Messages

51

Feature requests / Re: Ability to change music when an upgrade / new unit is reached

« on: 6 June 2013, 22:26:11 »

Still working on a faction which I'll hopefully be releasing soon. It would help improve it a lot if I could also include multiple songs and trigger them after creating various buildings. I'm bad with the code otherwise I'd do it myself. Since it should be a small feature, might any of the devs consider it anytime soon?

As an additional suggestion, maybe the HUD texture (optional overlay image) could be optionally changed as well using the same system. That could be very useful in further enhancing the feel of advancement.

52

Feature requests / Re: Spy units

« on: 23 May 2013, 09:19:05 »

Cloaking sounds more reasonable yes. It would remove the issue of having to mask the spy as an enemy unit in appearance, and how the spied faction could click and manipulate the unit. If the unit was invisible and couldn't be clicked, there shouldn't be any issues. Unmasking cloaked units with detector units or by actions (eg: attacking) sounds most correct too.

Why would the feature be complex however? Wouldn't it be as simple as making enemies of the player not see the unit (in world and on minimap) and not be able to click it?

53

Feature requests / Re: Walls and gates

« on: 23 May 2013, 09:13:07 »

Agreed. This would be pretty difficult due to the AI, which would need awareness under complex circumstances. Making gates open and close might be possible rather simply I imagine. As for how to make the walls, the wall system could just loop the wall pattern in a straight line (any of the 4 directions) and use a special model for corners. But yeah, can tell it wouldn't be easy... hopefully someday though.

54

Feature requests / Ability to change music when an upgrade / new unit is reached

« on: 22 May 2013, 20:15:52 »

Some progressive factions could use this, such as one I'm working on now. Once a given unit is created for the first time, or a given upgrade is researched, a trigger to change the music would be useful. Random example: Once you create your first Technodrome, the song changes to a more modern one. For small factions this makes no sense, but for more progressive and upgrade-based ones it's a welcome addition.

55

Feature requests / Walls and gates

« on: 20 May 2013, 18:57:14 »

Glest Advanced added this feature some time ago for Magitech factions. You have the ability to build continuous stone walls, and if I remember right you can also add a gate which only allies can walk through. Walls are harder to destroy but it's possible to attack individual segments. I'd like to see MG and its faction having this ability as well. Maybe it can be ported from Glest Advanced... if not perhaps implemented from scratch. Not sure how difficult it would be, but wanted to drop this suggestion here as well.

56

Feature requests / Automatic unit production

« on: 20 May 2013, 14:36:37 »

As I recently found out, the recipe of success in a Glest game is building units as quickly as possible. But as you advance that gets more and more soliciting, since you must click a lot of buildings / summoners and give new unit creation orders (especially after you establish yourself in different far areas of the map). I was wondering if a system to automate the process is an acceptable idea. It would make things a lot easier and allow the player to focus on other things than running to buildings and constantly clicking buttons.

Best way to do this is allowing unit creation buttons to be 'permanently pressed', eg: by control-clicking them. When they are, that building / summoner will try to produce the selected type of unit as soon as the needed resources are available and there are no existing orders on queue. If more than one unit is control + clicked, the building / summoner will go through them in order. If the player gives other commands to the building / unit in the meantime, those are added to the queue and the automation system waits until they're all over.

Example: You play as Tech and have a barracks, which you want to constantly produce swordsmen and archers. You select the barracks and control + click the 'produce swordsman' and 'produce archer' buttons. As soon as you have enough resources, the building automatically starts producing a swordsman. Once the swordsman is done, the building tries producing an archer. If you don't have the needed resources it does nothing and waits till you do. After it finishes with the archer, it tries to produce a swordsman again and so on.

57

Feature requests / Unit patrolling

« on: 20 May 2013, 14:13:16 »

I like how in most RTS games, you can select a set of units and control + left-click on different spots to have units patrol there. I'd like to see something similar in MG. So when Control / Alt / Shift clicking multiple locations, the selected units will constantly run between them and loop through the selected "circuit". Glest Advanced has this, so maybe the feature can be ported over from it.

