new ideas.....

[dannylee]

hey guys,
i have 2 new ideas for a new faction and for a new specialty. the new faction: Spartans and/or Romans.
New specialty: how about if all figures who have shields  (that would be: swordman, guards, horseman, spearman, spearman berzerk, swordman, swordman berzerk) if they get a new specialty, lets call it shields up for example, and when you click on the "shields up " button (that we have to make on the figure command menu) it raises its shield and blocks arrows coming from archers and can't hurt them anymore! but to make it fair, if the "shields up mode" is turned on the figure can't walk anymore and also can't fight anymore until you give it the orders to do so, but then the "shields up mode" is turned off again. isn't that a good idea, i mean why would the figure have a shield if it can't use it, and one more thing: just to make it fair the shield should only be able to block arrows, and nothing else. i think it's a good idea, but what about you, please tell me your opinion, oh and if we really are going to use this idea, i can't help (sorry) because i have no idea how to make the figures move and how to write xml files for it, but please give me your opinion.
danny lee     

[Idanwin]

You can walk with a shield above your head. Not being able to attack is bad enough.

[dannylee]

k great idea, but who can made this happen? (i suck at blender and xml file making)
so someone   skilled has to do this, do you know someone?
danny

[gameboy]

i suggested something like that only i called it stances
here it is(along with my other ideas)
Generals: The General Unit can be made the leader of a particular group, wherever the general goes the army follows wherever the general attacks the army attacks within a specific area.
Shield or Defense: With this your unit gets an extra Shield bonus added to the unit's current armor.
Stances: With Stances your unit can be set to any different stance like aggressive, defensive, raid, plunder and for ranged units melee. With each stance a unit gets different benefits ex. with the defensive stance the unit get an extra +20% defense( or shield), -5% attack and -15% attack speed, plus when the unit spots an enemy unit, it doesn't rush to attack, but stays it ground until the enemy unit attacks. with raid the units first attack all units in the area before going for the buildings. with plunder all units first finish enemy buildings before going for units, note the raid and plunder will be more appropriate for the general so that all units he command automatically are set to that stance.
Steal: This idea is actually Omega's, but i liked it, with steal you can steal a unit attribute or a buildings resources, i hope omega can come and explain better.
Agility: This is also Omega's. With agility a unit has the ability to completely dodge an attack.            ""
Unit Type: I think it would be great if units had type's that way there could be units like Cavalry and Infantry, Heavy Infantry would be good against Cavalry and Cavalry would be good against siege and Light Infantry, i think this would introduce much more strategy to the game.
Auto Promotion: It would be great if units would promote automatically ex. The swordsman, there should be an upgrade for guard so that when you research Guard all you existing Swordsmen promote automatically to guards and the button for train Swordsmen is replaced by the button to Train Guards. also it would cool is units promote automatically when they kill a type of unit, say an archer kills 5 Cavalry units he automatically upgrades to Crossbowman, if on the other hand he kills 7 Infantry units he automatically gets promoted to Longbow man.
You may not like them all, but whatever

[John.d.h]

Generals: The General Unit can be made the leader of a particular group, wherever the general goes the army follows wherever the general attacks the army attacks within a specific area.

The armies in Glest tend to be rather small.  I'm not sure any of them would warrant having a general.  What I would like to see is just a small feature like the unit groupings in Homeworld, where if you click on one member of a group, it selects the whole group.  It's not much different from the current system, but if you've got five different groups assigned and you can't remember which one has all your Ghost Armors in it, you could just click on one of them instead of cycling through all the numbers until you find the right one.  Not a big change, but it might make managing your army just a tad more convenient.  Also, it automatically groups your units based on group orders, so if you select five of your Ion Cannon Frigates and tell them to move somewhere together, the next time you click on one of those frigates, it will select all five of them.  Some players might find this more annoying than helpful but personally I like it.

Shield or Defense: With this your unit gets an extra Shield bonus added to the unit's current armor.

Err... maybe I'm not understanding exactly what you mean, but isn't that what Tech's defense upgrades already are?

