Submarines with different Depth ...

[R-TEAM]

Hi,

on maps with depth and very depth water it is a bit of waste space, if the submarine only stay in the first 10% of water depth .....
Would be nice to have the ability to go deeper ...

[Jazcash]

UUUUGHH DEEPER!

[Neddie]

How would you implement this?

[R-TEAM]

Hi,

more expansive submarines CAN (if the water deep enough) going deeper and so harder to detect.Maybe a scale over 3 deep classes.
Normal,medium deep,heavy deep.
Btw. i would like a different handling for Jets too ..

[Forboding Angel]

The problem is that subs don't move up or down in the water, and at some point you get fugly issues with subs going through terrain, etc etc.

[Spawn_Retard]

is that because they cant move up or down, or they just arnt made to yet?

[SinbadEV]

Water Unit Tag Ideas:

Min-Depth: Unit will not go above a certain depth, -1 means center of unit can go right up to the edge of any water.
Max-Depth: Unit will not go below a certain depth, -1 means unit will be able to go to the bottom of the water

If a unit is outside of it's min-or-max depth (for example, when it's built), it will shift automatically to it's closest safe depth after being moved out of it's factory as if it were safe for it to do so.

Dive:
-1: default- unit will stay at it's min depth (current behavior)
0: unit will hug the bottom of the water like a amphib tank, but not go below it's max-depth, treating it as a flat surface it's moving on.
1: New button allowing to dive/raise between it's two depths
2: unit will not change it's depth automatically, leaving a call-in available for LUA to do so.
3: like 2 but units would be able to path above and below other units and to avoid terrain... this would probably be a pathing nightmare.

Another problem I found when I was futzing around with this way-back when was collision... we made units with hit-spheres purposefully arranged to allow boats to pass over subs but they wouldn't because underwater movement collision is cylindrical from surface to bottom... it's like things on and under water are all on one plane... I think this behavior should be tagged... though again, pathing nightmare.

Water Collision:
-1: default, Like it is now
0: 3 planes of collision, surface (on), in water (in), bottom of water(under)... no collision between these planes
1: height dependent collision for all units on, in or under water

[Spawn_Retard]

raising and diving between two depths wouldnt add much though. apart from fancy visuals i dont see the benifits of staying on a higher level.

Stay below and snipe ships, and be hard to see by other players.

[smoth]

Water Unit Tag Ideas:min/max

http://springrts.com/wiki/Units:MoveTypes
See above

[SinbadEV]

I think the problem is mostly the collision thing then.

[R-TEAM]

Hi,

the ability of different deep give the game more options as only
a undersee unit that is only seen by sonar and can fight with torpedos
or depthcharge ....
It gives the chance of an more advanced tech-tree as only better armored submarines ...
Deeper submarines shoud only dedectable by T3 sonar stations,and so on only from advanced depthcharge launcher targetable.Torpedo no - no torpedo work in deep sea ...
She can hidden in a depp underse valley.Not seen from normal submarines.
And to be serious - it looks dumb if the submarin always near surface-level.
And the same is going for Air units.All are on on hight.
Make REAL high fly bombers/scout (like tha U1 ).
It is like as SinbadEV have said, Air and submarines ar only a additional
"plane" to play,So we have 3 planes ->
Surface (ground and see-level)
Air
Submarine

This is a shame for an 3D! Game ....

[Caydr]

Make the unit into an amphibious "kbot-type unit" (upright=1) which has the properties of a submarine and a model which adds a reasonable amount of buffer room below the lowest point on the unit's model. Then limit its minimum depth such that it will never physically go above the surface of the water. Might look a little odd with OTA models but that's a limitation of the source material, not the method.

It's going to be harsh for me, the day when you can just apply properties to a unit at will rather than needing to trick the game into working a certain way.

[SinbadEV]

Make the unit into an amphibious "kbot-type unit" (upright=1) which has the properties of a submarine and a model which adds a reasonable amount of buffer room below the lowest point on the unit's model. Then limit its minimum depth such that it will never physically go above the surface of the water.

I don't know if I tested that particular behavior myself but but the unit described would collide with anything in the water that was above or below it.

There's nothing that stops units from being placed at different levels visually and for weapon collision... the problem is that they are practically treated as all being on one horizontal plane... my theory is because it looks stupid, game designers have avoided doing it at all.

[Caydr]

I know I'm hilariously out of touch, but I really thought that, for example, an amphibious tank under 50 units of water or so can be passed overhead by a hovercraft. This really isn't the case?

I can't think of an instance when I specifically tested this, but I would have expected something like that to jump out at me. Then again, I only ever put a tiny fraction of my time into the naval portion of the game.

[Saktoth]

I know I'm hilariously out of touch, but I really thought that, for example, an amphibious tank under 50 units of water or so can be passed overhead by a hovercraft. This really isn't the case?

Back when you were making AA, this was in fact the case.

These days (fairly recently, like 2 versions ago), however, it is no longer the case.

Its not hard to boot up the game and check, you guys.

[SinbadEV]

I know I'm hilariously out of touch, but I really thought that, for example, an amphibious tank under 50 units of water or so can be passed overhead by a hovercraft. This really isn't the case?

Back when you were making AA, this was in fact the case.

These days (fairly recently, like 2 versions ago), however, it is no longer the case.

Its not hard to boot up the game and check, you guys.

One would have to boot up the game on a compatible map with compatible units for the test in question... since you appear to know what you are talking about let me ask some specific questions.

If you have a boat, hovercraft or building "ON" the water ("Floating Layer") Can it pass over units "in" ("Submarine Layer") or under ("on the ground under the water Layer") if it has the requisite height difference for the radius collision spheres to not collide. same question for units "in" the water passing over units "under" the water?

[Caydr]

Hurrah for Caydr and his excellent memory of "the way things used to be back in the good old days".