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Terrain auras


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Are Terrain auras currently something which is being thought about? For example, snow or dense forests negatively affecting walk speed, paved tiles or paths positively effecting walk speed? I know Delenda Est uses, what is kind of a dirty hack, by adding (invisible)markers to farmland in the map data, and those markers have an aura.

Something I want to do is make constructable roads and pavements, and give those a speed bonus. I believe the guy making the City Building Mod wants to do the same thing and so just gives the CC a movespeed aura to simulate the effect of a paved area around the CC.

Some uses I can think of.

  • Making Cavalry charges or chariots hard to drive in a forest
  • Lowering movement speed in a forest
  • Roads and tiles with movespeed bonus
  • Lava with a negative HP aura (very hot)
  • Snow with a negative HP aura (very cold)
  • Spread increase or armor bonus for forest, to simulate trees being used as protective barriers. This might make Javelinists more effective than archers in Forest, which might be the reason why the Celts never really used archery.
  • Britons getting a stealth bonus when in a swamp, as Cassius Dio claims they can live in a swamp for days with only their head above water:LOL:

 

Edited by myou5e
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Actually, you can't really have unit speed affecting properties. A unit will choose to walk through 2 feets of mud a foot away from a literal road in the current pathfinding scheme. Jump point search is based on the assumption of uniform cost grids.

This feature was present in the past before it was decided to nuke it in favour of better performance.

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9 hours ago, smiley said:

Actually, you can't really have unit speed affecting properties. A unit will choose to walk through 2 feets of mud a foot away from a literal road in the current pathfinding scheme. Jump point search is based on the assumption of uniform cost grids.

This feature was present in the past before it was decided to nuke it in favour of better performance.

Whether terrain affects unit speed is a separate issue than if units attempt to make use of the speed bonuses with pathfinding. Would there be a way to improve pathfinding performance by using formations? Commands to move and pathfind across a map apply to formations, unit pathfinding would then only be relative to the formation.

Terrain auras, better pathfinding, and better formations would be, in my opinion, some of the things which would most improve the game mechanics, as it offers up so much in terms of the strategy of choosing the site of your battle. Choosing the circumstance of a battle, including the time, terrain, weather, and the morale and exhaustion of enemy troops etc of a battle is one of most important things in determining the outcome of a battle.

Real battle is not just about numbers and technology. Right now, numbers and technology in the game are really the most important thing. Unit type, weapons is obviously important too in real battles, as it is in the game, justifiably so. But the strategic element could be improved so much with terrain auras.

Edited by myou5e
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Quote

They can endure hunger and cold and any kind of hardship; for they plunge into the swamps and exist there for many days with only their heads above water, and in the forests they support themselves upon bark and roots, and for all emergencies they prepare a certain kind of food, the eating of a small portion of which, the size of a bean, prevents them from feeling either hunger or thirst.

Cassius Dio talking about the Britons.

 

Wouldn't it be cool to have Britons have a stealth effect when they are in swampland :-) . Then they come up from the swamp and slaughter Romans :-).

https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/classical_cassius_dio.html

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4 hours ago, myou5e said:

Whether terrain affects unit speed is a separate issue than if units attempt to make use of the speed bonuses with pathfinding. Would there be a way to improve pathfinding performance by using formations? Commands to move and pathfind across a map apply to formations, unit pathfinding would then only be relative to the formation.

Already done.

Making the pathfinder work with non uniform grids is a solved problem and various games already have it. I recently read a paper from AAAI 2019 that discussed this very in-depth.

Performance problems today are mainly due to some major architectural flaws. Having worked with commercial engines, this one is just not there yet.

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2 hours ago, smiley said:

Already done.

Making the pathfinder work with non uniform grids is a solved problem and various games already have it. I recently read a paper from AAAI 2019 that discussed this very in-depth.

Performance problems today are mainly due to some major architectural flaws. Having worked with commercial engines, this one is just not there yet.

What is already done? Please be more precise. And what does this have to do with terrain auras? Please be specific. Also can you describe the architectural problems, what they are, and how this relates to the issue of territory auras.

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> What is already done?

>> Would there be a way to improve pathfinding performance by using formations? Commands to move and pathfind across a map apply to formations, unit pathfinding would then only be relative to the formation.

> And what does this have to do with terrain auras?

Technically, nothing. Terrain auras will be rather to simple to implement.

> Also can you describe the architectural problems, what they are, and how this relates to the issue of territory auras.

Well, considering that it was because of performance problems that this feature you are asking for was removed in the first place, I will say that it is somewhat relevant.

For the other question, it's 2020, and the game can't run smoothly on overkill hardware.

 

But yes, aside from unit movement affecting terrain and the consequence upon pathfinding, there really is no relevancy in that post.

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5 hours ago, smiley said:

> What is already done?

>> Would there be a way to improve pathfinding performance by using formations? Commands to move and pathfind across a map apply to formations, unit pathfinding would then only be relative to the formation.

> And what does this have to do with terrain auras?

Technically, nothing. Terrain auras will be rather to simple to implement.

> Also can you describe the architectural problems, what they are, and how this relates to the issue of territory auras.

Well, considering that it was because of performance problems that this feature you are asking for was removed in the first place, I will say that it is somewhat relevant.

For the other question, it's 2020, and the game can't run smoothly on overkill hardware.

 

But yes, aside from unit movement affecting terrain and the consequence upon pathfinding, there really is no relevancy in that post.

I do get a lot of lag, even single player, and it seems to be worse when I play with Delenda Est. Do you know why that would be? Perhaps I should ask @wowgetoffyourcellphone.

If it's simple to add Terrain Auras, why hasn't it been done? I realize the pathfinding won't follow it, but the concept of picking a terrain for battle to suit your troops will still be possible.

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