If SJ and other SY people won't mind, I'll post my impressions of the Spring version I currently have. Clearly, you people haven't told everything of your works.
I'll post things in order that I found them.
1)It's now possible to get higher res textures for units. I don't clearly understand how it's done, but the settings panel has a few switches now.
2)It's also possible to control the amount of sounds played at once. Useful, too.
3)Animations in the game have smoothed out. Looks very nice.
4)Color filled polygons are painted black for some reason... don't know why, must be something I misdownloaded.
5)New button in the GUI for Repeat Orders.
6)New button in the GUI for switching Trajectories. This is very interesting, it can be used to tell a unit with a ballistic weapon to either try to aim for a higher trajectory, or a lower trajectory. As far as I remember, all OTA units used low trajectories.
7)New camera mode, Total War-style. Works good, but OTA view is still the best.
8)New building function - row build. Basically, if you click a build button, then hold Shift and click-drag on the terrain, you'll be able to set up rows of anything very quickly. Very, Very useful.
9)Trees are automatically recaimed when building over them, YAY.
10)GUI finally interprets OTA gui data correctly.
11)Vehicles no longer get stuck inside their factories, at least I haven't seen that yet.
12)Aircraft don't get freaked out by the airplant's radius anymore, that's a relief.
13)There is a battleroom, but I don't know how, or if, it works. It also requires Microsoft .NET Framework, so I suggest you download and install that, just in case.
Well, that's the most important things covered, I think. I now need to play more to se if there are any bugs or some other features.
Spring beta-test version 0.1 - impressions
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Michilus_nimbus
- Posts: 634
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SWEET!
I never thought Spring would get so advanced!
I never thought Spring would get so advanced!
So that's why the lugers in video 15 shot so high! Very interesting...6)New button in the GUI for switching Trajectories. This is very interesting, it can be used to tell a unit with a ballistic weapon to either try to aim for a higher trajectory, or a lower trajectory. As far as I remember, all OTA units used low trajectories.
What do you mean with that? An OTA skin?10)GUI finally interprets OTA gui data correctly.
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Sean Mirrsen
- Posts: 578
- Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 17:38
The GUI had some problems previously, i.e. the Punisher, Guardian, Slasher and Samson units were missing from the build menus... dunno why.
More stuff:
14)The metal map gets automatically highlighted when you're placing a mex. It, however, remains on if you deselect the builder without selecting another menu item first - bug.
15)Aircraft now perform funky moves to steer clear of their brethren.
16)Hovercraft units correctly detect water now.
17)Ground restore feature - this was included before, I think, but I didn't notice it. Any construction unit can restore terrain in an area to its original height. Multiple constructors do it faster.
18)Repeat orders works with constructors, or at least the effects are as if it works. A constructor set to build a few buildings with repeat on will patrol these buildings and rebuild them if they are destroyed.
19)It's possible to share resources and units with the other player. I'll show you some screens when I upload them.
20)A new first-person control mode made for aircraft. I don't know how I turned it on (no hint in the uikeys file), but it now lets you control the aircraft like in a sim, with the keyboard, while actually seeing where you are going and firing. Great.
21)Units will push each other out of the way when they want to pass. This is good, but creates an adverse effect where a unit will try to budge a building if it obstructs its passage. Usually rare.
22)Most pathfinding problems I've seen before are now gone. A problem with aircraft landing still occurs, however, they either fly past the point they're supposed to land on, or stack themselves into a column (or, in case with gunships, a "hive" floating above the ground).
Well, that's about it for features and glitches, although it still does drop me to the desktop periodically, but I presume the cause are my scripts, which always caused TA to crash. I'll have to find them and eliminate.
More stuff:
14)The metal map gets automatically highlighted when you're placing a mex. It, however, remains on if you deselect the builder without selecting another menu item first - bug.
15)Aircraft now perform funky moves to steer clear of their brethren.
16)Hovercraft units correctly detect water now.
17)Ground restore feature - this was included before, I think, but I didn't notice it. Any construction unit can restore terrain in an area to its original height. Multiple constructors do it faster.
18)Repeat orders works with constructors, or at least the effects are as if it works. A constructor set to build a few buildings with repeat on will patrol these buildings and rebuild them if they are destroyed.
