Unit Possession - FPS Style

Maelstrom sort of did this, letting you control Hero Units as a third person shooter, and it was awful.

The reason I had done the previous thread about this, which was about controlling the Commander, was because it's the one unit you may want to micromanage, and such a view would allow you to control it better than in a RTS view with the mouse (though I may not have done such a good job at explaining it...) I also didn't imagine that you would actually have to aim, letting the AI auto-aiming for you obviously (though I'm sure I did a very poor job at explaining this particular point.)
It would have been nice IMHO, but people seems to hate it anyway, so I won't insist.

while I don't think FPS control would work considering the base concept of PA, I would love to see the functionality included beneath the surface so that we could make more focused first person mods based on the spherical multiple planet solar system world setting.

Functionality for this kind of thing would be great for a mod game modes where players only get commanders in a tower defence or survival style game. You could even make a heroes based DOW2 last stand type of thing with crazy commander upgrades you unlock. You could make it in a FPS style or whatever I suppose.

I don't see it being even helpful in the vanilla version of the game. In fact I'd say it would more likely hinder the player.

EDITED: Crazy Ivan FTW!

Anyone ever played the old Homeworld games?

I kind of remember Homeworld Cataclysm letting you get a first person view of the units that you had ordered around. So you could order a bunch of bombers to take down a target and then watch the battle through one of the bomber's cockpits.

It was really fun to watch but completely impossible to play the game from that view. I'd only use it when I knew I could win a battle without touching the keyboard, then i'd just sit back and watch my units rip through the opposition.

So yeah it would be fun to watch a battle play out from the point of view of one of your robots. But I don't really see anyone actually trying to play like that, it'll always be better to play zoomed out from above.

this seems to be more in the realm of a mod then the base game. Although I agree that it would be cool I do not think the game is going to suffer if it not present. On the other, hand The game defiantly will suffer if there was a massive frame rate drop whenever the player zoomed out. My point is I do not think this should be a design goal prior to launch. But I do hope that Uber offers modders enough control to do crazy things like this.

From my experience in Spring I can tell that as a gimmick and way of displaying the battle, First person view is enjoyable. Like when you are winning, have a Krogoth and just march through the enemy base. It is satisfying.

However there are alot of problems raised from it.
1. Overshooting to extend range
If projectiles, lasers or any kind of weapon can have their range extended by using them in first person it means that FPSing could be critical in a turret creep for example giving that player a distinct advantage over other players which in my opinion is undesirable. This is solved by not letting certain units be FPSed in Spring. Arcing projectiles like cannon balls are can't be overshoot as you simply have to aim at the ground or target and can't aim staight into the air. The trajectery is calculated automatically so you just have to point and click in Spring. This also means that you can't fire behind hills with arcing weapons in First person view.

2. Units poping straight up when they enter LoS
Line of Sight typically feel really short and units just popouts from thin air. This breaks immersion.

3. Latency delay on commands
Depending on the network model and server used there might be network latency delay before commands are executed. In Spring you can point where you want without delay but firing the weapon, turning the turret and movement has the network delay.

4. The difficulty of leading target
I expect units to automatically lead their target in PA.
It takes alot of skill and experience to properly lead the target and there will most likely be alot of different weapons in PA with different projectile velocities.
It is tricky or impossible to lead the target with several weapons that has different projectile velocity.
Even if you can just point to a target and the weapon leads by itself then you just took away most of interactive part of shooting. Now it is just the part about driving left.

5. Blind driving.
It will be hard to access what is behind you as units, wreckages, enemies are moving about. Being able to switch to third person perspective might be more favorable at times.
Look at Men of War for a satisfying third person direct control.(In Men of War direct control is an important part of gameplay but that is because of different compartments, directional armor, being able to shoot through buildings and other stuff)

I wonder if it will be possible to make this a UI mod, so anyone could use it as a mod in normal games.

I used to play C&C Renegade. That is how I found my way to SMNC.

It is a great idea for its own game, and a terrible idea to implement as part of a game.

I am not saying even switching between overhead and ground is bad. I am saying doing it with such a big overhead game would be useless as people stated. If the maps were designed for shooters, and it was team-of-players vs team-of-players based, and the game limited you to 3-8 units you could move overhead and then control one at a time on the ground... Then I would friggin join the uber team to make it. -drool-

But that is a different game.

This kind of stuff isn't anywhere on my radar btw. We are trying to make this game on a tight budget and tight schedule, there simply isn't time to work on things that aren't a core part of the experience.

THANK YOU!!

After this game is a smashing success and all anyone plays, consider making it a fps like C&C Renegade. You got to keep ideas on what you might do after your work is done, right?

As much as I feel more RTS games should do this, I'm not sure this is the game for that. From what I hear Planetary Annihilation is a macro intensive, economy-based RTS. This sort of feature would, in my opinion, be better suited for micro focused RTS games, or possibly a mixture between to two.

The question is: Aside from being 'cool', what's the point? Wouldn't your time be spent better continuing to produce your army, expanding, etc. in a game such as this?

It's not even out yet, so who knows. I'm just going by what we know so far.

Focusing on the micro of a single unit sounds like a fantastic way to lose, and quick. Even if you're going full FPS with the Commander, D-gunning everything in sight.

It's a cute gimmick, but it's not something that would EVER be used in a serious game.

A game that pulled off this style of gameplay quite nicely was Sacrifice. It was always in the third-person, but that was not a gimmick, as your victory relied on using your hero properly.

Sadly, it didn't sell too well, even though it was a great game. (Also, Earthworm Jim made a cameo.)