Spring RTS Engine

Ability to build "Loaded" Units then, and then UNload them... zwzswgagsgs's ones were a bit of a cheat with buildings fused together... they worked but I think it would be nice to have simpler options...

You know how you can drag a line/square of buildings? And you know how if you have a 5 button mouse you can set how far apart the buildings are spaced? Well, I was thinking - most of the time you want a given type of building spaced the same - DTs no spacing, MTs a small distance apart, mines just far enough apart that the whole field doesn't go up when the first one pops etc.

So, why not have a default spacing for each type of building. Those with 5 button mice could still modify the spacing in game, but it would be nice if the default spacing was sensible.

I'm figuring that most types of building would have a default spacing gap of zero, so they wouldn't need anything doing to them. It would just be a case of making settings for a few things like MTs and mines, maybe cannons, HLTs, LLTs could be added in too?

It would be really nice to be able to drag out a nice big mine field, or a line of MTs, or even an MRPC battery instead of having to click each one individually.

Cheers

Munch

OK, so we've got an "Add point" facility. It would be really handy if you could give move/attack/patrol commands which use points instead of mouse clicks on the screen.

So I'm thinking that when you add a point, it automatically gets numbered. So for example you might see an enemy cannon being built before your rush gets mashed by hlts and you make a point "toaster" - the point name is shown on screen as "1:toaster" (maybe point 0 could be your start pos). Then you can go select all your gunships and do A (Attack) followed by 1.

Or you could add in a fall back point for injured troops where there are con units patrolling and static defenses for protection, or... the possibilities are fairly large.

Ideally allies should be able to see each other's point numbers so that you can easily share patrol routes/fall back positions/key enemy targets etc. when giving your units orders.

I'm guessing (hoping) this isn't too hard to add, and maybe quite useful. It does mean that pressing the number keys immediately after "Attack" or "move" etc. will no longer select the given numbered group.

Cheers

Munch

At present shift clicking allows you to add orders to the end of the order queue, which is what you want most of the time. However, sometimes you want to add a new order NOW. Somebody is attacking your base or you want to quickly build a couple of wind gens before continuing with the 20 MTs that you just clicked out over your base.

You don't want to scrub your order queue, but you need to do this now. Could we have ctrl-clicking to add orders to the start of the order queue?

Failiing this, it would be cool if at least when you have one unit guarding another (or performing some other task that never ends like patrolling), you could shift click orders and instead of them getting added after the guard or patrol order, they get added like normal shift-clicking but the guard/patrol order gets pushed to the end of the queue.

Cheers

Munch

alt clicking on a unit in a factory prioritizes it (cancels unit being made atm) maybe the same for buildings???

alt clicking on a unit in a factory prioritizes it (cancels unit being made atm) maybe the same for buildings???

HOW COME I DO NOT KNOW THIS?!?

Damnit! if you know how many unit queues i've canceld to build 1 special unit ?

Anyway...
Dosent work with buildings...



Oh, CTRL clicking on a unit build click for skiping the repeat order (only if repeat is activated, offcourse =P).

Munch, you can already do "default spacing." Spin the scrollwheel until the spare is bigger than the mine's footprint. Now drag a whole bunch. Release. Your mines will be build spaced equally apart.

Guessmyname, friendly fire is already almost impossible. Have you ever tried to shoot a friendly con bot with a maverick? It's hard!

I added the "mobile factory" idea. I assume you mean that you want units to be able to upgrade themselves, a la CC:Generals.

Can anyone tell me what's the progress on edgeless maps for "cornerless" play? How about new gameplay modes like king of the hill? I know we have reflections, but do we have dynamic lighting? IMHO those are the three things needed the most.

BTW the new unit models look amazing! Bravo!

Munch, you can already do "default spacing." Spin the scrollwheel until the spare is bigger than the mine's footprint. Now drag a whole bunch. Release. Your mines will be build spaced equally apart.

*DUNK*

You know what that sound is? It's the sound of my head hitting the keyboard.
Now i got the H tanget stuck in my forehead, thanks alot!!!

Oh, and he mean't that the defult spacing for diffrent units. So pepole who don't have those button's can drag minefeilds to, or make lines of MT without they kill themselfes...

Witch is a great idea, btw.



GO MUNCH!

awesome! so do you hold shift whilst doing this?
(minelaying just got easier!)

Yes please elaborate on the spacing technique

The ability to space units (ie mines) equally comes from TA Hook, a Yankspankers add-on to OTA.

Select the building you want to build, like mines or missletowers or whatever. The default footprint before you put it down is the size of the unit. Now spin the scrollwheel--the footprint gets bigger and smaller. For mines, make the footprint the size of a factory. Now hold down shift when you place the mine so that you can drag out a whole row of "factory footprint" mines. They will now be as far apart from each other as a factory.

have fun!

Now how about answering my questions about dynamic lighting and cornerless maps?

No future support is discussed for cornerless maps, although i have an idea in the works. Mind you SJ may popup the feature unanounced in a future release.

I could use my stargate technology to make units going toward a map edge being teleported to the opposite edge of the map. But the pathfinding would not be aware of this, weapons would not teleport, and I'd need a way to add neutral units to a map.

SinbadEV wrote:Ability to build "Loaded" Units then, and then UNload them... zwzswgagsgs's ones were a bit of a cheat with buildings fused together... they worked but I think it would be nice to have simpler options...

I still think mobile factory should be made by fusing two units, or at least have two selecteable areas, one that control the factory part, the other that control the movement part. Maybe just hard code the fusing in the source instead of scripting it, and add a special FBI tag that would mean "when this unit is built, also spawn that other unit and fuse them together".

zwzsg, would you mind telling me about your "teleport" and "mobile factories" technologies? These sound as interesting as the bridges you built for OTA!

RE: cornerless maps, I'm a very strong advocate. Moonbase Commander is an example of a GREAT game ($5 at the local bargain bin) that has cornerless play. No hiding in the corner, you never know where the next attack will come from.

I would really like to see that in Spring, as it would be a fantastic option for multiplayer games so that you don't know where the next attack will be, and you can't make a single wall to block yourself in.

yes, I realize that on small maps we'd need to do something to keep from seeing a dozen copies of your units in the distance and to keep Vulcan shells from flying around the world several times. Perhaps a limit on your view distance?

The cornerless maps would be so COOL....but I'm sure it involve so much changes that it would need a complet rewrite of a lot of code
So, I really doubt it will happen any day...

one thing that would be neat would be to have a map that tiles several times, but doesnt nececairly "wrap around"

This would effectivley increase the size of a map wiithout a huge memory hit.

sparkyhodgo wrote:The ability to space units (ie mines) equally comes from TA Hook, a Yankspankers add-on to OTA.

Select the building you want to build, like mines or missletowers or whatever. The default footprint before you put it down is the size of the unit. Now spin the scrollwheel--the footprint gets bigger and smaller. For mines, make the footprint the size of a factory. Now hold down shift when you place the mine so that you can drag out a whole row of "factory footprint" mines. They will now be as far apart from each other as a factory.

have fun!

Do u need a mouse with 2 scrollers or somthing because i can't get it going..

I can imagine an implementation hack of soemthing I'm thinking of that would have the same effect as a cornerless map without changing CVS code.

All in all if we are to ahve cornerless maps I suggest it be of the populous type.

I really love the reflections in the newest screenshots. Does this mean we're closer to dynamic lighting? Dynamic lighting is the other thing I'm pushing hard for: it would allow day/night cycles, fantastic laser and lightning effects, glowing fires, and long moving shadows from every tree and unit as a bright projectile flies overhead.

Truly, it would make Spring the best looking RTS of all time.