Just out of interest, how does Spring know what unit is the comander? Cause in TA im sure its in a seperate file... But i dont know if spring reads in that info or anything... this may have been asked befor the big bang but my memory is letting me down on this...
aGorm
Comander
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Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
And to partially hijack this thread, there is an option in "Rome: Total War", which I thought might be an interesting (battle room optional) feature for Spring...
Basically they have an option called "general cam", which restricts your camera to the generals unit. So you can move the camera around as you please, but only to the limit of your generals LOS.
It is very restrictive, and makes controlling far flung battles somewhat difficult. Basically, it completely changes the way you play the game. It means that your commander, far from being just a big nanolathe tower that trundles around your base, must actually accompany your major attacks for better control. Likewise, one has to keep their commander back so that they don't lose their vital commander.
Its a minor addition that could make an interesting little addition to games in Spring...
Basically they have an option called "general cam", which restricts your camera to the generals unit. So you can move the camera around as you please, but only to the limit of your generals LOS.
It is very restrictive, and makes controlling far flung battles somewhat difficult. Basically, it completely changes the way you play the game. It means that your commander, far from being just a big nanolathe tower that trundles around your base, must actually accompany your major attacks for better control. Likewise, one has to keep their commander back so that they don't lose their vital commander.
Its a minor addition that could make an interesting little addition to games in Spring...
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NapalmEnima
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 03 Mar 2005, 17:49
Could be interesting, but it doesn't quite mesh with the whole sci-fi premise.
On the other hand, you might also want to allow people to build a heavy command unit out of level 2 factories that could also be LOS points.
Finally, as a way to avoid restricting the LOS but still encourage people to include their commanders in major coflicts, you could give the commander an "aura" buff. Any units near the commander get X, whatever that might be (armor, experience, damage, repaired, whatever). The XP buff, if thats what they decided to go with, could be either a slow steady increase, a multiplier (1.5 or something), or both.
The Commander would still be important to have at/near the front, but wouldn't restrict the LOS.
On the other hand, you might also want to allow people to build a heavy command unit out of level 2 factories that could also be LOS points.
Finally, as a way to avoid restricting the LOS but still encourage people to include their commanders in major coflicts, you could give the commander an "aura" buff. Any units near the commander get X, whatever that might be (armor, experience, damage, repaired, whatever). The XP buff, if thats what they decided to go with, could be either a slow steady increase, a multiplier (1.5 or something), or both.
The Commander would still be important to have at/near the front, but wouldn't restrict the LOS.
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[K.B.] Napalm Cobra
- Posts: 1222
- Joined: 16 Aug 2004, 06:15
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Please do not post silly WC3 clone ideas here.you could give the commander an "aura"
You could make that a gameplay type, but if you do it would be nice to have a unit tag that defines wether or not they add ot los, that way you could have sub commander units etc.Basically they have an option called "general cam".......
While i dont mind you hijacking the thred, could someone atleast answer the original question...
About the comander and line of sight thing, the pro is, TA has much bigger maps than Total War games, and You have to controll hundreds of units as units. In total war its all group based. I just can see it working in TA because one vital unit wil be left behind or somthing stupid like that, plus, you would not be able to defend and attack at the same time...
aGorm
About the comander and line of sight thing, the pro is, TA has much bigger maps than Total War games, and You have to controll hundreds of units as units. In total war its all group based. I just can see it working in TA because one vital unit wil be left behind or somthing stupid like that, plus, you would not be able to defend and attack at the same time...
aGorm
XTA is always game continues. However I think the idea of the commander LOS is not very good or realistic. A unit that's somewhere on the map has it's own LOS and just adds to the total los of all units. So I can't imagine why we want that.
Also would we possibly want a restrictive way to control the game? We want it to be the best RTS game and to be that we have to have the biggest amount of possibilities, and restricting the game like that, I don't think it would contribute to creative playing.
Also would we possibly want a restrictive way to control the game? We want it to be the best RTS game and to be that we have to have the biggest amount of possibilities, and restricting the game like that, I don't think it would contribute to creative playing.
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Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
- Posts: 3742
- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Redfish: It wasn't meant to be a default mode for Spring, just an optional setting that could make games more interesting.
