I got masse to test this out, currently mobile units can be amde to extract metal but in doing so they relinquish all ability to build or move. I think a few minor engine changes would fix this though.
Mobile Mexes?
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Mobile Mexes?
I got masse to test this out, currently mobile units can be amde to extract metal but in doing so they relinquish all ability to build or move. I think a few minor engine changes would fix this though.
Re: Mobile Mexes?
Contradiction! It's been known that the extracts metal tag changes the movedata for the unit.Alantai Firestar wrote:mobile units can be amde to extract metal but in doing so they relinquish all ability to build or move.
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Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Can I confirm that what you have done is made the commander into a mex and in so doing it cannot move from it's start location?
I know it's not "TA" but it would be cool to have a unit property that would allow it to "deploy" basically, click the button and it's properties change to a building unit, with the possible option to "undeploy" (?) and become mobile again... could this be scripted... I'm sure zw could figure it out right? click the on-off button and instead of it changing state it acctually becomes another unit or something... I'd prefer if it was just an option in the design though.
I know it's not "TA" but it would be cool to have a unit property that would allow it to "deploy" basically, click the button and it's properties change to a building unit, with the possible option to "undeploy" (?) and become mobile again... could this be scripted... I'm sure zw could figure it out right? click the on-off button and instead of it changing state it acctually becomes another unit or something... I'd prefer if it was just an option in the design though.
I could script a "mobility upgrade unit for mexx", just like I scripted a mobility upgrade for factory. I'll probably have to turn mexx into factory, or else you'll have to rememeber to merge manually the mexx and its set of legs. I don't know if mexxes still function when transported, I don't know if the extraction radius and metal income will adjust well when the mexx is moved, but it's worth a try. (Just by building a Stargate next to a mexx one would already know the answers to those two questions. It's like a 30s test to find out if mobile mexx are possible, yet I'm procrastinating the actual try). However, having a mexx glued to a mobile unit, or a mexx transport, may not be exactly the same as having a mobile mexx. But if scripted well, maybe the player couldn't see the difference? And unlike mobile factories, where having them made of two units is good so you can give order to the factory part without interfering with the order of the moving part, it doesn't make much sense to use script trick to merge mobile + mexx while modifying the source so mobile mexx are possible would be much much cleaner. Oh, and I don't remember, do we have yet script commands to prevent a mobile unit from moving?
If features works in Spring the same as they work in TA, bam, you have metal patches both cap-able by mexx and reclaimable indefinitely by cons. Don't ask me why no third party TA maps I know of ever used that, but it may be an indication that crazy features are often requested, but very rarely used when they're possible and easy to do.
Make a custom feature that looks like shiny rock. Make it so when reclaimed it leaves itself (ie, write featurereclamate=name_of_the_feature; in the feature's TDF). Makes it passable (blocking=0;). Make it worth a little metal. Makes a map where that feature is laid on all metallic areas.Maelstrom wrote:What I want as a mobile mex thing, is for const units to be able to 'reclaim' metal from the ground. So if you have a few const untis around, not enough metal to make a mex, and a few free spots, then set your const untis to absorb some metal. Might be interesting.
If features works in Spring the same as they work in TA, bam, you have metal patches both cap-able by mexx and reclaimable indefinitely by cons. Don't ask me why no third party TA maps I know of ever used that, but it may be an indication that crazy features are often requested, but very rarely used when they're possible and easy to do.
Sounds like a hack.
imho, "mobile mexxes" should be at engine level. I'm sure the current "mexxing causes immobility" was to allow for some optimisations with the metalscape. Gluing mexxes to mobile units sounds like too much of a hack, when just having a mobile mexx would make more sense.
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CaptainMaim
- Posts: 265
- Joined: 04 Sep 2005, 01:25
I actually made a map once for OTA that used that sort of infinately reclaimable metal (and also energy) as a bonus feature for it.
(If you can find it, check out Quadrants, there's a patch of "Nano Metal" and a "Magma Energy Pool" that's in the center of the map. We also made underwater versions... But all my infinately reclaimable features don't work in Spring, and they weren't extractable. (couldn't make that happen in OTA.)) (The reason I think why they don't work is I just used a series of bit maps to make the textures move, the metal pools slosh and mutate and such. And Spring doesn't accept 2D objects. Not that it should though.)
