===[COMMITTED]===Improve Artillery Tower Particles

[LordGood 3.689]

These towers are meant to defend against archer and siege spam sieges, not cavalry raids, which is what I'm worried about happening with an increase in projectile velocity. Projectiles track movement so its up to player reaction time to mitigate damages

These are already very powerful towers, the ability to deal splash and counter siege weapons shouldn't be underestimated. None of our archers arc anything right now and its a bit disappointing frankly

someone up and increased the ballista projectile speed so it shoots out of the pouch in a  straight line. It looks like the engineers are rolling flaming, exploding bowling balls. Supersonic rams outpacing cavalry, dont even get me started on the repeat times for ranged units my god they've broken all the animations our team works so hard to make look just right

this is trivial in comparison, and I guarantee we can make it look good just lets scout our options first

[Stan` 7.107]

41 minutes ago, LordGood said:

I meant 2 particle actors simultaneously

I can hack that out; One empty actor + two particle props Maybe one particle with a prop, not sure that works cause it has no root. What do you have in mind ?

39 minutes ago, fatherbushido said:

You can tweak that a bit with the "gravity" (I don't know if it's still here in current svn).

That's basically linked to the (max) height of the trajectory (parabola).

Thanks <3

21 minutes ago, Anaxandridas ho Skandiates said:

And I have a question, since those animations are all in sync when one presses the "attack" button, is that all-in-sync-effect being fixed at any point soon? Because if not, it is bearable on the bare map itself, but the white smoke makes it really bad because it creates that "outline" of the figures.

I have no clue what you mean can you rephrase that ?

[LordGood 3.689]

3 minutes ago, Stan` said:

I can hack that out; One empty actor + two particle props Maybe one particle with a prop, not sure that works cause it has no root. What do you have in mind ?

white, short lived high velocity poof up, lingering dirt poof out, lingering poof like your first impact particle

[Lion.Kanzen 4.712]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

It looks like vapour

[LordGood 3.689]

48 minutes ago, fatherbushido said:

You can tweak that a bit with the "gravity" (I don't know if it's still here in current svn).

That's basically linked to the (max) height of the trajectory (parabola).

Gravity modifier works like a charm, that'll help sort a lot of things wrong on the artistic side of things

[Stan` 7.107]

 

 

Spoiler

 

[LordGood 3.689]

look! they shoot over each other's heads! Instead of through their chests!

[LordGood 3.689]

my god @Stan` you are almost there just

that white bit needs to be smaller and a bit more violent if you catch my drift

[Stan` 7.107]

11 minutes ago, LordGood said:

my god @Stan` you are almost there just

that white bit needs to be smaller and a bit more violent if you catch my drift

It's weird ?

 

Spoiler

 

[LordGood 3.689]

yess thats it, I think you just need a different texture, something like what Lion posted

 

[Sundiata 3.215]

I think the color of the second particle (white cloud) shouldn't contrast as much with the first particle (dirt). Make the "steam" a little dirtier, less foggy, more sandy/rocky, and I think we have a winner here. 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Sundiata

[Stan` 7.107]

So I'm the only one that thinks the above particle is weird ? XD

15 minutes ago, LordGood said:

yess thats it, I think you just need a different texture, something like what Lion posted

Different texture for the top or bottom particle ?

6 minutes ago, Sundiata said:

I think the color of the second particle (white cloud) shouldn't contrast as much with the first particle (dirt). Make the "steam" a little dirtier, less foggy, more sandy, and I think we have a winner here. 

I don't have much options in art/textures/particles/

[LordGood 3.689]

1 minute ago, Stan` said:

Different texture for the top or bottom particle ?

top

2 minutes ago, Stan` said:

I don't have much options in art/textures/particles/

workin on it

[LordGood 3.689]

try this? also m ight be worth our time to make a new task thread on the art subforum lol

[LordGood 3.689]

ayy wonderful

[Stan` 7.107]

Will try a bit later thanks for the texture :)

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded 621]

I wonder if direction could be integrated into the impact based on the vector of the projectile.

[Stan` 7.107]

45 minutes ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

I wonder if direction could be integrated into the impact based on the vector of the projectile.

Could be done, but it requires more code, and also some extra computations. All vector math comes with a price

 

[Sundiata 3.215]

2 minutes ago, Stan` said:

That's really wunderbar... Although on the second hit there is a slight delay between the ball hitting the ground and the particles popping up. I don't think the delay should be there. Otherwise lovely work!

[Anaxandridas ho Skandiates 155]

2 hours ago, LordGood said:

These towers are meant to defend against archer and siege spam sieges, not cavalry raids, which is what I'm worried about happening with an increase in projectile velocity. Projectiles track movement so its up to player reaction time to mitigate damages

These are already very powerful towers, the ability to deal splash and counter siege weapons shouldn't be underestimated. None of our archers arc anything right now and its a bit disappointing frankly

someone up and increased the ballista projectile speed so it shoots out of the pouch in a  straight line. It looks like the engineers are rolling flaming, exploding bowling balls. Supersonic rams outpacing cavalry, dont even get me started on the repeat times for ranged units my god they've broken all the animations our team works so hard to make look just right

this is trivial in comparison, and I guarantee we can make it look good just lets scout our options first

We really have to consider rate of fire and range, and balance with cost. I understand now we are working on animations and high rate of fire makes it easier to see but of course they could not in any universe reload so fast. Unless the projectiles were a bit smaller, in which case they would deal less damage.

But the problem is that we have next to zero evidence that accurate baliistics were available in antiquity, AT ALL. So while Archimedes could have CALCULATED an accurate landing spot of a projectile, creating a functioning machine that can do this reliably and effectively in diverse conditions is an entirely different matter. Therefore, range cannot be too long - on short ranges, a bit of trial-and-error practice can give decent results.

(On a side note I think this whole conversation is insanely interesting)

[Anaxandridas ho Skandiates 155]

23 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Could be done, but it requires more code, and also some extra computations. All vector math comes with a price

 

Projectile must dissappear into the ground though

see 03:06

 

Another quick (better) example of mechanism, also sound maybe:

 

 

@LordGood I have looked and looked and looked at the new "slower" projectile. I wanted it to be ok, but I can't help it, it looks wrong. Essentially this machine is a giant singshot, must be faster.

I don't know if you have to reduce the damage it deals or rate of fire to balance gameplay, but the shot itself cannot look like it is in a different gravity universe than the rest of the game. It also just makes the game look more awesome, aside from being accurate/realistic.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Anaxandridas ho Skandiates

[Stan` 7.107]

Delay: I'm not sure what happened... Maybe cause I touched the emission rate ....

 

Projectile disappearance @lordgood I guess thats doable ?

 

 

 

[LordGood 3.689]

Is it? Let it disappear if you can, if you can’t don’t worry. 

Emissionrate is finicky and I believe there is a ceiling to the value 

[Stan` 7.107]

3 hours ago, LordGood said:

Is it? Let it disappear if you can, if you can’t don’t worry. 

Emissionrate is finicky and I believe there is a ceiling to the value 

Slow-mow because reasons

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen 4.712]

The crater is missing.