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Prospector widget for winds

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10 years ago
There's this Prospector widget that tells us how much a mex will make when the "build mex" order is selected. This request is pretty much the same, but for minimum wind generator E production, perhaps with boolean green/red coloring to signify whether or not it'll always be more efficient than a Solar.
+7 / -0
*color to indicate how much better/worse average wind is than solar (per metal).
+0 / -0

10 years ago
worst wind gen is 0->2.5 range so 1.25e average at half the cost of solar which gives 2e

that makes all wind more efficient than solar I guess

but this is definitely something that would help, having to build wind to see if it is worth making is kinda annoying
+0 / -0
You don't have to build it, you can just begin it i don't find it frustrating. But yeah i'm all in for such a widget.

It would also help out when there are hills on the map.
+0 / -0
10 years ago
Actually, I'd also like to see the metal view improved so that you can more easily see how much metal each point gives when you're zoomed out. It looks like there are supposed to be more yellow circles for better metal points, but I find them very hard to tell apart. I might give this a go if I can work out how to test it locally.
+1 / -0
quote:
I might give this a go if I can work out how to test it locally.

1) put your experimental widget into LuaUI/Widgets subfolder of the (relevant) engine folder (unsure if there is some way to put them without bothering with engien folders on windows; on linux you can just put into ~/.spring/LuaUI/Widgets)
2) enable local widgets in ingame zk settings (requires ticking 'advanced' checkbox)
3) restart game or issue /luaui reload
4) enable your widget from f11 menu and observe it (probably) crash hilariously, while spamming the console with error lines
5) open infolog.txt, carefully read the lines, and fix the bugs until it works!

+3 / -0

10 years ago
quote:
1) put your experimental widget into LuaUI/Widgets subfolder of the (relevant) engine folder (unsure if there is some way to put them without bothering with engien folders on windows;


win7 x64:
not 100% sure but i think the luaui folder in the gamedata dir works for all engines (no need to put into all versions engine folder)
+2 / -0
10 years ago
vista 32, i put svgdraw there, and that worked for me.
+1 / -0
10 years ago
Aha, so having looked at cmd_mex_placement, I see why the metal spots don't look so good. It uses the handy Spring function gl.DrawGroundCircle to draw the lines. This takes a radius in world space units; but since the circle is just a GL line primitive, its width/thickness is in screen space. The overall effect is that when you zoom out, the line looks like it's getting thicker. This is why it's so hard to judge the line width.

The easiest way around it is probably to use a texture or a frag shader to draw the circle instead of the GL line primitive.
+2 / -0


10 years ago
Its line thickness needs to be in screen space, so that you can identify mexes and estimate their value regardless of your zoom level.
+0 / -0

10 years ago
quote:
unsure if there is some way to put them without bothering with engien folders on windows

If the Spring base folder isn't read right away, you can force it by adding to the engine's springsettings.cfg the line
quote:
SpringData = path\to\spring\
+0 / -0


10 years ago
The metal spot line width is intentional. The best spot for a windgen prospector would be in the tooltip which already appears when the windgen is selected. For an example of what I mean look at the default display of the metal extractor.
+0 / -0
10 years ago
I'm not sure what you're saying, GoogleFrog. How does the tooltip relate? I was imagining that the prospector would be drawn on the map, before you'd decided whether to build wind or solar. It sounds like you're describing a terrain tooltip that's activated when you're placing a windgen, or have I misunderstood?

As for the metal spots, I understand that the current behaviour is intentional. I just find it hard to tell the difference between a two-metal point and a four-metal point while zoomed out too far to see the I-beams. I've experimented locally with using several concentric circles, but because of the world-space/screen-space thing, it's hard to size them so they're visually distinct at all zoom levels. I think I've got it sussed now, and I'll show pics once it works on the minimap too.
+0 / -0


10 years ago
Here's a wild one: the metal bars should behave like unit icons, or in fact be a single icon.

That would mean maintaining screen-relative size when zoomed out.
+0 / -0

10 years ago

quote:
Actually, I'd also like to see the metal view improved so that you can more easily see how much metal each point gives when you're zoomed out.


If F4 view just displayed the mex value below each circle that would be my preference

I often find myself having to hover over every single mex during game start, it's a bit of a hassle

It doesn't have to be a widget that's on by default but one that can be activated if the player desires (to avoid clutter aka too much info for newbies)
+2 / -0


10 years ago
GBrank[Fx]Drone done. http://code.google.com/p/zero-k/source/detail?r=12482
+3 / -0


10 years ago
PLrankAdminSprung done. http://code.google.com/p/zero-k/source/detail?r=12484
+4 / -0
10 years ago
The cost of wind generators versus solar may need to factor in the more than average wind speed for example. It is also important to consider stage of the game (very early, solar generates consistent power while wind sometimes generates a little, sometimes a lot). If you have built a storage unit, things tend to even out, but before then, you're at the mercy of the "weather."

When I'm starting out, I like at least one or two solars then windmills unless the avg. speed is too low. Even though solars cost more metal, over the long haul, the extra metal pays for itself in energy boosting if you can afford them. The investment strategy doesn't work for quick play, however unless you're lucky enough to have very little wind when your opponent(s) are relying on lots of it.
+0 / -0


10 years ago
Solars don't have to be built twice when the enemy has raiders.
+2 / -0
10 years ago
Regarding balance, you should always do your best to keep swimming in energy and have as little metal as possible (which is obvious for most players), and by that i find the unreliability(does such word exist? i hope you get it though) of winds pretty much non disturbing, simply because i can't use up 500 of energy until weather changes to strong wind again.

About the widget, a wind map (something like metal map) with red fields as worse E production than solars, yellow for similiar to solar E production and green for better than solar E production would be cool, but it's an engine thing if i'm not mistaken.
+0 / -0
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