Waypointing System
Mr_Charisma
Join Date: 2003-01-26 Member: 12748Members, NS1 Playtester
Join Date: 2003-01-26 Member: 12748Members, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Rethink</div> The waypointing system is in dire need of some changes...
Basically, waypoints are obivously a quick and easy means of communicating and giving orders to a Commander's Marines. The ability to do this gives the Commander a much needed advantage, as he does not have to spend too much time having to go through detail on what needs to be done.
Currently though, the waypointing system is laughable at it's best...
Throughout 1.0x, the waypointing system, I honestly have to say it reached it's peak.. Through reasons unknown to me the waypoiting system was forever borked from 2.0 onwards..
Regardless of this fact, the waypointing system still needs a change. The current "smart" waypointing can be a tiresome and time wasting task. To enhance this feature, I think that waypoints should no longer be "smart" but infact ahve to be selected by the commander, and then issued. Much like a regular RTS, these could be mapped to the KB (possibly linked to the current "build" hotkeys) allowing commands to be easily and quickly issued.
Moreover, I feel that a few more waypoints are needed, for example:
- Repair Structure
- Gaurd Area
- Repair Unit
- Attack Structure/Unit (This is already featured, but it should appear in a red, or any other colour then the regular waypoints, as it is the most urgant of all orders)
I'm sure you could all think of many others.
Furthermore, I would also like to see a system of "sub waypointing" allowing Commanders to "stack" orders to marines/sqauds. For example, the commander would place his waypoints in sucession, and once the current order his been completed, the next waypiont/order would immediatly come into effect. Ofcourse, this is open to abuse by anti-social Commanders. So I propose another feature; a "negative" or "unable to complete" voice command, accesable like a normal voice command, that would immediatly cancell any pending order given by the Commander.
Overall, the waypointing system is indeed outdated, and I only hope that the system is atleast given a look at, if not to take some of my ideas (which are obviously not the most original) onboard.
Basically, waypoints are obivously a quick and easy means of communicating and giving orders to a Commander's Marines. The ability to do this gives the Commander a much needed advantage, as he does not have to spend too much time having to go through detail on what needs to be done.
Currently though, the waypointing system is laughable at it's best...
Throughout 1.0x, the waypointing system, I honestly have to say it reached it's peak.. Through reasons unknown to me the waypoiting system was forever borked from 2.0 onwards..
Regardless of this fact, the waypointing system still needs a change. The current "smart" waypointing can be a tiresome and time wasting task. To enhance this feature, I think that waypoints should no longer be "smart" but infact ahve to be selected by the commander, and then issued. Much like a regular RTS, these could be mapped to the KB (possibly linked to the current "build" hotkeys) allowing commands to be easily and quickly issued.
Moreover, I feel that a few more waypoints are needed, for example:
- Repair Structure
- Gaurd Area
- Repair Unit
- Attack Structure/Unit (This is already featured, but it should appear in a red, or any other colour then the regular waypoints, as it is the most urgant of all orders)
I'm sure you could all think of many others.
Furthermore, I would also like to see a system of "sub waypointing" allowing Commanders to "stack" orders to marines/sqauds. For example, the commander would place his waypoints in sucession, and once the current order his been completed, the next waypiont/order would immediatly come into effect. Ofcourse, this is open to abuse by anti-social Commanders. So I propose another feature; a "negative" or "unable to complete" voice command, accesable like a normal voice command, that would immediatly cancell any pending order given by the Commander.
Overall, the waypointing system is indeed outdated, and I only hope that the system is atleast given a look at, if not to take some of my ideas (which are obviously not the most original) onboard.
Comments
I've always considered comms with a mic standing 700% more chance of success than a comm without, and if something more detailed could be implemented that was simple to use at the same time it would go a long way.
Also, the idea of repairing waypoints etc is great, espicially for pub games, when people just have no idea.
All in all some very valid points, nice work Mr. C ;o
it would make the commander mode even more rts-like, it would help him not to master the glitches of ns but to concentrate on the game
so yeah, i really think those expansions would be great <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
..but I'm sure this has been mentioned before. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo-->
1>>Comm adds waypoint
2>>Get location of mouse (X,Y)
3>>Add Z (X,Y,Z) by looking at map
4>>See if anything is there (adding the move to waypoint, build sturcture at... ect.)
5>>Send to all players, and call the sprite
if it is done somewhat like this you could add
6>>Comm add waypoint(2)
7>>Get locatin of mouse (X,Y)
8>>Add Z (X,Y,Z) by checking map
9>>See if anything is there
10>>Save untill "waypoint" is "activated"
11>>Send waypoint(2) to players and call sprite
12>>Delete waypoint
13>>loop back to 6 chaning number (duh!)
of course that isn't exactly how it is type in but i should work.
A commander has 3 waypoints he can give, Move (defualt double click while selecting marine), Build and attack. If the commander lays a move waypoint, the waypoint is dropped and when the marine enters the room (ie: when the corner of your screen displays the roomname the waypoint is in) it fades into a small thin circle on/low and near to the ground (to keep out of the way in combat should it happen). It disapears when the marine of course runs over it (or a com drops a new one).
The attack waypoint if placed on/near a enemy will stick to it (which is frekin hard considering they are moving whenever the comm sees em) untill the enemy leaves either marine LOS or building LOS. When the alien leaves the LOS, a waypoint is dropped (red still) and it is called a "Secure Area" waypoint.
Build waypoint will stick to the nearest building. it will stay untill the building is completed
Seconded. My other problem with waypoints is that as com, as often as not I'll select some marines, point at a location, and...nothing happens. I click around and around the point I want the marines to go to, and if I'm lucky, after wasting 10 seconds clicking it finally takes and they get a waypoint. If not, I have to resort to asking them to go via Mic...but while the Mic is great for some things, it is much harder to specify which marine you want that way, and harder to specify where you want them to go then if they just get a targetting icon.
If not possible to have them in a first stage, I would like to have the "negative" thing, to clear the visual of my scv <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> (obviously together with the bugfixes relating to difficult sending orders)
As for the voices, I think there could be a slight problem... I read some time ago that Flayra spent 10k of his own money getting the music/sound etc for NS1 done, and since then no additions have been made to the voice commands, although the alien chuckle has been edited. All the "new" voices to Natural Selection v3 were always included with NS, just not programmed to do anything.
I'd like to see the:
"alien_myhive.wav" (Hive mind saying 'This is my hive, there are many like it, but this one, is mine')
"alien_seedead.wav" (Hive mind saying 'I see dead people')
"alien_needbetter.wav" (Hive mind saying 'We need better players')
and
"marine_order_get.wav" (Commander saying 'Pick up equipment at waypoint')
added into the game as well as some new additions... Although the possible ways to get new sounds would be either for a new voice to do them, or someone to pay Max Mcgill to do some more :\
o_O
hotkeys are always active to control the building and equipment menu, so if you wanted to stick to an system where you could manually decide which waypoint you want ( my favorite decision) we would need some more keys for commanding
the normal click would still be move-waypoint, but holding down other buttons would change it to whatever wp is neede...
this would give commanders great new possibilities (ah, how i would love a guard area wp that actually STAY <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
so for new commanders the system would stay the same, but more advanced comm were able to specify their orders