Author Topic: FS RTS Mod  (Read 57703 times)

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After fixing a number of bugs and adding a few features the script in its current state is fairly stable and playable.

Now I'm thinking about what to try or add next but my creativity just hit a low point  :blah:
So what kind of controls or ship orders would you like to see in the mod? What other functions do you think might be good in there?
I'm asking more in general like what features you would expect besides what I already mentioned and what can be seen in the video and screens.

And obviously I still need help at pretty much everything around modding and fredding.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline Droid803

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I don't know if this is even possible, but maybe something to control the ship's targeting priorities (possibly spread among turret group types?)
Including holding fire, holding fire against everything but the target, or holding fire against specific classes (ie. DO NOT shoot at transports with any turret, but otherwise engage at will.)

That could give the player more agency and ability to micromanage their units beyond positioning, though the UI for this might start devolving into Menu Hell with checkboxes and everything.

Iunno, just thowing random ideas out there.

But definitely a hold fire command :P
(´・ω・`)
=============================================================

 
The RTS script got intra-system jumps added for more tactical options! And the interface should look a bit better than before.  :)
To show how it works I recorded another video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlinaK9j-Sk


I don't know if this is even possible, but maybe something to control the ship's targeting priorities (possibly spread among turret group types?)
Including holding fire, holding fire against everything but the target, or holding fire against specific classes (ie. DO NOT shoot at transports with any turret, but otherwise engage at will.)

That could give the player more agency and ability to micromanage their units beyond positioning, though the UI for this might start devolving into Menu Hell with checkboxes and everything.

Iunno, just thowing random ideas out there.

But definitely a hold fire command :P
For fighters/bombers there is an ignore command, though only one ship at a time can be ignored. For large ships the fredder can enable a lock-weapons command if it's required (like when they shouldn't blow up a transport). Excluding a specific target or giving target priorities might be hard to implement cause of the limited ai- and turret-firing options and the need for a large menu and lots of confusing scripting code  :D
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline 666maslo666

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Looking great, some suggestions:
- docking and cargo exchange commands
- use FS radar icons on the minimap
- show info on selected ship (class, speed, ETA, subsystems status..)
- play some message when an order is sent ("Yes, sir!")
- an order to attack a specific subsystem/turret
- the ability to change weapon on turrets
« Last Edit: October 28, 2012, 02:21:33 pm by 666maslo666 »
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Offline Aardwolf

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Interesting... how'd you make them arrive after a delay? Put them at some ridiculously far off position? Karajorma (I think?) briefly made a "limbo" feature which would have been useful for this sort of thing, but IIRC it never became part of trunk...



On the topic of "stuff to add": fighterbay management! It's something I originally wanted to do when I was working on the RTS mod...

Basically, have a list of fighters that are in the fighterbay. While a fighter is in the bay, it (auto?) repairs over time. Alternatively, make it so you can only launch a "fully repaired" fighter, and then instead of storing as much data per fighter, just convert damage values to a "time to repair" value when stuff reenters the bay.

 
Looking great, some suggestions:
- docking and cargo exchange commands
- an order to attack a specific subsystem/turret
- the ability to change weapon on turrets
Docking might be possible if enabled by the fredder for a specific ship and docking port. Attacking a spcific subsystem and changing turret weapons will result in an interface hell - too many possible options.
Quote
- use FS radar icons on the minimap
- show info on selected ship (class, speed, ETA, subsystems status..)
Radaricons - why didn't I get that idea myself?  ;)
Ship info could be displayed where all the selected ship buttons are if only a single ship is selected. I might add that.

Interesting... how'd you make them arrive after a delay? Put them at some ridiculously far off position?
Correct. The distance is dynamic and determined by where other ships are. It's not that far away cause otherwise the player might get destroyed.
Quote
On the topic of "stuff to add": fighterbay management! It's something I originally wanted to do when I was working on the RTS mod...

Basically, have a list of fighters that are in the fighterbay. While a fighter is in the bay, it (auto?) repairs over time. Alternatively, make it so you can only launch a "fully repaired" fighter, and then instead of storing as much data per fighter, just convert damage values to a "time to repair" value when stuff reenters the bay.
This sounds interesting. A fighter can enter the bay but the problem is that I don't know of a way to ship-create something that arrives in the fighterbay instead of just appearing somewhere. Or another way to handle the ship while being "in the bay". Putting it far away like ships during subspace jump is no option cause anything with a guard or attack order will run to wherever the ship is.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 
While trying to add another feature some months ago I figured that things are getting too complicated and that I have to rewrite most of the script. It took some time but it's done and I went back to adding things.
The main new feature is a scripted capship AI. It makes sure a capship attacking another one will fly into weapons range and rotate in a way to get as much firepower as possible onto the enemy (instead of stupid circling around them :banghead:).

