New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/PA!)

I'm particularly looking for Uber's response to this, after the completion of this, I plan on immediately doing a PA version, eventually tying all 3 games into it, TA, SupCom, and PA. http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43399
Development will commence over the weekend, with the GUI.
Is it something Uber was planning for PA anyways? I also want to see how many of you would like to see an autoscripter/unit builder.
And for all you customization lovers, I plan to allow plugins, so one could download texture/"unit part" packs from an online database.
The survey was for a rough idea, if you have any skepticism, suggestions, or help to offer, please, share them

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

I think you should more clearly label your topic as a unit creation tool as many people probably dont know the term autoscripter, like me.

Id like to see the project however im not sure lego building units should really be in your perview as it tends to get a lit of low quality mish mash blob type stuff. however the ability to see bones and define them automaticaly in a model viewer of some sort would be neat.

Would you also be planning on including an effects and projectile editor so that people can work in their own weapons?

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Like yogurt312, I have no idea what this thing is.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Uggh please don't use java, java GUIs generally are just hideous.
And also, this seems a little bit infeasible. I'm assuming the units will have to be some sort of maya or 3dsmax file, and I don't think you can really "generate" one using Java, but I may be wrong.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Yup.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is something akin to the unit editor from the Stacraft Map editor(thought I only have experience with the Original, not SCII)

If that Is the case, as a Modder I honestly don't care, because the Code is likely to be much more powerful then a GUI front-end could be.

Mike

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

It sounds like his proposed front-end would just be calling into the back-end with the goal of abstracting unit creation, making it possible for less program-savvy individuals to take part in unit creation.

You should definitely make the app a deployable web app with a Silverlight front-end. I heard everyone loves Silverlight.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Yeah, "Autoscripter" isn't very descriptive even to someone familiar with mods and modding. From the title I thought it was to do with giving macro scripted commands to units.

But, sure, go ahead and make it. I'd like to see a Warzone 2100 unit builder for PA.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Basically, you take a unit you built (or had a version generated) and will allow you to set turret turn speed, weapon RoF, damage, etc. all automatically. LazyScripter in TA was somewhat like this, but it lacked many features, and after the script was done, nothing else was automated

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

Yeah, doing it manually will always be better than automation, but there are some people out there without time time to put much work into modding their own units.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

I'm not aiming for beautiful, I'm aiming for functional.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit AutoScripter (FOR TA/PA!)

An easy editor to tweak units and automatically create a mod out of it would be quite helpful I guess. But it is pretty hard to make a good one. Honestly I doubt somebody who is just learning java will produce a really good piece of software in the end.

on that note:
It is quit possible to make nice GUIs with Java, you just need to use the right libraries and be good with it. Kinda like with every other language there is.

ymmd

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

You really only have a few legitimate java libraries for GUIs. And also, I don't think there's any way to generate a Maya or 3ds max model using Java, although I may be wrong.

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

I don't see why it should be impossible to read the documentation of those formats and write a library for them. No matter what language you are using.

Also does anybody actually know already what kind of format the unit-models will be in?

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

Not that I know of, last I recall Neutrino saying is that they were looking at .fbx.

Mike

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

Yeah, I was just looking through the fbx documentation, seems somewhat feasible. Just would be a pretty huge project for someone learning Java.
EDIT: seems like fbx has a library for c++ or python. If theseeker used C++ it would make his life a ton easier on this project. Besides, C++ isn't too far from Java

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

I was actually planning on something like this too, though web-based, so that beginners could easily generate the units that they want and export it automatically into a mod. We totally have to make two competing unit creators =D

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

If I can't figure out a method for autogeneration... Let's go with labor intensive manual modeling! Daily updates here we come! For the moment being, gui will be the hardest part, I only have to make the script once, and rely on user input for the rest. I do have one question... TA didn't store unit damage values, HP, and a lot of other unit stats in the script... Where did TA store them?

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

Inefficient, working together would be faster, and scrapping the web idea means I don't have to learn how to maintain a linux server!

Re: New Project: TheSeeker's Unit Builder/Scripter (FOR TA/P

We can totally share code/designs, though I wanna make it cross-platform and easy to share. We may have different visions too (and I may give up half-way into it =P)