The building of Buildings, Units....

[Punboy]

The building of units and such should be queuable, like in AOE2 and AOE Expansion. What do you guys think?

[CK9]

umm...is it the same in AOM?

[Punboy]

Yep. AOE Expansion, AOE 2, and AOM all have the same queue setup

[CK9]

it's an okay system, but I had a hard tiem playing both games at once (the mouse buttons switch commands)

[Punboy]

heh. but do you think the queue system, or at least a similar one, would be better than the current one-thing-at-a-time in OP2

[CK9]

heck yea!

[Kramy]

You should be able to issue atleast one "upon finishing building" command to a convec, an "upon unloading/loading command" to a convec or cargo truck, and que up structure kits, vehicles, spaceship modules, etc.

[Punboy]

All buildings will be able to queue up their construction, up to 30 items. The minerals will be extracted at time of queue (any objections?).

The cargo truck and convec stuff would be harder... perhaps if you could design a small in-game script after researching one of the new topics, "Intelligent Robot Management" and building the "Robot Management Facility". Like, make little macros by clicking a record button and clicking the appropriate actions on the robot.

[Kramy]

How would that be harder? Just set a flag when the unit is loading/unloading. You can still issue commands, but only once it's done(and the flag is toggled) will it process its orders. Simple...if you build the game from the start with that idea in mind.

[Punboy]

I mean it would be a little weird to implement. And what if you accidentally tell it to go somewhere you dont want to? Then you tell it to go where you really wanted? It would go to the first place, THEN to where you wanted it. Not good

[Kramy]

No it wouldn't....because it would accept orders right away unless it was loading or unloading.

[Punboy]

Hmm.... I still like the macro idea. Anyone else want to comment?

[Leviathan]

a queue system is a great idea.

[Sirbomber]

So, the player would be able to start building something (A Lynx, for example), but could give orders to build more Lynx* after that?

*Is it Lynx or Lynxes? I never actually figured that out.

[Kramy]

I think lynx is like cattle.

"So you can move a cattle out to the pasture, then move more cattle out to the pasture."

[Ben362]

something like the starcraft unit building for terrans and tos would work good it doesnt need to be able to do 30 units 5 is fine with me well actually 2 would be better than one

[Punboy]

Yes, you would be able to tell it to build more lynxes after telling it to do one, even if you leave then come back to the building. You could even tell it to build different units.

[FallTime]

I think you don't need to programme convecs or so. You only need to let them take the stuff automatically ( eg. to use command "Mass Load" with ConVecs and they will manage to get the buildings out of factory ) and maybe there could be some "Base designer", where you could specify standard base designs and upgrades ...

[BlackBox]

Punboy, to queue commands on a vehicle use a FIFO stack (First on first off) (same as the ASM stack push and pop). Have opcodes or something to represent each command (maybe for speed, the opcode is the address of a function that actually implements the command). When the user queues a command you push it onto the stack. When you are processing them, you keep popping them off the stack till there's none left.

and like Kramy said, if the vehicle is doing something that has to complete before any other commands are processed, you simply stop processing the commands. (In this case stop popping items off the stack, use a flag to determine if the commands can be processed).

It's very simple implementation.

Also, for construction of vehicles, there should be rally/gather points like in AOK, SC, RA(2), etc. (That is you set a point for a factory and all stuff manufactured from there will move to that point when it comes out, instead of sitting outside the factory).

Does python support classes or any other OOP? If it does, use it. It will make programming much easier.

[Punboy]

Python is fully object oriented. I wouldn't use it otherwise.

And python lists are similar to what you call an FIFO stack. Check out the doc here: http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq-mutable.html#l2h-214

And the rally/gather points I already planned on. Definitely a must.

And I don't know... I think the macro idea might be better for the user to understand... I want to keep the interface simple. Maybe if I added a "Queue Instructions" button, with which you could tell it to do many things then have it execute.

[xfir]

I have a crazy idea! Make it so that the structure factory has the "build" icon like the Convec.. then you place it and it begins to build the kit, once that finishes, then it calls for a convec which would pick the kit up and build it.

Also, please make it so you know if a structure is already building in an area.. maybe also make it so it will automatically move units when you want to build in an area.

[BlackBox]

Yea, i hate when you go to build a smelter by the mine and it says Cannot Comply because some cargo truck drove on the place to build at..

[Hooman]

I always thought it would be nice if when you went to build a building, it not only showed a shaded version of the building you're going to place but all other buildings that you have ordered to be built but haven't yet started construction.

And yes, I really like the idea of being able to queue building construction. Outpost 2 seems to have a lot of micromanagement. I've wondered what it would be like with more Macromanagement features.
 

[Kramy]

Hooman: Good idea! Fairly easy to implement too(atleast in Jamascript). Heh...even my editor has that. I'd append that though to making units go around blueprints, the same as buildings.

[Punboy]

How about when you click the build button(s), it displays a translucent overlay of what buildings and tubes are scheduled to be built?