Spring RTS Engine

I experienced 2 problems in my last game, which I just wanted to share with you:

1. The jammer tower makes all my units barely visible, this is annoying cause you cannot find units you're searching that good.

2. This satellite thing in core's hover-factory has blocked my build position in the middle of my base. Can this be fixed?

Regards, jeykey :)

Agree about cloaked units. Never used hovers enough to know about the other thing. There's a real problem distinguishing cloaked units - a whole bunch of stuff hiding under a cloaker is really hard to disinguish. I'd love to have an alternate cloaking effect - maybe something similar to the stun/fire effect, but black. That might be easier.

Either way, in a similar vein, I think the Arm stun-self-destruct crawler needs a bigger model, or a different sunken/cloaked effect, as it's really hard to distinguish from a Flea. In general, it just looks too small for a unit as expensive as it is.

Pxtl wrote: Either way, in a similar vein, I think the Arm stun-self-destruct crawler needs a bigger model, or a different sunken/cloaked effect, as it's really hard to distinguish from a Flea. In general, it just looks too small for a unit as expensive as it is.

Yes, a bigger model would be cool, as they got lost so easily...

bigger model = easier to hit

I remember discussing the addition of a little platter of 'glow' below crawlers to make them easier to see, but we forgot about it, and it never got implemented. What do you guys think about this?

Why not implement the glow with the actual unit itself? I think it turned out pretty well with the roach; its a lot easier to see now when it isn't cloaked.

I could do a tick model pretty quickly as well. I have a couple ideas already. But yeah: bigger = easier to hit (unless you hack the hitsphere which is not an ideal solution), which isn't very desirable for ticks.

Also: "satellite thing" is kind of vague. I haven't played hover much yet either, do you mind explaining a little bit more what that is and/or how to recreate it?

maackey wrote:Why not implement the glow with the actual unit itself? I think it turned out pretty well with the roach; its a lot easier to see now when it isn't cloaked.

Cloaked roaches are nearly invisible even to their owners.

...Maybe we could just increase the opacity on the cloaker effect and redo the tick model.

maackey wrote:
Also: "satellite thing" is kind of vague. I haven't played hover much yet either, do you mind explaining a little bit more what that is and/or how to recreate it?

I mean the unit "Owl: altitude spy-drone", it flies high above other units and works as a radar. It can only be destroid by a special missle (don't know which, tactical nuke?).

oh, I suppose I forgot to mention that I completely agree with the cloaker effect. Mass shields have a similar problem except they completely block out everything inside them when they get too dense.

EDIT: the Owl is in the *gunship* lab, not the hover (which I personally don't think it should be in anyway). It has a very short los, so it doesn't really work like a radar. It is destroyed by the long range missile towers. As for the build position blocking, I'm not entirely sure whats causing that. Perhaps the widget that shows a little marker on the ground?

maackey wrote: the Owl is in the *gunship* lab, not the hover

Yes right, I mixed up the names...

maackey wrote: As for the build position blocking, I'm not entirely sure whats causing that.
Perhaps the widget that shows a little marker on the ground?

Yeah, somebody with whom I spoke about the problem said sth. like that

The owl is a dumb unit that should be removed. Too many special target cats. Unless we can figure out how to get altitude aiming to behave so things dont fire at it because its -geniunely- too high.

Agree on cloak, the old cloak effect was fine imo, though perhaps we can have both at once.

I love owl.

iirc, in 1fac the Owl is becoming a multifunction-nuke-launcher warhead isn't it? Then it makes more sense - it's stopped by the anti-nuke, and the Screamer becomes just-another-anti-air-weapon.

JohannesH wrote:bigger model = easier to hit

100% false.

Pxtl wrote:iirc, in 1fac the Owl is becoming a multifunction-nuke-launcher warhead isn't it? Then it makes more sense - it's stopped by the anti-nuke, and the Screamer becomes just-another-anti-air-weapon.

Not necessarily.

It might end up in that factory, though the implementation is questionable. The method of stopping it, however, remains to be seen.

d_b wrote:

JohannesH wrote:bigger model = easier to hit

100% false.

Yup, someone doesnt know how spring works.

Bigger hit sphere means easier to hit.

Why have a cloaking effect per unit? if units are under a cloaking shield isn't it enough to just display some effect of the cloaking sphere?

1. The jammer tower makes all my units barely visible, this is annoying cause you cannot find units you're searching that good.

My graphics bugged so I now see the default spring cloaking graphics. To fix your issue you could try many gfx cards until your graphics bugs.

Spawn_Retard wrote:

d_b wrote:

JohannesH wrote:bigger model = easier to hit

100% false.

Yup, someone doesnt know how spring works.

Bigger hit sphere means easier to hit.

The sphere is independantly controllable. Small hitspheres should have small models for intuativeness.

Gota wrote:Why have a cloaking effect per unit? if units are under a cloaking shield isn't it enough to just display some effect of the cloaking sphere?

Individual units under the cloaker can decloak while others are cloaked.

you could have a model the size of the screen, but the hit sphere only 1/100000th, it would be incredibly hard to hit.

I think spring should support (if it already doesnt) multiple hitspheres for weak points?

wait... thinking about it spring already does.

Spawn_Retard wrote:you could have a model the size of the screen, but the hit sphere only 1/100000th, it would be incredibly hard to hit.

I think spring should support (if it already doesnt) multiple hitspheres for weak points?

wait... thinking about it spring already does.

Yes, but we arent doing that!