Drawing Movement
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- Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
Drawing Movement
I have an idea.
What if you could assign units to move along a line that is drawn on the map by one of the players? It looks like a line drawn on the map is just a set of points with lines drawn between them, so wouldn't it be fairly simple for the game to get that set of points and assign them as waypoints for the unit in question?
This opens up new abilities to plan complex attacks and coordinate with teammates. You'd now be able to effectively coordinate a multi-player, multi-path attack by simply drawing lines on the map and assigning groups of units to follow those lines.
Lyth raised some concerns about excessive waypoints slowing things down and waypoints in impassable terrain borking pathfinding. Perhaps some processing to remove redundant waypoints (very close to each other, etc) and waypoints in impassable terrain would fix any problems.
What if you could assign units to move along a line that is drawn on the map by one of the players? It looks like a line drawn on the map is just a set of points with lines drawn between them, so wouldn't it be fairly simple for the game to get that set of points and assign them as waypoints for the unit in question?
This opens up new abilities to plan complex attacks and coordinate with teammates. You'd now be able to effectively coordinate a multi-player, multi-path attack by simply drawing lines on the map and assigning groups of units to follow those lines.
Lyth raised some concerns about excessive waypoints slowing things down and waypoints in impassable terrain borking pathfinding. Perhaps some processing to remove redundant waypoints (very close to each other, etc) and waypoints in impassable terrain would fix any problems.
http://taspring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Monthl ... _buildings
That means, yes it is suggested.
The labs should be rotatable, so you never are in a disadvantage.
Again this goes afther, in or next with the new GUI?
And it dosn't have lots to do with pathfinding, so it's somewhat off-topic.
That means, yes it is suggested.
The labs should be rotatable, so you never are in a disadvantage.
Again this goes afther, in or next with the new GUI?
And it dosn't have lots to do with pathfinding, so it's somewhat off-topic.
- Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
A friend suggested adding certain "gestures" you can draw to give certain commands at points... I don't know, off the top of my head, a loop in the line to wait until the W-wait command is given, or a circle around an object to have the group guard the object, or something like that.
I don't personally like the idea, but I thought I'd throw it out there on his behalf. I personally think it would be more efficient to simply use shift... command units to move on line, and then shift and command them to guard a Punisher or something... gestures seem too complex. Not to mention, too complex to code... if I knew the internals of Spring (where and how line waypoints are stored, and how to issue orders to units), even I could write a function to assign each line point as a waypoint to a group.
"testing could show if its better than shift-clicking the route." -- you can't shift-click your opponent's units.
I don't personally like the idea, but I thought I'd throw it out there on his behalf. I personally think it would be more efficient to simply use shift... command units to move on line, and then shift and command them to guard a Punisher or something... gestures seem too complex. Not to mention, too complex to code... if I knew the internals of Spring (where and how line waypoints are stored, and how to issue orders to units), even I could write a function to assign each line point as a waypoint to a group.
"testing could show if its better than shift-clicking the route." -- you can't shift-click your opponent's units.
Its time for radial context menu for spring!
Yep the drawing thing.. hm.
it all comes out of:
How do you make a "plan" (battle plan), using lines and symbols.
I had an idea for "action markers".
Most specifically, an artillery marker.
You usually scout (well not many ppl does), and when you find something important, mark it (again nobody does this much).
example: (xta)
You scout a base and find 1 popup, and 3 hlts.
You are using 8 pyros and 4 dominators.
What you attack first? well the popup should be.
So, when you attack, you manually assign them the "attack" order then distract the popup shots somehow.. and move your dominators around if you are being hit...
well the "artillery" marker, is like a "perma-attack" order, but only for those units defined as artillery (in some config file?).
Meaning pyros wont try to attack the target, only dominators will.
If your long range units, are at shot range, they will start firing at it, automatically. (of course, has issues).
But you can ask them to execute move commands, to avoid the popup cannon shots, and while they move, once the weapon is reloaded, will automatically fire any "artillery" marker in their range.
artillery and bombarding targets are benefitiated from this.
Yep the drawing thing.. hm.
it all comes out of:
How do you make a "plan" (battle plan), using lines and symbols.
I had an idea for "action markers".