19)It's possible to share resources and units with the other player. I'll show you some screens when I upload them.
20)A new first-person control mode made for aircraft. I don't know how I turned it on (no hint in the uikeys file), but it now lets you control the aircraft like in a sim, with the keyboard, while actually seeing where you are going and firing. Great.
21)Units will push each other out of the way when they want to pass. This is good, but creates an adverse effect where a unit will try to budge a building if it obstructs its passage. Usually rare.
22)Most pathfinding problems I've seen before are now gone. A problem with aircraft landing still occurs, however, they either fly past the point they're supposed to land on, or stack themselves into a column (or, in case with gunships, a "hive" floating above the ground).
Well, that's about it for features and glitches, although it still does drop me to the desktop periodically, but I presume the cause are my scripts, which always caused TA to crash. I'll have to find them and eliminate.
good stuff. say now that you talked about units restoring ground height and stuff, i think it will be really cool if we could use trenches. specificly for tank, like they can hide itself apart from the turret. however this would require the units to fire in a cone instead of a straight line at units. the trench types could be just building types in the build menu. to make it a tiny bit realist units in trenches should also gain hit points, something like 40% i suppose, this combined with units firing in a cone would make the game really intresting.-
Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Wow, very interesting. Thanks for giving us the heads up, Sean.
The reconstructing terrain option is a good way to deal with the terrain deformation overload.
And the question on the tip of everyones tongue:
What stage of completion would you say it to be in?
The reconstructing terrain option is a good way to deal with the terrain deformation overload.
Can you clarify this one a little more?7)New camera mode, Total War-style.
And the question on the tip of everyones tongue:
What stage of completion would you say it to be in?
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Michilus_nimbus
- Posts: 634
- Joined: 19 Nov 2004, 20:38
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Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Torrasque, that doesn't quite clarify what I was curious about. I was wondering more about the general functionality of it; but I think I've worked it out. Basically the camera system works in a similar method to the Total War series.
How functional is this, Sean? I don't know whether the direct camera control system would be the best for TA, because they are two very different games, and where a slightly bad angle won't particularly inconvenience a TW game (Seeing as it is more macro-strategy), it could be very difficult for TA, where micro-strategy is common. I'm probably wrong however; there's no way to tell from where I'm sitting
I am glad that the SY's are familiar with the Total War series. Perhaps they will adopt some other excellent features stemming from that series...
How functional is this, Sean? I don't know whether the direct camera control system would be the best for TA, because they are two very different games, and where a slightly bad angle won't particularly inconvenience a TW game (Seeing as it is more macro-strategy), it could be very difficult for TA, where micro-strategy is common. I'm probably wrong however; there's no way to tell from where I'm sitting
I am glad that the SY's are familiar with the Total War series. Perhaps they will adopt some other excellent features stemming from that series...
look at any modern battle field, from grozny to lebanon. a modern battlefield is all about movementand trying to find defensive points around which defend. that can mean few tanks take up defencive positions, then swing into action, then comeback to the original position to regroup. this is because its no longer about taking land but simply destroying the opposition. now if you read "Russia's Chechen Wars 1994-2000: Lessons from Urban Combat" and "City Fights : Selected Histories of Urban Combat from World War II to Vietnam" you would understand this. it seems to be that you think that since you have the history channel you fundamentaly understand modern warfare. that is deeply wrong (watch more star trek and read more).secondly the reason for gaining the hit points is coz if it is immposible to implement the firing cone idea then that is the only other way of doing it. ofcourse this trench idea gives way for a whole range of specificly designed units for trench defence and attack.
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Sean Mirrsen
- Posts: 578
- Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 17:38
I would have posted screenshots, but I have nowhere to upload them. Somehow I can't connect to any ftp's, including my own.
The Total War cam operates rather good. When you zoom, the closer you are to the ground, the more the cam rotates to be parallel to it. At the highest point, you are looking straight down. At the lowest point, you are looking straight level. Pushing the mouse to the upper/lower edge of the screen, or lower halves of left/right edges pans the camera. Pushing it to the upper halves of left/right edges of the screen rotates it. Alternatively, you can pan by keyboard or locking the cursor to the screen, as you saw it on most movies (a crosshair appears in the center of the screen). It's useful to get a close view on your units, because the TA cam is too restricted for that, and the FPS cam is hard to manage, although I found it to be very useful.