Stances: With Stances your unit can be set to any different stance like aggressive, defensive, raid, plunder and for ranged units melee.

Yeah, the standard RTS set of "aggressive", "defensive", and "stand ground" are getting a over-used these days.  It would be nice to have a good variety.  How about one more: Recon.  Star Trek Armada lets you set your units to automatically scout the area, which is really convenient since it allows you to find out where things are without micromanaging your scouts (which I've always found to be really tedious), so you get to keep your attention on building up your base.

With each stance a unit gets different benefits ex. with the defensive stance the unit get an extra +20% defense( or shield), -5% attack and -15% attack speed

I don't know if that's a good idea or not.  It might lead to micro-management and min-maxing.

Steal: This idea is actually Omega's, but i liked it, with steal you can steal a unit attribute or a buildings resources, i hope omega can come and explain better.

I've thought this idea might work well with creeps.  Bandits could come "in ur base, killing ur d00dz" and run off with a lot of your gold, then you have to go kill them and take it back.

Agility: This is also Omega's. With agility a unit has the ability to completely dodge an attack.

If I'm not mistaken, they're already working on giving units a chance to miss (specifically for moving targets, at least) so maybe some units could be inherently easier or harder to hit.

Unit Type: I think it would be great if units had type's that way there could be units like Cavalry and Infantry, Heavy Infantry would be good against Cavalry and Cavalry would be good against siege and Light Infantry, i think this would introduce much more strategy to the game.

Isn't that what attack types vs. armor types are for?

Auto Promotion: It would be great if units would promote automatically ex. The swordsman, there should be an upgrade for guard so that when you research Guard all you existing Swordsmen promote automatically to guards and the button for train Swordsmen is replaced by the button to Train Guards.

No no no!  What if you don't WANT all your Swordsmen to turn into Guards, huh?  Swordsmen run faster and can be trained for cheaper so you definitely want to keep them as a possibility even when you've gotten the ability to recruit Guards, and of course you wouldn't want all your Battlemages turning into Archmages either (or at least I wouldn't).  All the promotions come with different pros and cons and that's one thing that separates Glest from the Age of Empires franchise and adds a little depth to the game.

[dannylee]

these are all good ideas, but please don't get off topic, because all of your ideas are not really what i mean.
so do we have anybody to make this idea (my idea) happening?
danny

[Archmage]

You could make a function that morphs the soldier into another unit - the other unit will be the same except it will have it's shield up and it can't attack.

[dannylee]

great idea, but i can't do it, somebody else with the skills to do it should give it  try.
Danny

[Archmage]

I think zaggydad did a similar mod. He had pike men who could morph into a siting stance.

[modman]

That's complicated because the AI would have to be explicitly enformed of the circumstances under which it morphs into the squatting spearman.

[Omega]

Yeah, the bandits idea was always a good one. Basically it's a whole new skill which allows you to steal resources from units that store/carry them, such as the worker or the castle. Of course, if you kill the bandit, you get it back.

Sorry, but I'm against auto-promotion too. A better idea would be simply an upgrade to increase attack, and we already have that.

Daniel.Santos had discussed something about the dodging before, but I forget where...

[modman]

I believe the origanal and best place to post new ideas is the stickied one; that way the idea can never die on the fifth page.

[daniel.santos]

Please see the following enhancement request recently filed.  The more I consider it, the more I think that stances can be an appropriate feature for GAE (as opposed to simply moprhing).  A lot of details to work out still (different animations & sounds for skills, what skills should and should not be available, what stats get modified, etc.). https://bugs.codemonger.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66  Please let me know what you think.

[John.d.h]

what stats get modified, etc

I think that should depend on the unit.  Some units (pikemen, earth elementals, The Blob from X-Men) would get a lot more out of being in a static defensive stance because their ability to be immovable objects is their strong suit, while others (cavalry, viking berserkers, flying chainsaws) would get a lot more out of being in the "destroy anything that isn't wearing our color" stance because their strength is in using their mobility and momentum to break through the enemy's defenses.

