Spring RTS Engine

i find air transportation to be a time consuming process... well, the unloading and loading part anyway. so i got a thinkin. would it be possible to have two seperate unloading commands, one with the ordinary unloading and one where the transport simple drops the unit from where it is flying... imo this would save time and be really cool. imagine dropping a few jeffys, watching them bounce a bit when the hit the ground and continue at stop speed to their destination! i also thought that dropping units would mean they would take a little damage from the drop to discourage this as a faster option wihtout consequence... sorry if this sounds silly... just thought it would be a cool thing to have!

Actually, that sounds major awesome ... I can easily imagine doing it with crawling bombs !

oh my god... commander bombing would be so much more awesome ... why didnt i think of that before!

I agree with this entirely.

I'm not sure how you would rationalise the fact that you are dropping units at high speed at their target without damaging them (perhaps apply some animation akin to the Plasma Reflector), but the gameplay implications of being allowed to do this are massive.

Finally, air transports would become a worthy combat-ready unit, able to swoop in and drop units into the fray. Previously, atlas transports were completely unfeasible for use in combat areas, as they took too long to load/unload, meaning that they were shot down very quickly, meaning that they were more of a risk to units. So they were relegated to non-combat tasks, which I think was rather a shame, seeing as air-dropped combat is a rather obvious fusion of having both ground and air force units.

Of course, I think it should be taken further; so that any units shot down in a transport shouldn't automatically die, but should rather fall to the ground, and still have the possibility of surviving the crash. Even more so if the transport runs the "plummet to the ground script". Of course, in this instance the unit would take damage, and would die, but it would mean that transports are a far more feasible, as the risk factor is reduced.
To extrapolate: Sure, now attacking with transports is far better, so I can send a group of 10 mav's in transports, and airdrop them into enemy territory. But it is still a huge risk if there is the chance that half of them will be shot down, and I lose 5 mav's before they are dropped. This way, if half are shot down, the majority of the shot down mav's would survive (albeit damaged). It also means that when a commander is shot down, it isn't the end of the game... ( @ commbombs)

But I don't think you should have two options. It gets a bit confusing, and the fast drop option makes the slow drop option redundant anyhow.
I think if this is implemented (which it definitely should be), the normal, slow drop mode should be replaced.

I don't think there is a setback in this case. The normal unload would still be an option.

That option is 'unit bombing' not another unloading method.

the transport unit would quick unload from area attack button. :)

I'm not so sure... Its a nice idea but It would need tweking.

We cant realy add a new button into the interface just becasue you want to fast drop... It will just get cluttered up with hundreds of buttons! However maybe it should be that if the transport is shot at it should do a rapid drop insted...
Also it would be nice if units therefor didn't necesarly die when the atlas goes tits up.

Still dont mind me! Im just rambaling...

aGorm

i dont want 100 buttons... just one...

i think that units not dying (especially the com) when transports are killed is a good idea... for larger more expensive units anyway. would it be possible to have only a selected set of units survive such an occurance?

having two buttons, 'drop' and 'unload', would be necessary because you wouldnt want your com/con kbot to unessarily lose health when just moving the unit from one area to another... but i dont think that is the real issue.

this is a pretty big change in regards to gameplay... is this something that people would want to change?

Am I crazy, or is it hard/impossible to unload a group of atlas at the same time?

EDIT: For instance.... Having 5 lightning tanks loaded onto 5 atlases, you have all 5 atlases selected, and try to click unload and then a location. Only one tank gets dropped because it is now in the way of the others. Maybe modifying to code to drop into a sort of formation would prevent this.

no it's not.

drag the cursor so that it makes a green circle. then release and it drops the units on the circle.

yeah, hot dropping units would be great (maybe a slight armor boost for the atlas, but that's a different issue)

it helps that units can fire while being transported (pick up a gollie and fly it around the map <.<)

shnorb, are you aware if the "repeat" option and its functionality?
I barely find it slow.. transports drop its loads very quickly using this automation feature. (in comparition to manual unload).

