Free and Open Source real time strategy game with a new take on micro-management

Wishlist

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This is what has been gathered from the mailing list
If you would like to adopt one of these projects please put your name under it!

General wishes

Jack-audio-connection-kit support

  • Why? For sound input? Sound output already uses SDL --Nct 14:04, 7 December 2005 (PST)
  • SDL doesn't work well with jackd. I've tried, unless you know of a way. some people must use jackd do to the cards they have, such as me (the m-audio 1010LT) and glob2 doesn't work with it for sound --AppleBoy 09:06, 10 December 2005 (PST)

A VoIP solution for in game talking

  • Already implemented for Linux, just need to implement system-specific code for OS X and Win32 --Nct 14:05, 7 December 2005 (PST)

Revamped tutorial and campaigns

  • Mission Objectives screen is ugly. When running at higher resolutions the text is very hard to read, since the whole description can fit on one line. Maybe add a preview of the map you're about to start? --Stefan Kangas 01:41, 18 December 2005 (PST)
  • Good idea, we could also limit the width --Nct 02:34, 18 December 2005 (PST)

A better map editor

  • Areas as invisible flags. So we don't need to hardcode coordinates in the script
  • Be able to edit globules & buildings & flags. Ideally, before dropping as well as once dropped would be nice.
  • Possibility to set a time limit for a game, and also multiple win conditions, like who has most resources after one hower....etc..
  • Make the script editor more user friendly
  • (syntax highlighting, highlight errors in the compile, or make it easier to find them at least), would be very nice if there was an API to go with as well perhaps a lil help button with possible commands and explanations for them. It is essential if we expect many users to help us script that we make it as easy as possible

Bookmarks for LAN-games

it's very uncomfortable to have to type the same url (dyndns) again and again. also when it crashes it would be nice to at least not have to type it again.

User wishes

Philipp's Wishes

New Units

  • The Plane

To get a Plane you need an Airport. An Airport should be a really big building because of the runway. In the Airport Warriors can train to fly an plane. Airplanes can start if a Warrior heads to the Airport an gets in a plane. A plane can be repaired in the airport be workers.

  • Ships

Ships are build in a Pier. Everything functions the same as the Airport. There should be many Types of Ships and Planes. In the Pier or Airport a Warrior learns to fly one Type of Plane or Ship. If the Warrior enters again the Airport of Pier, it can learn to fly or control other ships and planes.

  • Types of Planes and Ships

- To attack Units - To transport Units

AppleBoy's Wishes

  • Ysagoon online renamed to something cooler
  • A new meta server setup that allows the linking of multiple ones for redundancy
basically something like battlnet from blizzard, where you can choose your location and connect to that one
  • have the metaserver deny you access if you aren't running the latest version
  • have a seperate metaserver for testing versions
  • level4 towers able to attack air! necessity!
  • before the game, be able to choose the following:
  1. fruit vision enabled or disabled? - reason being sometimes a person will turn it on to turn the tables when they are loosing because they have more fruit (ok, I do this to others, but still)
  2. fog of war?
  3. allies (still changeable in game)

Giszmo's Wishes

Better areas

Problem is, guard areas concentrate warriors too much to some of those areas, clearing areas allow to get overgrown if no worker comes in time and no-go-areas are often meant to be no-harvest-areas.

So I suggest to make the first two more flag-like. So every patch of guard/clearing area gets its own gradient. These patches get units in the order of (area actually having to be controlled or cleared)/(units already assigned). to keep gradient-count low, patches could get defined so one wide gaps don't separate a patch into two (internally the gradient gets filled there but without the order to clear p.e.)

Clearing areas don't work. To make them useful for not just keeping passages free but also improve building placement and upgrading i suggest the following:

Paved.jpeg

turn them into paving areas.

  • paving areas will get cleared if needed
  • paving a square costs only time
  • paving areas request one worker per unpaved square
  • paved areas can be walked on
  • paved areas can be built on
  • paved areas block ressources
  • paved areas give no speed bonus
  • paved areas can be unpaved
  • paved areas look discreet like in the pic (brown)
  • paving areas look something like in the pic (yellow)

paving/unpaving is done with area tools and not with a 1x1 building

With these paving areas we could modify construction and upgrading to be more realistic and handy by:

  1. make the area into a paving area
  2. when completely paved make it forbidden
  3. turn it into a 0.8.21 construction site

This would be more realistic as it would not be possible to block enemy units/ressources without actually having a glob that walks there. Additionaly a construction site would not be visible or attackable by the opponent.

