Yo yo yo, Formations

[LOrDo]

I think these would go really well in spring, for example, ever notice how gunships love to clump together? Thus effectivly getting destroyed by 1 LRM. And it can also be used to keep faster units going at the same speed as slower units without gaurding (which usually leaves the units trailing behind).
I think it wouldnt be to hard to implement, since we already have Simple formation globalAI and Rightclick+Drag line.
Heres some concepts Ive made, these are just suggestions though. Most of which based off of Homeworld ones.

Delta

Directly copyed from homeworld (>_>...<_<...), all out useful formation, especially for planes.

Reverse Delta

Thought this one up a while ago, Instead of spreading fire on targets, converging fire on one target.

Horizontal

Its a line. Need I say more?

Arc

This would be a great one for gunships...

Circumfrence

This ones purpose would be for escorting a target in around it in a circle. Also, can be used for converging on one target from all angles.

Box

Its a box. Stfu, everyone loves boxes.
PS: I think the diameters should be customizable somehow.

Custom
Make your own custom formation, Isnt that what Simple Formation AI already does? Im not sure, never got it to work.

Gimme comments. And ill submit this to mantis.

[colorblind]

Well, of course it's a good idea. Who doesn't like formations? But you might want to try the build-in formation commands (among which is the line) first, and also the SimpleFormation AI (which acts as your box). Remember that you have to select the AI (with Q), and not the units, to give an order to the simple formation AI.

If you feel up to it you can try to generalize the SimpleFormation AI to include all of the formations you mentioned before.

[Lord JoNil]

We also need some way to make different units stay in formation as thay walk.

[smoth]

@JoNil
I think for that a formationtether tag would be good. This would set the distance that a unit would allow it's self to stray before stoping to let the others catch up.

I wouldn't mind it because 0 = off which would be default but mod makers could set distances... so say... a scout could be ahead of the formation with the others following behind it.

[Aun]

I'd really like to be able to set the distance which units move to while doing a line command with Z & X, like buildings. It gets really annoying when you have to micro every single large unit into place.

[FizWizz]

I'd really like to be able to set the distance which units move to while doing a line command with Z & X, like buildings. It gets really annoying when you have to micro every single large unit into place.

Either that, or if Spring could automatically check for the largest collision sphere in the group and space everything maybe two footprint units more apart from each other, that would be good.

[Argh]

I agree whole-heartedly with anything that would allow us to have functional formation movement for units, and keep them sorted out without colliding if possible. This would allow for several new game designs to be possible.

[Felix the Cat]

This would be a good solution for GroupAIs if GroupAIs were easier to use.

[SwiftSpear]

I'd be satisfied if units would actually move in the line formation without becoming totally screwed up and running into each other causing massive traffic jams.

[mehere101]

I would be happier if this was in the engine, as most group ais do dumb things with spring on my comp. besides that, group ais are there for tiny little tweaks that you don't always want on.