• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

WIP "Signal: Close Action!" - Realistic Historical Strategy Game

as always, thanks for the post!

and now, NEW RELEASE - SQUADS AND LINES!!

the usual - http://www.cityarts/signal/signal.zip

the ships are now in 4 squads of 4 ships, each sharing the same pennant. in general, the ships will take formation in a line downwind from the leader. when formation breaks down is when an individual has a situation they need to resolve, for example, running aground or running afoul with another ship.

then there are the needs of combat, bringing your broadsides to bare, which can be exclusive of maintaining a line of battle.

here is the first crack at it. i think the ships are beginning to comport themselves in a reasonably seamanlike fashion. in general, they want to take station downwind from the leader, this determining the angle of their "line." eventually i will add a second compass rose for setting a squad's angle. if the leader falls, the next member becomes the leader (hmm might be a bit buggy still)

prior to trying to play it, just watch it once, paying attention to accidental (or purposeful) changes in wind.

then if yer brave, you can direct the squads.

to select the squad, touch a member, and the leader (not this ship) is thus selected. i need much better selection feedback. if you continue to touch a member, she is released from the squad and becomes an independent. like i said, the haptic sense needs improvement.

so now you can now set a spot for the squad to go.

couple things i could do in re selection mechanics -
1. ships never remove from the squad.
2. selecting a ship makes that ship the leader.

lemme know if you think this a better approach.

btw. the signal flag key is no longer fully correct, i'm miss-using some signals for debug purposes.

i also reduced the size of the ships a fair bit, gives them more room to move, and dropped and zoomed the initial camera point.

and what do you know, it's the friday release.

bix
 
captains,

it has been a very interesting 24 hours. boy you can slice the "line of battle" problem so many ways!
so, lets just say for simplicity, i maintain 4 squadrons of 4 ships (i may expand that to 4 squads of 5 ships, 20 total, just so i have an odd number).

these are the most probable lines, represented in ascii:

<---- this is the wind vector

^^^^ abreast

^^
^^ square


^
_^
__^
___^ diag van lee


___^
__^
_^
^ diag van weather


^
^
^
^ column


^
^^
__^ wedge
( odd ship has weather gauge, prolly a good assumption )


^__^
_^^ net
( no odd ship in this case)

so seven basic lines. the challenge then is to transition efficiently from any one line to any other line. this is not so simple as you might first imagine. many questions arise.

Q1: is the formation relative to the heading of "the leader," meaning it manifests perpendicular to a "primary goal vector" or is the formation relative to world compass points? a "primary goal vector" would be the line between the leader and an arbitrary goal point.

Q2: is the formation relative to the wind vector, meaning the ships align on this pattern based on the direction of the wind. hmmm....

Q3: (well, i think this is the answer, but you might need to think about q1 and q2 first) the formation is relative to the CENTER OF MASS of the squadron, and its target point. center of mass is basically the point equidistant from all ships in the squadron. it is the center of the squadron.

and so, then there is this other thing i'm gonna call a "ghost" ship.

we were talking about leader/follower and waypoints and a whole raft of things, but having messed around with it for bit, i think there is no"leader" per-se. there is an additional "virtual ship," the ghost ship, that exists exactly at the center of mass of the squad. it has no propulsion, it is always at the point equidistant from all ships in the squad.

the squad has a destination. the "goal vector" is the line between the center of mass of the whole squadron, and this destination point. the ships align and set or reef sails based on this vector, and their assigned formation offset from it, AND the current wind vector.

which brings me to my final thoughts, and why i am currently fond of this "center of mass" idea. when transitioning from one formation to another (assuming that the commodore is not going to force the leeward ships to beat into the wind to reach station) the center of mass is the fulcrum. the windward ships from COM have the greater mobility to reach station, therefore they assume the station goal of greatest distance from COM, regardless of their rank.

simple example going from abreast to diagonal van lee:

the "dot" is (COM)

<---- wind

from:

^^.^^ abreast

to:
^
_^
__.
___^
____^ diag van lee
the van ship is the most leeward ship, it simply reefs sails while the others position.

the second lee ship reefs and maybe navigates a bit leeward. the subsequent ships, based on the fulcrum, do the same to a greater degree.

other transitions are more complicated evolutions, but efficiency seems to be always based on this COM fulcrum, and i have a logic in mind for each transition that is not based on any meta-information about the current position, meaning i don't have a 7+6+5+4+3+2+1 finite state problem, i have one transition problem for any position, efficiently solvable by math.

which means there is no "leader" per se, no way points, and no de-facto"choreography" of maneuvers. that is not to preclude that someday you can not execute your brilliant choreography, but it is out of scope at this point. that said, i don't think there is a "perfect" mathematical solution, and i'll prolly sprinkle in a bit of choreography as well, so i'm laying the foundation for the next nelson.

at any rate, the premiss is the "leader" of the squadron is a ghost ship always at the center of mass of the squad, driving straight at the destination point, having no propulsion what-so-ever. the squad navigates to its formation based on a pattern offset from this COM, the most windward ship from COM choosing the most remote formation point. well, in most circumstances at any rate, ie a bit of dancing may be required.

i'd love to hear your thoughts about that
113.gif
!!!

best,
bix
ps. i'm having a shipload of fun doing this, have no fear re my "sensitivity" tell me how you see it! tell me where the wind blows!
 
NEW RELEASE - FORMATION and COMBAT

sorry for the delay!

in this release:
  1. disabled grapple and rescue to best demonstrate formations
  2. enable squad selection and goal
    • click and hold a ship - the SQUAD is selected
    • click and hold on the ocean to set destination (only highlights in tactical area)
  3. enabled formation selection
    • keyboard "L" key iterates each Line of Battle
  4. enabled combat chase / combat maintain formation
    • keyboard "C" key toggles formation or chase
  5. enabled play/pause
    • keyboard "G" key (go) to play/pause
  6. moved the ships back a bit from the tactical area
  7. enabled lar/star broadsides and bow/stern chasers independently


NOTE: when you toggle combat, you toggle for ALL squads of your fleet. when you iterate formation, all squads of both fleets assume this formation.


LOB are still pretty flakey, but i have a good sense of the cause and will refine over time. i'll bore you with the details, but basically they dont always do the most efficient evolution to the new line. i need to take account more carefully current ship position, goal, and wind, but they do form up after a bit. islands do confound this, as does combat chase.


in combat chase, the squad tends to follow the tack of the leader when possible. in combat formation the squad tends to maintain its assigned formation regardless of the enemy.


this will do for now. i next need to focus on player (your) control, and several other gui issues, then i'll slowly perfect LOB. you need to effortlessly control each squad, and clearly see the results of your command.


in general, the ships are too agile, but remember the time scale is way way high - captain mode is still to come...


the usual url:
http://www.cityarts.com/signal/signal.zip


best,
bix
ps. will soon post thoughts about gui and control
 
It just occurred to me: Why don't you make a game profile on the ModDB/IndieDB?
Then you could start building a bit of an audience! :onya
 
yeah i need to do a lot of those "promotion" activities, but for now i'm still focused on the building. june and july i need to work on another project, also of a nautical theme, and come august 1st i will do a carpet bombing promo campaign for both.
 
You can make the profile in advance so people already have a chance to monitor it if they find it interesting.
Up to you though. :doff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top