Spring RTS Engine

I'm a long-time TA player and TA Spring follower, so I've followed the list of new features. Here's my checklist of what's implemented thus far. Feel free to add!

New gameplay modes: Capture the flag, King of the Hill, frag the commander--unknown Thanks to Napalm Cobra for this suggestion. Capture the flag could be like "capture the commander." And I know there's a perfect map for King of the Hill already.
3D engine--done
Shadows--done
Diffused clouds and smoke shadows--np
High-polygon and reflective unit models--in progress, and looking good!
Camera modes: chase cam, OTA overhead, FPS, and free-floating camera--done
FPS unit control--done But could we make it more like the dune buggy in Half Life 2?
Picture in picture--np
Multiple monitor support--holy cow! I can't believe it! It works!!!
Monitor runs more than 60 hz--unknown But badly wanted!
Deformable terrain--done
RE-formable terrain--done! Could we get the construction units to level out all the land before they build instead of blowing it up and leveling it out first?
GUI--in progress (it's translucent and resizable, but still looks like it has placeholder graphics)
TA demo recorder/TA Hook integration--done
Weapon IDs expanded--done
Upgraded sound--done? not sure whether it has higher quality than OTA.
3D sound effects--unknown? I can't tell yet.
OTA music--in progress Any news on this Blacklinger?
Contextual music (like OTA)--unknown
High-polygon unit models--in progress This is a fan-based project that is doing a very good job!
Unit Trails--in progress planes have them at least sometimes, but what about ground units?
Dynamic lighting explosions--np
Day-night cycle--np
Weather effects (rain, snow, fog)--np But the clouds move!
Wrap-around maps (like a donut, cornerless)--np I REALLY want this. Play Moonbase Commander!
Fade-out/dither areas out of visability--done[/color] Although it's slow to update.
Formations--in progress Let's get some more advanced ones!
Copy/paste unit orders--np
Construction units automatically rebuild structures they guard--done!
Combined build menus--done
Mouse-over-construction energy/metal use info--unknown Would be helpful.
Automate metal maker turnoff--np
Smooth scripting--done
OTA mod compatibility--done Sorta... I'm getting weird results.
Trampeling Trees--done
auto-reclaim trees / smooth terrain when building--done but smoothing doesn't work unless you blow up the land first
End Game Statistics--in progress not implemented yet
Random Spawn Points--in progress (very good idea!)
Skirmish A.I.--in progress And badly needed!
Improved Pathfinding--done
Guarding units do not crowd each other--done
Combat Experience makes a difference--in progress
Trees jam radar--officially "SY-considered" not implemented
Hills jam radar--done
gunfire trajectories--done
aircraft fly like real aircraft--done
no more infinite bombing--done
unit movement effected by deformation--done
minimap updates as land deforms--done
graphics details options--done
multiple players per side--done
Allow "mobile factories," units that can build on themselves--unknown. Suggested by zwzsg.
saveable unit restrictions--unknown. But it was in OTA!

Or just to simulate tides so some parts of teh map are acessible by land at one time or see at another... Yhe, how do you stand on thsi SY?

And dont forget trampeling trees - Done

aGorm (trust me to remember trees...)

I believe adjusting the water height is no option in spring. Sound is also complete.

Why are they called Donut maps? I'd like to find the idiot that came up with that name, and punch him in the face. They're representations of the world, not donuts. It's the best that can be done on a flat screen. If you want to see what I'm talking about, look at the map from Final Fantasy 8. It had a mode, that looked like a world, demonstrating that, that was what the map was to represent.

Donuts are topologically different from globes.

Ok, taurus map. But the point is this: be able to make maps that wrap around east/west and north/south. That way there are no corners, and an army can come at your base from any direction. It's an option I would really like to see, since it fundamentally changes base building. Of course, if you want to keep corners, I support keeping that in.

It would be cool if units slowed down when damaged or were otherwise affected. Anyway though, I recently found out about this whole project, looks amazing, being able to play TA in 3d and take 1st person control of your favorite units, awesome!

Donut maps and sphericla maps are referred to in terms of that they loop in the same way.

