[assasing123]

so in the blueplanet mod there are this guys that made this stuff where you can order and control capital ships from a sort of RTS perspective, is there any chance a resource gathering or bounty gathering system could be implemented along with a ship or method to allow building stuff in space? in short converting FS into a space RTS/space fight simulator hybrid?

[The E]

It has been tried. It's sort-of possible via scripting, but there are certain limitations that need to be removed before it can be done right. FSO, at its core, is an engine very focused on one specific gameplay mode; while our work here has shown that there's an amazing depth to be found there, it will still take some time to transform the engine into something capable of running an RTS type of gameplay smoothly.

[Nuke]

big setback for the fsrts mod was lack of dynamic waypoints, so move commands didnt work reliably. we never got to the point of figuring out resource gathering or base creations (of course we never planned to do this, it was always you get x assets to finish mission y).

[Aardwolf]

big setback for the fsrts mod was lack of dynamic waypoints, so move commands didnt work reliably. we never got to the point of figuring out resource gathering or base creations (of course we never planned to do this, it was always you get x assets to finish mission y).

I just had an ingenious idea! It's a silly workaround, and if dynamic waypoints or "move to position" orders ever get proper support it ought to be redone that way, but...

You could achieve something like a move order by ordering a ship to dock with a ship... make the target ship invisible, no-collide, on a team that nobody attacks, etc., and once the two ships get sufficiently close, cancel the dock order and remove the ghost ship.



Of course, there were a few other issues in the way of making a proper RTS... for example, the Escape key behaves; in an RTS, you want to be able to cancel actions with that key, but in FS2 it brings up the end-game menu.

[Commander Zane]

Huh? If an RTS doesn't use F10 as its menu key it's usually the Escape key. Halting a unit's current orders just takes hitting the Stop command, which in most cases it's S.

[ktistai228]

or you could try another workaround. Add a waypoint in every 10x10 square (x10 cube) and then when you right click, tell it to go to the closest waypoint to where you clicked. don't know how doable it is, but it's an idea.

[MatthTheGeek]

IIRC there's a hardcoded limit of 32 waypoints or something. So, not viable.

[Sushi]

Using invisible ships as dummy waypoints is probably viable, but ultimately has the same problem (you run out of them).

[ktistai228]

get distance to point clicked, turn ship that way, tell it to go only said distance?

[MatthTheGeek]

I don't think you can tell a ship to "go forward X meters". Though that would definitely help. Maybe feature request ?

[jr2]

Goober is working on it as we speak (ok, well, this weekend, anyways. 

[Nuke]

big setback for the fsrts mod was lack of dynamic waypoints, so move commands didnt work reliably. we never got to the point of figuring out resource gathering or base creations (of course we never planned to do this, it was always you get x assets to finish mission y).

I just had an ingenious idea! It's a silly workaround, and if dynamic waypoints or "move to position" orders ever get proper support it ought to be redone that way, but...

You could achieve something like a move order by ordering a ship to dock with a ship... make the target ship invisible, no-collide, on a team that nobody attacks, etc., and once the two ships get sufficiently close, cancel the dock order and remove the ghost ship.



Of course, there were a few other issues in the way of making a proper RTS... for example, the Escape key behaves; in an RTS, you want to be able to cancel actions with that key, but in FS2 it brings up the end-game menu.

actually it looks like goober is gonna turn waypoints into linked list so they should be dynamic (or at least reuseable) in the near future. this also gives me a way (a waypoint on a stick that is) to make ai not suck at newtonian flight.

[Aardwolf]

Huh? If an RTS doesn't use F10 as its menu key it's usually the Escape key. Halting a unit's current orders just takes hitting the Stop command, which in most cases it's S.

Not what I meant.

When you click the 'attack' button, normally you have to click a unit or location to attack. If you change your mind, you press escape. I think. I haven't looked closely at an RTS in a while.

[jr2]

Normally, but only if the units are still selected.  Or sometimes it's the "S" key.