Mod Feasability: An Idea and Some Questions

Mod Feasability: An Idea and Some Questions

Discuss game development here, from a distinct game project to an accessible third-party mutator, down to the interaction and design of individual units if you like.

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Eightball
Posts: 6
Joined: 15 Aug 2006, 03:13

Mod Feasability: An Idea and Some Questions

Post by Eightball »

Greetings! I am new. And ignorant! And naturally, I am brimming with ideas for mods that I cannot (at the moment) make, due to (hopefully temporary) lack of skills. But I can't keep from asking a few questions. And posting my idea.

Assuming I could model, texture, and script adequately enough, could some of these features be implemented (if they haven't been done before) without major changes to Spring:

>Spawn multiple units at start-up, including military units
>Spawn units instead of nano-manufacturing them, ideally off-screen and have them move to a set destination or marker
>A squad - several units, especially infantry, moving and fighting as a team (but not identically). This is of particular interest to me. Essentially, can something similar to the Close Combat series be implemented without drastic engine changes?

I guess that's all I can think of right now.

My idea for a mod is something like WW2-ish technology but with mechs mixed in (although more primitive than Battletech, of course). Generally a more tactical, slower-paced game with infantry, tanks, artillery, and mechs in combined-arms engagements. I'd have something like the Axis&Allies mod where there aren't really resources, but command points (or something).

Just throwing that all out there to be mocked and picked apart. :P
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Argh
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Joined: 21 Feb 2005, 03:38

Post by Argh »

Spawning multiple units at start: not possible currently, probably wouldn't be too painful to add as a feature.

Spawn units and have them move to a set destination: not possible without fairly extensive engine changes. You could probably fake it pretty well with fancy Factory tricks, though.

Squad "fighting as a team, but not identically"... well, that all depends on how individual they really are. There are some unit properties which are very unlikely to be ever added to Spring, such as RPG-styled inventories or detailed, heavily script-dependent skillsets. However, making "soldiers" who fight pretty individually in style, and have weapons with completely different properties... not hard at all. Hope all this was helpful.
Eightball
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Joined: 15 Aug 2006, 03:13

Post by Eightball »

It was. Thanks!

About the squad, something like simulating an actual WW2 era squad - say a dozen riflemen, a MG gunner, and a Bazooka guy. When running into enemy units, the rifles aim for fellow infantry, the MG gunner for inf and soft vehicles, and the bazooka goes for armor.

Would it be possible to script units to take cover or something? Like dive to the ground and provide a smaller target?

The ultimate would be something like Company of Heroes, but that's lightyears beyond my skill level and would require a whole lot of engine retooling, I imagine.
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Argh
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Post by Argh »

With the next version of Spring, it will be possible for units to "take cover", at least kind've. How gets into technical areas of scripting that you're going to need to have a lot more background knowledge on before you're really going to understand it.

Having multirole troops that only fire at set target categories is completely feasible. And, so long as you're aware that Spring is not a "war simulation", but is a game made for contemporary RTS gameplay, you can have pretty sophisticated units, and this is likely to get even more interesting as things move forward.

In short, so long as you're not looking for a RPG-like game or a detailed, exhaustive simulation, Spring is great. But, from the sounds of the games you like, you're almost entirely focused on the single-player experience.

If that's your focus... well, the short and honest version is that you'll be breaking a lot of new ground, on a technical level, and you may want to get it working for simple MP play first, so that you're not trying to bite off more than you can chew. I don't get the sense that you have a lot of prior experience with all of this stuff- for example, have you ever done 3D modeling for games before? If not... you have a 3-9 month learning curve ahead of you, depending on your desire and free time. Again, just being real- there are a lot've things with game design you don't just read a simple tutorial and suddenly become fluent in ;)

Building single-player missions with Spring, via LUA scripts, is at least technically possible at this point. However, I haven't the slightest idea just how much interactivity you can add to them, and I daresay that almost nobody else (even the coders who wrote it) really has explored this much. There just isn't a lot've interest in the Spring community in single-player scripted missions at the moment. This is not to say they're bad, or that we won't cheer you on, but if you really, really want that kind of gameplay... you need to understand that there just aren't any people available to answer most questions about how to proceed, and that a pretty thorough grounding in LUA will be necessary to achieve anything more distinctive than a set-piece kill-em-all sort've thing.
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Zoombie
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Joined: 15 Mar 2005, 07:08

Post by Zoombie »

Actually the bazooka guy would just be a rifleman with a bazooka he can fire when need be. You don't wast RPG rounds on an infantry man. You use them on tanks. Maybe you could use the D-Gun button, or something.

And two if someone is going to make a single player game, then bully to you. That is good luck, and if you do it I will be singing your praise for the END OF TIME!
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Maelstrom
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

Ive experimented with the single player Lua missions in the past, and came up with a multitude of issues. I made a post about it in this thread here:

http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewt ... 8680#98680

But otherwise listen to Argh, he knows stuff.
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Zoombie
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Post by Zoombie »

I've noticed that.
j5mello
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Joined: 26 Aug 2005, 05:40

Post by j5mello »

Arch i think he mant that if u click on one rifle man, it selects all of the rifles, the MG, and the bazooka. Then if u give them an order they stick together while doing it a la Dawn of War or Close Combat.

That AFAIK isn't possible without a major rework.

Also the spawn instead of Nanoing is possible. It just requires some fancy scripiting and the new tags that AF made which can remove the nanolathe particles and the Wireframes.
Eightball
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Joined: 15 Aug 2006, 03:13

Post by Eightball »

j5mello - that's what I meant.

Thanks for all your replies. Look's like I have a lot of work ahead of me. :-)
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Neddie
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Joined: 10 Apr 2006, 05:05

Post by Neddie »

I for one look forward to what you produce.
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