Spring RTS Engine

Would it be possible for units that have a friendly transport trying to pick them up to stop moving so that it can take them? I'd liek to be able to use air transports to bridge a gap then put a factories end rally point on the other side but as it is units will go to the pickup zone then try to find another way around with the transport trailing them and trying to pick them up as they go.

i thought you could set it so the transport would pick up units in an area and drop them in another or does it not work with the air transports?

it does, but say i set a unit to move to a place to be picked up then another place, it'l go to the first place, and the air transport will try to lift it, but before the air transport can catch it the unit will be en route to the second place (where you wanted it to go to after being lifted) and as such it will be uncatchable.

So you basically want to have the transport do it's thing (ie transport), and then have the unit start using it's own command que?
This could be solved by having a wait command.

no, he es talking about picking up a unit that is moving, (due to abc.).

when a transport tries to pick up a unit that is moving, ... or..

a transport, cant pick up a unit that is moving.

what he is asking for, is for the unit to be aware of the transport trying to pick it up... so, it stops it course, and waits for the transport. (ahum.. ala WC3).

What is proposed by zaphod is very usefull too tough.

another good thing.. is filters.. or presets... so you can set a zone pickup, and your commander or build kbots not being picked up.

A similar method used in Centrail Build AI, letting you issue individual orders to units, and then, when that job is done, they jump into the general queue orders... ah.. (so tranports dont loose the area load command...).

I've added a Wait command, so it will be possible to do what you say with the next release. The wait command doesn't have a button since i don't think it will be used very much (Otherwise all the icons will be at a different place again - I don't like that :) ).
It can be issued with the W key, and currently it only waits for a transport that picks it up, but this could be extended to other events on which it can wait...

I think rather than making the units stop, perhaps you should just make the transports able to pick up moving units. ie: the transport matches speed with the moving unit, and then lowers to pick it up. Would look cooler, and likely be more functional too.


... If you have put a wait option in, a "go" option would be pretty nice too.

So... you have a bunch of units ready to attack, you give them move orders to a staging area, give them the wait order, and then give them the attack order in their order que. Then, when units arrive at their staging area, they will wait for you to select them, and press the "go" button, and then they will launch their attack. If you have a number of groups, you can launch a coordinated attack.
ie: group 1 is kbot attack group. You give them the go order, and they make their way across the map. When they are half-way, you launch group 2, which is your flanking vehicle group. Now, both groups will hit their targets at the same time. You also have a bunch of aircraft waiting on a go-order to support your combat group in-case things turn against you...

Warlord Zsinj wrote:I think rather than making the units stop, perhaps you should just make the transports able to pick up moving units.

I totally agree.

Didn't we have a really long and really self-agreeing discussion about this some two months ago ? About how transports should be able to pick up and drop off units on the go ?

Set the to be picked up unit to stop = problem solved.

Let the transport pick up moving unit = problem solved

A combination of both = problem solved.

So Units like zippers stop since they are to fast for the transport, but bulldogs...

If that's is posibole, anyway...

If transports pick up moving units, won't that make it too powerfull rushing an atlas to snatch the enemies comms?

Also, if a transport is on repeat orders loading units on one side and unloading them on the other, wouldn't that make the transport pick up inocent units that were just passing?

Yet, i'm still not sure what to think of it.

Its easy enough to solve the comm problem. That was always a dirty (though funny) trick from TA; and I think most would be glad to see it disappear. Just give the commander laser bonuses against all transports. One or two hit-kills.
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As for the innocent units; potentially that could happen, but that would be stopped by having a smaller and more specific Loading Zone, so that there is less room for error.

The advantage of transports being able to pick units up on the move is that it makes transports far more combat ready, and simply easier to use. The next step is to make transports able to drop units off without losing speed at all, as I mentioned in a post a while ago.

Another solution: Transports can only pick up friendly units that are moving (because they are cooperating). Enemy units can not be picked up if they are moving. Maybe some really evil transports should be able to do that too, but in general they should not be able to do that.

Or something like that...

It's really coold that you can make a flying transport out of a normal one by picking it up with an atlas... you have to do everything manually, but it has it's uses...