upgrading commander

[rattle]

No he doesn't. He's got a list of upgrades and randomly chooses one from it each time you gain a level (~0.5 XP). The visual weapon exchange is done by a couple of hides/shows.

...I would use a commander that can build an arm, then as soon as the nanoframe of the new arm is spawn, the commander auto-grab it and place it inside its shoulder socket while hiding its former arm, that way you see the commander nanolathing itself an arm.

Mmm sounds a lot like Metal Fatigue...

[Pxtl]

You can disable one weapon and add another but you can't e.g. give the commander a nuke backpack like the one seen in SupCom because you couldn't access the stockpile command for the loaded unit and can't have a unit have both stockpileable and normal weapons IIRC.

and here's where we start getting into Zwszswzswg's desire for "sub-units" - that is, units that are part of the larger unit in terms of health and movement, but receive orders seperately and function as a turret - this was, by consensus, believed to be the best way to implement mobile factories and units with very complex weapon loadouts (like a primary attack weapon and a secondary artillery weapon).

Really, the "stockpile makes other weapons impossible" thing is something of a bug. There's no UI reason why a stockpile weapon shouldn't work like any other - the problem is in legacy code from TA. Whether a weapon is a d-gun, a primary weapon, an "on command-attack only" weapon, it shoudln't matter if it's drawing from a stockpile or not. There's no reason why a unit couldn't have multiple stockpiled weapons - one bound to d-gun, one normal weapon (that the player can disable with on/off) and then a normal, non-stockpiled weapon. Likewise, no UI reason a unit couldn't have a stockpiled (or non-stockpiled) anti-nuke in addition to their usual inventory. These limitations are just legacy code - they could be considered bugs.

Alternately, you could add non-weapon stockpiles (modifiable and readable from COB script) and use those to handle certain kinds of upgrades, instead of your current suggested approach with the transport load/unload.

Of course, you'd still need to script a way to say "they can only build their stockpile weapon once they've received the upgrade"... like a "set stockpile maximum" COB command or something.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

It dosnt sound so feasable then... I was just thinking how cool it would be to have coms being able to build on new gadgets like a torpedo launching head for underwater action or a zeus lightning for arm and pyro flame for core, the ability to hover over water, a long range merl tyle missle, a small shield that deflects LRPC, an EMP ability, the ability to get a second nano beam on the other arm to double build power. obviously it would probably only be possible to have like one upgrade on a com, or a choice between hovering or a torp launcher, but it'd be damn cool. I guess it'd even be cool to have it done by exp like war ev does. punishing combombers and rewarding people who use thir com with more gadgets.

[KDR_11k]

After trying War Evo I can say that I was wrong about the stockpiles, you can have both a stockpile and normal weapons on a unit, just not multiple stockpile weapons.

[Noruas]

I understood you wanted upgrades for your commander?

[mehere101]

lol, where can I get some too!

[Optimus Prime]

i think you can make pseudo buildable upgrades but it wouldnt be as good as in sup com.

You could use the on/off ability for a script that lets the unit need metal and energy while an intern counter is activated and after a while a new weapon will be activated.
Than the unit shuts off and if you click "on" again another upgrade starts.
If you klick off while building the upgrade the counter will be reset.

The difference to sup comm would be that you cant choose which upgrade you are building it would always be the same.

But the code for that shouldnt be too hard (but long) (depending on the upgrades you want).

edit: this was one reason why i asked for variable labeled buttons so you could make an "upgrade" button or "upgrade nuke" and "upgrade armour" buttons...

[1v0ry_k1ng]

couldnt each option be an item on the build menu? just make the build pics totally diffrent to the normal so its clear they are upgrades, and put them at the end of the normal build options?

[KDR_11k]

The problem is that we can't add arbitrary functions to build pics, when you click on a build item you build something, if the unit is a factory the thing is built inside, otherwise you then have to pick a place to build whatever you wanted to build in and then your unit drives there and starts building. This behaviour is hard coded and cannot be changed without changing the engine. The engine knows no such thing as an upgrade, all you can do is build a unit in a specific spot. Some script magic can make that unit you build cause another unit to get more abilities and possibly even pick the new unit up to hide it but you cannot make a build button produce anything but a unit.

[AF]

but if you did a little lua UI trickery......

[KDR_11k]

Do we have per-mod LUA UI stuff yet?

[AF]

you can do default UIs, and I'm sure the players will stick to it if switching to their own UI leaves them crippled gameplaywise.

[KDR_11k]

Yes but we have enough trouble to get people to play our mods already, adding another hurdle isn't going to help.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I'd really like to see this get done - I think commander upgrades are really essential to a commander-centric game design. Most mods using it, including my own, have the difficulty facing them of giving players a unit that is not overpowered at the start of the game, useful in the middle of the game, and not a liability at the end of the game, because these three stages of the game offer very different gameplay, and yet the same unit has all your hopes pinned on it (in comm:ends) at every stage of the game. Commander upgrades are really a way to dynamically alter the commander to reflect the state of the game.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

it could be like generals; you get your core com, then core "wheelz" general who has wheels and only uses vehicles but with bonus's, and your "flames" general who has a com with a pyro weapon and loads of units with short ranged fire based attacks...

if someone can make this work to a good degree it will almost certainly end up in the mainstream mods imo

[KDR_11k]

That can be done already by implementing more factions but it still doesn't solve the issue we have, that being that the starting unit is either OP in the early game, UP in the late game or both.

[Argh]

http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9477

[Daan]

I loved the wheel chair anime. Mucho fun.

Dont get commander upgrades. He just has command

[KDR_11k]

Dont get commander upgrades. He just has command

Then don't use them in your mod because quite a few people want them in theirs. And not just commander upgrades, upgrades for EVERYTHING.

[Daan]

i dont like the idea of upgrades of commanders but its a good to have a lot diff mods. But the commander already has upgrades. Build three windmills and ther upgraded your dgun. somehow i like the code of the street battle.