Construction would be more easy to use as it would allow to place/upgrade buildings not caring about clearable ressources what is micro management now.

Aging

Imagine the globs growing old. So from a certain moment in time on they start moving slower, needing more rest (grow hungry more quickly) and also needing a doctor more often (randomly loose health) until they finally die because they didn't reach the hospital in time. Just a thought ;)

Improved Map Management

Concept

The idea is to provide a possibility to both provide own maps to the community and easily retrieve maps from others. For this purpose I suggest to implement some new features in the YOG-map-selection-screen.

  • a "share map" button next to every map that is not already shared via the YOG-server. Probably the Player will be asked to provide a name and comment.
  • some filters:
    • a checkbox "list online maps": if checked, maps that are not yet downloaded are listed with those on the pc
    • min rating (attention: new maps start with 10 votes "0/10")
    • min player count
    • max player count
    • map has fruits
    • min size
    • max size

Where does the rating come from? Well I suggest to put it in the "game finished" screen as an extra tab where the player can change his mind on the map (vote or withdraw his vote).

Implementation

In order to be able to distinguish maps i suggest to force to use unique lower case names with a-z and SPACE only. In order to really be able to distinguish maps i suggest to calculate checksums (md5, SHA-1). Those are the handles in the databases. the database (?) that stores the login data of yog-players gets a table of all the map-data

CREATE TABLE map (
  id int not null auto_increment,
  hash char(60),
  url varchar(100),
  playerCount int,
  sizeX int,
  sizeY int,
  fruitCount int,
  PRIMARY KEY (
    id));

and a table player2map

CREATE TABLE player2map (
  playerId int,
  mapId int,
  vote int,
  comment varchar(200),
  PRIMARY KEY (
    playerId,
    mapId));

Improved pathfinding

  1. identify one-wide passages (every square accessible from 2 of 8 directions is part of a one-wide passage)
  2. trigger when a glob moves within a passage
  3. make the passage propagate gradients in one way only so other globs will be forced into the same direction.
  4. when the last glob leaves the passage open it again for both directions

although i guess the above would dramatically improve pathfinding without the need of human assigned one way areas as proposed earlier there remain special cases:

differently fast globs
faster globs will not be allowed to ignore the global gradient due to a collision. switch off local gradients while within a passage!
dead ends
if a glob realizes it can't reach its target without violating a passage-rule choose the best passage and make it switch direction

Oneways.png

an example of (blue=)"one-wide passages". each of those blue areas will have to be treated as one so direction switches on the whole length.

Steph's Wishes

Magician

We can have a new unit, let's call it magician, caster or shadow for now. This unit will undiscover the map around it for the enemy (i.e., recreate black). When upgraded, it could kill explorers. This way, the information control get a first place in glob2's gameplay. Ideally, it should be linked to papyrus. I still don't know how it should be done (by a building, an upgrade, a continuous consumption, per shot consumption, ...). On the implementation side, this effectively bring ranged weapon ability to units. Nevertheless, it should be implementable in a reasonable time if we use the bullet code.

God actions

We can have global effects. For instance, buildings providing prestige could recharge some global action capacities, which can be used globally. I can imagine:

  • mass conversion (convert all units on an area of map)
  • garden of eden (a nice way to recreate wheat !)
  • holy forest (you always loved trees didn't you ?)
  • mass depression (remove all happyness of units on an area of map)
  • eye of god (reveal the whole map)

Singularity Obelisks

We can have a new building, the singularity obelisk. It would allow any globule to instantly travel to any other obelisk. This would allow the unit to get a shorten way in some situations, for instance to go from one island to another.

This can be not-too-hardly implemented by modifiying the gradient computation system so that when it encounters an obelisk, it looks around all other obelisks belonging to this player or its allies (obelisk sharing being a question to discuss) to see if there is a lower value for its target (or higher, depending the gradient algorithm conventions).

Of course, an obelisk would be hard to build, and perhaps would consume, let say, papyrus ;-) (so that the Archwizards in it can write and cast spells to maintain singularity). We could even imagine to make the obelisks quite dangerous so that if they reserve of papyrus fall to zero singularity collapses and make a lot of damage around.

wiz's Wishes

Make AI (m.b some other parts too) use multiple threads. 6 AI Castors periodicaly slugging out X2 3800+.


