Can the PA engine support different terrain depths?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Zainny, October 9, 2014.

  1. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I call it crippled potato. Out of the 1k+ dox that roamed it only like 5 got stuck.

    EDIT:
    Reading the code of the cliff mod/biome setup for the first time.
    What is the current state on custom brushes/forcing the generator to just use a single brush that happens to have the form of a custom planet?

    EDIT:
    So it's actually possible to build a map editor that places fixed brushes. They can be made pathable or not. Don't think water or mex can be placed like this though. Not sure about spawn zones, I had the feeling I read code in the server that would allow us to specify whatever locations we want.

    [​IMG]
    Last edited: October 10, 2014
  2. Nalin

    Nalin New Member

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    Those would make for some really nice "asteroid" maps.
  3. pivo187

    pivo187 Active Member

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    This Is sorely needed..You guys aren't bothered by this? I mean pcs should be able to handle anything these days. I can't believe something ta had in the 90s is still a dream in a next gen rts game...
  4. bengeocth

    bengeocth Post Master General

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    How did you get t2 vehicle on the desert triad? You must have been playing AI- you would have been forced to kill humans too fast XD
  5. wondible

    wondible Post Master General

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    The CSG system can get pretty wild, and we are tantalizing close to being able to replace a planet with a pre-generated brush. The only hard obstacle right now is that you can't spawn unless there is a bit of original planet surface showing to generate a valid spawn location. And now that I think of it, some of the spawn stuff is controlled by the little bit of the server that's scriptable...
    proeleert and vackillers like this.
  6. bluestrike01

    bluestrike01 Active Member

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    I think the OP does not want more bumpier terrain but more strategic features, setons clutch narrow land pass,
    elevated terrain (plateau's) with steep edges where the high ground has a range advantage as in Supcom?
    So the use of terrain also becomes a factor.

    Moon craters used to be only accesable by bots never liked the change where crates have no meaning to the game.

    Also in one of the dev streams the pathing guy was talking how bots would go over hills while tanks would go the faster way around for them. I never saw this make the game. (And now the pathing system has changed)
    Zainny likes this.
  7. ace63

    ace63 Post Master General

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    I think they took the old craters out because of pathing problems. I loved the old craters - they looked much cooler than what we have now and also had strategic impact. The current ones may aswell not be there.
  8. superouman

    superouman Post Master General

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    Uh oh. This picture gave me nerd chills. TEACH ME MASTER!

    Also, the engine supports land bridges. On metal planets, units can pass on the trench section under the bridges.

    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/human-made-melee-maps-sketches.49378/
    SOON MY PRETTIES! SOON YOU WILL ALL BECOME REAL!
    Last edited: October 10, 2014
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  9. Tripax

    Tripax Member

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    I had the same feeling for spawn locations. Not mex though
  10. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    It's one of the press pack screenshots I think.
  11. radongog

    radongog Well-Known Member

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    ****, we need that map as a standard one... ;)
  12. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I'll make a post about potential for a custom map editor after I finish my custom server stuff. But beware: It's not pretty to make these maps. Getting anything even close to wysiwyg is not gonna be easy.
    Like I created that LOL by:
    1. Make the empty planet, save
    2. Load empty planet
    3. Put in some js into the debugger that prints one crater-code-element for every alert I create
    4. Build walls in LOL formation
    5. copy paste generated code from the debugger into the sandbox biome.
    6. back to the system editor, make screenshot.

    I've not checked, but I am afraid there is no way to get the position of the mouse in world coordinates in the system editor. If we had this, it would all be massively easier. We could build a UI that allows you to chose between all existing brushes, select if you want to subtract or add them, at what scale and do a click on the map. The mod then would push the position to a i.e. nodejs based program that rewrites the biome file. You then regenerate the planet in the editor and see your change.
    thelordofthenoobs and aevs like this.
  13. Gorbles

    Gorbles Post Master General

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    Pathfinding is one of the most annoying things in the world to implement. It's not necessarily a matter of computing power (though it can be after a point with regards to scaling).

    Add in pathfinding and combat-tracking that handles things that can't be shot through or can be shot through, accommodating the AI for such things . . . a lot of it is doable, but certain things are predicated on how well the physics engine handles things.

    Dawn of War was arguably one of the most advanced RTS games of it's time, but still had restrictions on what could shoot where and so forth, and that was on a standard (flat) map.
    igncom1 likes this.
  14. totalannihilation

    totalannihilation Active Member

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    Cola, have you tried the pathfinding of airplanes? many games I have played with "tumorous" planets, and the planes seem to slow down near the very high hills
  15. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    didnt test air, no.
    But yeah planes might have a hard time to deal with that terrain
  16. paperthinarmor

    paperthinarmor New Member

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    May not be a bad thing--could be an effect of the atmosphere becoming thinner? Sorry, I'm a glass half-full guy whenever possible :p
  17. Obscillesk

    Obscillesk Active Member

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    Yeah, isn't the current issue with hills and such that units don't actually do line of sight calculations, they just have the same fog of war that the player does, right?
  18. pivo187

    pivo187 Active Member

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    Come on let's have terrain that is like a real war!
    Customizing a planet in every way possible would be epic! That fixing naval, making orbital fun, and getting interesting units could change this game for the best
    Has anyone read the info on etherium? Supposedly weather will directly affect gameplay ...
  19. ohhhshiny

    ohhhshiny Active Member

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    I heard they put the game down. o_O they are still working on it?

    And i thought what the Threadhost really meant were huge planets with larger biomes (bigger trees n mountains n stuff). I've read somewhere that right now PA feels more like it is played on floating balls rather than planets, and i thought its a fitting description. If you want wars with 40 player, ~4 - 5 huge planets would make more sense than 15 small ones. (less orbital-downtime, less travel-time, less bunkering on a planet etc.)
  20. Gerfand

    Gerfand Active Member

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    well, TA was the first game to introduce terrain things (fan-based source)... so PA need to have terrain things... and it's have, especialy if you count the mountains, volcanos, etc

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