Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: General Battuta on September 25, 2012, 07:20:28 pm
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DYNAMIC WAYPOINTS WORK (http://fi.somethingawful.com/safs/smilies/f/0/getin.001.gif)
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Admiral MS promoted to god
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http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81595.0
You can also KILL WAYPOINTS that you don't like.
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Yes I read that thread that's how I know
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but I'm not sure that people appreciate how much of a ~~GAME CHANGE~~ we've got here
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No ****, I saw the thread some times ago, but I completely forgot about it until now. Capship combat and dynamic missions got a lot more awesome.
Instant awesome, just add dynamic waypoints! Now if only I could find the time to do some FREDing ...
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oh my god **** yes
how did i miss that
edit: you can actually make a full fledged AI for capships with this using just fred
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It didn't seem like anyone besides me cared about that change. :doubt:
And it was luck that the ai has no problem with waypoint position changes while flying to that waypoint.
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81595.0
You can also KILL WAYPOINTS that you don't like.
Actually you can't kill them cause this patch has never been commited for several reasons.
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Thank you for the concise and helpful thread title. :p
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Thank you for the concise and helpful thread title. :p
It brings the point across.
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Thank you for the concise and helpful thread title. :p
It brings the point across.
Which point? That Admiral MS is :yes:, or that Dynamic Waypoints are :yes:?
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BOTH
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Sorry for my ignorance here but Dynamic waypoints???? how are they different from normal waypoints?
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They are dynamic.
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Dynamic waypoints are dynamic? Thanks for clearing that up, Luis. :p I'm guessing you can move or create them at runtime in missions via sexp and the AI will change where they're going according to the new position. (as opposed to, at best, having multiple waypoints at pre-defined locations) But hopefully someone that knows more will be able to tell you, or afaik you can check it out in the original thread.
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Here's a really basic application:
You want a Ravana to engage in a close range fight with a moving Orion. To look good, the Ravana needs to keep its nose pointed at the Orion as the Orion moves through a complex waypoint path. Worse yet, the Orion will at some unpredictable time switch to a new path.
Previously your options were:
-Order the Ravana to attack the Orion. The Ravana will circle the Orion broadside-on, ****ing itself over. Worse yet, the Ravana will always move at maximum table speed.
-Ship-maneuver. Hell and a half to FRED. If the Orion then switches to a new waypoint path at an unpredictable time (say, it's FREDded to start retreating when its hull falls below 30), and you don't know exactly when this will occur, it's a nightmare to set up a new ship-maneuver.
-A pre-baked set of waypoints, with variants for the Ravana to follow based on the time in the mission when the Orion starts retreating. I could explain why this is a huge pita but hahahaahahaaaahahfdshfadf
Now you've got a new option:
-One waypoint constantly updated to match the Orion's coordinates. Tell the Ravana to approach this waypoint at any speed you like, from 1 to max speed. The Ravana will keep its nose on the Orion no matter how close it gets, no matter how the Orion's course changes (even if unpredictably), even if a player is driving the Orion.
And the possibilities that branch out from here are just insane. This will allow enormous power in creating scripted warship AI.
e: One of the only 'dream functions' we have left unfulfilled regarding waypoints is ai-waypoints-fast.
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That seems somewhat good.
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e: One of the only 'dream functions' we have left unfulfilled regarding waypoints is ai-waypoints-fast.
Which is supposed to do what?
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Command fighters to follow waypoints using their afterburners.
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I was always going for good-afterburner-time
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That doesn't sound like you'd be able to issue it to specific ships though :(
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Depends on the coder who implements the SEXP.
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I can see uses for both situations. Like rearming.. I can see a time when you'd want to have a single ship rearm, but there's also a lot of use for good-rearm-time.
During sections of missions where I want all my fighters to burn to a far away target, a way to tell the AI that now's a good time to use their burners would be preferable to having to tell each ship separately.
Though, I already get around this by creating an invisible hostile craft at the target destination and tell the AI to kill it.. then just clear the orders when they get close enough.
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Yeah, I'm definitely down with that approach, but damn if it isn't a little hacky, especially when you can see your wingmen's orders.
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Well.. until we have a way of getting the AI to use their burners, gotta work with what we got! There's definitely been worse FRED system hackish approaches. amirite?
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n-no, certainly not :nervous:
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[18:35] <MjnMobile> Axem, I feel you should weigh in on the discussion on FRED hacks...
[18:35] <MjnMobile> http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82343.msg1642453#msg1642453
[18:36] <MjnMobile> because I know YOU never do things like that
[18:36] <@Axem> yeah
[18:36] <@Axem> like for a race where i needed a certain red fighter to be going on afterburners all the time, i totally didnt change his default thrusters to the afterburner ones and increased his speed to really fast
[18:37] <@Axem> and moved his contrails to the engines so it looked like he those on
[18:37] <@Axem> but yeah, never
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Derp. Axem is modding FSO just as hackishly as I was modding HW2 :|
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Just FYI Admiral MS, using this to improve the way AI allies sneak along close to the ground in atmospheric missions. Really awesome, making my life a hell of a lot easier :)
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What commit is this in, or is it just a patch that's going to get committed eventually?
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Dynamic waypoints is trunk r9115. Waypoint removal is not committed yet afaik...
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Just some additional information as some of you may not know it or have a wrong idea of what caused this bug in the first place: Only set-object-position has been fixed - any other sexp that manipulates positions directly or indirectly (like set-object-speed) won't affect the waypoint position used by the ai. I plan to fix some of them (if it's not too much coding) and the corresponding scripting functions.
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Threads like these are always a fun way of seeing who has the profanity filter turned on or off :p