Spring RTS Engine

Guessmyname wrote:I've just stumbled upon this in the tafansite. First coloum, thrid down:

http://www.tafansite.com/index.php?page ... libGUgPSAw

Apparently its a Battletech mech 'stone rhino'

Yes, That one is anatomically a Stone Rhino, and it even carries the IS name. There are other ones at that page with BTech origins too.

once again, boredom has taken over:



853 polies

PM me if you want it

The long and anxiously awated is here! Well, maybe not. Anyway, here is the list of mechs already done by bob and co.
The following mechs have already been done:
Light:
Clan:
Avar
Cougar
Firemoth
Jenner IIC
Mist Lynx
Locust IIC
Snowfox
Kit Fox
Incubus

Innershpere:
Cheetah
Fireball
Hammer
Hollander
Javelin
Owens
Raptor
Tarantula
Thorn

Medium:
Clan:
Arctic Wolf
Battle Cobra
Conjurrr
Shadow Cat

Innersphere:
Bushwacker
Hunchback
Uziel

Heavy:
Clan:
Cauldron Born
Hellbringer
Timber Wolf
Summoner
Mad Dog

Innershpere:
Archer
Avatar
Catapult
Warhammer

Assualt:
Clan:
Stone Rhino
Marauder IIC

Innershpere:
Atlas
Ontos

I sense some corrections are needed as to side (I coulda swore Atlas was innershpere, but he had it as clan, at least for side in the fbi if not actually built by them in a factory). Also, if any of the Clan mechs are without clan names, do supply the proper one.

Basically this list says "any mech outside of these for now".

Edit: Corrections put in. Thanks Gryph

The Uller should be the Kit Fox. Uller is the inner sphere name, Kit Fox is the Clan name.
Same for the Hellhound, should be called the Conjurer. Patrick's battletech archive has a chart of clan -> IS names.

Myst Lynx -> Mist Lynx
I've never seen Hellbringer as two words, but that's just nitpicking...

The Atlas is indeed an Inner Sphere design. Designed by Alexandr Kerensky before he left to found the clans, yes, but very much an IS totem design. A favorite of house Steiner, IIRC.

...I seem to remember having heard about the Avar, and the Ontos, but they aren't showing up in my mech list in Heavymetal pro, so I'm a little suspicious.

If you want suggestions, I've got some for ya. Clan:

Black Lanner (55 ton Jade Falcon omnimech, medium)
Blood Asp (90 ton Star Adder omni, assault)
Stormcrow (AKA, Ryoken. 55 tons, omni)
Adder (AKA Puma, 35 tons, omni)


IS:
Urbanmech (30 tons, light. Looks like a trash can, you probably know it)
Fafnir (100 tons, assault)
Griffin (55 tons, medium)
Sunder (90 tons, assault, omni)
Rifleman (65 tons, heavy fire support)
King Crab (100 tons, assault, close range oriented)
Jagermech (One of its variants would be nice, at least.)
Highlander (90 tons, assault)
Awesome (80 ton assault)
Centurion (50 ton medium)
Marauder (75 ton heavy)

If Spring supports melee at all, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to see a melee mech like the Hatchetman, Axman or even something like the Pillager...

And... I'm actually only here because Gnome pointed me at the thread, so if I'm making no sense, just yell at me and I'll go away


Oh, and if you want to put in the Dragonfly, DONT. Just dont. That name still confuses ME.

People with extensive knowledge of Battletech are just as wanted as people with extensive ability to model mechs. And some inspired mapmakers would also be nice, some people who could do proper mech walk animations, a couple more weapon scripters even.

Anyone who wants to model a mech (or has a model of a mech), tell me the name, tonnage, and roll and I'll start getting a list up in the first post so we don't get duplicate effort here. Try not to go to far over 800 pollies total on the largest mechs. It will probably be balanced so that mechs aren't the most numerous units on the battlefield, but still expect dozens per player.

When modelling try to keep the primary weapon configuration in mind and have it look like its mounting those weapons. If your not sure on its armament pm me or post here and I'll get it to you with positions asap.

Is some modellors can't texture for any reason let us know and hopefully we can find someone who could get it done for you.

Don't overload yourselves now!

Jes' one more thought --

Do you have any plans on how you're going to handle omnis/mechs with multiple variants, if at all?

I'm curious.

wee! I'm gonna try to crank out the following:
Ares Medium Tank (Tracked 40ton) <--generic medium tank
Athena Combat Vehicle (Tracked 75ton) <--Dual Gauss=pwnage
Epona Pursuit Tank (Hover 50ton) <--nice raider
Mars Assault Vehicle (Tracked 100ton) <--friggin' King of tanks
Mithras Light Tank (Tracked 25ton)
Odin Scout Tank (Wheeled 20ton)
Oro Heavy Tank (Tracked 60ton) <--generic heavy tank
Shamash Recon Vehicle (Hover 11ton) <--The hover-weasel of BTech
Svantovit I.F.V (Hover 35ton)
Zorya Light Tank (Tracked 35ton) <--weird, but cool
Mars (Clan tracked 100ton)
Alacorn Mk. IV (IS tracked 90ton)

Okay, I've made some changes, I won't be doing these after all, but I will be doing these instead.