58

Feature requests / Auto explore

« on: 20 May 2013, 14:09:16 »

One of the most annoying and soliciting moments is when at the start of a game, you have to work hard to establish as many units as possible, and at the same time explore the map so you know where resources and enemies are located. Exploring is upsetting because you must constantly select an unit and click in the black spaces, in between visiting units and buildings to give new orders.

Could an auto explore command be added please? Consisting of a button on any moving unit, which when clicked causes the unit to go around the map and explore the area. It would make things a bit easier and less soliciting.

59

Feature requests / Spy units

« on: 20 May 2013, 11:25:44 »

In my opinion this would spice up the gameplay quite a bit, and add more suspense and strategy to the mix. But on the technical side, it might be complicated to find a correct implementation. Here's my idea:

Each faction would have the ability to train spy units. Such units would have a special feature: They can appear as an own unit to the faction they're spying for. For instance, if Player 1 (red) trains a spy against Player 2 (blue), P2 and all enemies of P1 see it as P2's unit (blue color) and will attempt to attack / not attack it accordingly, while P1 and his allies see it correctly (red color) or have another way of knowing it's P1's spy. Covered spies must never auto-attack the enemy they're spying for, but right clicking any enemy unit should attack as normal. Spies can be used to enter the enemy's territory and explore it, allowing the player to see their enemy's setup. Also, when a spy is ready to blow its cover (more on that below) they can do some damage and take the enemy by surprise.

Obviously, there should be ways to blow a spy's cover. This should happen if the spy gets in a fight with the faction they're spying for (regardless of who attacks first). Additionally, there could be anti-spy buildings or units. If a covered spy gets too close to one his cover is blown. Blown cover means the spy turns back into a normal unit which can be seen and attacked like all others. I'm not sure when and how spies should be infiltrated / masked... this should probably work similar to morphing but under more strict conditions. A spy that's been deconspired should also be unable to re-disguise itself for a few minutes.

Sadly there would be a lot of technical difficulties to making this possible. Those are the ones I'm aware of:

- What happens when the player who sends the spy is of a different faction from the player being spied? If for instance P1 is Magic and P2 is Tech, P1 would quickly notice one of their units is a magic unit although they are tech. Only solution is for each faction to have their infiltrated spies look like one of their units (have the same model). For magic that could be the mage, for tech that could be the worker or swordsman, etc. They should look the same but not have the same abilities... so if a covered spy looks like a mage it doesn't mean it can gather resources or attack with magic.

- What if a faction clicks an enemy spy and tells it to go somewhere? Even worse, what if it tells it to attack or gather resources? If the spied player notices an unit (seemingly theirs) won't respond to commands, it's obvious they're a covered spy. We could allow masked spies to be controlled by both their real owner and the faction they're infiltrated with, in which case the owner has priority (if both factions click for the spy to go somewhere). But what if the spy looks like a worker yet is visibly unable to gather resources and build... or looks like a soldier but can't attack? I guess this could be another way to deconspire them.

- Considering that Player 1 is on one side of the map and Player 2 on the other side. P1 sends a spy over to P2, which means he has to walk all the way from one end to the other. Unless P2 is really stupid or not paying attention, he notices an unit of their own walk from one point to the other, either on the minimap and in the world. They know they haven't sent anyone there, so it would raise obvious questions. This too would need some thinking.

Due to those difficulties I'm not hoping we'll see this happening, at least not anytime soon. But it would be really fun if it could. I'm reminded of a very old RTS game I used to play back when I had my first modern computer, which I think was called Populous. At some point you could produce spy units, which were able to enter the enemy's base and set fire to buildings (but once they did they were deconspired).

60

Feature requests / Re: Alliance changing system

« on: 20 May 2013, 10:37:27 »

The code is all there, each member of the team votes if the player can change to their team. Try it out.

Found it. I had to enable "Advanced" in the game setup screen to see the option. Gave it a try and it's really awesome... just what I was hoping for. Lovely work

Just one question: Does the AI know to utilize this too, or is it only useful in multiplayer? So far the AI seems to know whether to accept or deny your request. But if an AI player is on the verge of losing, will it offer to join your team? And could an allied AI attempt to betray you if the other team is better?