NoSpin's Wishes

Roads that increase movement speed and decrease hunger costs allowing units to move farther and faster.

Warehouses that can store grain, fruit, trees, stone, and algae. These are not global but any worker that grabs resources from this warehouse can grab twice the normal load (they can also grab only the regular amount in case that is all they need for construction)

Priority Flags. Set the radius and priority for all work in a certain area. You can set it to be high priority or you can set it to low priority (which means it will use the workers on jobs where the priority is not set). The circular flags are suggested mainly so that you can set priority over a square marked for clearing.

Building Priority. Just like the priority flags, all buildings will have a one to ten value that can be set in the building menu of its priority.

Giszmouse the "units assigned". So Priority += max(UnitsAssigned-10,0)

Archers.

I just want a ranged unit. I was thinking that they should have limited shots and then then need to run back to the archery range to refill. Also they should only be for support so a few weakness should be used. They cannot hit moving targets once they fire if the unit moves within a small amount of time they avoid getting hit. Also archers cannot shoot things right next to them.

Giszmo likes this. it could be of the kind "many different actions without players interaction" with workers carrying wood to the archery, archers fetching arrows. maybe they could exchange arrows in the field. No enemy near by: when they meet and don't have the max. of 10 arrows (one has 4, the other 3) the one with the fewer arrows gives them to the other and goes fetch new arrows. Mid fight it's the other way round: The one who ran out of arrows gets half the arrows of the first he can reach. handing over takes little time.

Catapults.

A ranged unit for hiting towers and units. When they fire a target is chosen after a small amount of time every unit in that square and all adjacent squares takes significant damage (including friendly units). Maybe we can have warriors being targeted automatically run when they see the catapult fire?

Customizable Races.

A editor that allows you to customize races. There should be some kinda of weights and balances. In the editor each unit being designed cannot attack, cannot fly, cannot mine, is the slowest possible speed, and has one hit point. Also that same unit has maybe twenty development points. To make it faster it will cost one development point, to allow it to mine it will cost ten. More hitpoints cost a development point and so on. The editor will allow you to create ten units for your race and you can use your race in any game without asking permission from the game host.

Automining

A way to selecting a mining method for wheat and or trees. Once selecetd the program will auto assign the forbidden zones allowing farming. There should be at least 3 choices (rows, checkered, and knights distance(chess term)). This is important because it will lessen the micromanagement big time.


Xylix's List of Ideas

Global Management

A system, possible with a temporary side menu (on the left), that allows for some Global management of generalized unit activites. The purpose of this is to reduce, as much as possible, a range of unit micromanagement. As a start this should include, but is by no means limited to:

Worker Activity Distribution / Priority

The ability to split your worker force so that certian proportions prioritize certain activities over others (they will still do any activity). This is so that players don't need to micromanage unit distributions as they apply to specific buildings as much as is now generally required. It ensures that at least a certain fraction of the workers will take care of certain groups of activities, even if assignments overwhelm the number of available workers. This should include:

  • General Chores -- the general chore maintence of buildings (e.g. keeping inns full, feeding the swarm, etc...)
  • Construction/Upgrading -- the construction of buildings, the upgrading of buildings.
  • Clearing -- Clearing or maintining land, in any manner assigned
  • (Possibly) -- Military upkeep activities, normally I'd group this with general chores, but keeping things like towers full of ammo can be damn important.

E.g: If I have 50 workers, and 10% are clearing, 60% are taking care of chores, and 30% constructing... and I assign 5 people to build a new building (and nobody else is building) then I should be guarenteed to get those 5 wokers, and those 5 workers should peel off ANY OTHER ACTIVITY in favor of construction (except training, feeding, etc... but I'll deal with that later). This should significantly improve glob response to certain work activiites, and reduce the periodic lack of control that results when the numbers go negative.

Training Activity maximums

A maximum percent for "Workers", "Explorers" and "Warriors" that are allowed to be training at any one time. This is to prevent entire forces from "dissapearing" when you really need them.

Feeding/Healing maximums

As per training, except for feeding and healing. Again, this is to prevent the entire work force from disapearing when you desperately need them.

Warrior Activity Distribution / Priority

The ability to split warrior distributions similar to how worker distributions are managed above.

