Spring RTS Engine

Can we have a medium trajectory, or some way to specify the angle of high trajectory? Because on most units, it looks really silly, with the canon pointing at angles with the cannon pointing at angles it was never meant to, and the artillery fire coming right up to the screen depending on your zoom level.

oooh Please!

I was being sarcastic, there is no such thing.

For a given fixed muzzle velocity, there are two ways to hit a target. Shooting between those two angles will make you miss. The only way to get "mid trajectory" is to have the cannon adjust it's muzzle velocity in-game, or give it alternate gravitational level.

So there is no "mid trajectory" - the only way to get it is to hack your muzzle velocity or gravity or something....

Screw it. Just change the Guardian into a starburst missile launcher.

Perhaps having a better way to define the way the gun fire would be better.
Cause there will be always some people who will want more than medium, but less than high...

Unless you can have a projectile with a shuttlecock's aerodynamics and flight path.

Caydr wrote:I was being sarcastic, there is no such thing.

Why the hell not?
Edit: Oh shit, just read the other posts.

Edit2: Do weapons experience drag? If not, would adding drag change the optimal angle?

What you're really asking for - or the real equivalent to what you're asking for - is for high-trajectory (indirect) fire units to switch to low-trajectory (direct) fire when a unit gets close enough. This is reasonable; means your Punisher doesn't have to aim nearly straight up to hit a unit 10 feet away, which is ridiculous because it could easily aim straight at said unit and hit it.

I'd love an automatic range changer feature. Expecially for those really long range firing units.

Felix the Cat wrote:What you're really asking for - or the real equivalent to what you're asking for - is for high-trajectory (indirect) fire units to switch to low-trajectory (direct) fire when a unit gets close enough. This is reasonable; means your Punisher doesn't have to aim nearly straight up to hit a unit 10 feet away, which is ridiculous because it could easily aim straight at said unit and hit it.

No, this is a visual issue, not a gamplay issue. The artillery needs to fire over obstacles, but still look decent.

If it is purely a visual issue, perhaps we can change the way the game renders height to a log scale?

Seems to me that gameplay comes first tho...

mother wrote:If it is purely a visual issue, perhaps we can change the way the game renders height to a log scale?

Seems to me that gameplay comes first tho...

And that's why Cady don't want to have them in low trajectory.....

[edit nevermind I figured out what he meant after a bit more C8H10N4O2]

'MaxBarrelAngle' and 'MinBarrelAngle' tags that do what you might think would be nice.

seconded

confining barrel angles will also confine the ranges your gun shoots at, for better or for worse. It will potentially give your guns a minimum range for all intents and purposes (again, for better or for worse).

better! arty should be next to useless at close range!

What if we increase the gravity on a map... and increase the projectile speeds to compensate. What effect would that have? That should make it so the cannon can fire just as far, still using the high trajectory, but it would be lower. Of course, this would make the projectiles hit faster, but if it looks better, it might be worth it.

SwiftSpear wrote:I'd love an automatic range changer feature. Expecially for those really long range firing units.

a bit offtopic, but that is a nice thing for a group ai.

Now ontopic.

about confining the angles.

Well there is a strange thing.

what happens to the weapon angles when switching to high trajectory?
they only turn 90º up?

Thats because there is no such "high trajectory angle" tag in scripts that ive seen, so its hardcoded it seems.

In that case, you cant change the angles at which high trajectory works.

And seccond.

I hardly doubt you can change the ammount of "power" a ballistic shell generates, without openning it and changing the charge, and that is done at the factory.

So, having only one "power setting"( iknow its something like ... energy... er.. work?.. ..) for the projectile, you have only 2 possible trajectories to hit the same target.

Specialized artillery guns CAN change the starting velocity of a shell. Thats because they have the shell and the propellant separated. Propellant comes in standard packages, different number of which can be used for one load.
At least this was so in World War 2. Field artillery (not tank, anti-tank or AA guns) had this feature. This allowed them to vary range and trajectory height of the same gun greatly (high trajectory was required for hitting stuff on back sides of hills or in trenches, low trajectory and higher velocity (greater range)- for countering pillboxes or tanks).
I'm not sure modern artillery does it that way, but they surely must have a way to vary range and trajectory type.
Edit: I checked a bit more and found out that modern guns usually don't do this, they rely on better targetting systems and "smart" projectiles instead.