Alantai: You would still have access to the minimap, and could control units there. It would likely need some alteration from the Rome version, but the premise is still there... (For example like it was suggested, you (could) have nominated "captain" units which you can cycle through... It waters the original idea down a bit, but the gist is still there)
aGorm: its fairly easy to justify it in terms of "sci-fi" realism. Just make it that you are the commander (just like it sticks your nickname on your commander in OTA), and you can only command your units as such. You have your neural networking systems (the minimap), but for direct controlling, you need direct line of sight...
It becomes a 3rd person RTS rather than a god-view RTS...
Alantai: You would still have access to the minimap, and could control units there. It would likely need some alteration from the Rome version, but the premise is still there... (For example like it was suggested, you (could) have nominated "captain" units which you can cycle through... It waters the original idea down a bit, but the gist is still there)
aGorm: its fairly easy to justify it in terms of "sci-fi" realism. Just make it that you are the commander (just like it sticks your nickname on your commander in OTA), and you can only command your units as such. You have your neural networking systems (the minimap), but for direct controlling, you need direct line of sight...
It becomes a 3rd person RTS rather than a god-view RTS...
Zsinj I wasnt saying that there'd be too much infact I havent said ought against the idea instead I was commenting on aGorms:
After all with a abse as large as most people have the number of live feeds must be enormous, any arm commander must eb a real jukebox to nearby units with the sound blearing out, glowing eyes aswell from the live feeds.Lets just be realistic... the comander does not wave his arms around shouting "hay you, go over there!" . He have coms and live vidio feed from all his units... He can see anywhere. End of that discussion... No please answere my question!
Clearly in the future they will forget things like picture in a picture and they wont know how to turn certain feeds off... i should have though of that (dripping sarcasm the lowest form of wit...). Do you not think that maybe just like you move the screen to see differnt areas he switch on different feeds from differnt people? So as he can see the battle field?
This infact has just given me an idea... Can we have picture in a picture in spring?... hell i'll start a new post on this.
aGorm
This infact has just given me an idea... Can we have picture in a picture in spring?... hell i'll start a new post on this.
aGorm
Actually I think that by then the neural interface between the commander and his body suit, or the programmign interface the core commander receives will allow themnot to see screens but rather a 3d view of everythign everyone sees within their own mind, not the ordinary steroescopic vision we have, though such a type of visio would be hard to imagine sicne it allows you to see behind objects aswella s the objects themselves and whats behind you and behind whats behind you and so on, aswell as focuslessness/ having no focus or focusing on everything at once
Maby the comander could be hooked up into a satilite orbiting the batalfield in geostationary fasion, allowing him/her (or whatever their sex is) to get pericisise data about the batafiled. That was the satilite can be knocked out if you blast it apart with nukes, then the comander would be forced to view from FPS till you get anotehr satilite back up
Whether commander or some other unit, I would REALLY like the ability to create a unit which gives all nearby units a small autorepair ability. It would GREATLY reduce the tediousness of having to queue up hundreds of repair sequences.
I don't know how many of you here have played RoN: Thrones and Patriots, but it has a similar idea. (RoN not being my favourite game, but I think it has many good ideas) It gives you a unique general unit which can be sent along with your armies to boost many of their stats as well as allow them to self-heal. Again, I'm not necessarily in favor of the stat boost, to be able to give a unit a specified amount of healing power in a specified radius would be wonderful for modders.
I don't know how many of you here have played RoN: Thrones and Patriots, but it has a similar idea. (RoN not being my favourite game, but I think it has many good ideas) It gives you a unique general unit which can be sent along with your armies to boost many of their stats as well as allow them to self-heal. Again, I'm not necessarily in favor of the stat boost, to be able to give a unit a specified amount of healing power in a specified radius would be wonderful for modders.
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Sean Mirrsen
- Posts: 578
- Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 17:38
Answering the original question - yes, Spring does use the same principles for defining commanders that TA uses.
The Commander LOS is one of ideas used in Parkan: Iron Strategy, and that was one of the reasons to its downfall. Basically, you had command units that you could move your camera around, or you could issue commands through the minimap, or within your own line of sight. That as too restrictive, and people preferred turning the game into a first-person hunt-and-destroy game.
The Commander LOS is one of ideas used in Parkan: Iron Strategy, and that was one of the reasons to its downfall. Basically, you had command units that you could move your camera around, or you could issue commands through the minimap, or within your own line of sight. That as too restrictive, and people preferred turning the game into a first-person hunt-and-destroy game.
