Anyhugh, since like hopefully lots of you I've been playing Darwinia+ since Wednesday, I've noticed what's in and what's out compared to the PC version(s). In some cases, it's a nice new feature that someone might not be aware of. In some cases, it's missing for implicit design reasons. In some cases, it's got me scratching my head as to why, or if it's even really gone and am I just glitching. There are definitely some strategies that no longer apply.
So here's a list for you to peruse, add to, confirm or deny, update... or delete because it's detrimental to sales of the new version. You decide.
- *Each item denoted with a + or - compared to the original.
*This excludes mods to maps for one reason or another. I'm not going to mention where the odd Soul Eater or Triffid has been added or moved, or control towers switched; where's the fun in that?
+: Leaderboards.
+: Funky rippling explosion effects.
+: Water reflections.
+: Third-person following camera while controlling Squads. NB: This can be toggled with the 'Y' button to a more traditional point-and-click control, but you need to zoom in and go to Camera to fire properly and use grenades or air strikes.
+: Explicit 'Move' or 'Lay turret' waypoints for Armours in Darwinia, similar to the control system in Multiwinia and toggled with the 'Y' button. The turret can also be placed on much steeper terrain than was previously allowed.
+: The area of influence of an Officer or control tower seems wider, to reduce the amount of micro required to get things done.
+: DGs are kept at a visible size irrespective of the zoom-out.
+: Friendly unit souls and control beams now glow Blue instead of Yellow in Darwinia, so they stand out better from the scenery. This also matches the blue colour of friendly data crates, so it kind of makes sense anyway.
+: Eggs now die if they land in water in Darwinia, but Virus and Ants can still swim.
+: You can now change the map with other players already connected in Multiwinia.
+: The host has the option to return all players back to the lobby for another game in Multiwinia.
+: Host migration is supported in Multiwinia in the lobby, but not in the game itself.
+: Population and score graphs at the end of a game in Multiwinia.
*: Rocket Riot renamed to Rocket Race in Multiwinia.
-: Assault mode in Multiwinia.
-: Futurewinians as a default option in Multiwinia. 'Crazy crates' can be enabled in custom/non-leaderboard matches; comparing to this list, it seems that the only 'crazy crate' is the Futurewinians.
-: The pixellation effect in Darwinia.
-: Rockets for Squads in Darwinia. However, Grenades and Airstrikes have a controller button each so can be used without operating a menu.
-: The 'Absorb' command for Officers in Darwinia. This means that Officer 4.0 does no more than Officer 3.0, and is a waste of research points.
-: Officers cannot move and issue a move command at the same time, at least not without some pot luck with the controls.
-: Configurable difficulty in Darwinia.