ARCs need siege range indicators badly
aeroripper
Join Date: 2005-02-25 Member: 42471NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
Join Date: 2005-02-25 Member: 42471NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
Unless I'm missing something, shouldn't ARCs have range indicators to see their damage radius? Essentially a circle should be drawn around the ARCs like the OBS has. This would eliminate the guessing with where to park ARCs for hive sieges.
I can't remember if this was in the beta at some point, but it is really needed.
I can't remember if this was in the beta at some point, but it is really needed.
Comments
However, UWE does need to add range indicators to buildings you are trying to build (before you drop it) that have any sort of area of effect ability (Shifts, Crags, Shades, Sentries, Obs, etc...) as well as undeployed Arcs and, if possible, Hydras.
Edit: Also, if would help to have range indicators for Scan, Enzyme, Nutrient Mist, and any other AoE commander abilities.
I've tried creating a local server with cheats on, and explore mode with no cheats and I don't see any range indicator when ARCs are deployed.
There's a blue circle. Looks like a stationary scan
"no, let's make it complex for the sake of complexity!"
*scan, ARCs don't fire*
"Well, I thought you could hit the hive from here..."
I am sorry but I don't understand what you mean.
Needlessly obfuscating the usefulness of tools is not hard mode. It's unpolished mode and reflects poorly on the overall quality of the game while adding nothing of value at the strategic difficulty level.
"Oh you should just know how far they shoot..." Then why would you EVER put a range finder at all? Why make it easy mode once they are deployed? The answer is because you shouldn't "Just know," and you should (ideally) never have player confused saying "Why are they shooting, I thought they were in range?!" Basically, that's not easy or hard mode, it's good or bad design.
I don't think anybody actually disagrees. stop stomping straw men you guys. the most people have said, is its not really that big an issue. and from my reading, uwe is aware of the problem. not really an issue, so I prefer it take a back seat to almost anything else uwe could possibly work on.
i assumed the scan range was as far as those blue waves propagate... ?
He meant an indicator to show you how far the scan would scan before you actually use the scan, while you have scan selected, but haven't placed. Same goes for any of the other things.
it's buggy and relies too much on memorization
the arcs are one example.... but even then you don't know siege locations until you move the arc. Whether the radius shows when undeployed still makes it tough to decide whether or not to arc because you have to essentially commit to building them before you can even know whether it will work
another example is that after maybe a hundred hours of commanding I still don't know where the exact boundaries between room power are
Are you asking to be able to see ARC's range at any location without actually building an ARC and moving it there? Because, if so, that isn't the game's job, that's where experience comes in.
Will agree that the commander UI as a whole is slightly annoying, but as you command more, and play the maps, you should learn those things which makes it easier if not less frustrating.
the logistics and repair power divide always makes me scratch my head
as if taking away arc shielding when they deploy isn't an almost concrete example that three guys did sit around and think about it.
I do think it would be a good feature though, however I would rather the ARC have a move-to-and-deploy button that would show its range of the ARC as I am choosing the location, then the ARC would move to that area and setup. This is mainly because I hate the amount of Micro required just to fire these things.
Alternatively if they want the Micro to be challenging, the Range of the ARC could be tied to show on the screen if you mouse:over the actual deploy button so that my screen is not constantly covered in circles when you have selected a group of ARCs.
I think it would also be useful for range information to be displayed when placing structures with ranged effects such as an Observatory, Crag, Shift, or Veil.
I had an idea to change arcs minimap icons so they would show circles around them on minimap, representing arc range. Tunrned out, all the icons are stored in one big pictures and you can't make icon bigger (to add circle) that easily without some coding.
Anyway, this won't pass some of the consitency checking.