Proper Flying Mod

[Hammerfritz]

Greetings, fellow Wesnothians!

I found the time to write another mod, that being the "Proper Flying Mod".
It tries to make certain units feel more like they are actually flying, even in combat: With this mod enabled, several mainline units are unattackable in melee by ground units, and receive something like the skirmisher ability. In return, they become outstandingly bad at holding points of interest (villages, castles, keeps, mountains) by having their inattackability removed on such hexes and losing their zone of control.

So far I have nothing on my mind to be added to the mod, however I might update it as soon as I have gathered some data on balancing. Feedback is therefore, and of course, highly welcome!

EDIT: I updated to version 1.1.0, fixing the issue of AI trying to (rather unsuccessfully) attack fliers with melee ground units and changed defense penalties of fliers on certain terrains to them not having a zone of control under any circumstances. Level 0 fliers still receive defense penalties instead.

EDIT: I made another mod that fits flying mod pretty well, so I decided to distribute them together. The new mod "Vision Mod" makes vision independent from movement points and movement costs. Instead, vision costs for any terrain are either 1 (everythign flat, like water, sand or dirt) or 9 (any elevation, like mountains, forests, hills, or castles). Movement points are the same for all units at first, but units get a bonus or malus depending on time of day. Furthermore, vision costs are set to 1 for all terrains (even elevated ones) for units standing on elevated terrains themselves, and for flying units.
So, effectively:
- Deep water does not hinder vision of horsemen
- Horsemen have better vision during daylight, but wolf riders have better vision at night. Vision of elvish archers is always as good as a wolf rider's at dawn
- Forest hinders vision of elvish archers, except when they stand on top of, say, a hill
- If you also turn on "Proper Flying Mod", bats don't give a damn for elevation, like before
Obviously, all this changes balancing a little. If you can think of something elegant to fix this, I'm open to suggestions!

[Eagle_11]

omg, yes! thanks for making this.

[Sapient]

What about units with submerge ability in deep water then?

[Hammerfritz]

Oh! Thanks for those quick replies (and approval, if applicable)!

What about units with submerge ability in deep water then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8vaFl6 ... tu.be&t=54

Yeah, what about them? No seriously now, on account of anybody still being able to attack them when they are detected? Always wondered why their defense was still so low Or just because I wrote ground unit?

Also, dear Eagle_11, if you encounter a ghoul poisoning a flier, that was probably still possible a few hours ago. But now I updated. Now it takes a magical ghoul (why does this sound like a genre of anime?)

[Can-ned_Food]

Maybe the submerged troop swims to the top of the deep water and is watched as it descends again.
Actually, that's an question: why can't merfolk be able to perceive submerged troops?

As for the flying, I think it would work better if the flier had superposition — i.e. a second map overtop the one with the terrain tiles.
There are some silly ways this could be done, but it would probably be best as a mod to the engine.

[ForestDragon]

Can flying units (in your mod) attack other flying units in melee? if they can't, them you should make them able to.

[Hammerfritz]

As for the flying, I think it would work better if the flier had superposition — i.e. a second map overtop the one with the terrain tiles.
There are some silly ways this could be done, but it would probably be best as a mod to the engine.

That'd be cool to see, but I fear this and all the changes to the game it would imply are currently above my skills to do...

Can flying units (in your mod) attack other flying units in melee? if they can't, them you should make them able to.

And yeah, flying units can engage other fliers without restriction.

[Shiki]

There is an error with the Image Path Function used for the add-on's icon:

Code: Select all

20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
~BLIT(units/human-outlaws/thief-defend-1-2.png~RC(magenta>blue)~CROP(12,0,0,0)~BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)
20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
BLIT(units/human-outlaws/thief-defend-1-2.png~RC(magenta>blue)~CROP(12,0,0,0)~BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)
20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
units/human-outlaws/thief-defend-1-2.png~RC(magenta>blue)~CROP(12,0,0,0)~BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)
20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
~RC(magenta>blue)~CROP(12,0,0,0)~BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)
20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)

[Hammerfritz]

There is an error with the Image Path Function used for the add-on's icon:

Code: Select all

20180817 22:35:28 error general: Mismatched parenthesis:
~BLIT(units/human-outlaws/thief-defend-1-2.png~RC(magenta>blue)~CROP(12,0,0,0)~BLIT(units/dunefolk/falcon.png~RC(magenta>white)~FL(horizontal)~CROP(0,8,60,40)

Oh my, that's a bit embarrassing. Fixed it now though. Thanks for letting me know!

[octalot]

Thanks for maintaining these.

For Wesnoth 1.16, I'm planning a change to [effect]apply_to=movement so that it always affects vision as well, even if something else has already changed the vision stat; in the bug-tracker this is #3356. I think that won't cause any problems for your mods, because AFAICS your mods will recalculate and overwrite the values both at start-of-turn and after every moveto event; but I'd be happy to respond to feedback here, there, or in PMs.