[hungeri]

Hello guys!
Im new here but i watched the forum and the Glest - of with the GAE - is awesome  !
I got some new ideas , i dont now where can i write this .....
So the things :
-Passive leadership
-Special weapon types - pike , blade etc. - with armor for them
-Spellbook - like BFME or C&C Generals
-New upgrade types : Damage against special units - examp.: against leather,metal -
-Pillaging : Res. for killing - and leadership for it

[Omega]

Well, the ideas seem good, however, only 2 of those are new. Everything else can already be done!

Weapons are in the models, and are just for looks, types of attacks like energy, piercing, etc are specified in the faction.xml, which also sets the damage multipliers. Ditto for armor.

Spells are just ranged attacks with a particle. They are no different from normal attacks, and it would be possible to have a lot of spells (would be nice though to have a sub menu for the spells, which may possibly be what you meant, but hardly necessary).

Upgrades are specified in a faction's upgrade folder, and follow the upgrade.xml file. Upgrades are then specified by the unit in their unit.xml file.

Now, the two ideas you mentioned not yet in GAE have already been mentioned before. Treaties, leadership, and stuff was a past idea that recieved some interest, but no known method of how to add, and no developement on that yet. Passive leadership, I assume, you are referring to winning the game without fighting, could perhaps use such a system? On its own, how would it be done? It would not work without treaties and such.

The other idea you had was pillaging, which was also mentioned already. Basically the idea was if a unit was carrying a resource and we killed the unit (ie: a worker), we would get that resource. However, it could give a loss in balance, if humans are constantly attacking the foes workers for the quick resources. Another alternative method is that only buildings would give resources when destroyed, and the type and number could be specified in some XML. However, there is no current plans for this yet.

*As for the post location, this is a perfectly fine spot to put the post, however, do try to ensure that your ideas cannot already be done and/or are not mentioned earlier.

Anyway, welcome to the forum!

[hungeri]

Hi again!
Under passive leadership i mean ...ummmm.... There's a unit and its give passive bonuses - armor, damage ,  pillage , etc - to his nearby pals.
About the armor stuff  I've studied the games files in the meanwhile and i noticed this feature is in.Sorry for that
I've seen in the forum that hero system will be added in the future .It is possible to add an making-an-own-hero system ? The heroes can be made in a special menu - its tab in the main menu - and its potrait , class , race and others can be choised...
Sorry for my bad english

[hungeri]

Hello guys !!  I have some new ideas - i dont know it was mentioned but - welll what about other unit abilities ? -not only heal and damaging - Weaking or empower units Example : Ents - Entagling ( speed decrase ) or err.... Elven Hunter - Hunters mark ( decrases the armor for pierce of the selected unit ) Dwarven Brewmaster - Brew frenzy ( incrasing damaging at the cost of some healt or armor ) Mage - Arcane armor ( incrases the armnor of the selected unit )
Also there should be some poision kinda effect - etc. for archers -
Sorry for my english   

[daniel.santos]

Your English is fine.   Besides, even if it weren't, I wont complain until I'm speaking, reading & writing perfect Hungarian.

Most of this is possible now.  Take a look at

https://docs.megaglest.org/GAE/Reference.  The reading is a bit dry and a lot of this information needs to be added to various XML reference pages.  To try to simplify it for you (and anybody else who's interested), this is a summary of where GAE is with the types of features you requested.

• Weaking or empower units -- Currently, you can weaken or empower units (other or self), but there is limitations on this.  You can only do it actively using an attack or repair skill. You do this by adding <effects> to your attack and/or repair <skill>s.  You can also do this passively by adding an <emanations> to the unit's <parameters> -- this will affect all surrounding units up to a specified radius.  You can also filter to some degree what units are affected (friendly, enemy, pets, self, etc.).  See the above linked Reference page for details.

