things to add to the GAE todo list...

[Zoythrus]

since i have been asked to compile my ideas onto one thread in this section of the forum, here are my ideas:

amphibious units (can traverse both land and water)
multiple animations (like multiple death or attack anims)
a tag for heroes, to differentiate them from other units (and the AI would know not to scout with them)
the ability to garrison troops into transports or towers (this means they would be able to attack out of them)
the implementation of a squad nexus (ever played LotR:Battle for Middle Earth? like all the squads in that game, where each person in a squad is an individual unit; but they are all bound together by a central nexus. I personally dont think that this would be too hard to implement)
the ability for a unit to cloak, stealth would be nice.

those are my ideas...

[silnarm]

amphibious units (can traverse both land and water)

This actually belongs on the 'been done' list.

multiple animations (like multiple death or attack anims)
a tag for heroes, to differentiate them from other units (and the AI would know not to scout with them)
the ability to garrison troops into transports or towers (this means they would be able to attack out of them)

multiple anims and garrisoning are already feature requests, a tag for Heros might be a good idea, but I'd prefer not to introduce AI 'hacks' myself.  I would hope the AI would be smart enough to realise the value of the hero unit (and that it can't build more) and not do stupid things with it...

the implementation of a squad nexus (ever played LotR:Battle for Middle Earth? like all the squads in that game, where each person in a squad is an individual unit; but they are all bound together by a central nexus. I personally dont think that this would be too hard to implement)

Great! You can find the code at sourceforge, please submit a patch when you're finished.  Seeing as you don't think it will be too hard, I'm guessing it shouldn't take long?

the ability for a unit to cloak, stealth would be nice.

Good idea, but may require modification of most/all existing commands... So I wouldn't expect it soon.

[-Archmage-]

I actually think that if you had I hero tag that it meant the AI should scout with that unit as he is the hero, and this would probably be very difficult but maybe have him circle around the camp and stay away from the enemy just enough so they couldn't see him but he could see them(he would have like 20 sight) and then return to the base.

[silnarm]

I actually think that if you had I hero tag that it meant the AI should scout with that unit as he is the hero, and this would probably be very difficult but maybe have him circle around the camp and stay away from the enemy just enough so they couldn't see him but he could see them(he would have like 20 sight) and then return to the base.

Exactly... IF you gave your hero a large value for sight, and it was tough anyway, then the AI could and should use it to scout with.  IF it didn't have a large sight value, such that trying to scout enemy bases could be rather hazardous, it wouldn't.

So a 'hero tag' to tell the AI to use it to scout or not, is a bad idea. A 'scout' tag maybe, but as I mentioned, my preference is for no tags.  If the AI determines it needs to scout, it should choose the most appropriate units available to do it, based on numbers, not tags.

[-Archmage-]

Yea, I'll go either way, it was just an idea.

[Zoythrus]

i would write the code to implement squads, but im not too sure what is acceptable to the Glest engine...

[hailstone]

We won't know if it is until you write it. This is a major gameplay mechanic and not all people might want this feature. Will the player be able to create the squads or will they be spawned as squads?

[Zoythrus]

preferably all spawned as squads...

[Fluffy203]

i kinda like the idea , but idk i dont' want to be playing DOW 40k

[Zoythrus]

i like the idea...(otherwise i wouldnt be suggesting it...)

[John.d.h]

You might be able to simulate squads by having a unit that takes up no space and can't be attacked, meaning it has a cell map of nothing but zeroes.  This unit would be the squad's nexus, as you call it, and the squad members would be pets of it.  Pets automatically follow their master, so you'd move the nexus and the pets go right along with it and fight together.  I'm pretty sure you'd have to give it a model if you wanted to be able to select it, but it could be something like a waving flag that represents the squad.

[wciow]

As you say John the squad nexus (flag) would have to have a model in order to be selectable, however this will cause the flag to be attacked by the enemy AI. Even if it was invincible the AI would still waste its time trying to attack it.

If it had an all zero cell map it is possible that the AI might not attack (not sure on this), but also it would not be able to move because its cell map would mean it was a building rather than a unit. 

[John.d.h]

Okay, I tried a quick version with a unit called squad_leader, with a size zero and the ability to summon pet squad_member.  The enemy won't attack the leader because it's size zero, but it will try.  They will even surround it and block it in so it can't go anywhere, which is weird because it can go right through trees but not units.  Go figure.  Anyway, the main problem was that the pets don't automatically follow the leader, which I thought they were supposed to do.  There might be a way to get it to work better, but that's all I found with my maybe five minutes of work.

[Zoythrus]

i guess this is the perfect place to ask whether a parent unit could be created WITH its pets? not having to spawn them in, they would be made with it