I'm sure you could probably just have a corpse that just uses the scattered metal debris and keeps regenerating itself. I had mine mutating and chaging each time they were extracted. The magma energy pools pulsed and throbbed it was cool. The other thing about them, was that they could supply an infinately high amount of energy simply be increasing the number of patroling aircraft over them. They were sharable as anyone with an extractor could drink from them. And in OTA they only gave you enough resources to refill your capasity, and not beyond. So it was kinda it's own resource. I thought it was pretty cool. I could run my whole economy off one energy and metal pit. And just scale up my extraction by increasing my numbers of extracting planes..
Course because aircraft overlapped in TA, a single air strike can be devostating as it can kill off like 50 extracting planes with almost no effort.
If it were done in Spring, that sort of thing wouldn't be the case as air craft can't co-exist ontop of eachother. So a more natural spacial limitation would apply. Anyway I'm only bringing this up because I've already done that thing with infinately extractable metal scrap. And that's how it worked out in OTA (Also ground units wouldn't extract unless the metal/energy bottomed out. Unlike aircraft that did it when the amount dipped slightly from full.)
I have no idea how it would work spesifically in Spring but I think anyone's welcome to try it again.
(If you can find it, check out Quadrants, there's a patch of "Nano Metal" and a "Magma Energy Pool" that's in the center of the map. We also made underwater versions... But all my infinately reclaimable features don't work in Spring, and they weren't extractable. (couldn't make that happen in OTA.)) (The reason I think why they don't work is I just used a series of bit maps to make the textures move, the metal pools slosh and mutate and such. And Spring doesn't accept 2D objects. Not that it should though.)
I'm sure you could probably just have a corpse that just uses the scattered metal debris and keeps regenerating itself. I had mine mutating and chaging each time they were extracted. The magma energy pools pulsed and throbbed it was cool. The other thing about them, was that they could supply an infinately high amount of energy simply be increasing the number of patroling aircraft over them. They were sharable as anyone with an extractor could drink from them. And in OTA they only gave you enough resources to refill your capasity, and not beyond. So it was kinda it's own resource. I thought it was pretty cool. I could run my whole economy off one energy and metal pit. And just scale up my extraction by increasing my numbers of extracting planes..
Course because aircraft overlapped in TA, a single air strike can be devostating as it can kill off like 50 extracting planes with almost no effort.
If it were done in Spring, that sort of thing wouldn't be the case as air craft can't co-exist ontop of eachother. So a more natural spacial limitation would apply. Anyway I'm only bringing this up because I've already done that thing with infinately extractable metal scrap. And that's how it worked out in OTA (Also ground units wouldn't extract unless the metal/energy bottomed out. Unlike aircraft that did it when the amount dipped slightly from full.)
I have no idea how it would work spesifically in Spring but I think anyone's welcome to try it again.
That TA map sounds cool. Got URL? Getting energy by sucking it with cons from magma pool reminds me of Metal Fatigue.
And I eventually tried teleporting mexx.
As you can see, the mexx was moved, but the its extraction circle didn't follow. And it still give as much metal as if it was on the patch.
So that's why the Spring developpers forbade mexxes to move: because the red extraction circle and amount of M produced is set only at birth and death, and is never rechecked. I tried switching the mexx on and off, the extraction circle didn't change and it still produced the same amount of M after being turned on.
And I eventually tried teleporting mexx.
As you can see, the mexx was moved, but the its extraction circle didn't follow. And it still give as much metal as if it was on the patch.
So that's why the Spring developpers forbade mexxes to move: because the red extraction circle and amount of M produced is set only at birth and death, and is never rechecked. I tried switching the mexx on and off, the extraction circle didn't change and it still produced the same amount of M after being turned on.
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BlackLiger
- Posts: 1371
- Joined: 05 Oct 2004, 21:58
Heheh, that's roughly what I expected would happen. Mobile mexxes are an engine-level change, as I suspected.zwzsg wrote:That TA map sounds cool. Got URL? Getting energy by sucking it with cons from magma pool reminds me of Metal Fatigue.
And I eventually tried teleporting mexx.
As you can see, the mexx was moved, but the its extraction circle didn't follow. And it still give as much metal as if it was on the patch.
So that's why the Spring developpers forbade mexxes to move: because the red extraction circle and amount of M produced is set only at birth and death, and is never rechecked. I tried switching the mexx on and off, the extraction circle didn't change and it still produced the same amount of M after being turned on.
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BlackLiger
- Posts: 1371
- Joined: 05 Oct 2004, 21:58