Netput]

1) don't build all of your powerplants at one spot...?

2) Check out the options. Already a sliding bar to adjust it to your own preference

3) This is all you tbh. Just take all of your starting units and send them to your friends. From there you can already clear the first line of defense buildings. In the mean while make sure you stretch to the middle and have at least 2 warfactories and 2 barracks. Make sure to constantly pump out units. This way you can easily fend off attacks on your own base as well. I managed to clear this mission with 3 stars on 1 try. So if I can do it, you can do it.

4) Well yeah, that is AI. If you want surprise attacks, play Multiplayer or Skirmish. Not a scripted campaign map.

5) Some units have longer attack ranges then other units. Deal with it by paying attention.

6) Yeah right. Frustrated much? Just manage your army better and the entire solo campaign is quite easy.

7) See 6. Just learn to play better

8) You can toggle health bars by Z i think. Check the options to see what your preference is. Show HP bar always on / only damaged /never on.

9) Hold SHIFT when a repair tool is selected. This way you don't have to select it again.

10) Dunno

11) You don't need turrets for defense. Again, learn to play better. Use tanks in the front, infantry behind that, artillery behind that. To top it off, also trow in a few helicopters.

12) Agreed

TLDR; You seriously need to learn the game more before making some claims. I clearly can see you put a few hours in it, but you do not know the ins and outs of it yet. The single player is easy to finish once you know what you're doing. I've cleared 23 of the 25 missions on hard. (couldn't do the last 2 on hard, because a Nuke instantly destroyed a turret when i was doing the SP run). So imagine how easily you can do it on normal.

A lovely quote as well: "People love C&C because it is easy to learn, yet hard to master". Kinda goes with 8-Bit Armies as well.

Hopefully this response was helpful to you! :)

[Spactium Tiro]

"1) don't build all of your powerplants at one spot...?"

They come prebuilt in one spot.

"2) Check out the options. Already a sliding bar to adjust it to your own preference"

I will check it. Thanks.

"3) This is all you tbh. Just take all of your starting units and send them to your friends. From there you can already clear the first line of defense buildings. In the mean while make sure you stretch to the middle and have at least 2 warfactories and 2 barracks. Make sure to constantly pump out units. This way you can easily fend off attacks on your own base as well. I managed to clear this mission with 3 stars on 1 try. So if I can do it, you can do it."

What you are saying is that the enemy has the ability to win every game and there is nothing you can do about it, but do something that may distract it. That is poor game design. There is no sure way to distract it for sure. My ally lost a turret in the first few minutes like four times when I was playing. And attempting to counter the enemy and defend the turrets will ensure they attack them. That is the game designer messing with the player.

"4) Well yeah, that is AI. If you want surprise attacks, play Multiplayer or Skirmish. Not a scripted campaign map."

The campaign is not scripted. I can place units in a place the AI has never seen and there is nothing else nearby and they will get nuked. That just means the AI is all knowing. It can play a perfect game and win every time.

"5) Some units have longer attack ranges then other units. Deal with it by paying attention.

6) Yeah right. Frustrated much? Just manage your army better and the entire solo campaign is quite easy.

7) See 6. Just learn to play better"

Those are condescending comments. I have been playing RTS for over 20 years. I worked at Westwood Studios. You need to learn manners.

"8) You can toggle health bars by Z i think. Check the options to see what your preference is. Show HP bar always on / only damaged /never on."

I know that. Why is there a button to find injured harvesters and not injured buildings? That would seem appropriate.

"9) Hold SHIFT when a repair tool is selected. This way you don't have to select it again."

That is not bad. I like right-click better since I don't have to use the keyboard and mouse.

"11) You don't need turrets for defense. Again, learn to play better. Use tanks in the front, infantry behind that, artillery behind that. To top it off, also trow in a few helicopters."

You really need to learn manners. I was talking about attacking, not defending. I have 3 stars on every map but 1. I think I can play the game.

"You seriously need to learn the game more before making some claims."

What claims? I am stating my opinion. I know these guys. They are friends of mine.

Here is a great quote for you - "Assuming superiority does not make you superior." - Me

[Netput]

1 my bad, you are right here.

5/6/7/11 no intention to be rude. Sorry if i came across that way. Been playing RTS for 20 years as well, so i know where you are coming from.

8 If you have it on 'show damaged only', this will also work for buildings.

3 I just replayed the last mission to check if I was wrong and if some things had changed. (i had no intention to be rude btw) I completed it in ~16min. 3 stars. So sorry here, but yeah... It seems like you approach this map (game?) in the wrong way.

As said; I started by sending off all my starting units to the pink guy on the left. I then cleared the defense line with that group. In the meanwhile i build 1 refinery in my base near the lower oil and made sure all my harvesters were split correctly. From there i continued stretching to the mid with war factories and barracks and airfields. Within the 5 minute mark i had 3/3/3 of them and was near the mid getting the money there. From there even more production facilities and you have a free win.

Obviously a quote to end it: "even with a lot of experience there is still a lot left to explore"

[Spactium Tiro]

I am now starting to believe the game plays different on different machines. I have lost twice with the enemy attacking the turrets and wiping them out in less than a minute. Which seems impossible but they did. I watch the YouTube videos and the game is so much slower in the videos.

Also on a couple of the levels the "failed to complete mission" which is timer based, came up before the time was reached. I know that seems impossible but I'll get a screenshot. It happens a lot.

[xysvenxy]

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

1) The game is far too dependent on luck. If you are unlucky you can fail to complete stars even doing nothing wrong. I once got double nuked on the same spot in my home base wiping out the nice power plant bundle that I started with, could not move and could not defend from nukes.]Apparently you didn't repair the PP then - a nuke is not able to destry a PP in full health

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

5) The AI is expert at attacking my units and getting no response. Even when my units are in range and can shoot, they often just stand there and die.

Yes, you need to micro your units. You cannot expect them to play the game for you.

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

6) The AI on my team is expert at placing units that just find good places to die. One enemy helicopter can wipe out hundreds of my team's units. They may be allies but they more often cannon fodder than useful. Their tactical advantage is mostly bullet catching.

I think an AI on your team in a given mission is thought to act as a sort of wavebreaker, to gain you a little more time.

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

7) The enemy units seem better than mine. Maybe it is just the AI. But I can have a mixed set of units that gets wiped out by one artillery tank. I can have a hundred artillery tanks and one AI tank stays out of view and wipes out my 100 of the same unit. My units should be able to see the unit of the same type firing at them and respond.

Your units do see as far as the opponents same type of unit as long as on the same ground level. When in question, try to have some Radar buildings. This prevents units from hiding.

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

9) There needs to be a faster way to repair a whole set of buildings. Even if right click was repair, that would be enough.

Hold Shift pressed

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

11) By relying so much on turrets for base defense, the mandated tactic is build lots of tanks. When ten helicopters get wiped out by one turret, you stop building helicopters. And when infantry get wiped out by harvesters, you stop building infantry. I once saw an enemy harvester wander into my base with the sole purpose of running over infantry.

Scatter your infantry and make short work of the harvester then

Originally posted by Game Mechanics:

12) Harvesters are idiots. I have seen 20 harvesters fighting over one spot when there is another empty spot right next to them. Harvester should make appointments and when a spot is filled for too long, they should move on to the next spot.

Harvesters have always been total morons in all C&C games and this game is created by the guys who originally made them. It is intentional. You have to take care of your eco and don't expect the harvesters to play the game for you.