Spring RTS Engine

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 15:19**

Foxomaniac wrote:people, people.

Caydr reduced craterboost and cratermultiply to ZERO and not IMPULSEFACTOR.

A Guardian will still swatter enemy units away, just not deform the ground - try it with 100 guardians, the ground will be unscathed.

I personally think this is a good change, the pathfinding lag is a LOT less now.

And er, I do hate the new EMG visual for the flash :<.

BUT
Craters were fun too !

At least the large and very large plasma/cannon projectiles should produce craters. At least teh stationary ones. Come on, please.

Having craters is a unique feature of Sprin, i dont know any other engine whre you can dig you enemy in by bomabrdment.
All other engines just allow for superficial textures or very shalow crates. The deformaable terrain of Spring is a FEATURE. Keep it in !!!

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 16:20**

Plasma on high traj, nukes, commplosions, and bertha-types still damage terrain. I can't make artillery damage the terrain or else it'll be on high and low trajectory and nasty. I don't like maps becoming a crater fest.

Weapons still have impulse, just it's a little over a tenth of what it was before. Some units have half of their old impulse, for instance Janus and Leveler, since that was a big part of their effectiveness. While they won't send stuff flying, they'll stop or slow down most units.

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 16:23**

This is not about AA but the GEM figther you included and the afterburner effect... it dramatically increases the particle count up to a point where no other particles are displayed (Argh was mentioning the same thing with his nuclear explosion). Also the flame is not really visible, but that's a side effect. Imagine you have 500 fighters each of them pumping 3 particles out every 50ms, that makes 30.000 particles each second which is more than spring can handle atm. You should really think about this before adding tons of visual effects. Let's assume each particle has a lifespan of 500 ms, that's still 15k particles at the same time. It's not really an effect generator yet... I'm mentioning it because you included your fighter in the test version.

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 16:28**

Yea, particle count should be kept in mind.
While the new Pyro "idle flame" looks really brilliant this unit is usually build in swarms, which might cause quite some fps-lag..

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 16:32**

Pyro has a very, very low particle count, you should be able to have lots of those onscreen at any time.

The GEM fighter's particles will be removed from the final version, I was just messing around with the effect but I never got anything I was happy with. The particle system is still too immature... like, there's no way to make fire, you have to make a heatcloud. But a heatcloud doesn't even show up unless there's smoke too, because what you're seeing is the heatcloud making the smoke red... Or something. I'm probably completely wrong but that's the conclusion I came to.

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 16:58**

That's alpha blending. Try to mess around with the heat and maxheat values.

Oh and the red glowing parts are from the smoke2 effect. It's glowing smoke (I mentioned that).

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 17:30**

Messed around with heat and maxheat until I was blue in the face... no values seemed to have any effect.

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 17:49**

hows the shield in the 2.2? can you remove that transparent thing from it?
It starts getting annoying/ugly when you have many shields...

It would be okay if the color didnt go more and more solid what more shields you had in one spot... But that is engine issue...

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 17:53**

Still has transparent thing so you can see where you have coverage. On my computer at least, it's not bad looking, there's a randomized cloud effect that looks pretty decent. Maybe your graphics card is old or ati... otherwise it shouldn't be solid.

Echhh... you know you've been doing too much testing when, in 3do builder, you catch yourself typing ".give armjeth" in the open model dialogue

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 17:55**

Its not solid, but it starts getting more and more solid when you have multiple shields at same place.

Shields shouldnt be visible that much... only when they get hitted by something :/

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 18:39**

Release it already!

Qucik, before the spider-gators get me!
*NM, FOX IS STUPID*

Posted: **29 Sep 2006, 18:51**

Where are we getting this "250"?

Code: Select all

[ARMSNIPE_WEAPON]
{
name=SniperWeapon;
rendertype=0;
lineofsight=1;
turret=1;
noradar=1;
range=950;
reloadtime=14;
energypershot=500;
weaponvelocity=2000;
areaofeffect=4;
beamweapon=1;
targetMoveError=0.5;
intensity=0;
thickness=0;
rgbcolor=0 0 0;
SoundStart=sniper2;
SoundHit=DFhit;
explosiongenerator=custom:FLASH1nd;
impulsefactor=0.123;
impulseBoost=0.123;
craterMult=0;
craterBoost=0;
NoSelfDamage=1;
CollideFriendly=0;
[DAMAGE]
{
default=2500;
COMMANDERS=750;
KROGOTH=6000;
ORCONE=6000;
SEADRAGON=6000;
BLACKHYDRA=6000;
MECHS=3500;
L1SUBS=5;
L2SUBS=5;
L3SUBS=5;
}
}

That's four hits to kill an inexperienced comm.. Maybe it should be higher, I suppose. They ARE snipers after all, and if you manage to catch a comm in the field, AND happen to have snipers on hand, he better be in deep trouble.

