Spring RTS Engine

Parzival wrote:The problem with tracks is that to use them, they have to be built as units.

Features are probably a better idea, but I don't see an issue with it.
It'll require some ingenuity to rotate them appropriately, connect (replace types on creation) and especially curve (shaders maybe?).
You can also just draw on map, but then no 3D (although not sure what's possible with the current map shaders)

Yeah, probably just use [ and ] and make several degrees of tracks to deal with turning.

Also, ZK community seems intent on shooting this idea out of the sky. Probably gonna work more on spring forums from now on.

No, what you call "[" "]" (facing in Spring terminology) is definitely inadequate. You can rotate all units in 360 degrees using Spring.SetUnitRotation, which is the bare minimum you should use.
The problem is that you'll also want them to curve, like in the below picture, and that's the actually the hard problem #1.

The other hard problem is having them connect at arbitrary angles, and I'm not sure how to approach that part:


Note that unit attach will also require you to rotate pieces at least so it looks like the wagons are being pulled. It's not going to be trivial.

My position is moreso along the lines of I don't see how trains could improve gameplay. That said, it opens a lot of possibility for open ended gameplay thinking and I like your determination to see it through. The tank sized artillery shell is definitely a fun idea a la hitler. I'm sure there could be other novel uses too.

Traincars with shields delivering a full barrage of artillery vs an enemy front line perhaps? That could be reasonably frightening.

They can be a bit like ships on land (at least IRL WW2 armored trains were quite like that): a unit that is reasonably fast, reasonably armored, packs a punch (including it's own built-in AA), but is not maneuverable at all.

One of my thoughts was how do you keep a train on the tracks if it's getting shelled and then it came to me. Maglev and a wider base. That way and shock from incoming shells is distributed around a much larger area.

Similar to the stability of a pontoon boat as opposed to a motorboat.

And yeah, if the builders could lay tracks reasonably quickly, I envision traincars bristling with cannons doing full broadsides as they whisk by. That could be both effective and infuriating to your opponent :-D

A bit of an update on current plan:

-tracks will not be used, to much terra and building involved. No other factory in ZK has to pay metal to move

-Current plan is as follows:

Make train cars have to be guarding next car in line to move. Basically, conductor gets made and it can move by itself. However, any other car has to be guarding the next car in line in order to move. The cars will move in a way that makes them move right behind the next one (due to guarding behavior).

-Tracks will be replaced with extreme movement restrictions.

-Conductor may be upgrade able (morph) to make it gain speed bonuses

My suggestions:
1) Less planning, more coding. Create some simple boxes and start getting your behavior in.
2) Guarding is a poor solution for this. See some of the very first posts in this thread for better approaches.

What about the possibility of delivering units to the front lines? A much more efficient version of unit transporting