How about a .time command?

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 04 May 2006, 10:48

Hey everyone,

Lately I've been thinking about time a great deal. We humans use it all the time - always making it, always wasting it, setting some aside etc. Time is a valuable resource.

So why not have Spring able to read the system time and display it above the .Clock slot? Getting the system time isn't too hard, and it would be a useful utility. What do you say?

Cyberwal · Post by **Cyberwal** » 04 May 2006, 11:02

I'd appreciate it if spring showed the real time that passed since the game started and not only the game time

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 04 May 2006, 12:03

Well, altaclient shows the real time spend in game. You can only enjoy it if you have 2 monitors (or play in windowed mode) tough.

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 04 May 2006, 12:18

...Which most people don't, right?

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 04 May 2006, 12:24

you could buy a watch...

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 04 May 2006, 12:29

Got one. No, I was thinking in terms of convenience. Having this as part of a GUI would mean you can factor in the time without risking getting blasted to bits in a heavy firefight. Some Spring matches can be really intense, and while I've never been caught out myself I'm sure that there are a few who have lost an important quarter of an hour...

Rayden · Post by **Rayden** » 04 May 2006, 12:44

Cyberwal wrote:I'd appreciate it if spring showed the real time that passed since the game started and not only the game time

/agrees

I am always surprise how late it is after game is finished :p

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 05 May 2006, 05:15

that could go in statistics.

LOrDo · Post by **LOrDo** » 05 May 2006, 05:40

Continuum had one for the brief time I played it. I thought it was very convienient and useful. I imagine it could be easily implemented into spring.

AF · Post by AF » 05 May 2006, 14:25

If it's a problem I can always set a groupAI to make a marker with the current time follow the cursor......

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 05 May 2006, 14:33

Please, no. That would be annoying - the time should be there to refer to, not to assualt your senses every time you do something. Could work if a keypress controls it, but having this native to Spring offers more convenience...

AF · Post by AF » 05 May 2006, 14:52

How about fi it displayed above the attached unti, say you assign it to a widngen adn it displays above the windgen the time, that way you can put ti wherever you want so it doesnt get in the way?

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 05 May 2006, 15:14

That would mean you'd have to go and look. In which case you should just buy a watch!

No, it would have to be linked to the GUI in some fashion. That way it could be used without breaking the flow of a conflict.

AF · Post by AF » 05 May 2006, 15:22

Well just shove it in a prominent part of your base then that isnt exactly in the way, and if your base is big, have several instances...

Look at it this way, I could have this to you in5 hours when I come back online or you can get it from the spring Devs in 6 months, so suggest solutions.

An alternative may be that it's in the corner of the screen, say I take the mouse as the centre of the screen and offset the marker by say 800/900 ticks to the left/right so that to see it you would put your mouse in the corner else it's offscreen and cant be seen....

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » 05 May 2006, 15:25

Not a bad idea. Let's say anywhere in the minimap is the target area, toward the top left of the screen.

...The community needs a few more people like you, Alantai. Good job.

Tobi · Post by **Tobi** » 05 May 2006, 15:25

do I sense another map drawing AI coming?

AF · Post by AF » 05 May 2006, 15:29

Well there's my cursor AI that drew the cursor and a load of tags above units representing what their current commands where (colour coded).

Then there's my TGA drawing routines

Now there's the groupAI to tell the time and any other data that the user may want....

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 05 May 2006, 16:59

AF wrote:How about fi it displayed above the attached unti, say you assign it to a widngen adn it displays above the windgen the time, that way you can put ti wherever you want so it doesnt get in the way?

This would be horribly nice to have.

AF · Post by AF » 05 May 2006, 20:13

And I have it, or so it seems....

It seems I'll have to manually create the necessary lines to draw each letter of the alphabet.

At the moment it uses the label marker thing, but the problem si that everytiem it's used a big beep is played followed by a nice anim on the minimap. And tahts not all, the marker doesnt dissapear when the next marker is ready to be displayed and there's no way of moving ro editing an existing marker. Thus the bit of map offscreem to the top right is filled with markers and they build up, getting very annoying.......

Although this does mean I can add an alert groupAI that makes such markers at a point, erases them, then recreates them, in order to attract the attention of allies....

Spring RTS Engine

How about a .time command?

How about a .time command?