• Ents - Entagling -- same as above
• Elven Hunter - There is currently nothing to change armor values for specific damage types, but I think I started on that in the old 0.3 branch.  You can, however, raise or lower overall armor values.  Just be aware of the way that Glest & GAE use armor values: the armor value is how many hit points of each attack are mitigated (absorbed) -- this is a bit of a surprise to a lot of people.
• Dwarven Brewmaster: If you wanted this to be a skill that they use on themselves (like Starcraft Terran's "stim pack") then it has the unfortunate draw-back of requiring you to click the skill and then select self for target and you will have to piggy-back this effect on a repair skill (even if it doesn't repair/heal anything).
• Mage - Arcane armor: yes, currently possible, but again, you will have to add it as an <effect> to a repair skill.  There are plans to implement an "apply effect" type of skill in a future version, but it hasn't happened yet.

I hope that helps![/list]

[hungeri]

Thanx the great words.... yeah it ' ll help ^^  ... hmmm i think this <effect> stuff is good enough , "apply effect" dont needed ..... just expand it ^^ ..... well this game has a lot of possibilities .... i think it is the best open source RTS on the net .....I can get to work now hehehe ....... And err Hungarian ??

[daniel.santos]

uhh, Magyar?

Say, maybe you want to do some translations?  (Very off-topic, sorry!!)

; Hungarian lang file by Kóródi Krisztián (or Krisztián Kóródi? in the hungarian the surname is the first, and the first name is the second. my first name is the Krisztián.)

