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Some anti micro-management features
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 11:16
by Doomweaver
I think we need a new way fo handling orders. I think that be default, it should be how it is, i.e. you attack a unit by clicking on it, however, by scrolling the mouse or pgUp pgDW, you should be able to add an area of effect radius to your order.
So you can attack an area of enemies, or govern how far apart units are when they move (depending on the size of the area of effect.)
And you should be able to set units to guard an entire area, which means they repair things in that area automatically, reclaim metallic objects if you are losing metal and need more, reclaim trees etc. if you are running out of energy, and, most importantly of all, attack enemies that come in that area.
That would also be useful for bombing runs when you can't see exactly where the enemy unit is. You tell them to attack that area, and the planes don't just rondomly bomb there, but wait until they can see the enemy end then engage them.
Similarly, we need a 'level terrain' command which orders units to even the terrain in an area - they shoot the highest points.
If it ever becomes harder to move through trees, this could be useful again.
Re: Some anti micro-management features
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 17:38
by Michilus_nimbus
I think we need a new way fo handling orders. I think that be default, it should be how it is, i.e. you attack a unit by clicking on it, however, by scrolling the mouse or pgUp pgDW, you should be able to add an area of effect radius to your order. So you can attack an area of enemies, or govern how far apart units are when they move (depending on the size of the area of effect.)
I think this was in the old Spring, so I guess it's in the new one too.
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And you should be able to set units to guard an entire area, which means they repair things in that area automatically, reclaim metallic objects if you are losing metal and need more, reclaim trees etc. if you are running out of energy, and, most importantly of all, attack enemies that come in that area.
I guess you can already do that with the patrol option...
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That would also be useful for bombing runs when you can't see exactly where the enemy unit is. You tell them to attack that area, and the planes don't just rondomly bomb there, but wait until they can see the enemy end then engage them.
That makes bombing a bit to easy, I think. I like the scouting before a bombing run like it is in OTA, it keeps bombers a bit more balanced.
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Similarly, we need a 'level terrain' command which orders units to even the terrain in an area - they shoot the highest points.
If it ever becomes harder to move through trees, this could be useful again.
That could come in quite handy. Better yet, make a special buldozer unit for it.
Re: Some anti micro-management features
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 18:39
by Gabba
Doomweaver wrote:I think we need a new way fo handling orders. I think that be default, it should be how it is, i.e. you attack a unit by clicking on it, however, by scrolling the mouse or pgUp pgDW, you should be able to add an area of effect radius to your order.
So you can attack an area of enemies, or govern how far apart units are when they move (depending on the size of the area of effect.)
And you should be able to set units to guard an entire area, which means they repair things in that area automatically, reclaim metallic objects if you are losing metal and need more, reclaim trees etc. if you are running out of energy, and, most importantly of all, attack enemies that come in that area.
That would also be useful for bombing runs when you can't see exactly where the enemy unit is. You tell them to attack that area, and the planes don't just rondomly bomb there, but wait until they can see the enemy end then engage them.
I agree with all these ideas. However, I would prefer a click-and-drag system for area commands rather than the mouse wheel thing: hit 'A' or the attack button, drag a box around the area you want your units to attack. Both systems could be implemented, though.
Similarly, we need a 'level terrain' command which orders units to even the terrain in an area - they shoot the highest points.
This is kind of weird... I'd rather get a bulldozer unit or something. Anyways, I think terrain will auto-level to a certain point when you build on it.
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 19:27
by Min3mat
how bout if you click on 'guard' or 'attack' you can EITHER click straight on a enemy unit OR click and hold to widen a circle/square of which the units will attack any enemys coming in and likewise with guard area but instead of the unit/s patroling they would be stationary if there was nothing to do... a animation for units which have been standing around to long would be quite cool to.
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 19:51
by AF
Actually everythign above exept the bulldozer is already inplace.
You can click on something to attack it or you can drag over an area. All commands can be dragged ort clicked in spring to become area commands, though the SY's mentioned this such a long time ago you all seem to have forgotten about it.
Posted: 18 Mar 2005, 22:22
by Doomweaver
wow, that's cool!
