Spring RTS Engine

Saktoth wrote:While on the topic, a lot of maps also have terrible wind rates as well that are far too high and promote greenfielding. A minimum above 3 or a max above 20 is just too high.

I'm not sure i agree with this statement tbh, at least, not in XTA

Alright. I'm torching my first two 3-way FFA maps and starting a new one.

I suppose I'm biased, but I though Sparewood was a pretty good 3 player FFA map. I don't know if it is available anymore after the map pack support was removed. It is not perfect, and not symmetrical either, but playable from my perspective.

I got Ashpen as 4 player, quite symmetrical map as well. Though it is pretty old and the only ancient version around probably has a .smd error.

That ring thign wouldnt work because youd secure a hill and thatd be it, the surrounding hills are then yours to take. You then porc that hill and use tis metal to carry on and you thus win or stalemate.

Of course you'd need a high metal output to support constant rebuilding, which would make hills unassaiable as they have the metal to support mass spam and porc.

I think players wotn touch hills and will justs it back soak up metal and send mass spam.

smoth: Yea thats a problem, it would basically be a lvl1 only game. Someone needs to make mobile factorys!

Alternatively, you could play Nanoblobs or something on it, which doesnt have bases as such at all.

AF: That problem is avoided by the shape of the hills. If you notice, they are hills on one side, and cliffs on the other. You can easily attack the ground from the top of the cliff, but you cant attack from the ground up to the cliff.

You cant porc a hill because you will be constantly attacked from behind, from a position that you cant attack yourself.

neddiedrow wrote:Alright, if you don't want me to implement LUA-based rain, which could take me a while, I may be able to give you a small high quality three-way map in six hours. I have a lot of other work to do, but I'll be able to make about thirty minutes for it somewhere. If you want to wait for the rain, it will be much longer.

PLEASE FIX LUA RAIN FOR ME!!!!!!! I WILL SEND YOU TREE MAP

aGorm

I'm learning LUA to do it, alongside GL. You're probably further along than I.

Maelstrom wrote:smoth: Yea thats a problem, it would basically be a lvl1 only game. Someone needs to make mobile factorys!

i will be working on it in the next week, after i get my deploy/pack-up scripts working properly :)

Pressure, you have any specific map requests? I'm sure you must have some good ideas.

neddiedrow wrote:Pressure, you have any specific map requests? I'm sure you must have some good ideas.

not really, i havent played a proper game of spring in months, most of what ive done in the past 3 has been AI testing and/or specific unit testing.

I'm learning LUA to do it, alongside GL. You're probably further along than I.

Man... I totaly doubt that. I can fiddel with values, but actully write code? Currently way beyond my scope. That and I currently have no computer or laptop to work on at home. And Im just realy busy anyway.

aGorm

I can't code either. Hurrah for very little knowledge outside of basic Java.

Saktoth wrote: What id also like is just maps that have reasonable metal placement. 90% of maps out there have absurd fractal cloud metal maps, or have too much metal, or none at all. Its a real shame that there are so many could-be-decent maps out there ruined by poor metal.

While on the topic, a lot of maps also have terrible wind rates as well that are far too high and promote greenfielding. A minimum above 3 or a max above 20 is just too high.

Exception: naval maps with high wind are fun. Gives a big incentive to take land that you can build on.

As for metal, I don't even get what's so hard about a good metal map. The basic "castles" approach of a global, low-grade metal and a wide extraction radius provides good gameplay on it's own, and yet half the maps with bad metal actually manage to be even _worse_ than this. Obviously, Castles had too much metal, but that was a problem of simply having too large metal level.

If you can't make a good patch-set-up, then just blanket the map.

Here is one of the ones I've been working on; and no, no water is supposed to be on the landmass.

Id flatten the central buildable areas more, otherwise you could have the same issues as mars in some mods. That and the irregularity isn't entirely necessary, and isnt necessary for it to look good.

Functionally, they are practically flat. That water you see ranges between one and two points below the remainder of the terrain, the lowlands are actually the same eight or nine points of height with slight variation.

Perhaps I should explain this a bit better...

This map is balanced with equivalent metal and start territory for three players. The water is a corrosive fluid which can eat through a commander from BA in about a minute - this is not to say amphibious units are useless, but you'll have to be very careful and support them with aircraft constructors. The rocky areas need a little work still, and I haven't decided which features to add to the map - I may insert Indestructible but Reclaimable mushrooms beneath the surface of the acid in areas, place a few huge trees from Blacklake for visuals, insert wreckage in the acid or merely go with some palmettos.

The height map needs about ten minutes of work, the texture map may still be changed a little, and then I'm on to the feature map.

Unless you're goign to add a visible representation makign it obvious the units are beign corroded I say get rid of the acid, or users will forget tis acid and send untis then go wtf when their coms blow up and decide to restart.

It also nukes shipyards.

I'm trying to get an effect going, though that may not make it into the release. Ships and shipyards are meant to be impossible to use... I'm simply experimenting with a different method of making an playing space which is not rectangular in Spring.

I'm going to do my best to prevent them from thinking it is anything other than acid, up to and including a huge flashing LUA warning.

Since nobody really cares about a good metal layout, good visuals, or a good concept I don't feel any qualms about making a more complex map. This is a three-way map with a solid play layout and a secondary play area which offers something only a few other maps have investigated - a risk zone which can be traversed. It's not jagged rock which is safe but can be traversed by spiders, see Speedmetal. It isn't insanely low water like Azure Ramparts which nothing can be done with. It is a risk zone.

neddiedrow wrote:
Since nobody really cares about a good metal layout, good visuals, or a good concept

what??