Game physics

[Darth_Malloc]

I have noticed that when two ships are next to each other, the two models will overlap into the same physical space. This issue is particularly pronounced with larger ships. What should happen is that one ship should stop when blocked by another, or the larger ship should push the smaller ship out of the way. While this may not seem significant, it is in fact critical to the matter of naval strategy. At the Battle of Salamis, one of the reasons that the Persians were defeated is that the vastness of their navy made it impossible for their ships to maneuver, making them easy prey for the Athenians. This would not have been a problem if their ships had been able to overlap into the same physical space! Thus in order to ensure realistic naval strategy, we must adhere faithfully to the laws of physics.

[historic_bruno]

Replying to Darth_Malloc:

Thus in order to ensure realistic naval strategy, we must adhere faithfully to the laws of physics.

I don't know about that, just a rough approximation would work :) The important thing is not whether we strictly adhere to physics, but how it feels to the user, how intuitive it is, and whether it improves the game experience.

Ships in particular need different formation and motion behavior, perhaps even slightly different pathfinding so they can't intersect (but certain ships should have a ramming attack).

#305 and #940 cover some of these issues.

[Darth_Malloc]

Replying to historic_bruno:

Replying to Darth_Malloc:

Thus in order to ensure realistic naval strategy, we must adhere faithfully to the laws of physics.

I don't know about that, just a rough approximation would work :) The important thing is not whether we strictly adhere to physics, but how it feels to the user, how intuitive it is, and whether it improves the game experience.

Ships in particular need different formation and motion behavior, perhaps even slightly different pathfinding so they can't intersect (but certain ships should have a ramming attack).

#305 and #940 cover some of these issues.

I think that it would greatly enhance the user experience if the game followed the laws of physics as closely as possible. As a trend in many recently developed games, that the developers try to make sprites interact as realistically as possible with each other and with their environment. I therefore think that having ships interact in a more realistic manner would result in greater depth to the strategic experience.

Also, I looked at ticket #305, and I saw that it suggested adding battleships to the Iberian civilizations. I am considering accepting this ticket, but I am first wondering, are the Iberians intended to have battleships?

[historic_bruno]

Replying to Darth_Malloc:

Also, I looked at ticket #305, and I saw that it suggested adding battleships to the Iberian civilizations. I am considering accepting this ticket, but I am first wondering, are the Iberians intended to have battleships?

I'd suggest discussing that with Michael (mythos_ruler), since I don't know what is planned for different civs. Also, could you post some status updates on your previously accepted tickets? :)

[Darth_Malloc]

Replying to historic_bruno:

Replying to Darth_Malloc:

Also, I looked at ticket #305, and I saw that it suggested adding battleships to the Iberian civilizations. I am considering accepting this ticket, but I am first wondering, are the Iberians intended to have battleships?

I'd suggest discussing that with Michael (mythos_ruler), since I don't know what is planned for different civs. Also, could you post some status updates on your previously accepted tickets? :)

Regarding my previously accepted tickets, progress is a bit slow right now, with me busy with course work and grad school applications. Right now I am working on the issue of the atlas editor crashing when the user tries to save a file. I am using a window in which the user enters a password. If the password is correct (i.e. matches the system password - sys/pwd.h, then the permissions on the selected directory will temporarily be changed to allow the user to save files in it.) I am also working on a slight error in the AI scripts (resulting from undeclared variables), and I will post that as a completed ticket when it is finished. You can expect progress to speed up come the winter break :)

[historic_bruno]

OK, if you don't mind sticking a blurb about that in the other ticket :) (Also I think it's not quite the solution we want because this was proposed in the past and shot down, but we'll see).