Posted: 19 Mar 2005, 08:45
by Min3mat
where did they mention this? i can't see it in the features page
Posted: 19 Mar 2005, 11:21
by Doomweaver
the features/faq are horribly lacking.
Posted: 19 Mar 2005, 21:13
by AF
They mentione dthis in september/october of last year in several threads btu the threads where delted in the great hacking of this year
Posted: 20 Mar 2005, 00:15
by Zoombie
One of my freinds said a interesting thing. "I think you should put down the building squar, then the closest builder would construct it. That way you dont have to look for a building unit every time you want a gaurdian" i think that you should be able to do that, but if you want a specivif person to build something, then you can slect them then put down the building plan. That way you can have the best of two worlds
Posted: 20 Mar 2005, 01:33
by AF
Actually thats how it worked in populous 3
Posted: 20 Mar 2005, 02:59
by [K.B.] Napalm Cobra
That would be a huge pain if you wanted to quickly entrench an area and all you had was a lvl1 aircraft.
Posted: 20 Mar 2005, 07:06
by Zoombie
Well youed still be able to shift and place buildings. As you can set up your base with out baby sitting a construction unit. But then again, i LIKE babysitting construction units.
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 04:59
by DopeFishhh
well how about merging build lists?
when you select 2 builders in ta their construction lists disapear even though they may be the same type of unit.
the merged lists takes all the available options from the lists shown and puts them into the 1 list, maybe sectionalising it to indicate what units can build. then if you select 2 units you can have them both build the same building, it would be like conguarding but streamlined.
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 05:24
by [K.B.] Napalm Cobra
Brilliant!
But you'd have to make it so that if you had a Lvll and a lvl1 the lvl2 has to start building if its a lvl2 structure before the lvl1 can start.
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 06:02
by DopeFishhh
well no, any group order to build a building will have all units build assist, even if they don't have the blueprint, even if it was started a while ago and is almost finished.
they don't move onto the next building until that building is complete.
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 07:57
by SJ
If you just select several construction units you will indeed see a combine of all their build orders and a building order will be qued for all of them when given. So they will basically move from building to building, all of them helping on each one.
If you on the other hand takes a group of construction units and give them to a "central build" groupai you will also get a combined build menu but the group ai will decide how to prioritize different building projects. Currently its following this simple rule
Code: Select all
float buildTime=qb->buildTimeLeft/(qb->totalBuildSpeed+info->buildSpeed);
float moveTime=max(0.01f,((qb->pos-myPos).Length()-150)/info->moveSpeed*10);
float travelMod=buildTime/(buildTime+moveTime); //units prefer stuff with low travel time compared to build time
float finishMod=buildOptions[qb->type]->buildTime/(qb->buildTimeLeft+buildOptions[qb->type]->buildTime*0.1f); //units prefer stuff that is nearly finished
float canBuildThisMod=canBuildThis?1.5f:1; //units prefer to do stuff they have in their build options (less risk of guarded unit dying etc)
float ageMod=20+sqrtf((float)(frameNum+1)-qb->startFrame);
// float buildSpeedMod=info->buildSpeed/(qb->totalBuildSpeed+info->buildSpeed);
float value=finishMod*canBuildThisMod*travelMod*ageMod;
crystal clear ehm :)
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 08:25
by [K.B.] Napalm Cobra
Ooooh, tantalising, is qb the unit?
/edit/
Why is it all in english?
/edit/
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 08:40
by Warlord Zsinj
best way to reduce micro time, in my opinion, is to simply make individual units more intuitive when it comes to completing orders, so they don't have to be babysat when you need to do something important.
If I tell a unit to attack an area, I'd like it to automatically sit at the edge of its range targetting units if it is at all capable of it. I don't want units to do stupid things like sit and fire behind wreckage, or have units continue to fire when they are dealing significant friendly fire, etc...
Posted: 22 Mar 2005, 11:23
by SJ
Why is it all in english?
Because most people have the bad habit of not understanding the language of glory and heroes (thats swedish if you wonder :) ).
Zsinj: yes i agree the problem is to do it in an effecient way.