Can't release yet, working on a couple new things.

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 01:24**

Just finished some more extensive testing of AA lvl 1 sea balance in the new beta. I think it's really good, and people are going to like it (this version will see the end of the skeet rush as an effective tactic). I have a couple of minor concerns, however:
*It seems to me that torpedo launchers might be fps exploitable like vipers were because their torpedos don't explode at the end of their range (in game, several times torpedos hit my stuff that was well out of range when they were being force fired at their maximum range).
*Also, I think torp launchers might have a tad bit too much range (they match or come very close to matching crusaders). This makes it possible to porc with them and require lvl 2 sea to break the porc. Didn't get to much level 2 sea, cause the map was coast to coast, but conquerers pwn lvl 1 sea (ships + defenses), which is probably a good thing.

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 01:29**

I'm wondering, will units cycle through shades of green when building anymore? The static green looks kindof...unTA.

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 01:48**

LordMatt wrote:Just finished some more extensive testing of AA lvl 1 sea balance in the new beta. I think it's really good, and people are going to like it (this version will see the end of the skeet rush as an effective tactic). I have a couple of minor concerns, however:
*It seems to me that torpedo launchers might be fps exploitable like vipers were because their torpedos don't explode at the end of their range (in game, several times torpedos hit my stuff that was well out of range when they were being force fired at their maximum range).
*Also, I think torp launchers might have a tad bit too much range (they match or come very close to matching crusaders). This makes it possible to porc with them and require lvl 2 sea to break the porc. Didn't get to much level 2 sea, cause the map was coast to coast, but conquerers pwn lvl 1 sea (ships + defenses), which is probably a good thing.

LordMatt has a point, torpedos might be a bit overpowered. What would be better is if I could put the Monsoon and Maelstrom into Level1 Sea and have them act as near crusader range defense. That way, torpedo can still be used to defend against subs, while a balanced crusader/sub raid can still kill lvl1 porcers.

Ive got a big problem though, I'm experiencing the turret barrel seperation from body while firing bug with the Monsoon. It also happens with a hovercraft. Anybody got a clue as to why that happens?

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 03:37**

The big core amphi tank (arrow?) can driver _under_ the wrecks of other units. (on land) Just saw it in game, maybe other amphi units can do this too.

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 04:00**

I'm wondering, will units cycle through shades of green when building anymore? The static green looks kindof...unTA.

AF says the wireframes NEVER flashed... I think he's smoking something.

Anybody got a clue as to why that happens?

Try removing any moving parts from the weapon firing animation, or just generally mess with that part of the script... it'll go away eventually, but I never really figured out what specifically caused it.

Never seen this driving-under-wreck bug, is it only the Poison Arrow that does it?

Anyone tried out the new flamethrowers? Any comments? Like, do they still seem to work properly, etc... I adjusted some things like reducing the "shot" velocity a fair bit, mostly to improve the appearance, and I'm worried I might've accidentally made them not function the same.

Amphibious Complex is no longer underground
Razorback no longer deforms ground, weapon bugs fixed
Sniper damage vs. commanders increased to 1025 (750)
Increased fighter sight range
Minor enhancement to core crasher texture

Reducing torpedo launcher range to 550 (575), increasing EMG brightness, and a couple other things.

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 05:10**

The pilot light on the pyro should be more visible, right now it just looks like a bunch of smoke is covering it. IMO, the flame effects are pretty good. But seriously, somebody make the wireframes flash again!

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 07:13**

I didn't even see the pilot light or the smoke from it on the pyro but it's possible I was zoomed out too far. The new pyro flame seems a lot longer in length. Did the weapon's effective range change at all? It might be a tad less damage since it didn't totally tear through stuff, but I didn't totally obsessively micro them like I usually do. Anyone else tried them on bases?

Posted: **30 Sep 2006, 19:16**

pyro works fine as far as I can tell, I do think it'd be a good unit to get that new avoid hitting friendlies but when the weapon hits don't do damage tag( there's probably a shorter name for that

).
Same for the recluse I suppose, but since they use rockets it might look silly.

Spring RTS Engine

Absolute Annihilation 2.11