Not logged inOpenClonk Forum
- - By Maikel Date 2017-06-30 18:40 Edited 2017-06-30 18:45
I started working on a concept for cannons in the OC main repos. Currently we have the catapult and a normal cannon which can shoot objects. The catapult will stay as is but the cannon will be replaced by the new set of cannons. I so far scripted the new cannons but they are still work in progress. The idea is that they are mainly used in basemelees and defense rounds. Like in CR there will be cannons that can be mounted on frames, one of such frames is a vehicle that can be pushed around and another is currently on a defense tower I scripted.

Types of frames:
* Vehicle - vehicle on which a cannon can be mounted and can be pushed around.
* Defense Tower - cannon can be mounted on the top of the defense tower.
* Warship (possible idea) - cannons could be mounted on a larger type of airship.

Types of cannons:
* Artillery Cannon - like the current cannon, which can shoot all types of objects with gun powder.
* Crossbow - can shoot arrows, further than the bow.
* Gatling Gun - Shoots the same ammunition as the blunderbuss but at a much faster rate.
* Liquid Cannon - can be connected with a pump and shoot all types of liquid.
* Tesla Cannon - consumes power and can shoot strikes of lightning (WIP).

I have made two scenarios for testing, the first will hopefully be the 9th tutorial and the second is just a playground to test all the cannons.

Tutorial 9: explaining cannons
Cannon Test Scenario

Feedback and testing is much appreciated, but even better would be contributing the necessary graphics (see separate thread) and sounds.
Attachment: CannonTestV0.1.ocs (27k)
Attachment: Tutorial09V0.1.ocs (110k)
Parent - - By Armin [de] Date 2017-07-24 19:53
I like the tutorial.

@cannon:
It is easy to stuck the cannon, when it stands on uneven ground. This is no big problem since you can get the cannon out of the material by equipping it to the frame, but what wondered me is the amount of distance it gets teleported down into the ground when the frame is rotated. If you would unequip the blue cannon in my screenshot, the blue cannon would be 1 pixel farther stuck into the earth than the green one.
Parent - By Maikel Date 2017-07-25 18:13
Thanks, I'll fix it some time soon.
Parent - - By Fulgen [at] Date 2017-07-27 18:02 Edited 2017-07-27 18:35
+ I wasn't able to move the gatling into the tower. Cycling through all the interactions wasn't possible (maybe because they are different objects?)
+ When switching the gatling to automatic firing mode, it fires towards the rockets while I fire in another direction.
+ While firing straight up with the tesla cannon, the clonk gets damaged. Same with the liquid cannon.
+ If the tesla cannon runs out of power, the message is displayed, but it still continues to fire. Trying to fire again (with no charge) doesn't work.
+ When a tesla cannon destroys a building, the building simply vanishes. An explosion or another effect would be nice.
+ I think the tesla cannon does too much damage. With a good power grid, it can just destroy a whole enemy base. On the other hand, firing it to defend yourself inside a base is nearly impossible, because after firing, there is no more base you were defending.
+ Batteries! :D
+ I can't shutdown the automatic firing of the gatling.
+ Remote control?
Parent - - By Maikel Date 2017-07-27 18:14 Edited 2017-08-12 15:50

>+ I wasn't able to move the gatling into the tower. Cycling through all the interactions wasn't possible (maybe because they are different objects?)


If you push a vehicle while entering another object the pushed vehicle will enter the object, then you can enter again and you yourself will enter. I don't know how to improve this logic at the moment.

>+ When switching the gatling to automatic firing mode, it fires towards the rockets while I fire in another direction.
>+ When firing straight up with the tesla cannon, the clonk gets damaged.


Noted and will be fixed. What should an automated cannon do when also touched by a clonk?
Parent - By Fulgen [at] Date 2017-07-27 18:21

>Did you cycle properly? With [W] for cycling within interactions of the same object?


Tried to, didn't work.

>Noted and will be fixed. What should an automated cannon do when also touched by a clonk?


Perhaps only my opinion, but it should reject an interaction. If you want to e.g. adjust the angle, you can disable automatic firing, readjust the angle and reenable the automatic. For me, automatic shooting is more like "Continue firing in that direction / at that target until disabled".
Parent - - By Matthias [de] Date 2017-08-05 15:33
I failed the tutorial because I accidentally disconnected the first pipe from the pump, which broke it. :(
Reply
Parent - By Maikel Date 2017-08-06 06:27
Ah thanks, will put it on the todo list. There is another way to loose pipes and fail the tutorial.
Parent - By Caesar [de] Date 2018-01-28 23:56
I found it a bit fumbly to get down from the watchtower. Maybe you could use two layers of the semi-permeable solidmasks? Then you can just hop up and fall down.
- - By Maikel Date 2017-07-16 10:59
I made some progress on the tesla cannon which had its first real test in a multiplayer round of horrid highway (see screenshot below). It can now automatically shoot meteorites, I am improving the accuracy without making it too strong somehow.
Parent - By K-Pone [de] Date 2017-07-16 11:15
At least it is accurate enough yet to shoot airplanes ;)
Parent - - By Caesar Date 2017-07-16 11:37
Unrelated to the topic: Looking at this screenshot, I think I want to make a rule for scenarios that automatically attaches torches (lamps?) to buildings when built. In some scenarios, the light effects don't matter much, but it would make our buildings look nicer. Does that sound about right?
Parent - By Fulgen [at] Date 2018-01-24 17:11
Would be nice!
- - By Maikel Date 2018-01-24 11:50
To further test the cannons and automation/balancing I made a defense scenario which is intended for single player, but can also played with multiple players. I would love to have some feedback and graphics!

Getting the gold star achievement alone is doable!

I hereby license the file TheMine.ocs under the CC-BY license
Attachment: TheMine.ocs (41k)
Parent - - By Clonkonaut Date 2018-01-26 02:10 Edited 2018-01-26 02:12
I have no idea how the cannons and the automisation works but you can survive for quite some time without it.
The AI is just bad at navigating the landscape. Only the rockets will further the progress of the AI. Maybe there are ways to make it smarter. Why is there a door ready to be closed that shuts out several of the enemies? They don't do anything useful afterwards.

Also, it is unfortunately very well possible to get locked out in the lower half of the map when the upper flag is destroyed. :/
Reply
Parent - - By Maikel Date 2018-01-26 07:53
Yes, unfortunately the AI is still rather stupid. But I did not want to make the map to boring by removing all kinds of objects are making the landscape easy.

Next steps for me will be: see if the AI can aim at obstacles (wallkits and doors), improve pathfinding behavior (this also causes lag).

P.S. In this round rockets will at some point clear the path, and locally I already increased the amount of rockets because it is harder to defend and less laggy.
Parent - - By Marky [de] Date 2018-01-26 12:12
What about waypoints (my shooter has one, where the waypoint becomes more expensive if there is a fight going on there, so bots avoid it), or dynamic attack path (such as: choose from predefined attack paths).
Of course, neither can account for dynamic landscape changes too well.
Parent - By Maikel Date 2018-01-26 12:14
For this particular map it might work, but still the AI needs to have something to attack, and a sword will not destroy a door.

Powered by mwForum 2.29.7 © 1999-2015 Markus Wichitill