61

Feature requests / Re: Alliance changing system

« on: 20 May 2013, 00:24:09 »

Nice... had no idea it already exists. So it's an admin only option I take it? That means changing teams in real time is possible, and all that would be needed is the code for the menu and voting.

I know it could spoil the game in some cases, hence why I suggested disabled by default. If someone wants to play for the sake of fair game and competition, this will surely be off. My idea would prolly be useful for those who want to play the full possibility, realistic, and I guess diplomatic way. That can be really fun too, and I'd love games where the player can also use change of alliances to find their way to victory.

The way maps are designed could be a problem. This would work best on maps where all players are distanced from each other. But I think this once again adds more to the challenge; If you're placed near a powerful ally, you'd have a hard time if you betray him, so better think twice. Then again, if the player you're next to is really weak compared to you and you feel like being traitorous, it might not bother you.

62

Feature requests / Alliance changing system

« on: 19 May 2013, 22:09:53 »

I've been thinking about this feature for a bit. It would be one of the nicest new abilities to add, and should be possible to implement if player teams can be changed during a game. This is how I believe it should work:

The ability to change alliances should be a game option, possibly disabled by default. When enabled, a menu (opened by a keybind) presents the player with a GUI listing all players (including them self). They can select any players from that list, while another selector specifies the team in which he suggests moving (more on that below). There should also be a text field where the player optionally writes why they want the team change. Lastly, when the player is done he presses ok and the proposal is sent to all players involved (more on that below).

The menu can be used to do one of two things: Go to another team, or ask someone else to join yours. The menu should assume which you are doing by the team you selected (if it points to your current team it means you're inviting, if not it means you want to leave there). When you want to join a different team, you can select either just yourself or yourself plus other players (be they enemies or allies). When you want to bring a player to your team, you can only select enemy players. Once the player presses OK, all players involved get notified and must express their approval (either in chat or a menu popping up). That includes the players you selected to invite / leave with, as well as all players in the team you are inviting to / leaving to. The change only happens if everyone votes "yes".

To better explain what I had in mind, here are some examples of how it would be used. Given the following initial setup, and considering we are Player 1:

Player 1 = Team 1
Player 2 = Team 1
Player 3 = Team 2
Player 4 = Team 2
Player 5 = Team 3

Example 1: Players 1 and 2 aren't doing too well. Players 3 & 4 are more powerful but could use some extra help. In order to survive, Player 1 considers betraying 2 and joining 3 & 4, so he launches the proposal of joining Team 2. Players 3 & 4 who compose this team are informed, and need to vote whether they agree or not. If both do, Player 1 becomes part of Team 2. In this circumstance, Player 1 could have also invited Player 5 with him, and if 5 also additionally agreed both of them would have went to Team 2.

Example 2: Players 1, 2 and 5 are very weakened, while Player 4 is very powerful. Players 1 & 2 can no longer afford to fight 5 as well, and neither can 5. So Player 1 proposes that Player 5 joins his team, and 5 is asked to vote if he wants to or not. Player 2 is must also vote since he's part of Team 1 where 5 is being invited. If both votes are positive, the transition is done. Additionally, considering that Player 3 was willing to betray 4 for whatever reason, the proposal could have been that players 5 and 3 both joined Team 1 (3, 5 and 2 would all have to vote if they agree).

Example 3: Player 1 has grown very powerful and all other players are weak. He's actually so powerful that he no longer wants any allies. Although the game started with 3 teams, he makes the proposal of becoming part of a new team (Team 4) so he may separate from everyone. Such would require no vote from anyone else since it involves Player 1 alone. Optionally, Player 1 could have invited any of the other players (2, 3, 4 and / or 5) to come with him to the new team.

Example 4: Player 1 is being attacked by Players 3 & 4. He's losing and near the point of being destroyed. Before the enemy's units get to his last castle, he asks to surrender, by telling players 3 & 4 he wants to join them. If 3 & 4 feel like taking 1 as an ally instead of finishing him off, they accept. Player 1 becomes part of their team and the units from 3 & 4 automatically stop the attack.