On trenches - you can dig through to China, presuming it's there, with enough cannon power. You can sure as hell make trenches or dig out pools for stationing battleships. Most weapons in the game fly level, or with only a minor deviation. Trenches will be effective against lasers, less so for missiles, but cannons will not only be able to destroy them, but to also hit your units directly with the new "high trajectory" feature.
On completion: depends on what you expect. It's playable, but that's about it, until the GUI is done and the minor annoying bugs fixed, Spring is not completed. Relative to the 'minimum' readiness requirements, I'd say around 75-80%. Add 4-5% to that accounting for the unexpected extra features.
The Total War cam operates rather good. When you zoom, the closer you are to the ground, the more the cam rotates to be parallel to it. At the highest point, you are looking straight down. At the lowest point, you are looking straight level. Pushing the mouse to the upper/lower edge of the screen, or lower halves of left/right edges pans the camera. Pushing it to the upper halves of left/right edges of the screen rotates it. Alternatively, you can pan by keyboard or locking the cursor to the screen, as you saw it on most movies (a crosshair appears in the center of the screen). It's useful to get a close view on your units, because the TA cam is too restricted for that, and the FPS cam is hard to manage, although I found it to be very useful.
On trenches - you can dig through to China, presuming it's there, with enough cannon power. You can sure as hell make trenches or dig out pools for stationing battleships. Most weapons in the game fly level, or with only a minor deviation. Trenches will be effective against lasers, less so for missiles, but cannons will not only be able to destroy them, but to also hit your units directly with the new "high trajectory" feature.
On completion: depends on what you expect. It's playable, but that's about it, until the GUI is done and the minor annoying bugs fixed, Spring is not completed. Relative to the 'minimum' readiness requirements, I'd say around 75-80%. Add 4-5% to that accounting for the unexpected extra features.
There are some changes though to the original concept of TA.
Metal is now distributed over the map and now in patches. U just build a metal extractor on a area rich with metal. The maps included are high on metal you get to 100 metal very fast. Spring(XTA) has already been a resource focussed game(I played games with 300 metal production and even 2300 on metal maps) so it should be nice to get bigger battles now. The high trajectory is nice, but to prevent the buildng or unit doing too much damage by lowering the fire rate and accuracy significantly.
Bombers can't bomb multiple targets in the same line, reload speed isn't infinite anymore. Fighters can't turn in mid air, which is more realistic, but the old ta fighter fights are history.
Metal is now distributed over the map and now in patches. U just build a metal extractor on a area rich with metal. The maps included are high on metal you get to 100 metal very fast. Spring(XTA) has already been a resource focussed game(I played games with 300 metal production and even 2300 on metal maps) so it should be nice to get bigger battles now. The high trajectory is nice, but to prevent the buildng or unit doing too much damage by lowering the fire rate and accuracy significantly.
Bombers can't bomb multiple targets in the same line, reload speed isn't infinite anymore. Fighters can't turn in mid air, which is more realistic, but the old ta fighter fights are history.
Sean, one bug you may want to check for... considering what I am reading here is:
What happens when you restore ground level on a spot where you have now built ships in a man made lake. Just something I figure you may want to check.
Thanks for the info. I hope the color shadded faces issue gets fixed, I can retexture my models for spring but alot of good models out there have flat colors. I hope ya'll can get the colors working properly.
What happens when you restore ground level on a spot where you have now built ships in a man made lake. Just something I figure you may want to check.
Thanks for the info. I hope the color shadded faces issue gets fixed, I can retexture my models for spring but alot of good models out there have flat colors. I hope ya'll can get the colors working properly.
wat do u mean old ta aireal battles are a thing of the past? why? http://www.imageshack.ws/ may not be perfectbut i is still good
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Sean Mirrsen
- Posts: 578
- Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 17:38
Redfish, in 0.1, aircraft can do VERY funky things. Including (I saw this with my own eyes) super cobras, immelmans, and the more common loops and tailspins. Once I saw a plane fly vertically up to evade fire (not that it helped, lol), and that was looking very nice as well. Even if these things are randomly appearing (i.e., not coded initially), which I think they are, they look very good.