However a sphere and a donut have different geometry as such and a donut map can eb a quadrilateral but a quadrilateral must eb squashed and stretched to fit on a sphere, also donut worlds appear flat ingame and sphere worlds have curvature. Apart from those games that ahve actual donuts for worlds where it's rather odd looking

and fgs shutup about trees aGorm

alantai, play nice. or ill send you to the corner with the dunce cap

=? There is no corner, the last I heard forums didnt take up any physical space

i speaketh of the great delete button in the corner of my own screen as well as the ban button :)

You cannot keep me from these forums! I shall return if deleted, I shall use my technical knowledge to circumvent banning for I shall not be deterred from my precious threads!

Too many freaks, not enought circuses.

A circus is only by definition a matter to the relevance at hand. Choose your words wisely

I really like what I'm hearing about CC Generals, and one idea Suck came up with:

Make units turn black and smoke as they are damaged. That way they'll truly look hurt.

Also, I would like to see the veteran "chevrolet" system from CC Generals implemented; this system would improve a unit's stats at it gains kills. The OTA veteran status never made a difference, but it would be great if a mobile unit could improve its speed, accuracy, and max armor as it gains kills.

Example: give a reaper tank +10% speed, accuracy, max armor, and reload time for every 5 kills. But place a cap at 20 kills so it doesn't become too powerful a unit. Place a small golden icon (a chevrolet) near its stats every time it gets a boost, so you can quickly identify your best units.

This would really give you an incentive not to use meatgrinder tactics, but instead to build your army, heal it, and go for the offensive so you can build up your stats. This will be especially useful with the formations feature so you can really control your forces. Now veteran status could have a real impact on the battles! (Note that I said this should be for mobile units only. I don't think it is appropriate for plasma canons, etc. Base defenses are arguably powerful enough already. And can a gun be "veteran"? Not really.)

The OTA veteran status never made a difference

Actually I've heard more than a few respectable TA scripters/modders say that it does.

Example: give a reaper tank +10% speed, accuracy, max armor, and reload time for every 5 kills. But place a cap at 20 kills so it doesn't become too powerful a unit. Place a small golden icon (a chevrolet) near its stats every time it gets a boost, so you can quickly identify your best units.

How many people give a damn about which is their fastest peewee, or their strongest reaper, chances are its going down in hail of gunfire within 10mins.

Base defenses are arguably powerful enough already. And can a gun be "veteran"? Not really.

If you practice aiming your cannon, arn't you going to get better, remember how you enemy reacts or where he's most likely to come from?

In OTA, kills (maybe just beyond veteran, but 5 don't make that much difference anyway) improved health, rate of fire, and accuracy. Yes I am very certain on the health. There is absolutely no doubts of the rate of fire (line up 20 big berthas and let em loose on enemy units for a while, then stop em for several seconds, then open em up and notice how the second barrage isn't quite in sinc). There is also no doubt concerning accuracy, though internal math limitations caused problems with this for longer ranges. (Take a vulcan and let it get 100 kills on an enemy attack wave, you'll see a painfully big difference)

These might already be in spring, I'm certain health is at least. Watch the vids, in the bottom right of the screen it has unit stats, including experience. And I have seen health increase with kills in one of the videos.

experience is stupid, surely you would load up you Kbots with the best possible AI software.
But it noticeable, in campaigns at least, because guardians have a way of stacking up 500 hundred kills, and being really good.
I know, because one can hold an area, and if it dies rebuilding two isn't as effective!

I'd like to suggest a "Respawn" button that appears at the end of games, so that if both players click the "respawn" button, commanders are respawned at their starting positions, with the map being exactly the same as per just prior the commanders demise.
The point of this being to avoid the unfortunate ends of really good games when a) a commander is killed through unfortunate bumbling, or b) when two commanders Dgun each other.

Doomweaver wrote:experience is stupid, surely you would load up you Kbots with the best possible AI software.

No...
Core units would get an AI but ARM units would probably get humans inside acording to the small story of TA.

Also, the cannons aren't perfect and need testing to get accurate and properly calibrated.

If there was no XP system i would not cry but i like it as alot other people do.