Spring RTS Engine

Could we get a floodload?

THat would be 100% more win on top of the 100% win that is landflood, making a combined total of 200% win!

I think it would multiply the win making win level 10,000%!!!

What is landflood, floodload, etc. Are you refering to water?

When you issue a landflood command the transport opens up and a huge deluge of water pours out and drowns all the enemy units. They then get washed away into your base so they can be reclaimed.

Sounds kewl... I wonder how hard it'd be to write a particle effect that would look good...

I still don't know what the hell you all are talking about.

new transport stuff.

Sorry, I was looking for an image of a sarcasm meter going "off the scale" but I couldn't find one... Land Flood basically unloads all units simultaneously to the ground in an area defined by an area unload.

Its been on my todo list, and is nearly working - just has some issues with pathfinding to sort before I'll submit it.

Next step... SupCom style ferry routes!

(I kid, I kid )

Pfft, our repeat function is better anyways

Its too complex and has holes in it and is tricky to set up correctly.

AF wrote:When you issue a landflood command the transport opens up and a huge deluge of water pours out and drowns all the enemy units. They then get washed away into your base so they can be reclaimed.

Would have convinced me if I hadnt gonne down the forum :)

Its too complex and has holes in it and is tricky to set up correctly.

Its generally more useful for other chains of commands &
I actually found the repeat function more intuitive than the ferry function, but maybe I just have a backwards way of looking at things

Btw I resolved the stuck units problem on 'flood load' (someone please give me a better name for these) :)

Group load/unload? Mass load/unload?

Multiple units load/unload or something similar would sound more correct, but more correct not always means more pratic... :)

flood/unflood?

The repeat command is a more powerful UI tool, I think, because it is one button that can be used for so many applications.

But in terms of actual functionality within the game, as they both currently stand, the ferry function is far more functional, and far more intuitive.

What I am suggesting here is not that we adopt the ferry system, but more that the repeat function for transports in Spring still needs a bit of work.

It's lots of little things like, transports set to load an area, and unload an area will sit and wait at the drop zone, rather then the loading zone; tranports will often leave with one unit for a long trip, despite having a loading capacity of 10+ units.

Advantages the ferry route has are that the loading process is object oriented - as in, you task your units to a point that is always visible, and both the unit and the transport are made aware that a loading order exists. Currently, if you give a transport a load area order, this order is only visible when the transport is selected (and the perimeter is not displayed, simply the load icon). Once the order is given, it is very difficult to work out exactly how big the loading circle is.

Further, in the Supcom system it is very easy to add extra transports to an existing ferry route. You simply task new transports onto the existing ferry beacon. This is extremely helpful, and impossible to do in Spring without issuing new orders.

Finally, the supcom ferry system uses the 'active orders' system, allowing you to change the ferry route in a second by simply dragging the target destination to a new point, and any transports enroute will immediately update their orders and do so. This combines with the previous point to allow an entire invasion to be rerouted in seconds if the landing zone becomes too hot, etc.

To reiterate, I am not proposing we simply implement the SupCom ferry route system, I am merely pointing out that there is a lot of room for improvement, and simply because we have the very clever 'repeat function' (which potentially supcom nicked off Spring) that works in a number of situations with the same UI space (an excellent feature), does not mean we have a fully comprehensive, hell, a fully functional transportation repeat system. And given that it's one of the most touted features of supcom, and one of the most regularly cited in reviews, it's clearly an important element of the game.

Its almost like you need the paint tool in MS Word, where you highlight formatting, click the paint brush, highlight what you want formatted, click the paint brush, and then it applies the formatting at the new location, too. Perhaps not a paint brush for Spring, maybe some cute symbol could be cooked up that means to assimilate the command(s) of another unit.

What the shit has been going on around here while i was gone?