Suggestion: "directional" explosions

Hey, i want to ask if this is possible and what you guys think about.

I think it would be great to have diffrent explosions.
as for now all explosions are the same. the only difference is the scale.

what i think about is that the explosion do not just be there and gets taller and taller from a center where the destroyed units was.
i think of something that has to do with from wich side the shot came that kills the unit - so the explosion (and flying debris) spreads out in the opposite direction from where the last shot came. this dosnt have to be a big effect, but just a little.
so that not all explosions are the same "round" fire and smoke balls.

this could add a better feeling of the batle and the massive weapons that are part of it.

last one: i know -> this is alpha. so please dont say it if one of the devs would say "yes, we are working on this (or something similar), but it is at very low priority atm" then i´m fine

sorry for my bad english. i hope you can get my point.

so, what do all think of it?

I think that would look epic. But I am unsure how much work it is and I would rather see Uber implement better gameplay if they have to chose.

Also the Alpha forums is not the right place for suggestions, so I moved the topic to the backers lounge.

If there are dev-hours available for this, it would be pretty neat. I'm thinking the good old "exit wound explosion", or multi-stage death explosions for Important Units, like the megabot.

But for the main game, it seems like the regular ball-like explosions serve readability better. And if effects are as moddable as the other stuff, it should be no problem to add custom ones with custom behaviours.

yeah +1, not sure how easy it would be

+1 to this.

Definitely worth taking a look into.

Honestly I think the biggest issue could be that from my understanding most FX are done to be viewed from specific angles in most cases, PA is already dealing with that not being the case in terms of the zoom and spherical planet but there are still ways doing more directional based stuff could add new issues that need resolving.

I don't know if it's something we should really want kinda maybe, if PA was smaller scale and more 'detailed' I think it'd be more important, but when dealing with something as large as PA seems to be aiming to be it makes me think it might be more of a detractor than anything else in terms of overall readability maybe.

Mike

From a programming perspective, this would be pretty math intensive (I think), involving a lot of angle checks (which means a lot of trig functions, which are expensive), and normalization. I may be wrong on this account, I'm an artist not a programmer.

But, in my amateur opinion, it would be too expensive in terms of processing power to include.

When I read directional, I assumed you meant that terrain features might be able to block damage to units, which would be more feasible.

I dunno, because the projectiles are simulated you already have all kinds of info in regards to orientation and such, I dunno how feasible getting those numbers would be but in SupCom were most weapon on hit FX dealt with by the weapon/projectile itself?

Mike

Directional AoE is nothing overly complex. It's worked in other RTS games to great effect. I don't see the problem here.

Directional explosions can be created with projectiles. Not many projectiles are required for each explosion.

I think directional AOE and directional force would be good.

You don't have to be precise with directional force. A random good enough type approach (basically cheat) would be good enough to make it look good.


The main question is: How much would it 'cost' in terms of processing power and is that cost with in reason?


We already have a type of directional AOE. Walls already block shots.

Hey, i want to bring this up again.

For shure there are thing to do for Uber that are way more important atm, but you never know

you seem a bit... OFF

sorry had to say it

but seriously though i don't get what you are saying

He's saying the number of additional projectiles that need to be created to make a explosion look directional is not very large. Re: TA. That had polys flying off when something exploded, and some 3D bits like windmills would spin and fly off and explode. It was always awesome to watch how far building scrap would fly when blown up by a powerful weapon on a low-gravity map.

I'm sure it's something they intend to do later, splash damage is too important in a game of this scale

I get the feeling people don't understand what the point of this thread was about.

This is not about having splash damage or whatever.

Mike

Sure it is, directional explosions would change the way most if not all of the splash damage works. I'm certainly not interested in these explosions if it's just eye candy.

Well that's what the OP is talking about.

Mike

I'm fairly sure if there is a physics engine built into this game then it should occur. Practical reactions by projectiles is an asset to immersion, friendly fire, aoe, directional explosions, planes falling from the sky, etc.

Rather easy. There is even a mod that make unit fly around depending of the hit direction.
Altering the debris to that general direction should be trivial.