When I complete a model (This mod is going to use the Cavedog textures, yes?) I'll edit this post. Clans FTW!

I'm going to model a Bushwacker on the account that I've encoutered some in a Mech - something (Commander I think) demo

I know that the site I'm goiing to post is a little bit ridiculous, but many of the models are pretty accurately porportioned, and they have all-around angle shots of a LOT of mechs. http://www.brickcommander.com/ This should probably tickle the lego-mod people too if they checked it out.

@Gryph: Currently I'm aiming to just get mechs in with their primary loadout. Adding in secondary loadouts is something I've decided to think about later.

@FizWizz: Um, hold on that for a bit. He has done many aircraft and vehicles as well. I think I better get those lists up today.

On textures, bob has created a custom texture set. Its not entirelly different from the cavedog one, just has some modifications to make texturing mechs a little better. I'll get that uploaded somewhere so people can use it in texturing. I was thinking at first that we should start a whole new texture pack for it (based on camo schemes ), but now that would mean retexturing everything thats already been done. Don't know how bob would feel about that, and everyone in this team who would have to do the work.
Heh, this texture thing is the only thing that makes me want to call it off until the NUF. No more texture limit would be nice.

@Guessmyname: The bushwacker is already modelled.

fine, I'll wait . All of these vehicles have GOT to get into the mod though... except the Mithras I suppose.

I am insane.

I just modelled this on a whim. Again, PM me if you want the model

wowee! 5 Miniguns O,o i want that! I'll make a army of em! =D

Well, I've been hard at work the last couple days and I must say, I am very happy I have no tests coming up or papers due next week.

And now, the list of non-mechs, minus builders, plants, and infrastructure.
The following non-mech vehicles have already been done:
Light:
Clan:
Avar (35 Ton Assault VTOL)
Asshur (Artillery Spotter)
Cheetah (25 Ton Combat VTOL)
Elemental (Standard Power Armour)
Elemental (Machine Gun Variant)
Gabriel (Scout Hovercraft)
Gunship (Light Attack VTOL)
Mithras (Light Battle Tank)
Odin (Scout Tank)
Zorya (Light Battle Tank)
Svantovit (35ton Hover Tank)

Innershpere:
Badger (Tracked Tank)
Donar (Assualt Hellicopter)
Galleon (Light Battle Tank)
H7 Warrior (Attack Hellicopter)
Harraser (Light Missile Platform)
HawkMoth (Assault Helicopter)
Boomerang (Spotter Plane)
Gaurdian (Fighter)
Power Armor (Standard Power Armour)
Power Armor (Flamer Variant)
Kestrel Warrior (Light VTOL)
Mantis (Light Attack VTOL)
Maulter (Hover APC)
Pinto (Attack VTOL)
Savannah Master (Fast Scout Hovercraft)
Seydlitz (20 Ton Assault VTOL)
Skulker (Wheeled Scout Tank)
Sprint IIC (Light Scout VTOL)
Striker (Light Missile Tank)
Saladin (35ton Hover Tank)

Medium:
Clan:
Batu (40 Ton Bomber)
Sulla (45 Ton Assault Bomber)
Epona (50ton Hover Tank)
Hachiman (50 ton Medium Tank)
Ku (50 ton Medium Tank)

Innersphere:
Bulldog (60 ton Medium Tank)
Mechbuster (50 Ton Aircraft)
Regulator (45ton Hover Tank)

Heavy:
Clan:
Sabutai (75 Ton Assault Bomber)

Innershpere:
Shilone (65 Ton Aerotech)
StingRay (60 Ton Aerotech)
Transgressor (75 Ton Aerotech)
LRM Carrier (60 ton Vehicle)
SRM Carrier (60 ton Vehicle)

Assualt:
Clan:
jengiz (80 Ton Aerotech)
Kirghiz (100 Ton Assault Bomber)

Innershpere:
Chippewa (90 Ton Aerotech)
Long Tom (Mobile Artillery)
Stuka (100 Ton Aerotech)

Other
Clan:
Anhur (Mech Transport)
Overlord (dropship)
Union (dropship)

I have a feeling there are several errors there. Perhaps some in side, but I think most in class.