I think this ability would add more feel, strategy and realism to MegaGlest. What led me to think of this were historical movies I occasionally seen recently... about how nations went to wars, established alliances, surrendered when there was no other choice, etc. Only downside is that this could cause imbalance, as weaker players would try to join the stronger ones. Then again, that's how many weak nations survived throughout history, so this would only add more realism. What do you think? Can this be done in MG anytime soon?

63

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 25 February 2013, 00:00:24 »

I would like to use this feature just to allow people to join a game where they dropped out before . Beside of testing it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to join a running game where I never was a part of.
In general I see this more as a fallback systems for people who suddenly had a small network issue or something like this.

This is  way I thing it makes sense:

1- When game starts all players get their own special key which identifies them as beeing part of the game. For example a random number for each which is then stored on the server should be good enough. This random number is given to each client where its stored too and the server ip is stored too.
2- if player drops out for whatever reason the game is paused and a message is given (mesage is already given ).  The server ( or controller on headless ) can unpause the game or theywait in this state.
3- If the player whos game crashed or whatever restarts MG ( or just goes to the internet menu ) the server is shown as open for him too ( identified by the stored ip ). Now he can join into this game identifiying himself with the key he got from the server before.

( In general the server(or controlling player)  can deny this rejoin if people always drop out because of too bad hardware or whatever )

Anyone playing anytime is the reason why I initially wanted the feature. While it is indeed best to play a game from start to end, there can be moments when it doesn't matter and you just want to play. It's the concept in nearly all shooter games, where 99% of them allow joining at any point. Many might find this useful in a RTS too... I know I do.

This is however also useful to reconnect when you drop. I don't believe any key identification should be added however, the current system is fine. If the server is private, people will know where and how to rejoin.

64

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 23 February 2013, 01:27:48 »

What are the outstanding items before this feature can be marked done?

From what I know, it is done. Just more bug testing I imagine, but IIRC there are no more known bugs left.

65

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Re: Map - Link

« on: 20 February 2013, 13:38:10 »

All factions have the advantage of being attacked from one route mostly, since it's unlikely an enemy will attack the next faction before defeating the first one in their way (else they can get surrounded and crushed from both sides). It is however possible for example that if an enemy defeats Yellow (bottom) then Green (right) they can take the route that leads to Red (top) and attack Blue (left) from there.

Otherwise, different positions offer slightly different advantages and disadvantages... such as the first factions (Yellow and Pink) getting attacked the most and certainly defeated first, given they guard the entrance to the whole hub. There are some fun possibilities with such a setup Nicest part is that I think it encourages more team work and thinking than other layouts.

And I need to remember how to take screenshots like that from above. Very useful in cases like this but I forgot how it's done

66

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Map - Link

« on: 19 February 2013, 15:37:48 »

4 vs 4 map, symmetrical horizontally and vertically. The point is to have a layout where players in each team are linked in a specific order and must be defeated accordingly, mountains and trees making it impossible to get past without having to fight each faction in the way. You must first defeat the 1st player near the entrance, then go for the 2nd or 3rd player, and from there reach the 4th player.

The map comes in two variants, large and small. Small is 64 x 128 and contains smaller roads and areas, but also fewer resources and not as much room for each faction to place units and buildings. Large is 128 x 256 and contains larger fields and longer roads (as well as new areas) but the layout is a bit more confusing to learn. They're both different maps but go for the same layout and have the same name... try whichever you like most.

Download the small version here: link 1.
Download the large version here: link 1.

(click to show/hide)

67

Maps, tilesets and scenarios / Map - Natural Fortress

« on: 19 February 2013, 15:08:55 »

One of the maps I worked on during the last days. It is a 3 vs 3, 64 x 128, vertically symmetrical map. Each team is located behind large mountains, in an open area which can only be accessed through a tight path. Allies work together to protect the main entrance while making their way through the enemy's. Resources are located inside the safe area, both near the starting points as well as a few places around them, but also outside the "fortress" in open fields for those who wish to risk establishing a castle there. A lake divides the map vertically, which can be crossed in two opposite points where there's shallow water.

You can download the map from here: link 1. Try it out and let me know what you think

(click to show/hide)

68

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 19 February 2013, 14:06:17 »

According to my tests (just playing with myself) this should be fixed by now, too.I'm looking forward to test head of trunk with more people.

