-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I want to do this on the ML as I think that it's easier to have discussions on here than on trac.
This applies to this whole post: Please correct me, if I am wrong. Do not forget Hanlon's Razor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor - --- per started to work on ECM stuff long ago and recently continued his work on it. ECM stands for electronic counter-measures and its task is to reduce the effectiveness of enemy sensors. There must be a clear specification of the goal that is achieved by ECM technology, otherwise there will be problems when ECM is finally added to the game, e. g. those people responsible for documentation cannot keep up with the actual development as it diverges from what the documenter thought was agreed on before. How do we make sure that ECM technology is well-balanced? When a unit is protected against enemy sensors by means of ECM all units and defense structures that are assigned to enemy sensors won't fight the incoming enemy unit. * How strong is ECM? * How far does its range go? * Is there a minimum field of view that sensor towers always retain? Is ECM-'cloaking' all-or-nothing (boolean) or are there different grades of 'cloaking'? * If there are different grades of 'cloaking', is it realised by a decreased accuracy for those units and defense structures assigned to that sensor? * Can additional sensors make up for lost field of view? * Do ECM Jammers stack? If yes, to what extent? Can you build like 10 of them and effectively have an artillery-sensor-invisible area? As almost everything in Warzone 2100 has a sensor, the question is which of those sensors are affected by ECM technology and which can be affected technically (code-wise). ECM sounds quite sophisticated to me, so where is ECM going to be in the technology tree? Sensors are available quite early, sophisticated computer-technology is available quite late in the game. Adding them to the early game makes the technology-tree a bit unrealistic IMHO, but I don't want to talk about realism in a game here, it's just that Zarel tried/tries/succeeded at (:P) adding more sense to the technology-tree. Warzone 2100 is a game for people with intact vision, so: Visualisation is everything! The following things need to be visualised for ECM: a. Field of view for ECM-affected, _own_ sensors b. Field of view for ECM-affected, enemy sensors c. Field of _own_ ECM jamming d. Field of enemy ECM jamming e. 'Cloak' status of _own_ units f. 'Cloak' status of enemy units Notes on a: * Already implemented, but is the activation of the sensor ranges easy enough for Joe Average? * And is an outline of the sensor range enough? * If ECM is implemented with different grades of 'cloaking', how do you make that visible with an outline? A two-colour system with both colours blended seems sensible. Notes on b: * How do you find out that a certain area is under constant surveillance of a sensor? The hard way? "Oh, look, 200 Archangel Missiles! D:" * How can you find out how strong you impaired the enemy's sensors? The hard way? "Seems there is yet another sensor somewhere D: ..." Notes on c: * Probably similar implementation as a. Same problems as a. Notes on d: * How do you find out how strong the enemy ECM is? * By looking at your sensor range outline? * What is if that ECM were active before you built your first sensor? You probably don't notice that it's jammed. * Are there other ways to visualise this than having a two-coloured sensor view, where one colour indicates the maximum and a different colour indicates the current/jammed view? Notes on e: * How can you easily distinguish between 'cloaked'/sensor-protected units/buildings and 'un-cloaked'/sensor-exposed units/buildings? Starcraft showed units semi-transparent to achieve this. The emphasis is on the word EASILY (without any UI interaction). * If ECM is implemented with different grades of 'cloaking', how do you make that visible? Notes on f: * How can you easily distinguish between enemy 'cloaked'/sensor-protected units/building and 'un-cloaked'/sensor-exposed units/buildings? The hard way? "Why don't my units shoot? Must be a bug! *report*" * If ECM is implemented with different grades of 'cloaking', how do you make that visible to the enemy? A two-colour system with both colours blended seems sensible. Okay, that was quite much and I need to get up early tomorrow ~.~. Please comment on this, ECM has the potential to change the way Warzone 2100 is played fundamentally, so I think there is room for much discussion. :) - - Kreuvf -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFJz+I94y86f1GXLDwRAgBFAJ9kaimx6x9ZrMRjc8wdpZEZRYd+OwCfWqOn f4S4g2790qyifDquye/W8U0= =aKIp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Warzone-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/warzone-dev