About the drop feature, it doesnt sound that good to me.
I rather a hardened lvl2 transport, that can stand some fire for accomplishing HOT unloads.

OTOH, a lvl2 transport with the ability to unload its cargo using parachutes, sounds great. But the "in air" damage should be different than normal damage, as well as parachute failure probs(mid/high).
No fun in 20 zumos pleasantly landing past defense lines, aside your comm. and fusions.

I like this idea, somewhat. the parachute idea is pretty good, we could even have a small hp for it( the parachute), so if it shot down, they fall and lose a litte hp. (moving away from unnesesary fueturs)
The shooting while flying is a bug thats gonna be fixed. What tank shoots while it's still in transport?

I see this as an accessory to improoving the sorts of tactics that could be employed for thgins like blitzkrieg, very useful if you want to quickly send some untis in and cause damage before the enemy knwos there's anyoen there. Perhaps they can do a swopp and load thing too.

And if the thign where the untis fall fi the transports shot, then I thinkthey should sink in water and explode on the sea floor.

This has already been implemented in OTA by none other than zwzsg himself. Behold:



well damn. Here's a direct link: http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthr ... 002&page=1

yes, but i'm going to hazard a guess that the way zwzsg did it involved some very fancy scripting.

so far, i don't think many beyond the most basic scripts have worked well in spring.

NICE! i think seen the treahd before.
Thats how it should be. You attack whit a couple of goliaths (that are to big to be parachuted down from a plane, while bulldogs are falling ( whit parachutes ) down among them. Or using the goliaths to destroy all AA and drop em in the middle of the base^^

It might be pretty easy to make it drop the unit without an extra button. If yo u click attack, the plane checks to see if it's holding a unit and if so, drops it.

Another thing I can see with it is picking up enemy units and dropping them on each other.

Parachutes would look rather strange, especially in the futuristic world of TA.
Something along the lines of the way the airdropped troopers land in the Final Fantasy movie would be better.

Anyway, as I see it, the aerial drop is so much better than the slow unload that it completely makes it redundant. I wouldn't want to unload my unit slowly when I can quickly drop them.
I say, just one button - unload. You click unload on an area, and it drops the unit there. Air drops it.

The unit would just have some glowing orb animation aroundd it, as if it was being protected from the impact of the crash.

mongus wrote:shnorb, are you aware if the "repeat" option and its functionality?
I barely find it slow.. transports drop its loads very quickly using this automation feature. (in comparition to manual unload).

yeah i know about the repeat option... and i know it isnt as slow as i might have made it sound, but im mainlly talking in regards to combat, and you need something way faster, since their armour is so craptastic.

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject:

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It might be pretty easy to make it drop the unit without an extra button. If yo u click attack, the plane checks to see if it's holding a unit and if so, drops it.

Another thing I can see with it is picking up enemy units and dropping them on each other.

Aculy, since atlas dosent have a attack option, since it dosent have a wepon. And is half of the buttons that anoter unit have, for instance, a builder. BTW how those the button system work? those it has a limted amount of buttons, and they are always on the same spot like in OTA(the real one...)

Parachutes would look rather strange, especially in the futuristic world of TA.
Something along the lines of the way the airdropped troopers land in the Final Fantasy movie would be better.

Anyway, as I see it, the aerial drop is so much better than the slow unload that it completely makes it redundant. I wouldn't want to unload my unit slowly when I can quickly drop them.
I say, just one button - unload. You click unload on an area, and it drops the unit there. Air drops it.

The unit would just have some glowing orb animation aroundd it, as if it was being protected from the impact of the crash.

Parachutes could happen, we use em now, dont we?
I was thinking that instead of glowing orbs and parachutes, we could just make the plane go closer to the ground the more it aproches the area, then when low egnuff, it just drops it 2 meters of the ground, it falls a loses like 10 hp... and then attacks, while the athlas flyes back. could be a problem in moutiness terrain( ever seen it flying true the ground?) but that could be solved... and btw they dont use the green orb thing when not in a hot zone...