  • War -- Proportion of warriors that will eagerly answer war waypoints
  • Defense -- Proportion of warriors that will prioritize patroling defense zones / the home base over answering war flags.
  • ???? -- Anything else imaginable

Auto-upgrades

For late in the game, the player should be able to assign certain buildings to automatically upgrade to certain levels. This is to reduce building micromanagement, ESPECIALLY, on large maps.

Default worker assignments

For either buildings or just in general there should be a method to assign default levels to certain tasks. For instance, I should be able to set a general preference that 3 workers be assigned to building my buildings, but only one should work in the building after the building is done. This should be saveable to a player's preferences (so that they can automatically start with these settings), and manipulating it should be allowed outside of a game (as it's relevant only to reduce player micro-management anyway).

Resources

Destruction

If my warriors can destroy walls, they should be able to destroy resources that get in their way as well. So either resources need to be destroyable by warriors, or warriors need to be able to walk over resources (possibly at a movement penalty). Resources shouldn't be a better defense than walls.

Non-obstruction

If I build a building over resources, it should just destroy the resources... or assign a worker to do so for me (from the construction pool if global management above is used). Equally this should be true for upgrading a building. If I destroy all my resources... well... I should have though of that shouldn't I.

Cultivation

Workers should be able to cultivate wheat, forest, algea and mine up new rock. This should be time consuming and use a lot of work, but this should be allowable. This would reduce concerns on over exploiting a resource, or having it all destroyed. However, doing so should be undesirable except as a necessity. The difficulty of cultivating various resources can very resonable vary based on which resource it is. Wheat for instance, is a resource that can be legitimately easy to cultivate.

Logistics

Globulation, unfortunately, doesn't allow for much tatical distribution. The small number of viable units guarentees this, and I cannot see a fix that doesn't require drastic game change. As such, the emphasis on the exploitation and considerations of logistics is perhaps one of the best elements this game can utilize to require strategy.

As such, I suggest that the importance of logistics, especially military logistics be improved. A simple suggestion would be decreasing the food consumption of idle units (e.g. Warriors at home), and dramatically increasing the food consumption of warriors that are fighting. This will help force players to setup and build forward bases in order for the attacking force to have even a fraction of the effectiveness of the defensive force (which is desirable).

Alternatively, warriors can be given weapons with limited ammunition. Personally, I suggest both. Whatever the case, emphasisng logisitics more heavily in military conquest is desirable as it adds another dimension to advanced assualt strategy... and defensive counter attack.

Buildings

Building Size

For large buildings (swimming pool and racetrack) I suggest reducing their size by one, but maintain the same foot print. As such the building will need the same amount of space, but will in essence force the existence of at least a single "lane" all around the building where even resources cannot grow. This will help some in alleviating movement problems without otherwise effecting gameplay.

New building -- Armory

A building that manufactures a set of "weapons" and then carries them. The building consumes wood and/or stone, and constructs so many "weapons" when it receives these (say 2-3 weapons per a wood and stone). Warriors, and explorers can then go to this building to get weapons. This improves or allows for certain attacks. For instance, bombers might result not from such special training but rather the equipping of explorers with ammunition (Though their effectiveness may vary greatly with training).

Warriors alternatively may gain a mild ranged attack, and/or improved melee attack (this may require reducing bonuses from other training). However, all weapons have an ammunition limit much like towers, and the ammount of ammo a armory gives depends on the quality of it's production (e.g. upgrade level).

New building -- Storehouse

A building that carries resources. It comes paired with a "distrubition center building" that can be "built" up to a certain distance from this store house (about 10ish spaces). Globs can get resources from the distribution center, where as they put them in the store house. This acts as a mechanism to circumvent distances, improve worker efficiency, and improve city construction management and thus reduce clutter. Players should be able to assign which of the four resources they want workers to gather for their storehouse, with the potential for choosing "all".

Obviously there will need to be a way to ensure that the "distribution center" corresponds to a particular warehouse. The best way would probably be to have the "build icon" tagged to that particular building.

Wishes from the forum

  • Look over the strength of level3 buildings, maybe too weak?
  • Is the issue where the AI will still allow it's buildings to be surrounded by wood or wheat fixed?

Out of game wishes

  • Update AUTHORS file: please add yourself in it if you have contributed something that has been added to releases.
  • Go through bugtracker and forum to compile a more thorough list of all bugs, document them, close fixed ones, etc.
  • Finish moving everything over to globulation2.org
Misc