Spring RTS Engine

Felix, I'd rather not derail this thread, because I really want to see better transport abilities for Spring. So, if you want, we can start a new thread, or take the discussion to IRC?

Pxtl: first line was directed at felix, the rest at you.

I also don't think that the "transport hopping around" is always the most efficient option, as well as being the most ugly option. Nonetheless, I can see why some people prefer it, which is why I agree that there should be options for modders.

The most important thing for transports is definitely how they unload rather then load. Ultimately, while it's ugly when transports hop around to pick up units, it isn't slower, as you said. However, the manner in which units are dropped off directly impacts gameplay, in that it is slow, clumsy, and generally completely useless for any drops in the heat of combat. This has to be the biggest issue needed tobe addressed.

^Aye, I just played a game where i Had a quite sucessfull airdrop into the heart of the enemies bas, though I feel it would have been moreso had the transports dropped more orderly, somthing like..


Drop
Move forward just far enough to drop the next unit
repeat

Area unload

If area unload solved this problem, then I wouldn't have brought it up, would I? Quite evidently area unload does not solve the problem.

esteroth12 wrote:one thing that would be nice is if you could order the units to enter the transport, rather than ordering a transport to pick them up... it would be useful if you are just sending a small squad once, or a transport that holds many units, but you can't use the area load command because of units you don't want it to pick up.

I requested this ages ago...

i shouldv quoted firecrack

Using area unload with a group of level 1 transports is actually fairly quick in the tests i've done - they don't hover about for very long and go straight to landing. But I agree with you on introducing new unload methods for transports - particularly multitroop transports like the dragonfly in aa.

I've given a bit of thought, and think the following unload methods would cover most of the desired game situations.


1) Land-> unload

The transport lands once and units exit the transport via 1 or more exit points defined in the script.


2) CrashLand -> unload:

The transport would slam into the ground, units would stream out from designated exit points and move to positions immediately around the transport. We could add in tags to say how much damage is done to any structure or unit in the way of this, and how much health is taken off the transport in the process. This way the transport must have a certain amount of health to land intact.

3) FlyOver -> drops

This would treat the transport like a bomber except it bombs troops which land fairly quickly in a straight line. We could have some tags to dictate the drop velocity - e.g slow for parachutes. Although i can see this being abused with certain unit types like crawling bombs.

For loading units it would be nice if units would go to the transport, but it has less effect on gameplay so I think the unload methods should be prioritized. We already have the flight behaviour needed for Flyover drops so it should be quite plausable to get this coded without too many problems. Crash landing will need some new flight behaviour code added - it's more work but this would definitely be worth it.

I'd be willing to actually do something for this - but i'd like to know who coded the movement/landing for aircraft so i can discuss this further first.

Hmm, airdrops
That would be good for my mod...

Yeah the airdrop idea makes me feel all funny in my pants...

i can see it now!

Trasports flying over the base Droping level 3 units, Landing in buildings, Buildings distoryed by ballistic falling units. They land leaveing a trail of dust,
shooting at the power takeing out the defence. that'd be a grade battle end.

Don't forget half of it all gets blown up by flak

No AA would mean death for everyone then...

I can see it now, the soon-to-be-famed Fido/Warrior drop in AA...

Player 1: "a:Well, I've pushed him back beyond my lines. Sure, it's cost me AA, but as he is going KBots, I'll be fine!"
Player 2: "a:What the hell are those clustered red dots on our radar?"
Player 1: "a:Probably some wandering L1 units trying to flank us."
Player 3: "I have one word for you: Duck."

-Airdrops commence as Player 3 runs forty L2 KBots into Player 1's base-

Day wrote:Area unload

Problem with that is the transports randomly move to spots in the unload area for each unloaded unit, slowing things down. If they quckly dropped all units on the move this wouldnt be a problem.

if you dont drag out a area and just use a single point

Min3mat wrote:if you dont drag out a area and just use a single point

That generally works, though it can get nasty with larger units or units being dropped into a threat zone.

Pxtl wrote:

TehRoxxor wrote:Actually, I'm ok with how units are picked up. It's different, but its not bad, IMO. Maybe it's a bit micro-intensive, but having your transport move towards the units is a up to taste.

What's really terrible, however, is how long it takes to unload 10 units. Really, I'd love if they'd simply quickly get dropped off in a line and the transport zooms off for another load. And I don't mean dropped one at a time in a line, I mean the transport simply swoops down and unloads units on the run.

At the moment, it seems to carefully select the prettiest spots of ground to drop units onto.

Just use 10 1-unit transports.

Works good in AA and looks freaking cool to boot. 10 transports are less likely to be shot down than a single one, especially if they're split up.

However, the "stationary transport sits on the ground while units walk up to it and are automatically loaded as they come in range" would be very useful for non-AA mods, I'm thinking.

Anyone know what determines how fast a transport goes up/down (Y-axis) as it drops off its payload? The ability to change this, so that they can unload pretty much as soon as they reach the target site would be an awesome addition. I could make my air transports much more effective.

I'm currently looking for the variable used to control the landing speed, and in searching i noticed this..

//when we reach correct height and are upright
if(owner->pos.distance(wantedPos)<8 && owner->updir.dot(UpVector)>0.99){
//unload unit

...
}

I think it would be nice to have a tag for the tolerance on how upright an aircraft should be to pick up or load units to replace that 0.99 figure. I suspect if it were lower picking up units would be faster. Coupled with a fast landing speed we could have some very swift combat transports :D

Any chance we could get air transports that actually sync with what they're carrying, and vice versa? For an idea what I'm talking about, pick up an AA krogoth.

You mean while the krogoth or other unit is still moving?

The worst cases is if you pick up an object, and if something interupts the drop-off, the picked unit suddendly reappears at the starting point.