Hello all, one of my concerns since when they started showing the terrain was whether we will be able to move to higher or lower terrain. I know we can build on cliffs and those elevated rock formations but I was concerned if we will be able to travel over ramps/hills/mountain sides. With the new ice terrain world I found a feature that looks like we can travel on to get to another elevation. See picture below. It looks like from the left we can travel up the ramp to get to a higher elevation. Unfortunately all my move commands whether it be vehicles or bots will not go up the ramp. I can build just fine on the elevated terrain though. See picture below. I built a bot factory on the ramp and had a fabricator bot be constructed. It moved quite fine on this ramp, but it will not move onto the planet surface. As an aside, you may notice there is wreck of another factory beneath this one. I had built a previous bot factory but its exit point was pointed to the cliff end. Whenever it built a bot it just walked off the cliff, no damage. From searching in the bug tracker this is a known bug. I did not find anything related to walking up terrain elevation changes or ramps (not from factories). So my concern is will we be able to move on ramps to go to different elevations? Is this just not in the alpha thus far?
I think that's my biggest concern right now is the 'simplicity' of the planets. Right now we just have flat plains with plateuish obstacles that serve no other purpose. I was kind of hoping for terrain to play a bigger part, with planets somewhat resembling this: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... a-science/ Maybe not that extreme, but rather than perfect spheroids, it would have some variation and some areas would be more desirable than others. Something like the Tergiverse IV maps from Total Annihilation - large sandy deserts with extreme geography changes, allowing you to build defenses along impassable cliffs and the like.
One of the problems I have had with modern RTS "terrain" is that it isn't terrain, its just obstacles that allow for slight differentiation of elevation between units. Its basically the laser tag emporium version of terrain. When I think of real terrain, I think of the dynamic generated at say, the battle of Gettysburg's large sloping hills. Those hills are large enough to fit tens of thousands of units on, and would require planets of significant size, as well as programming for terrain to affect units (slowing down while climbing uphill, speeding up when running downhill, having the high ground giving an advantage in a skirmish, rivers impeding the ability of an army to cross, etc).
If Zero-K can do it, I'm sure Uber can do it. The question is if they want to, not if they can. I'd also really like to see terrain block vision and radar. I don't know if this is planned or not, but it makes even simple obstacles like we have now much more strategically relevant, and further increases the value of being able to navigate/build on areas other than the perfectly spherical planetary surface.
The thing is, Zero-K is kind of smaller and not planetary. I think they would/will do it if the physics allow for it without breaking pathfinding/causing lag.
yup, love this stuff. here's a spring discussion on hills and tactics from a while back http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7772
I´m interested in this too. Is the engine/planet generator able to make differnet levels of terrain? I think of something like cliffs or plateaus. It would be great to use this for our strategy. Maybe like on this picture:
Would be nice to have a word from the devs on this matter if possible. It seems many people are interested in this topic.
Literally the only reason I want mountains is so I can park the equivalent of Recluses behind them and rain FIERY ROCKET DEATH upon my enemies.
I had a match a few days ago where there was a big ramp with a cliff overlooking the north side of my base. I parked a bunch of arty tanks there to defend me. no pathfinding trouble, but I do remember that the base of the ramp was quite a bit wider. Maybe it's just too tight? (That's what she said )
Units should use there unique features i.e. legged units can climb rocky hill sides more easily. Vehicles travel faster down smooth slopes. Planes gain accuracy when flying over the ridge of a hill/mountain/plateau. Rockets should get a range bonus. Artillery should get a range bonus and/or kinetic energy bonus and wile on that topic is would be cool to be able to use rocks or even be able to cause massive avalanches. I really hope they're reading and thinking about stuff people put in the forums, lots of people have put some really good material into it and the games core concepts deserve careful consideration. + 1.
i can see that avalanches could potentially be a huge memory hog w/ relatively low payoff, but if they're very specific and limited, perhaps not so badly...? have very specific gravel/boulder slopes with health bars and resistance to regular fire but are susceptible to arty/bomber damage - once the health bar is depleted it will let go it's avalanche payload!! and +1 on varied terrain that has a real impact on strategy and limits unit movement.
Some terrain destruction, at least from very heavy weapons like T2 artillery, would be neat. Even with the scorch mark decals, terrain doesn't look very chewed up after an intense battle. In Spring games it's also pretty neat how a really heavily fought-over bit of ground will get so torn up that it becomes harder for vehicles to navigate, shifting the advantage dynamically towards bots.
It would be good if units moved faster down hills than up. Combined with the increased range from height we could see tactically important high ground. I'm not sure how possible that is though.
I agree with pretty much everything said in this thread. Making rough terrain harder for vehicles to navigate is a huge plus for me in particular. I was always kind of ambivalent in my choice between tanks and bots since they basically do the same thing but bots are a little cheaper and faster, but weaker. If they had an easier time navigating rough terrain vs tanks though, that would make for excellent tactical decisions, and would add a lot to the game.