2dArtAndWeb=2D grafika és web
3dAnd2dArt=3D és 2D grafika
3dArt=3D grafika
About=Névjegy
Address=Cím
All=Teljes (csevegés)
AlreadyUpgraded=Ki van fejlesztve
AmbientVolume=Környezet hangereje
Animation=Animáció
Armor=Páncélzat
Attack=Támadás
AttackDistance=Hatótávolság
AttackPctStolen=AttackPctStolen
Attacks=Attacks
AttackSpeed=Gyorsaság
AttackStopped=Támadás leállítva
AttackStrenght=Sebzés
AttackStrength=AttackStrength
AutoConfig=Auto. beállítás
AutoRepair=AutoRepair
BattleOver=A csatának vége
Build=Építés
BuildingNoPlace=Nem lehet oda építeni!
BuildingNoReqs=Nincsenek meg az épület követelményei!
BuildingNoRes=Nincs elég nyersanyag!
BuildingNoRes1=BuildingNoRes1
BuildingNoRes2=BuildingNoRes2
BuildSpeed=Építés sebessége
Built=Felépült
CameraAngleReset=CameraAngleReset
CameraCycleMode=CameraCycleMode
CameraGotoLastEvent=CameraGotoLastEvent
CameraGotoSelection=CameraGotoSelection
CameraModeSet=Kamera mód átváltva:
CameraPitchDown=CameraPitchDown
CameraPitchUp=CameraPitchUp
CameraPosDown=CameraPosDown
CameraPosLeft=CameraPosLeft
CameraPosRight=CameraPosRight
CameraPosUp=CameraPosUp
CameraRotateLeft=CameraRotateLeft
CameraRotateRight=CameraRotateRight
CameraZoomAndAngleReset=CameraZoomAndAngleReset
CameraZoomIn=CameraZoomIn
CameraZoomOut=CameraZoomOut
CameraZoomReset=CameraZoomReset
Cancel=Mégse
Canceled=Megszakítva
CanRepair=Javítható
ChatAudienceAll=ChatAudienceAll
ChatAudienceTeam=ChatAudienceTeam
ChatAudienceToggle=ChatAudienceToggle
ChatMode=Chat mód
Closed=Bezárva
Command=Parancs
CommonCommand=Parancs
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ConnectedToServer=Csatlakozva a szerverhez
ConnectionFailed=ConnectionFailed
Consume=Fogyasztás
Control=Irányítás
Cpu=CPU
CpuUltra=CPU (Erõs)
CustomGame=Szabad játék
CycleDisplayColor=CycleDisplayColor
Deaths=Veszteségek
Defeat=Vereség
Delete=Delete
Deleting=Törlés
Difficulty=Nehézség
Difficulty0=Nagyon könnyû
Difficulty1=Könnyû
Difficulty2=Közepes
Difficulty3=Nehéz
Difficulty4=Nagyon nehéz
Difficulty5=Õrult
Disable=Kikapcsolás
Disabled=Kikapcsolva
Disconnect=Kapcsolat bontása
Disconnected=Disconnected
Discount=Engedmény
Effects=Effects
EnterChatMode=EnterChatMode
Ep=EP
EpCost=EP költség
EpRegeneration=EpRegeneration
ErrorVersionMismatch=ErrorVersionMismatch
Exit=Kilépés
ExitGame?=Kilép a játékból?
Faction=Oldal
Fast=gyors
Fastest=Fastest
Fields=Területek
Filter=Szûrõ
FreeCamera=Szabad kameramozgás
FxVolume=Effektek hangereje
GameCamera=Játék kamera
GameMusic=Háttérzene
GamePaused=Játék megállítva
GameResumed=Játék folytatódik
GameSpeedSet=Játék Sebessége
GenericNoRes1=GenericNoRes1
GenericNoRes2=GenericNoRes2
GraphicInfo=Api info
Guard=Guard
Harvest=Begyûjtés
HarvestSpeed=Begyûjtés sebessége
HealthStolen=HealthStolen
Hp=ÉP
HpRegeneration=HpRegeneration
HpRestored=HpRestored
Human=Ember
Initializing=Inicializálás
InvalidOrder=Érvénytelen parancs
InvalidPosition=Érvénytelen pozíció
Ip=IP
JoinGame=Csatlakozás
Kills=Megölt egységek
Language=Nyelv
LinuxPort=Linux port
Load=Betöltés
LoadedSpeed=Töltési sebesség
LoadGame=LoadGame
Loading=Betöltés
Map=Térkép
MaxFilterAnisotropy=Max. szûrõ anizotrópia
MaxLights=Max. fények száma
MaxLoad=Teljes töltés
MaxPlayers=Összes játékos
MaxRange=MaxRange
MeetingPoint=Gyülekezõhely
MenuLoad=MenuLoad
MenuMain=MenuMain
MenuQuit=MenuQuit
MenuSave=MenuSave
Mixed=Mixed
Morph=Átváltozás
MorphNoRes1=MorphNoRes1
MorphNoRes2=MorphNoRes2
MorphSpeed=Átváltozás sebessége
Move=Mozgás
MusicVolume=Zene hangereje
Name=Name
Network=Hálózat
NetworkStatusOff=NetworkStatusOff
NetworkStatusOn=NetworkStatusOn
NetworkStatusToggle=NetworkStatusToggle
NewGame=Új játék
No=Nem
None=Nincs
Normal=normál
NoSavedGames=NoSavedGames
NotConnected=Nincs csatlakoztatva
Of=Of
Off=Off
Ok=Rendben
On=On
OpenGlExtensions=OpenGL Kiterjesztések
OpenGlInfo=OpenGL adatok
OpenGlMaxLights=Fények száma
OpenGlMaxTextureSize=Maximális textúraméret
