Author Topic: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)  (Read 5209 times)

Offline x4000

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Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« on: September 25, 2009, 09:31:57 pm »
The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1999H.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.301, so you have to already have 1.301 (or greater) installed. Just unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else). Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.

What's new since 1.999G:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.301 are attached at the bottom)

-------------------

-Ships now accelerate and decelerate when moving, which makes their movement look a lot more natural.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2009, 09:33:32 pm »
This is the last version for the weekend, for real.  I'll be out of town after now.  This feature was one of the major items from my list to do for 2.0, and I had a flash of inspiration on how to efficiently do it today.  Really makes quite a difference, I'm very pleased.  But just in case someone discovers a problem with it, I'm posting this as a separate topic from G, since I won't be around to fix it until Monday.  It seems to be working great, though, so if you guys want to check it out that's very helpful!
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Offline Magitek

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2009, 11:06:01 pm »
This is a pretty sweet upgrade, looks so much more professional. It feels so alien though ;)

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2009, 11:24:38 pm »
Glad it's a hit. :)
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Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2009, 05:22:10 am »
Neat. :)

Should deceleration and acceleration occur when changing directions or slowing down due to engine damage or group move? Currently, the ships just change speed or direction as they used to.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2009, 06:52:36 am »
Neat. :)

Should deceleration and acceleration occur when changing directions or slowing down due to engine damage or group move? Currently, the ships just change speed or direction as they used to.

Changing directions affecting this (simulating actual velocity) is out for now.  It's too complex beyond what I am doing.  For case where the effective speed is dropped -- group move or engine damage -- I had not thought about that before, but there is a very easy way to add that.  Actually, for direction changes I might be able to get away with simulating that via having them drift to a stop before doing the new direction immediately.  That would be much simpler, but I don't know if it will have anysecond order effects. I will have to see about that on Monday.
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Offline ldlework

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2009, 10:25:23 am »
I have to say, now that I see it on screen I'm not so sure about this...

As far as what you just said it is interesting that a ship in space would find it more effective to go fast in a straight line, stop, and go fast in a different straightline as opposed to going fast in a straight line and attempting to "turn" resulting in huge arcs.

Offline Echo35

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2009, 06:14:14 pm »
I for one, am a fan. Much better looking than their sudden slamming to a stop like they did before.

Offline liq3

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2009, 07:38:26 pm »
I'm bothered by it a bit. The sudden stopping and starting never bothered me, so. "Don't fix what ain't broken" as they say.

I'll get used to it tho, so don't worry. :)

Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2009, 08:08:04 pm »
I certainly don't think it's a necessary addition, but people wanted it and it was even cited in this review as a primary complaint with the game. While it strikes me, personally, as a very superficial addition, I think it helps make the game feel more professional and may appeal more to people who aren't as interested in RTS games. I suspect it will improve the demo experience, which is an important thing.
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Offline Magitek

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2009, 12:47:24 am »
Was a pretty heavy beef for me when I first fired AI War up. Made the game feel cheap. Completely didn't bother me after awhile ofcourse. I would also love to see something done with teleporting units. At the moment they look kind of... disgusting?

Could use a 4 frame warp effect or something in the future. So it looks more like teleportation and less like cut and paste ;D
« Last Edit: September 27, 2009, 12:50:06 am by Magitek »

Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2009, 12:55:49 am »
If I issue a movement command within a ship's selection circle, that ship won't rotate when moving toward that point. Looks odd, particularly with a starship. :P Not sure if this is related to the acceleration feature.
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Offline darke

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2009, 03:26:01 am »
I'm not too fussed with it either myself. It feels like my ships are now model-t fords with eccentric turn-on-a-dime turning circles, but it still takes them a while to speed up and slow down. Would be nice if it were a configuration option to disable it really.

It also rather dramatically effects gameplay since my ships have started taking even more of a pounding around the wormhole defenses. Lightning missiles seem to be one of the more obvious ones that's causing me this problem. But I also had issues with scouting and such as well.

Other random notes:

Acceleration feels really too slow. I don't mind a little, like everything accelerates for the first half second or second it starts moving like other games, but the current implementation it just seems to take ages to change. It's especially noticeable if you're trying to micromanage fighters. Autocannon minipods look particularly ridiculous for instance. :)

Lightning missiles decelerate elegantly before bumping their nose against the target, then exploding. It probably shouldn't work like this. :)

The way it works feels "right" for big things like starships and so on, but it seems really out of place for really nippy ships like the fighter class ships with high speed should be.

Things to try:

Melee class ships. I think the problem I reported in the bugs forum about fighters and starships probably relates to this slowing, etc, but I haven't had a chance to test things like the Cutlasses and the like.

Offline tals

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2009, 06:54:57 am »
Quote
-Ships now accelerate and decelerate when moving, which makes their movement look a lot more natural.

Not really noticed the instant on and off but trying it it does feel better. Not tried it for the nippier ships i,.e fighters so it could be acceleration needs to be mapped differently for different ships

Offline Tankor Smash

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Re: Prerelease 1.999H (Ship Acceleration/Deceleration When Moving)
« Reply #14 on: September 27, 2009, 12:25:15 pm »
-Ships now accelerate and decelerate when moving, which makes their movement look a lot more natural.

OMG :o. Thanks! This is going to be sweet. ;D

EDIT: I just opened up altplanetnames.txt and all it has in it is "Murdoch". Made me chuckle.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2009, 12:27:37 pm by Tankor Smash »
Testin Tidalis.