indicate other mines in blast radius when placing new mines
Laosh'Ra
Join Date: 2011-12-09 Member: 137232Members
Join Date: 2011-12-09 Member: 137232Members
<div class="IPBDescription">to prevent unexperienced players from causing chain reactions</div><b>introduction</b>
the blast radius was recently lowered from 4 to 3 so i guess it is possible that more adjustments could be made in the near or distant future. it would be nice to get some sort of feedback wether a mine position will cause other nearby mines to explode or not. one is rarely present when they blow up, so it takes some time to learn about the perfect distance. for those who really don't know what i'm talking about: any mine that blows up will blow up other nearby mines in a certain radius, possibly causing a chain reaction all over the base.
so what would be the best way to adress this? using some sort of circle or sphere has its disadvantages as it might obstruct your view and you might not notice some mines behind you etc.
<b>actual suggestion</b>
imo, the best way to adress is to show a number (or some other fancy indicator for an integer) while you move around your mine-model while searching for a position to place it. the number would basically count the number of other mines in the blast radius, so you can simply place it when you find a spot with 0 mines nearby (or only a few, if you cannot avoid it). as a plus, the mines in the blast radius could be flashing, or whatever looks nice without distracting too much.
<b>advantages (i can think of)</b>
-less chain reactions / random waste of pres
-you can place your mines faster without carefully planning / looking around for other mines
-if done right, it will not clutter the view or distract too much (people like to seem a rather clean HUD and there is already quite some other stuff being displayed)
<b>disadvantages (i can think of)</b>
-not that much impact on gameplay, effort could be spent on something else
-might be difficult to make communicate the meaning of the number, new players could be confused / not figure out what it is for
-still a minor distraction / cluttering of the view
the blast radius was recently lowered from 4 to 3 so i guess it is possible that more adjustments could be made in the near or distant future. it would be nice to get some sort of feedback wether a mine position will cause other nearby mines to explode or not. one is rarely present when they blow up, so it takes some time to learn about the perfect distance. for those who really don't know what i'm talking about: any mine that blows up will blow up other nearby mines in a certain radius, possibly causing a chain reaction all over the base.
so what would be the best way to adress this? using some sort of circle or sphere has its disadvantages as it might obstruct your view and you might not notice some mines behind you etc.
<b>actual suggestion</b>
imo, the best way to adress is to show a number (or some other fancy indicator for an integer) while you move around your mine-model while searching for a position to place it. the number would basically count the number of other mines in the blast radius, so you can simply place it when you find a spot with 0 mines nearby (or only a few, if you cannot avoid it). as a plus, the mines in the blast radius could be flashing, or whatever looks nice without distracting too much.
<b>advantages (i can think of)</b>
-less chain reactions / random waste of pres
-you can place your mines faster without carefully planning / looking around for other mines
-if done right, it will not clutter the view or distract too much (people like to seem a rather clean HUD and there is already quite some other stuff being displayed)
<b>disadvantages (i can think of)</b>
-not that much impact on gameplay, effort could be spent on something else
-might be difficult to make communicate the meaning of the number, new players could be confused / not figure out what it is for
-still a minor distraction / cluttering of the view
Comments
A distraction?
Wh... it would be as easy as showing a colored radius on the ground where the mine was going to be placed. Which IMO should already happen for cysts (Total creep expansion area) and Hydras (Total Range of Shots) and probably even marine turrets.
Do it.
Super simple and clear to even a beginner
these were my initial thoughts as well, but as i pointed out in my initial post (i guess people are too lazy to read it all, but please do so at least when you are posting):
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->using some sort of circle or sphere has its disadvantages as it might obstruct your view and you might not notice some mines behind you etc.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
if you disagree with this, please elaborate why.
if people don't mind the obstruction, i don't see why there could not be a sphere in addition to the number. just using a circle will not adress mines placed on walls or other surfaces. i guess the best solution for this would be using a sphere and simply drawing on the surfaces whereever the sphere touches a surface. so you draw a circle which bends and goes up the walls etc. not sure how much effort this would be though.
This way, you have no obstructing things around you when placed fine. Only when you want to place them in the blast radius of another mine. This way, the circle isn't even a problem for mines on walls etc.
And its better than a number, because you can directly see, where the blast radius of the other mines are.
And its intuitive. Even more intuitive, as showing the blast radius of your own mine. (Because that does not tell you, that it interacts with other mines.) Seeing the blast radius of other mines only when you try to place them in this radius should be hint enough.
Just put an explosive radius indicator, and a smaller one indicating the radus of the proximity fuse, so you can tell when you have an area covered properly.
Haha I read your post, but unless explosions are very tall cylinders you're exaggerating it's failures. With a single circle around the mine being placed you can tell easily if the mined wall itself is within the blast radius and gauge whether the height is sufficient. Adding a circle around the wall mine will not help you gauge the explosion spheres more accurately while it will help you gauge the current coverage quickly.
I guess what I'm saying is that while your over-complicated system has it's advantages, it's still over complicated. I was merely stating the simpler system that would be sufficient, I apologize if you took that as a personal affront as though I hadn't read the first post. Hence the opening of "All you need," but thanks for reading my whole post...All 2 lines
edit: I'd like to add that I like your over complicated-system until dev time is considered
a circle will be another object/model included into the game. it can cause graphical errors, drain fps, have buggy position/angle...
i don't exactly know how the blast radius is calculated. but i doubt it will go through other objects like walls.
as for drawing one circle per mine, that sounds fine if they were transparent discs instead of circles. and again, i bet people will complain. they are already complaining about the HUD being too filled up. its not about not seeing things, its about aesthetics.
No it wouldn't create lots of visual clutter unless some moron has laid a thick carpet of them - and then, if anything, it'd be an effective deterrent.