OpenGlMaxTextureUnits=Maximális textúraegység
OpenGlModelviewStack=Modellnézeti mátrix veremmélysége
OpenGlPlatformExtensions=Platform kiterjesztések
OpenGlProjectionStack=Kivetített mátrix halommélység
OpenGlRenderer=Leképezõ
OpenGlVendor=Gyártó
OpenGlVersion=OpenGL verzió
Options=Opciók
OrdersOnQueue=Gyártásban
Patrol=Patrol
PauseOff=PauseOff
PauseOn=PauseOn
PauseToggle=PauseToggle
PetLimitReached=PetLimitReached
Play=Játék
Player=Játékos
PlayNow=Indítás!
Port=Port
Produce=Termel
Producing=Termelés
ProductionSpeed=Termelés sebessége
Programming=Programozás
Projected=Kivetített
QuickLoad=QuickLoad
QuickSave=QuickSave
QuitNow=QuitNow
Random=Random
RandomizeLocations=RandomizeLocations
Range=Range
ReactionSpeed=Reakciósebesség
Regeneration=Gyógyulás
Repair=Javítás
RepairSpeed=Javítás sebessége
Reqs=Szükséges
Resources=Nyersanyagok
ResourcesHarvested=Begyûjtött erõforrások
Restore=Restore
RestoreRate=RestoreRate
Result=Eredmény
Return=Vissza
Save=Save
SaveGame=SaveGame
SaveScreenshot=SaveScreenshot
Scenario=Hadjárat
Score=Pont
SelectNextBuiltBuilding=SelectNextBuiltBuilding
SelectNextDamaged=SelectNextDamaged
SelectNextIdleProducer=SelectNextIdleProducer
SelectNextIdleWorker=SelectNextIdleWorker
SelectNextProducer=SelectNextProducer
SelectNextStore=SelectNextStore
SelfOnly=SelfOnly
Server=Szerver
ServerType=Szerver kiírás
ServerTypeNew=Új
ServerTypePrevious=Elõzõ
ShadowMapping=Elmosott(szebb)
Shadows=Árnyékok
Sight=Látótávolság
Size=Méret
Slow=lassú
Slowest=Slowest
SomeOrdersFailed=Néhány parancsot nem sikerült kiadni
SoundAndMusic=Zene és Hangeffektek
SpeedDec=SpeedDec
SpeedInc=SpeedInc
SpeedReset=SpeedReset
SplashRadius=Szóródási sugár
StartingToUpgrade=Fejlesztés indul
Stop=Állj
Store=Kapacitás
Team=Csapat (csevegés)
TechTree=Fejlesztési fa
Textures3D=3D Textúrák
Tileset=Környezet
Tip=Tipp
Tutorial=Oktatás
UnitAddedToProductionQueue=Egység kiképzés alatt
UnitNoPlace=Nem lehet elhelyezni az egységet!
UnitNoReqs=Nincsenek meg az egység követelményei!
UnitNoRes=Nincs elég nyersanyag!
UnitNoRes1=UnitNoRes1
UnitNoRes2=UnitNoRes2
UnitReady=Egység kiképezve!
UnitsProduced=Kiképzett egységek
Upgrade=Fejlesztés
UpgradeNoReqs=Nincsenek meg a fejlesztés követelményei!
UpgradeNoRes=Nincs elég nyersanyag!
UpgradeNoRes1=UpgradeNoRes1
UpgradeNoRes2=UpgradeNoRes2
Upgrades=Fejlesztések
UpgradeSpeed=Fejlesztési sebesség
Upgrading=Fejlesztés
VersionMismatch=A szerver játék verziója különbözik
VeryFast=VeryFast
VerySlow=VerySlow
Victory=Gyõzelem
WaitingForConnections=WaitingForConnections
WaitingHost=Várakozás a szerverre
WalkSpeed=Járási sebesség
Yes=Igen
YouLose=Vesztettél!
YourGameWasSaved=YourGameWasSaved
YouWin=Gyõztél!

[John.d.h]

In the absence of an "apply effects" skill, would an attack or repair with a value of 0 (i.e. it doesn't actually damage or repair anything, but just applies effects) work just as well?  Would the AI know how to use it?  It would be nice to have the self-targeting abilities work without manually targeting it, though.

[daniel.santos]

Yes, skills with a zero value will work, but the AI will use repair(a.k.a. "heal") skills only when another unit they can use that skill on is damaged and they will only attack with the 1st attack skill that can attack a given target (based upon the attack fields).  Also, they don't use a skill that has an effect that last a long time and then go to another, they will continually use it like it's really an attack.  In short, the AI is quite lacking in this arena.  You'll see in the Reference that there are a lot of flags (AI hints) defined for effects that aren't currently used.  The intention is to extend the AI to use these hints to behave more appropriately with such skills.  But an "apply effect(s)" skill is what's needed.

afaik, AI never uses self-targeting repair skills either

[hungeri]

Are u hungarian ?? Well i can do some translations...Where should i start ?