Looks great, Sonlen; thanks for the mock-up, and thanks for the time spent working on the sprites! If you have some pondering time, I would appreciate some pondering towards how I could visually distinguish different players' structures.

Thanks for the compliments, and I owe you for all the help you have given me over the months I have been here so far anyways, but I enjoy these simple sprite making, not a pain in the neck. :p
As in a Multiplayer setup?
If that is the case, I am sure something simplistic is possible, but I would have to think over the best way to do so.

If it helps to get your creative juices flowing, I was thinking of possible adding white or black stripes on the sides of building, or different shapes "painted" on the buildings, etc. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that.

A flag or decal on the buildings?

Or something like inverted walls for that mode only would even seem to work out nicely, maybe just the outer walls and their corners inverted so it doesn't look as 2-D.

You mean invert the whole building? I suppose that that could work if I'm envisioning the same thing as you, but that would only give us two different looks, correct? I'm hoping to consider games of, oh, four or six players, even?

Ahh, I see what you mean, now it would depend on setup for this idea, if it is all in clearly separate areas, possibly a flag of sorts?

One thing I was thinking I could have three stripes on the side of the buildings, each of which could be black or white; together that would make 8 possible combinations.

I was thinking (and I know this limits the players) that you could have separate building areas where each player is allowed to build, and then you just have lines on the ground separating whose field it is. Then you could maybe press a button and it would make the houses disappear, and in their place either stripes or numbers to designate whose field it was. Then you just let go of that button and it shows it normally again. That could be moved so that you could build anywhere but there would still be those lines there.

Ooooh, that's a very nice idea! You might not even need a separate area for each; how about press a button, the buildings disappear, and the symbols / flags / whatever appear on the ground? That could also work for differentiating the units of the different players. Good thinking!

Thanks

Agreed, very nice idea indeed.

I suppose that's reasonable for a turn-based strategy game, but if this is going to be an RTS, please allow me to contribute a whopping "oh hell no".

Buildings should have a decal/pattern of some kind, and units can stand on a circle projected onto the ground, containing the same pattern.

Let's hear your amazing idea on how you can see each of those on the buildings, as there is minimal to no room on each of those to see them, I say rethink and make a working idea instead of bashing others ideas.

hm, also, why dont we just have some premade houses and give the user the ability to create their own house with their own decals and such fun stuff?

You've clearly never played any RTSes or you'd realize that having to pause what you're doing in the middle of a skirmish to hold a toggle so you can see who's who (and lose the view of what's what) is totally inadequate. You also clearly have no idea what bashing actually entails, because that verb doesn't apply in this case. I already presented my idea, quite clearly, and from the building mockups present in your earlier post I can see know reason why a decal can't be plastered on the side in place of the dithered shading (which is both unnecessary given the fixed camera angle, and inconsistent between building designs)

Actually you have no idea what I have played, so you are going to say what is a fact about my life, which you clearly have no idea about.
Also, who said you had to pause, it could be a view toggle as Kerm showed in a picture in a recent post:


Yes that is more or less a design layout, but if you noticed there are 3 options for viewing, it takes 2 seconds to switch to one that lets you see that, then switch back, I don't see how that is " totally inadequate".



You just gave a reason to not put a symbol on the walls right there, aside from the fact that I know what bashing is, and in fact, I will show you that if you want to keep being a complete asshole.

Children. Stop with the fighting and return your focus back to the topic. Don't make me turn this forum around. >[

Also, screenshots look awesome, Kerm.

And in a skirmish 2 seconds is more than enough to get screwed over by not knowing what's going on.



No, if you read what I wrote you'll see that I gave a reason why dithered shading was wasting space that could be used by a symbol.


I don't think so, because you just accused me of it in a situation that most certainly was not bashing.

And....you'll notice we're 1 for 3 on the criteria

IMHO this game would be infinitely better if it were top-down 2D. If you legitimately want a good RTS for calc, I think that this would be the best way to do it.

1. Easy visualization
2. More on screen
3. Easier controls
4. Easy to implement other DCS GUI routines like mouse.

We have learned from the past that the most successful RTSs are those that have the best gameplay regardless of graphics (AOE2 > AOE3 for example).