Going to update. Poke me on IRC later when you wanna run such a server again to test. I'm curious if you get the sync error again... if not it's probably fixed.

69

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 19 February 2013, 10:23:26 »

Yes, I reported the crashes on IRC too and you fixed them the same day. Also, I tested this feature with another player, and I could connect and disconnect anytime during the ongoing match, so it works nicely

He did however mention that at some point me joining the ongoing game caused an "out of sync" error and even crashed the server. It was discussed with titi_linux and he suspected that while a player connects (and the game is paused) commands are still being issued somehow, causing the game to be modified from the xml the connecting player receives or something. That's been during the same day... might have been fixed too since then.

70

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 16 February 2013, 15:55:07 »

Attempted to try the changes, but like it's been said there are many crashes in latest SVN when opening some menus. But I could see the new options in the menu at least

71

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 16 February 2013, 13:20:27 »

Wonderful! I shall try the latest SVN

72

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 15 February 2013, 23:05:01 »

That's fantastic, thanks for adding this great feature! Being able to choose which player slot to take when joining an ongoing game is most important next IMHO, but it's great that the base system is there and usable

73

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 15 February 2013, 10:55:41 »

I am making great progress on this. Watch for something soon to be commited to svn.

Can't wait!

74

Feature requests / Re: Allow players to join ongoing matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 12 February 2013, 12:05:33 »

We have the code to be able to do this, however its not yet implemented and I have some questions about how this should work?

1. Does the player request to join the current game and the main host user get notified and then answer yes / no? How do we avoid spamming requests from annoying players?
2. How do we decide which player slot the connecting player joins into?

We would have to pause all players while the new player joins, would it be ok to just put a message in the char area indicating this?

My answer would very much be what Omega said. But to form my own idea:

1. I don't believe the host should have to confirm anything, but that could be a setting so the owner can decide (disabled by default though). The point is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to join and free-for-all servers to exist.

2. Let the player decide between free slots, just like the existing lobby screen (and within it). Was considering to let them change team and faction too, but that would be impossible since the AI already played that slot and such would break it.

Long version: Servers with ongoing matches already appear in the server list, so that part is good. Now when selecting one, the player would have the 'join' button available. When they join an ongoing server, they see the same lobby screen as setup servers... but all options are grayed out except for free player slots (useful so they can see match settings and know what they're joining). The player can pick one of those slots like they do during lobby mode and that's it. They then enter and play on that slot from where the AI left off. Other players (including the host) are only notified through a chat message that "Player X entered and is now playing on slot #", the same way they're already notified of players disconnecting and being switched to AI mode.

75

Feature requests / [testing] Allow to join matches (faction controlled by AI when no player)

« on: 20 January 2013, 01:04:51 »

MegaGlest got some big improvements in regards to playing online compared to Glest. But there's still a major problem with internet matches; You have to join while everyone is getting ready, and cannot enter an ongoing match. This makes it difficult to find a game, since everyone spends little time in the lobby setting up a game and more time actually playing.

In most FPS games, online matches are free to join at any time. Also, if there are less than two players fighting on a map, a bot can be added so the player doesn't get bored while waiting for someone else to join. I'm thinking of something similar for Glest in this sense.

My idea is to create an optional server flag which allows players to join at any time during an ongoing match. When enabled, player slots which are set to Network but no one is occupying when the game starts will be taken by a CPU, and an AI plays that faction. Then, if anytime during the game a player wishes to join, he can select the server in the server list and take a free player slot if any is available. Once that player is connected, the faction is switched to him from AI control. If he disconnects, it's then switched back to an AI (already happens by default). Although new players would inherit what the AI or other players built before them (which is not most fair), it would fix people having to wait for a new match each time.

This would go nicely with another feature, also seen commonly in FPS and other genres. An admin can leave the server running, and after a match is over it automatically selects a new map and starts a new game. It doesn't care if anyone has joined or not, and until a real player connects it can let AI factions battle each other. Such would allow people to run servers with full uptime which anyone can join at any given moment. This is a different feature from the one I mentioned above though, and can be done separately.