Hotseat vs command input

[Neskiairti]

Well.. it struck me last night, something that alot of games seem to miss on.

In my opinion, a giant ship such as a frigate or something... is NOT going to be piloted in the hotseat, with a joystick or wheel.. sure it might be there, but most of its manuvering would be done sending orders to specific thrusters or such.

this is just an opinion of course, but it would make a nice option.. weather its a clicking interface infront of you.. or a commandline..

from as simple as: turn 30(degrees) port or using the clock.. turn 30 12

all the commands would be in buttons and clicking the buttons would output to the commandline.. or you could just type it out.. a neccessary function would be a wait.. in miliseconds..

there might be some fun giving access to all of the weapons indivigually and all the engines.. as well as manuvering thrusters or such.. (would make docking easier.. atleast once you knew how to do it ) so might say

power t4(thruster 4) 10% for 3000

and to just halt it you would erase it.. or to preempt it, type something before it, then once that is finished its erased..

a question i suppose.. would it have to be linear.. or would everything happen at once unless there was a wait command before it?

for instance..

turn 10% to 12 then accel 100% and do-a-barrel-roll for 1000 and wait 1000 then fire all 2000

could be fun.. but also might be alot more work than I think.. I dont even know how to go about it.. found I wasnt quite enough for other stuff.. so im learning Python right now..

[bgaskey]

Accomplishing that would be no mean feat at all, and would have to be engine-side rather than python. while it has been suggested for multiplayer, its not something that's high on the priority list. in fact, it may not even be on the priority list, or even near it But it has been asked about before, and its there in the back of people's heads, so someday, maybe.

I think its a really cool idea, it would have a whole different feel than dogfighting in a fighter, and it would add a new dimension to the game.

[Neskiairti]

aye.. I thought it would defenately be interesting..

are you sure it would have to be engine side? well I suppose a command interperter or something.. like a shell is what it needs.. and then needs all the functions coded in..

but either way could also be used to make macros for non player ships.. and what not. but yeah.. I can imagine it would be alot of work

[ace123]

Some of that is doable by python.

You can bring up a command prompt with the "]" key... anything you type there (as long as it begins with a slash) goes to custom.py, and it's possible to add a new set of commands in there, like:

/ai turn left 100 spec ...

I don't think you have direct access to the built-in AI scripts from Python. However, this may be one case where a Python AI script is fine (only running on one unit, so not affecting performance)... though you then need to rewrite a bit of AI code in python which might be annoying.

Maybe we could figure out how to export EnqueueAI to python so that it would accept the name of a C++ AI class as an argument...

There are also XML AI scripts--that should be really easy to do--in fact there's already a LoadAIScript, but for some reason no corresponding EnqueueAIScript... the enqueue version should be easy to add.

Anyway for AI scripts it shouldn't be necessary to change too much in the engine.

However if you are talking about power levels and things like that, it's a feature request I've seen many times--it would have to change more about what the engine does.

[Neskiairti]

-edit-
ah and I wasnt picturing it as purely an AI thing.. but a seperate GUI item.. weather its a pannel you can pull up or just a simple command line.. it would automatically enterperate it as whatever was necessary..)
-edit-

well the kind of commands i envisioned..
accel (just increase your acceleration/thrust) by a % or by max/full, half, stop

thrust/power would be a limited acceleration or manuver.. such as at an angle.. or a specific engine.. or a short movement over a distance.. maybe an automated manuver within X range of a specific target..

fire would of course be for weapons or missiles.. if they have a cone, would be an angle at the clock (with decimal point allowed).. maybe even fire at (target) so any time one of the guns comes in to alignment, they fire.. that might be a bit much of course.. but for the largest crusers.. which have few forward pointing weapons.. but mostly turrets.. might be useful..

travel (starts travel mode of course )

wait time in miliseconds or finish.. finish would be useful if you add it in afterwords.. but you want it to wait untill all the enqueued items are completed before it starts.. (accel, when it reaches max speed, thrust, when it reaches its destination.. wait, when the waiting time has completed.. and so forth)

dock (target) would attempt to dock with the target.. though not manuver towards it.

and of course my joke command Do-a-barrel-roll

also some connectors.. such as and, then, and while.. maybe some others.. and, simultanius... then, after one completets, then the other.. while, if two situations are running, once one of them ends, the other ends as well.. such as a wait, or accel.. once the accel reaches its speed, or the wait finishes (which ever comes first) both end..

I'm sure there are many others that would be useful but thas just what was on my mind.. (i shoulda written about this last night while it was fresh, instead I went to bed)

[loki1950]

It may be a GUI thing but it maps to the AI scripts as they do the cmds.


Enjoy the Choice

[Neskiairti]

ahh I see..

didnt realize the AI was used for your own ship

[ace123]

The command line thing is a little buggy (you can't scroll up at the moment)
I was just giving an example--it would take some time to do it even that way.
I was thinking about it, and I don't think a command line-type thing would be useful for this.

For something like this to work, there needs to be a GUI interface for it where you can see all the commands. Maybe it could become part of the NAV computer interface.

Also, it would be cool to tie this into the 'a' autopilot key. Doing this the right way would take a lot of work.

[Neskiairti]

thats what i meant by a pannel.

like a button to one side, you click.. it expands in to something like a keyboard with a completely seperate commandline.. (which is its own shell, not the one that is there already) and it would only interperate the navigation commands..

and yeah.. with the nav map, you could select a planet.. and hit an auto button.. to input all the commands from your current position and heading to get there.. then add a dock command.. and even add commands after that.. (so as soon as you launch again, it goes in to the next sets of commands)

I was picturing it with buttons to begin with.. but with the ability to write it yourself... maybe a button to go back and forth through the commands.. (not just arrow keys... but like.. hit the left button, and it goes back before the last command, then back again.. and so forth..)

[Shark]

Some thread necromancy...

Remember that modern submarines are actually piloted using joysticks, despite the fact that the commander of the ship issues orders in terms of degrees port or starboard and so forth. You're confusing the way a ship's crew communicates with how the craft is actually piloted. In all cases, craft operate along simlilar dynamics (left, right, forward, backward, etc.) and ultimately are piloted in a similar manner. For instance, you could also think to yourself "20 degrees port" or whatever when driving your car.