Noting how the game is unplayable on most maps with less than 5 people on each team and based on the number of requests I've had for this feature, I'm planning to add commander drones/repair bots. While normal NPCs would be too difficult due to pathfinding issues, from the looks of it I should be able to get simple drones/bots to work. This would both help seed servers and prevent them from dying out below a certain player count (outside of events). There are two ideas for when and how they would come into play: The drones/bots spawn when the player count is below a certain level and despawn when players join the teams. The drones spawn by default and do not despawn. Besides the bot/drones themselves I also intend to add a building for them to spawn from, using tickets in the process. For now I intend for that building to free for the first one placed, or free and limited to one at a time. For balance reasons they'd be vulnerable to small arms fire. An additional idea is that they could be upgraded using research (similar to vehicles) and (re-)configured before spawning or on the building it self (similar to the repairpad). If you have any suggestions/ideas. Post below.
You mean those "workers" in other RTS games? If you can make them exactly the same, sure. Here are my suggestions. 1: They only follow orders from commander. They will not automatically move around and repair buildings. 2: Regardless of player count, you can only spawn 2. 3: Make them spawn right next to CV, as in no extra building. 4: One would cost 50 res and does not cost a ticket. 5: Make them as fragile as cameras. 6: Make them repair as "fast" as engi without repair upgrade.
hmm... drone bots. So... they what? Repair and build. Can they defend a position? Will they Fire back if shot at? Are you intending to use player models, a HL2 drone thingy, or custom? Anyways... modular drones could be cool however might be a headache. Could give drones a default repair/build rate of half standard engy with one module slot. The slot can add positive and negative results such as... Extra Armor: +Small Arms Resist Bonus | -Slow as hell Repair Focus: +Triple repair rate (1.5 engy repair) | -1/3 Build speed Build Focus: +Triple build rate (1.5 engy build) | -1/3 Repair speed Sensor package: +Radar/Camera add on | -(I duno Extra pricey?)
Well, my idea was more that they could be used in combat as well to keep players engaged (and not just have them build bases at low populations). I also wanted them to cost tickets, with upgrades costing res. Custom model (for both sides). As for actions, I was thinking about repairing, building, defending locations (a sort of vulnerable moving short range turret) and even attacking. Well, I was thinking about them being able to configured similarly to vehicles. So they have like a universal 1x2 slot and they'd start with like a light mg and a grenade launcher. This would be the easiest to do. (They've be like hovering NPC vehicles)
Give the CV an aura inside of which all buildings regen slowly. For 50 resources you can drop an unbuilt autorepair thingy that will build/repair unbuilt buildings in an area. It only works if there is unobstructed line of sight between the repair thingy and the unbuilt building
I agree with security that it should be only commanders who can move them around, amongst the other stuff he suggested. I can understand wanting them to help early games move a little bit, and I think a small side benefit is that it can allow commanders to stay in comm view to do commander things, instead of constantly hopping out to build base. I know some consider that just part of being a good comm, but this is asking too much of newer players and it's frustrating that a valid tactic is for the commander go around building bases or refs on some maps if there isn't enough players but this leaves them very vulnerable. I already know someone is saying that's a risk vs reward type of deal, but I can guarantee that I've been that comm enough times to know that we would have lost the game much sooner if I stayed in base hoping someone would actually do the little important things like getting refs. With these drones they can either send them out and have them build shit(would be a funny way to build a ninja rax) or probably more likely the drones would escort the cv around so commander can build stuff without potentially dying to random scout or something. The reason this is better then commander auto build aura that I've seen sometimes is the drones need orders and can be destroyed so commanders need to actively maintain them. An aura just lets people afk for a minute and come back to fully built base, that's no good. Anyways, I don't oppose it because low pop games need something to help them start. I don't quite agree about them being offensive though, I really think giving something that lets the players focus on the offensive part, which for most is the fun part, lets them want to play while the commander doesn't have to rely on people doing the tedious little things that make people unhappy. If you insist on them using tickets though(it feels somewhat pointless to me if it's low pop and potentially greifing if you allow a couple on medium pops) You should either make a drone person pop up on the score board or more simply whenever a drone is spawned the ticket used gets added to the commander's ticket used counter. I feel it's important to know where tickets are going at the very least.
