Knights and Merchants.net Forum

PostPosted: **30 Jul 2013, 12:09**

So as most of you know, I've been working on a Tower Defence-like multiplayer map. However, I stopped working on it a while ago because of the following:
- The map and script ideas were designed for static scripts with some new commands. With the new dynamic scripts, it was already outdated before I finished it.
- Even if I would continue, after the third wave I already need to spawn so many troops that it causes significant lags.

I therefore request your help; please come up with some suggestions how to fix this, or how to make a nice tower defence. I am willing to edit the map, no problem. I came up with this:
- Making an entrance to the player's village, spawn 2 armies: 1 army to destroy the tower, 1 army to cripple the player. This way, I hope to keep army counts a bit low so I don't need to spawn 100+ troops so soon. (This would also provide many new tactics.)
But if you have a better idea, please let me know. These can be ideas from scratch, or just an adapted version of my original idea. Everything is welcome.

PostPosted: **30 Jul 2013, 12:39**

Could you please post a pic of the current state of your map? Would make it easier to think of (I'm too lazy to search for it, I know it was posted before just no idea where exactly

).

PostPosted: **30 Jul 2013, 13:40**

Have i ruined your idea with my "Mini Game"?
- Sorry -

PostPosted: **30 Jul 2013, 13:53**

Yeah, crippling the player sounds like a good idea

PostPosted: **31 Jul 2013, 08:49**

@Bence http://knightsandmerchants.net/forum/vi ... ?f=5&t=788

@Skypper Nah not really, I haven't played yours so I don't know how it exactly works but I think it's different.

Meanwhile I came up with a new idea. Since people seem to like co-op, I thought about creating a whole new map. The concept will be the same, except there is only ONE tower, and all players (probably 4) will have to help each other defending it. There won't be 4 plateaus, just one large plateau with all players on it, with the tower between them. The spawned armies will have to get through the players to make it more interesting (not only shooting, but also melee battles) and prevent lag.Teamwork will be required, because if 3 players are doing great and one guy screws up you can still lose. I think this is the ultimate plan. I think I can make something pretty awesome this way.

PostPosted: **31 Jul 2013, 09:22**

I vote for solo TD mission as well, it would be nice to play without needing to collect a lobby and ensuring other guys are not leavers or etc.

PostPosted: **31 Jul 2013, 09:55**

No problem, I can make a single player version.

PostPosted: **31 Jul 2013, 10:03**

that is indeed a nice idea

if you need some help you can send a PM, not that i am very pro :p

PostPosted: **31 Jul 2013, 21:36**

I got an additional idea. Because I like to be very mean, I want to surprise the player now and then. My idea is to cover the map in snow bit by bit... and at a certain moment a river will freeze and look! Another way for the AI to get to the tower.

Now, this would require me to be able to replace tiles with scripts. I'm well aware this is not possible at all, but are there any chances this will become possible (whether in close or distant future does not matter, I have patience)? Otherwise I must seek other ways to scare the player.

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 03:59**

cover the map in snow

<33333333333

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 04:54**

@TDL: Eventually we might add an option to change maps tiles, but how do you plan to change anything bigger than 10x10 area? *thats 100 tiles already.

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 05:22**

There are some things you can do to reduce lag, here is probably the most important one:
Block off as much of the middle section of the map as you can, this will make the pathfinding faster. Last time I checked you had all of the AI areas connected, this means the pathfinder will end up checking in lots of incorrect directions when trying to find the path through the "maze". Imagine the pathfinder pours a bucket of water onto the map which flows through all the walkable areas until it reaches the destination, so currently it will flow through the passages to ALL the player's towers, wasting a lot of water (which is CPU time). Even just separating the AI areas would reduce lag a lot, but ideally you should try to fill in as many tiles as you can with unwalkable tiles (e.g. mountains). You don't really need that massive area for each AI, just a small passage where the soldiers spawn would work fine.

I think that will solve all of your lag issues, if not I can suggest more things

Changing map tiles sounds like a good scripting feature, but there are a number of complications such as making tiles under a unit unwalkable (would cause a crash) and as Krom said you need to change a LOT of tiles to effect just a small area of the map.

I would love to see tower defence finished, and IMO features like freezing water should be left until later releases (tower defence 2.0). I can help you with scripting, just ask

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 05:46**

After reading Lewin's post, I thought that you, Dark Lord, might try using the block tile object to separate the AI, just in case you don't want to change the way it already looks.

(there, that's my "suggestion" so far

)

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 09:44**

@TDL: Eventually we might add an option to change maps tiles, but how do you plan to change anything bigger than 10x10 area? *thats 100 tiles already.

I don't mind, it will be a lot of work but all I need is time.

There are some things you can do to reduce lag, here is probably the most important one:
Block off as much of the middle section of the map as you can, this will make the pathfinding faster. Last time I checked you had all of the AI areas connected, this means the pathfinder will end up checking in lots of incorrect directions when trying to find the path through the "maze". Imagine the pathfinder pours a bucket of water onto the map which flows through all the walkable areas until it reaches the destination, so currently it will flow through the passages to ALL the player's towers, wasting a lot of water (which is CPU time). Even just separating the AI areas would reduce lag a lot, but ideally you should try to fill in as many tiles as you can with unwalkable tiles (e.g. mountains). You don't really need that massive area for each AI, just a small passage where the soldiers spawn would work fine.

I think that will solve all of your lag issues, if not I can suggest more things

Changing map tiles sounds like a good scripting feature, but there are a number of complications such as making tiles under a unit unwalkable (would cause a crash) and as Krom said you need to change a LOT of tiles to effect just a small area of the map.

I would love to see tower defence finished, and IMO features like freezing water should be left until later releases (tower defence 2.0). I can help you with scripting, just ask

Thanks for that suggestion! I might have tried it... if I had not started on my new idea already. I think it's much more interesting than the old concept. I'm not yet sure what to do with the old map. And I will probably need some scripting help, yes, but first I need to work on the map. I'll let you know when I stumble upon difficulties.

I will leave the freezing water for now but I'll keep it in mind for the future.

@Ben I think that's what Lewin suggested too.

PostPosted: **01 Aug 2013, 11:35**

That doesn´t belong to your TD thing, but chaniging tiles would be really usefull. Just imagine that after PT on Back in the Dessert the winter comes and it starts snowing(at some tiles)

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