yet another suggestion to flame

[Dead.Rabit]

ive had some thinking time and there are a few things that bug me about spring that (too a person who cant even code java) seem easy

the first is that when you order a set of troops around the battlefield.. even in simple formation mode they fail to keep in form.. if u start with a huge block of units you will allways end up with a mass line going into enamy base (getting picked off 1 at a time...destroying 2 pronged attacks in moments. is this fixable.. with the simple formation AI or anything like that

for those who dont understand what im trying to say.. in running events on a round circuit the first lap they always start indented or otherwise the furthest out runner has to run farther to the finish line then everyone else.
the same happens in spring... except with weapons of mass destruction.

this whole keeping together ness would be amazingly helpful in alot of aspects of gaming.. as if it was set up so units move together.. then all the units in the group would move at the same speed together.. the disasvantage being that they would have to be micromanaged to maximise shootings..

[FizWizz]

Are you asking that Spring recognize when commands are given to groups and try to execute the command for the group as a group? Reminds me of Homeworld. Other games do it too, I'm sure, Homeworld comes to mind first though. Yeah that would be nice, but in the end it's just another feature request.

[SwiftSpear]

Great idea but like said before, we're swimming in feature requests already. Here's one more to plop onto the list.

[Felix the Cat]

I've been contemplating how to make pathfinding more efficient and effective, and in fact, moving units as a group seems to factor into several solutions.

Unfortunately, with my pitiful level of C++ coding skills, my contemplations will have to remain theory. I know that if I were to say something more concrete, I'd get the requisite flood of "do it yourself you nub" replies.

[SinbadEV]

Try ALT clicking your move orders and tell us what you think.

[SwiftSpear]

Try ALT clicking your move orders and tell us what you think.

Doesn't this just force box formation with longer range units to the back? Group pathfinding is still pitiful in spring. Try to make a straight line and 9 times out of 10 one of the units will arrive before the other and then get pushed out of the way as the other arrives late and you end up with a terrible unorganized blob. Tactical formation is all but impossible to orchistrate in spring without insane ammounts of micromanagement work. However, the question must be asked, how much is it realistic for spring units to understand in terms of path finding and how much can you acctually do with your system before it starts eating up too much CPU. The unit pathfinding already is the number 1 thing slowing down people's computers in the late game.

[FizWizz]

Try ALT clicking your move orders and tell us what you think.

That still only issues a number of individual commands to individual units. What we're talking about is having a group act as a single organism for long distance path-finding when it is issued a move order, and only concern the pathfinding of the individual units with not tripping up the other units in that group, and staying reasonably close together.

[Dead.Rabit]

wouldnt having things move together as a group ease pathfinding on the computer.. my imaginations of it is if i have a group assigned to 1 then when i click a goal they will first move together into a unit they will then (as far as pathfinding is concerned) move at the pace of the slowest unit to keep in the group and move towards the target.. then if an enamy is encountered it will auto scatter and attack at top speed towards the enamy (if theyre set to fire at will or return fire) if theyre set to hold fire then they will hold formation.

but another button would be needed to be added.. (a scatter/group button) this would define weather they move like they do now or as a group. =]

maybe if it gets good we could add formations... but i dont see any advantage could be gained from this.. units would be fastest at front longest range at back

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[AF]

All of this will be fixed when I implement gabbas pathfinding research in the summer

[Dead.Rabit]

funky

[FLOZi]

More efficient pathfinding is a very important issue, i had two AAIs playing AATA earlier and they rapidly crushed my AMD 64 3200 due to the massed infantry.