In other news, I have had some success ironing out the scripting in both aiming and a new heat system. Irreconcilable conflicts means individual mechs will focus their attacks on one target rather than fire at different things with either arm as what they target with their torso. Just blame it on them not being leet enough pilots .
And on the subject of heat, I have found a way we can have maps affect the heat efficiency of the mechs! We are going to jack windspeeds value for it. This means no wind generators in the TA sense, but who cares! For this to work properly we need maps made for this mod with constant min-max windspeeds tailored to how hot the map should be. I'm going to spend a little more time thinking about it and then give some guidline values of what will be cold, normal, and hot. Of course you may choose to set windvalue's min-max so that the "temperature" of the map changes. I'll try to program it so that this works.

Also, some things to start thinking about for when we get to discussing them later. The build tree: Right now I'm thinking start with a stationary dropship (yes, it makes sense, big ones don't fly about planets much) that makes conmechs and perhaps some scouts. These would build all starting buildings, mech, aircraft, and vehicle. Rather than create aircraft and vehicles to fill the builder role in their tree, we will just have mech builders (which I know do exist in the Battletech universe). First lvl will have mostly light and medium, but possibly some low tech heavies (at least for innershpere). Second lvl mostly medium and heavy with some low tech assualt, but there can also be more advanced light mechs in there. The third probably few or no light, few mediums, heavy and mid-advanced assualt. Something along those lines at least. This is one of the more vague parts of my planning, but I am hoping for a somewhat simple tech tree. The balance of weight classes comes naturally from the fact that light units can still carry some heavy weaponry (like Pumas, which are fast, small, and carry 2 ER PPCs. Throw out your one assault mech and watch it die to a couple lights that outrange it? You'll be smarter next time).
When thinking about this, do realize the playstyle is going to be different than TA's. Preserving units and avoiding prolonged engagements is going to be a good idea for most units, rather then sending 200 units at the enemy base, then following up with another 50 as that one gets torn apart and tears apart. Guarding your dropship is going to be desirable because its easily a favored place to fight, but just turtling at home isn't going to work when the artillary roles into position.

Cost balancing: What are we going to base this one? There are sources to get costs from, but how are we going to work them in? Should we stick with the 2 resource system? Or drop to 1 and perhaps use the second for stuff like highering mercenaries (and maybe the start dropship wreckages will be reclaimable to get some, and perhaps generate a little on their own. Controlled and very limited, but a fun little addition).

Ammo: There is a chance I can put in an ammo system, when they run out they would have to reload at an mfb or dropship, or it might end up being a simpler reload after time period one. Do we want this? I'll say whether it can be done or not when I find some stuff out. For now remember to just think about it.

Weapon using resources: I'm considering removing this. Mechs are energy self-sufficient, so needing energy to fire doens't make sense. Heat issues will limit them (on most maps). As far as missiles and ballistics taking resources (if we go one resource, we can't pull from the C-Bill pool to fire missiles ), if I do implement an ammo system that will take care of it.

omfg AWESOME! heating weapons, limited ammo, big fat mechs...what more can u ask for!

Jump jets and passive sensor mode. Still no way to get those (yet).

*bows to archangels awesomeness*

*sigh* After looking through the code for the purpose of finding out what values it gives for windspeed I discovered that it won't even give that unless the unit is a windgenerator (and of course I didn't discover that until I ahd spent hours figuring out what I needed from their formula). Seems the map temperatur based heat system is on hold. I am however thinking about what would be needed to get the value in a map and get a unit to be able to read it. If I do figure out how to do that I'll try to make it in such a way that someone could set any number of different map values to feed to a unit.

Seems I read the code wrong. Those who have been through it probably know its all to easy. Heat system based on map heat defined by tempurature will be implemented (and easily changed if a new tempurature tag gets added). Now all that is left is to find out if I can detect if the unit is being loaded, and then perhaps implement some kind of ammo and damage system.

Mapmakers: If we have any interested in making maps for this, the minwind and maxwind suggest value range to use is anything over. A value of 50 will be normal heat sink efficiency. 1 is the coldest you can get as 0 will cause crashes and negative will cause undesired behavior and would make heatsinks 50 times more efficient, so I scripted it to just change those to 1. 100 would be rather hot and half heat sink efficiency. To get the heat efficiency you want decide on a percentage and get tempurature as 50/%. So for 120% efficiency 50/120%=~41.6 map temp. And yes, you can use floats (90% sure). I'd like at least some maps with stable tempuratures, minwind=maxwind, but you can vary it, just be sure to calculate efficiency for both max and min. And put in the description that tempurature varies. Also put map tempurature in the description like "cold", "very hot", something like that at least, or an exact tempurature if you want.

units can detect if they are loaded with sfxocuppy or something like that. Ammo can be done using static-vars.

Resupply system: when loaded increase the ammo static-vars a bit, but up to a max (pretty sure the max bit is possible)