Most specifically, an artillery marker.
You usually scout (well not many ppl does), and when you find something important, mark it (again nobody does this much).
example: (xta)
You scout a base and find 1 popup, and 3 hlts.
You are using 8 pyros and 4 dominators.
What you attack first? well the popup should be.
So, when you attack, you manually assign them the "attack" order then distract the popup shots somehow.. and move your dominators around if you are being hit...
well the "artillery" marker, is like a "perma-attack" order, but only for those units defined as artillery (in some config file?).
Meaning pyros wont try to attack the target, only dominators will.
If your long range units, are at shot range, they will start firing at it, automatically. (of course, has issues).
But you can ask them to execute move commands, to avoid the popup cannon shots, and while they move, once the weapon is reloaded, will automatically fire any "artillery" marker in their range.
artillery and bombarding targets are benefitiated from this.
- Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
I love the idea on the artillery markers in general.
To clarify what I think mongus is saying: an artillery marker is a point you can place on the map. If an artillery unit is in range of an artillery marker, it will automatically fire at the marker without moving towards it (so your artillery units don't always rush the enemy's positions). If more than one artillery marker is in range of something, I can see two possibilities: either you can assign your artillery markers priorities somehow and the artillery fires at the highest priority marker in range, or artillery automatically assigns itself so that the distribution of artillery firing on each marker is as even as possible.
To clarify what I think mongus is saying: an artillery marker is a point you can place on the map. If an artillery unit is in range of an artillery marker, it will automatically fire at the marker without moving towards it (so your artillery units don't always rush the enemy's positions). If more than one artillery marker is in range of something, I can see two possibilities: either you can assign your artillery markers priorities somehow and the artillery fires at the highest priority marker in range, or artillery automatically assigns itself so that the distribution of artillery firing on each marker is as even as possible.
- SwiftSpear
- Classic Community Lead
- Posts: 7287
- Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 09:29
IMO this is the way artillery attack commands should work.Felix the Cat wrote:I love the idea on the artillery markers in general.
To clarify what I think mongus is saying: an artillery marker is a point you can place on the map. If an artillery unit is in range of an artillery marker, it will automatically fire at the marker without moving towards it (so your artillery units don't always rush the enemy's positions). If more than one artillery marker is in range of something, I can see two possibilities: either you can assign your artillery markers priorities somehow and the artillery fires at the highest priority marker in range, or artillery automatically assigns itself so that the distribution of artillery firing on each marker is as even as possible.
i was playing spring with a mate on a lan the last night and apparently he was holding down the ~ key for ages while drawing something (no doubt obscene over my base) and a message came up saying something like you have held down the ~ button for too long, spring is no shutting down... or something like that... is this an actual error or was he just talking shit. if so this is something that might bar some efforts to make this work.
You've all wandered into GroupAI territory, ask the devs fro ti and you could be waiting for a very very longtime. Or go make a groupAI for ti and wait at most 2 months most of which si looking for soemoen who'll make it.
Remember, ti took em a weekend to write NTAI 0.1, and krogothe 3 weeks to get his first KAI to build from knowing no c++ at all.
Remember, ti took em a weekend to write NTAI 0.1, and krogothe 3 weeks to get his first KAI to build from knowing no c++ at all.
Amen. Trying to use the gestures in B&W 2 was one of the things (many, many things) that made me decide it was the worst game in the universe.SinbadEV wrote:yeah... try playing Black&White... while some things you use with the gestures... after a while you learn the keyboard shortcuts and it get's a lot easier to play...
... yeah i know.AF wrote:You've all wandered into GroupAI territory
The problem of group ais is they .. somehow isolate the units.. i would like more of a "engine" side solution..
Aint it beautyfull how group ais work? :D
I mean.. you clearly realize what is/is not, a group ai.
About programming.. maybe someday i can do that.
Once i have something more "clear" about what to acomplish. bable.
How should drawings for this be acomplished?
I agree lines could be "route" plans.. its direct and simple.
Gestures is a bit strange, it mixes up with the drawings themselves..
What other elements are missing for planning an "action"...
edit: well this is closelly related to the queue saving loading.. but not really... its more related to dark reign pathing system.. altougth its good idea to step aside from that concept.