Movement of the ship

[yum-forum]

Sometimes You need move ship in some place but not as in default directly (there exist a lot of enemies structure) but through 2-3 points to avoid meet enemies and losing ship. Perhaps, will be nice possibility by clicking of mouse to show way of movement of ship.

[Xeneonic]

You mean like a command queue? Always a good idea in RTS games :)

[Relli]

This already exists on the Omnis, though not for ships. If I had to guess, I'd say the fact that ships can turn makes it hard to do any sort of quick addition of a movement queue. That might explain the radio silence. Though that could also be explained by him being busy with a hundred other things that are more important.

[Grabarz]

Now the question is, if you do this, do you allow placing waypoints anywhere like omnis, or do you force the player to pick a spot where the ship would be able to park in as waypoints?

Because if you do the former, you will give players the ability to hover around land. This is already possible by issuing movement commands back and forth between two opposite points around a landmass, which while it is tedious, there are cases where you can't do that if the landmass is connected to the map edge.

The latter would be pretty annoying.

Which reminds me.. why can't we park on land if we can hover over it? Makes little sense.

[bugbrain_04]

why can't we park on land if we can hover over it? Makes little sense.

From a realism standpoint, you're right, it doesn't make much sense. From a mechanics standpoint, I bet it's because ships parked over land would be totally safe from particulate.

[Bacteriophage]

Another reason not to allow ships to park over land, or at least not make it easy to do so: ships can't fire when over land, and it would be a potential source of confusion to new players if their ships suddenly seemed to stop working for some reason.

[Grabarz]

Yeah, I understand the reasons. It just feels a bit wrong in the first place because you can keep a ship on land, it just takes a ton of effort. I'm not the kind of guy to speed run maps and chase top times, but if a map had keeping a ship safe by wiggling it back and forth over a landmass as a viable strategy for a better time people would do it, and it seems like it'd be a bit discouraging.

This is why I'm assuming waypoints for ships weren't added - because you would be able to just circle on a landmass safely from particulate, at which point there is no reason for you to not just be able to park there.

[bugbrain_04]

Another reason not to allow ships to park over land, or at least not make it easy to do so: ships can't fire when over land, and it would be a potential source of confusion to new players if their ships suddenly seemed to stop working for some reason.

Oh wow, hadn't notice that. That's really useful to know.

This is why I'm assuming waypoints for ships weren't added - because you would be able to just circle on a landmass safely from particulate, at which point there is no reason for you to not just be able to park there.

I wonder if this could be mitigated by limiting active waypoints to 2 or 3 for each ship. I can't imagine really needing more than that for safe maneuvering around obstacles, and while it would make hanging out over land a little easier, it would still require frequent attention to maintain.

[Karsten75]

Sometimes You need move ship in some place but not as in default directly (there exist a lot of enemies structure) but through 2-3 points to avoid meet enemies and losing ship. Perhaps, will be nice possibility by clicking of mouse to show way of movement of ship.

Hi, this mechanism you seek is called "waypoints" and it is definite;y something that Virgil thinks about. :)

This is why I'm assuming waypoints for ships weren't added - because you would be able to just circle on a landmass safely from particulate, at which point there is no reason for you to not just be able to park there.

Mp, this isn't the reason. For one thing, your assumption is mistaken. Take Omni waypoints for instance. Movement is not initiated until a final destination is chosen.  As such, "patrol-like"  movement by means of waypoints is not possible.

[Grabarz]

Movement is not initiated until a final destination is chosen.  As such, "patrol-like"  movement by means of waypoints is not possible.

That's true. So just place 10 waypoints around a landmass with a final destination that's not on the landmass. That'd give you 10 seconds to do stuff before the ship goes through all of its waypoints until you have to repeat the process and keep the ship on land indefinitely, safe from particulate.

Much easier than wiggling a ship back and forth through a landmass, and also allows you do to this on land that's hugging the edge, because normally you wouldn't be able to order the ship to fly beyond the map border, but with waypoints, you could hover around such landmass.

[Karsten75]

Well, I can categorically tell you that that is not the reason there are no waypoints for ships. :)

[Grabarz]

Well, I can categorically tell you that that is not the reason there are no waypoints for ships. :)

That's fair. I just wanted you guys to be aware of this. While I haven't found much use for this tactic, I'm more of a turtler; if this feedback doesn't get repeated by someone actually chasing high scores, then my fear probably has little merit. :P

[knucracker]

Yeah, it's just a matter of time and effort to add waypoints to ships.  It's on my list, just not a trivial thing to add.   Ship movement, with all of the group, slide, rotate, packing, etc... is more complex in subtle ways than it first seems, so adding waypoints in is another level of pain on my part.  It was just a pain I didn't have a chance to address prior to launch.