Real-Time Motion Trails

[Kyzrati]

So I finished fixing all reported bugs, and have started adding a slew of extra easy-to-implement features for the next release. Among them are motion trails to help you see which robots are going where, especially after firing large volleys. They're optional, and will probably be off by default. The duration of the fade will probably be a value you can set, if you want them to disappear slowly or more quickly.



To prevent confusion/difficulty in discerning which hostiles have spotted you (since that also uses background color, though it's brighter and directly on the robot), I'm considering changing that to a rapidly flashing '!' over the robot when in trails-visible mode.

[biomatter]

Woooo! HYPE

[E.I.G.]

Looks good.

[ironpotato]

Excitement ensues

[jimmijamjams]

I wasn't sure about this addition when it was first brought up, but it looks really good.   A couple of questions:

• Will you be able to see the trails of enemies you haven't seen? (it would be great if you can, but I don't think it should be allowed)
• I would have to see how it helps best in game, but will it be possible to set it to fade out after 3-5 tiles?

No matter what happens I'm really looking forward to the next release now

[Kyzrati]

I wasn't sure how it would pan out myself before actually trying it. Fortunately it was very little work to set up.

The fade is set on a real-time timer, which is adjustable in the options. So it's not currently based on distance at all, and you'll only see long trails if you have like a 1-2 second fade and literally hold the wait button like I'm doing towards the end of the gif. I just did that for fun--under normal circumstances it's not that extreme.

We'll see if it needs further tweaks after you guys play with it. I personally wouldn't use it, but it's been requested by quite a few players so here it is!

Will you be able to see the trails of enemies you haven't seen? (it would be great if you can, but I don't think it should be allowed)

You know, that's a really good point that I didn't think about long enough. While testing I did notice it was interesting that you could see a tiny bit of trail on entering a room if and where some robot had just headed out another door. We could consider it some kind of heat trail you get to detect for free? The only problem there is it's based on real time, not game turns, and therefore it benefits players who are entering move commands very quickly. Maybe that's not an issue? It would add some complexity to the system and take a little while longer, but I could probably find a workaround so that you couldn't see trails of robots you didn't see. Not sure if I need to, though. What do you guys think?

[jimmijamjams]

I like the idea of it being a sort of heat signature.  I can't imagine it affecting the gameplay all much seeing as it's happening real-time.  The only way to know is to try it out

[ironpotato]

I'd think of it more like catching someone out of the corner of your eye exiting a room. Kind of a motion trail sort of thing. You didn't see well enough to distinguish, but you could tell if it was hostile or not just from that kind of glance. I don't think it hurts anything at all in a believability sense.

[Kyzrati]

I'd think of it more like catching someone out of the corner of your eye exiting a room. Kind of a motion trail sort of thing. You didn't see well enough to distinguish, but you could tell if it was hostile or not just from that kind of glance.

That's what I was imagining when I saw it in practice, too.

[Arseface]

I don't think this will help much with the situation I personally have the most issues with, which is where units in a blob move.

If I'm fighting a set of 4 g's and they move, knowing which one I've been firing at is helpful.

This will certainly help with those corner of vision movements though, so that is cool.

[biomatter]

'F' always autolocks onto the last target you were shooting on, so I don't see why that'd be a problem vOv

[Arseface]

'F' always autolocks onto the last target you were shooting on, so I don't see why that'd be a problem vOv

Mouse user remember?

[Kyzrati]

That's a good point about pure mouse users not always knowing what they last fired at in a group. I could add an option to warp the cursor to your last target, regardless of what robot you click on, but that feature would have to be off by default and likely get really annoying when don't want to fire at the same target again, no?

[Arseface]

That's a good point about pure mouse users not always knowing what they last fired at in a group. I could add an option to warp the cursor to your last target, regardless of what robot you click on, but that feature would have to be off by default and likely get really annoying when don't want to fire at the same target again, no?

That would annoy the hell out of me. I can't stand when my mouse is moved period, let alone when it's possibly moving somewhere I don't want it to.

Would a little target frame be possible? One that's just over the corners, like a selection box in programs I've used before that I can't think of right now. Funny how that always happens.

[Kyzrati]

Yep, forcing mouse movements is annoying and generally to be avoided.

A target frame isn't possible due to engine limitations, but an easy alternative in this case would be to add an option wherein entering fire mode by clicking on a target that is not your previous target could quickly flash whatever robot was your previous target, as a reminder. How about that?

[jimmijamjams]

I've had another thought about motion trails (this happens from time to time). How does motion tracking interact with the information from scanners and does it matter one way or the other?

[Kyzrati]

The trails only show for robots in view, so they don't interact with scanners at all.