Spring RTS Engine

Hey,

I'm thinking of making (or attempting to make) a mod (... for spring) and it'd be good if a few questions could be answered before I decide to actually start.

First off, is close combat even a possibility in spring? Is there a way of using extremely short range weapons or something like that to work like close combat? Or is it not worth trying?

Secondly, is it possible to have a unit able to modify itself (somewhat like the factories with legs/wings, but more modifications to the unit itself rather than adding a new unit)?

Finally (for now), is it possible to have an aircraft that can only fire when its on the ground (if that makes sense)? Like, something that moves as though its an aircraft, but can't fire in the air, only when its landed... and maybe even have the ability to walk short distances on the ground?

I'm thinking that the answers for most of these questions will be no, but I thought it would be a good idea to ask people who know spring more intimately than I who might be able to shed some light...

Close combat is probably possible with the features added in the last version (force-firing a weapon), but this needs proof of concept.
Unit modifying itself: with scripting it's possible to change how units look (by hiding parts of the model and unhifing other parts), it's possible to change the weapons (by jamming some weapons and unjamming others). Last version made maximum speed changes possible, too. What else do you need to change?
Aircraft firing only when landed is possible, you'll need to keep track of On/Off state (landed aircraft are automatically Off, flying are On) and jam/unjam weapons accordingly. Walking short distances is not that easy, will probably require heavy scripting.

«Meelee» weapons are «possible» by making them have short range invisible beam laser weapons.

yuritch wrote:Unit modifying itself: with scripting it's possible to change how units look (by hiding parts of the model and unhifing other parts), it's possible to change the weapons (by jamming some weapons and unjamming others). Last version made maximum speed changes possible, too. What else do you need to change?

move type as well i was planning to use all 3 of these ideas in one unit, but if they dont all work (CC works, and thats the main one i needed) then its still cool, just have to change my ideas around a tiny little bit

thanks for the help, i think i will start work at sometime soon, once my school workload abates (not long to go now...)

I'll start writing up plans and such, i might post them if theyre good enough...

If this unit is able to fly, is it necessary to jam its melee weapon while i the air? The units on the ground are simply out of range, and it won't fire at all. (But mid-air combat may occur, and that would be cool.)

Let me guess what this unit might be...
1. Mechs from Japanee cartoons
2. Some sort of mythical creature, especially humanoids
3. Aliens

bwansy wrote:3. Aliens

Bingo!

I'm thinking Tyranid (Warhammer 40k) type units, with the ability to morph in-game... so, like, the Hive Tyrant is your commander, but for a (fairly large) cost you can upgrade him to have wings to allow him to 'close the distance' a lot faster...

Of course, with Tyranids must come synapse... My plan for synapse was to have any bugs outside synapse range just go feral (ie. you no longer have control over them and they just attack any unit that comes near them... possibly even roam around a bit)... Any way of doing that with a script? If not, it doesn't really matter, you can get by without it... but it'd be awesome if you could do it

while CC is possible with the suggested invisible weapons it doesn't work that well. Since units in spring that thouch bump each other around to shift positions the end result of CC is a whole bunch of random chases.

Movement types (i.e. plane, boat, hover, tank) cannot be changed in any way.