[not a bug] Issues with spawn attack on latest alpha

[Mr War]

Hi,

I cannot get the spawn attack to work in the latest alpha. It does spawn the units but they do not attack.

[softcoder]

Currently spawn attack is known to be partially disabled due to issues it caused in the past. We will need to revist and see how to fix it.

[Mr War]

Ah, no worries if it's a problem feature, I was just trying it out because I thought it was a new feature. My unit is an airborne  aircraft carrier in the Alliance faction mod for sci fi pack - it works well enough as a super unit even though the spawned attack unit just sits there waiting for orders.

[titi]

my son uses it in his mod and it works. I will ask him if he will release a beta soon.

[will]

spawning them seems to work, but the units that are spawned don't have orders to attack the opponent?  When I tried to use it, they just sit there.

[titi]

they must see the enemy! Give them more view distance and of course an attack skill! And don't forget to let them automatically die after a while ...

[will]

As in they self-acquire the target, or as in they know who the player explicitly targeted the spawner at?

[titi]

As in they self-acquire the target

[will]

that's what I thought the bug is.

If you 'attack' something and the attack spawns an attacker unit, that unit should actually always go and attack  the enemy - and even perhaps self-destruct if that is not possible - rather than be autonomous and go attack others.

You agree that that is what the user intended to happen?

[Ishmaru]

that's what I thought the bug is.

If you 'attack' something and the attack spawns an attacker unit, that unit should actually always go and attack  the enemy - and even perhaps self-destruct if that is not possible - rather than be autonomous and go attack others.

You agree that that is what the user intended to happen?

I agree with everything but the self destruction, I think if a unit cannot attack the target then it will acquire a target on its own.

[Omega]

I notice you two don't really agree to that. Notice the compromise: Let the modder chose. No more "MegaGlest is its own game only to fuel the Megapack", but give the modders some degree of choice.

My proposal:
-Give an XML element which, if true, will destroy the spawned unit after their first attack.
-Give an XML element which can specify a maximum duration for the spawned unit to stay alive (overridden by the self destruct command above) that will form a better alternative to using negative HP regen. Give this an additional (optional) parameter of adding an attack skill that will be used right before "killing" off the spawned unit (thus, a timed self destruct). We'll assume that this attack skill will just attack the the unit's current location and will require a splash. Note that if the duration of the spawned unit is zero, it will stay alive until killed like a regular unit.
-Give an XML element which will specify a maximum number of units that can be spawned. Give an additional attribute of how to deal with reaching this maximum; either killing off the oldest spawned units and making the new ones or just not making the new ones).
-Give a target XML element, which is either the attacked target (ie, whatever we targeted for this spawn attack) or letting the spawned unit be autonomous and be able to attack others (as it choses).

Complex? Very. Abilities given to the modders? Lots.

[titi]

I think 2 and 3 are already there and 1 can be faked with a splash effect killing the unit too
Just 4 is not possible yet. And please stop the "MegaGlest" does nothing for the modders bashing, its really annoying.

[Omega]

I think 2 and 3 are already there and 1 can be faked with a splash effect killing the unit too
Just 4 is not possible yet.

If that is so, then it appears you have quite a lot of undocumented code. According to the thread in which that feature was documented upon release, you can specify the unit and the number, that's it. Number 2 should not be confused with just a negative HP regen. That's far too limited (eg, we may want a unit that only dies on its own accord, not something that could easily be struck down by the target before it even attacks, or suppose there was some type of healing going on, or if the spawned unit was the exact same as another regularly produced and used unit).

Number 3 you only have half of. You obviously don't have any choices for how to deal with the what to do when you reach this limit. Instead, the engine chooses for the modder.

As for number 4, that's really the most important of them. The rest of them are "nice-to-haves" that will enhance gameplay, but it's really number 4 that is the make-it-or-break-it decider, as seen by a number of people reporting the spawn attacks "do not work".