I thought it would be good to write a list of mod ideas I'm thinking about, to get opinions and remove the chaff. People can claim them if they want to or have implemented something similar. I'm not saying I'll definitely do the ideas (just that I might try some at some point). Some things may not be possible to do, at least not properly. I'm open to new ideas (hell lets just make this a 'suggest mods' thread that probably dies on its arse, but please refrain from spamming bad/impossible ideas). Name: Chat Translate Description: All chat is translated to the users language. Possible implementation: Use a free translate api (google is not free, maybe bing). UI could enhance current chat window, with original text shown on hover. Use: Makes online play a little more inclusive. --- Name: Flexible Build Queue Description: Building build queue where you don't select the location, just the buildings (location is automatic, somewhere on screen) Possible implementation: Possibly have next building placed somewhere near previous building to avoid excessive walking. Interface could be tricky (thinking of piggyback off existing build menu, but user holds down a hotkey to signal they want to do a flexible build queue instead of normal) Issues: Getting a script to intelligently place certain buildings could be problematic. --- Name: Freehand Build (suggestion by Keterei) Description: Instead of drawing buildings in a line or circle, allow the user to draw freehand Possible implementation: Should be pretty easy as a hack, may require hotkey. I need to learn how to interact with the mouse (mdevent?). --- Name: Nuke launcher Description: An expansion to the system panel, showing the number of nukes you have ready to fire on each planet. Requires: Being able to tell if a nuke is ready from a silo. Being able to count the nukes silos on a single planet. Possible issues: Working with other mods that mod the system panel. Different nuke types (is that confirmed?). Modding the system panel cleanly. Mockup: Mockup details: Click on a planets nuke icon and it selects a nuke silo that has a nuke ready to go. Missile Command is a nuclear missile manager mod that is close enough to this mod idea to cross it out. --- Name: Quick Reaction Description: Allow the user to queue up build orders before hitting the 'start annihilate' button. Maybe just the first building to avoid people spending too long making huge build queues. edit: A minor change to auto select commander could make this mod reality.
Those are neat ideas! Here are the two mods I'm working on right now: Unit renamer: Lets you set "rules" in settings to replace default unit name with a custom one. It leaves the description alone so you still can see the original name and what that unit does. Lobby Chat: An IRC chat room embedded in the "join a game" menu. Should be helpful for coordinating with other players. (The chat room can also be added to PA sites like PA matches or PA stats by way of an iframe for a sort of global PA chat room.) I'm hoping to finish both in about a week.
I really like the idea of the Flexible Build Queue and the Nuke Launcher. Especially if we can get it so we can select multiple nuke launchers and each attack click only launches one nuke, rather than all of them. That way we can move the camera to an enemy occupied planet, select all of the nukes on one of our planets, and then send them flying rather than having to select them one at a time. Both of those sound pretty great!
My custom unit names mod is done and the chat mod is almost done. You can check out the unit names mod using the link in my sig.
I'm putting the lobby chat mod on hold for now due to performance issues. It currently has a very hard time even logging in with all the other networking calls going on and just doesn't work all that well.
My backlog. No telling if I'll ever get to all (any?) of these. Economic Advice The is where the "basic fabber" unit in Gross Economy came from. Displays your net eco in terms of power plants, fabbers, factories, etc. Usually in mini form that shows only a small number of recommendations to improve your situation. Economy Sankey Diagram Uber has commented a few times on how people don't get streaming economy. Display your entire economy as a Sankey Diagram, with mex, generators and storage flowing through totals to factories, fabbers, radar, and storage. I believe it needs considerably more API access. Single Player Hack A thread about this just popped up, but I believe it would be possible to put together a crude single player campaign by using gradually increasing AI eco and number of opponents. It might also be possible to do a traditional unit progression by removing units from the build UI, but it would have to be against weak enough AI since we can't control them. Would need lots of support from "lobby" designers and writers. Panhandler Framework for allowing mods to cooperate on handlers. Edit: There is a prototype in Instant Sandbox. Game Creation Framework Me and Cola_Colin are both reimplementing every change in the game API, and there are potential conflicts. It would need a lot thought to encompass both our use cases however.
Single player hack sounds reasonable. It would be a hack, but I imagine it could be pretty good: You can make each level have a specific map, meaning you could setup specific scenarios like naval, smashable, choke points etc Alliances may also mean you can get the ai to team up against you By the same token, ai may be able to team up with you soon if not now It would be a minor step to turn the mod into 'single player tutorial', offering advice at different stages The first level could be sandbox mode, with the goal of just making n units or something Something I have considered doing down the line was a 'time trial campaign', pretty much a set of levels with leaderboards for completion times. My attempt at that is probably much later, when we can do stuff like setting where people start etc.
Economic Cursors For all the work I've done on GrossEconomy, I still forget to look at it. The one thing that's always in view is the cursor. The cursors exist as a scene of templates that are somehow pulled in by the game. If the cursors can be dynamic, it might be able to host a limited number of key indicators.
What about a map editor? How would that translate over to PA and how hard would it be to make? I'd love to be able to have customizable planets where you could control everything, mainly map layout and the exact location of every metal patch. From what i understand (consider me illiterate when it comes to code) one of the major issues is that we need to be able to host our own servers because that is where all the map data is. Are there other major issues and how many of the problems can we influence?
If you have time i'd love to hear a brief explanation why we can't make it and they have to. Even though i'm illiterate i'm still curious, so please elaborate
The information sent when setting up a game is pretty much exactly the set of numbers you can see in the System Editor. There is simply no place to put more detailed information. If you know a lot about constructive solid geometry, you might be able to make an editor for an as-yet-unknown planet format, but you can't play it in the game's present state.
Ubercannon Status Use economic indicators and dead reckoning to guess when the ubercannon is ready. Could also show number of shots supported by storage and recharge rate. All assuming we can figure out when it fires in the first place.
It might be possible by monitoring api.audio.playSound. When the uber cannon is fired it plays "/SE/UI/UI_Command_Fire_secondary_weapon".
It does, but does it trigger api.audio.playSound when others fire? I don't know honestly. A messier way to do it is monitor engine.call to determine when the user wants to fire the uber cannon and record the id. Then monitor engine._Result using the id to determine if it fired (spitballing, pretty sure that's how it works but haven't got time to check). Or some 'proper way to do it' solution along those lines that I don't know about. edit: @SideSplitter
Thanks. I'd been looking at the D3 one, but D3 is a pretty big library, and I kind of like the data format this one uses.
