Changing close-range combat bobbing

[Phyvo]

I was thinking about Spacenoth (there's a thread in the ideas forum for those interested) when I realized there was a nasty graphical problem I'd have to deal with: Close-range attacks make units bob back and forth. A space version of BFW would feel very ridiculous with giant dreadnaughts bobbing back and forth when they used their anti-fighter turrets, and using only ranged attacks would remove a really good fundamental aspect of this game.

So I was wondering if I could make close range combat work graphically like ranged combat, different projectiles and all, without having to learn a bunch of C++ (I think that's the language Wesnoth is in) that I don't know. If it does require good knowledge of C++, how difficult a change would it be to make? Easy? Difficult? Impossible?

[ILikeProgramming]

Theoretically it's possible.

[Phyvo]

Changing BFW into Mr. Bob's Game O Fishin' is "theoretically" possible. I'm interested in what's practical.

[ILikeProgramming]

I'm not an expert, so I don't know. Should be possible.

[Dave]

I think this is the least of your worries. If you make something good, it's certain that someone will make a patch for you to do what you want.

[Phyvo]

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure before I ran into this that this wasn't something no one would be ever willing to handle. I couldn't stand working on it otherwise. Yeah, I'm a perfectionist.

[Pythagoras]

Its not *that* terrible to have the spaceships going back and forth IMO.

[ILikeProgramming]

I'd still like Wesnoth if it had 0.0.1 graphics. I don't care about how games "look," it's the idea that matters.

[Kestenvarn]

Why not leave it as is?

Ships could use different types of ranged attacks, and have a melee one called 'Ram' that does a single attack.

If you wanted it to be more deadly you could add the Berserk modifier to it or something that does damage to the unit when they use it.

[Phyvo]

Giving 10+ units exactly the same ability is boring. Sure some might do more damage than others, but the entire idea leaves all the interesting weapons to the ranged realm. But at the same time you would limit what makes those weapons interesting, and thus you end up crippling a major part of the gameplay instead of less important detail that muddles a small portion of the presentation. Really. Bad. Idea.

For example, I was thinking of making a weapon like a missile or railgun be a "ranged" weapon, while a photon blaster/gatling gun would be a "melee" weapon. If this is even in the slightest bit possible it's better than making both gatling gun and missile attacks be "ranged" and giving the ship a ramming attack.

[quartex]

When I made some custom units I had a lot of problems with the melee bobbing as well. I wanted to make the units just use an attack animation and not bob back and forth, but I found this was impossible.

Why did I want to do this? Well, I had an immovable object, like a statue, which just shot out dark energy when it was attacked. This worked fine with long range attacks, but with melee attacks I didn't want the statue to bob. A flag to turn off the bobbing and just display the attack animations would be cool.

[Darth Fool]

When I made some custom units I had a lot of problems with the melee bobbing as well. I wanted to make the units just use an attack animation and not bob back and forth, but I found this was impossible.

Why did I want to do this? Well, I had an immovable object, like a statue, which just shot out dark energy when it was attacked. This worked fine with long range attacks, but with melee attacks I didn't want the statue to bob. A flag to turn off the bobbing and just display the attack animations would be cool.

It is on the list of things that I would like to do eventually. But as that list is quite long, and my current project, a new AI, is quite demanding, anyone else who wants to do it is more than welcome. I think that eventually such an option will be added.

[Cuyo Quiz]

If the melee movement is problematic why not try a circling attack animation?. That is, one where the ship moves forward then turns. It may make the bobbing feel more like a hit and run motion.

[Phyvo]

Meh, I'd like to be able to see the projectiles and making such an animation would be a lot of work for something that still isn't perfect.

In any case, I'm following Dave's advice and I'm going to worry about it later. I'll keep that option in mind but it'll be a backup plan for sure.