Today I also got the target menu working that enables selecting subsystems or turrets as attack targets. Having extra buttons for disable/disarm/ignore was a mess and I moved them into the target menu as well.




Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline General Battuta

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Poast script

 
Poast script
If you mean the whole RTS script: Not yet because there are still a few bugs to fix and features missing and I won't release it without at least one or two missions.

The capship ai script in its current version is not standalone and uses some data and framework of the base script.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline yuezhi

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Offline Alan Bolte

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I only see a handful of subsystems/turrets in the attack menu - how are you handling large numbers of turrets etc? Is it only presenting you with subsystems/turrets that are near where you clicked?
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Offline mjn.mixael

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This is truly impressive.
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I only see a handful of subsystems/turrets in the attack menu - how are you handling large numbers of turrets etc? Is it only presenting you with subsystems/turrets that are near where you clicked?
Correct, showing all turrets and subsystems in the menu would block half of the screen for a destroyer or something larger. The disadvantage is that the player has to know where the subsystem or turret is and zoom to the ship.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 
Wow, this is huge. Seriously.

  

Offline Alan Bolte

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I only see a handful of subsystems/turrets in the attack menu - how are you handling large numbers of turrets etc? Is it only presenting you with subsystems/turrets that are near where you clicked?
Correct, showing all turrets and subsystems in the menu would block half of the screen for a destroyer or something larger. The disadvantage is that the player has to know where the subsystem or turret is and zoom to the ship.
That's pretty cool, and not much of a disadvantage really. If the interface is fairly responsive, you can just click randomly a few times until you get close enough to any of the major subsystems.

Actually, that gives me an idea for a visual overlay, though you'd probably need a graphics wizard to pull it off efficiently: something like the targeting computer from Rogue Leader (example here around 3:15). Instead of just displaying turrets in one color and fighters in another (or team-based like Windmills), each of the major subsystem and turret types would get a color, and the intensity to which the hull of the ship is tinted that color is based on how much damage you can do to it by shooting at that point on the hull. That is, if I recall correctly, damage is increased the closer to the center of the subsystem or turret you hit. This wouldn't be appropriate for all campaigns of course, but it would have a good synergy with this RTS script.

Heh, sorry, you probably have enough on your plate that you don't need random new ideas.
Anything worth doing is worth analyzing to death -Iranon

 
I only see a handful of subsystems/turrets in the attack menu - how are you handling large numbers of turrets etc? Is it only presenting you with subsystems/turrets that are near where you clicked?
Correct, showing all turrets and subsystems in the menu would block half of the screen for a destroyer or something larger. The disadvantage is that the player has to know where the subsystem or turret is and zoom to the ship.
That's pretty cool, and not much of a disadvantage really. If the interface is fairly responsive, you can just click randomly a few times until you get close enough to any of the major subsystems.
The previous menu closes if you open a new one. There are no artificial delays in this part of the interface so you can click around until you find what you want.

Quote
Actually, that gives me an idea for a visual overlay, though you'd probably need a graphics wizard to pull it off efficiently: something like the targeting computer from Rogue Leader (example here around 3:15). Instead of just displaying turrets in one color and fighters in another (or team-based like Windmills), each of the major subsystem and turret types would get a color, and the intensity to which the hull of the ship is tinted that color is based on how much damage you can do to it by shooting at that point on the hull. That is, if I recall correctly, damage is increased the closer to the center of the subsystem or turret you hit. This wouldn't be appropriate for all campaigns of course, but it would have a good synergy with this RTS script.

Heh, sorry, you probably have enough on your plate that you don't need random new ideas.
Currently something similar to a graphical overlay would be possible using subsystem targetting brackets: They can have every color and text can be displayed next to them. Coloring the surface of a submodel in scripting is another story. I don't think it's possible. The RTS script does no damage scaling and there is no reliable way to calculate how much damage will be done.
Not sure if I want to add such a feature because drawing many things on the screen has quite an impact on game performance.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline Alan Bolte

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In retrospect I should have thrown that random bit of inspiration over to the SCP as a feature suggestion.
Anything worth doing is worth analyzing to death -Iranon

 
Next additions:



An order queue (in this case movement -> destroy two turrets -> guard)





and support for creating waypoint paths. Additional points can be added while a ship is already flying the path.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline An4ximandros

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 An idea that just hit me looking at the pictures: could this be... modified to script battles in-game for mission FREDing? It could make a fantastic starting point for a FRED3... ¬‿¬

 Regardless, fantastic work so far! :nod:

 

Offline Dragon

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RTS stuff looks great, but what I really need is the capship orders component. It's going to make for really great and much less predictable AI controlled battles.