I don't think source is super terrible with working with ai if you can keep it really simple. No pathfinding simple like catface said.
It's the reason why I suggested that drones should only follow orders. It shouldn't be equipped with weapons too. Also, inb4 drones fall into Canyon/crossroads hole. :D
Its a model of a calc thats suspended by a single bar of metal atteched to a cube metal baloon. Now we can officialy state that empires lives up ot its 8 year old promises. I can already see angrys model :D
I've been thinking about these for a while as well. It's a feature I don't see us hacking in in a weekend, but it is pretty important, not just for the already stated reason that it will support low-pop games. It will also help get rid of the boring factor that most often, the best thing to do is pick engineer and stand around building things, rather than shooting things. It will also add value to those newbie players who want to sneak into the enemy base and need some easy targets. This will make us value those players, not yell at them. Still, I don't see how you could add even floating drones without any pathfinding. Unless you're suggesting that if you give it a build order, it is valid for the drone to just ram into the first tall building in the way and get stuck there. In which case, this feature would add one more micro skill that commanders need to be good at. I believe the source SDK has capabilities for pathfinding, but we'll probably have to come up with our own solution to incorporate dynamic building placement. I agree with all Sgt. Security's points, except the limit of 2 drones. I would much prefer them to become a complete replacement for players standing around with calculators, and as such I think a server-settable limit defaulting to 10 would be more appropriate. They should also probably be more expensive; e.g. you start with 2 next to the CV, but to get more you need the building, and they cost 300 res each.
If drones float a bit they should be able to float over turrets and unbuilt walls, once you remove those I don't think it would be hard for someone to click a bunch of waypoints around a taller building and last click on what the commander wants built. To be fair, there is a bunch of players who enjoy playing support. I don't like that cost either, honestly as commander I would opt to place another rax or a few turrets then get another drone if the cost is that high.
Having the drone float while being a player model is silly. IF it was a drone model it would be acceptable but tama said its going to be a player model. That said... Tama if you want pathfinding... generate player path finding meshes for the maps. NS1 did it very well to the point where the bots were kicking player asses hard.
Tama if I understand what you are trying to say about engi's. I disagree. Being an engi 99% of the time I feel taking build away from engis doesn't sound like a good idea. Engi guns are not good enough to be in the front lines. Taking away points from engi's definitely doesn't sound good. Engineers are builders by definition not front line shooters
Making engies redundant by replacing their role with a drone sounds like a really, really, really bad idea. There is no such thing as the "boring factor" of being engie. Quite a few people including myself actually enjoy playing support. It requires a certain degree of skill to be able to play engie adequately; I see far too many people have to be reminded to do things when playing engie. If you find playing engie is boring then play another class. Likewise I don't play Rifleman or Assault because I don't enjoy playing them.
Agree.. I love being engy and building defenses and running forward to set walls for others to follow me. I may not cause the victory directly but, I allow it to happen with my walls and support items.
I agree with the points thecreeper and ViroMan stated as well. I don't think I'd enjoy playing the game otherwise, if I wanted to just shoot at players I'd play CSS
Wait? Where did he say that? He was talking about limited pathfinding, which is necessary to prevent it from bumping into "complex" obstacles and getting stuck. Now, this isn't completely necessary, and the first step is just making it move towards wherever the comm wants it to go, but on certain maps this would create some trouble. As for the rest, I can make it so they can no longer be build after a certain point, with that number scaling negatively or positively with the number of players. The goal is to make low pop matches viable. And when I mean low pop matches, I mean making it so that technically the game can be played with just two people. This would include the ability to upgrade the drones similarly to vehicles using research. Again, the cost (tickets, res or both) and maximum number of drones, even the number of players at which they become unavailable can all be added as server options.
