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Geek Culture / Methods for distinquishing between units in an RTS

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 13:24
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What ideas do you guys have? This is for my ODF game. I've been thinking about this for some time, and the two real methods I can think of are:

-Different colours on the textures for units.
-A coloured icon at their base (maybe a disk on the ground beneath them).

I've been experimenting with colours for a couple of hours, and all results look crap. I have a very specific look to my game with the desert theme, so unlike RTS where vehicles are made to look generic and suit lots of landscapes, mine have desert camo. Desert camo with a splash of pink on it look rubbish.

Anyone got any other funky ideas for distinquishing between units? It'd need to be obvious and just take a glance (without the units being selected) to be able to tell the difference.

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Van B
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 14:15
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Well, you could use little flags. Like just a plain with a picture of a coloured flag that you can stick somewhere appropriate on the tank, jeep, or whatever. The base structures could have bigger flags to match, a bone animated version to make it blow in the wind on the command centre would be a nice touch.


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 14:42
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That's not a bad idea at all mate. I'll have a think about that one. The troops might look a bit like Samurai with a flag sticking out of their back, but that might be quite cool. Hmmm. Definitely one to consider, cheers.

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Me!
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 14:50
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or floating logos over their heads, like in Cannon Fodder where the different ranks had brass looking chevrons or eagles or whatever that depicted their rank, you could use the same thing to depict allegiance, say eagles for the home team and a moon type symbol for the opposition etc.



Windows: 32 bit extension/graphical shell for a 16bit patch to an 8bit OS originally coded for a 4bit CPU, written by a 2bit company that can't stand 1bit of competition, now available in 64bits.
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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 15:16
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Not a bad idea either actually. At the moment, the flag idea sounds good, as I can incorporate that onto the existing models easily and it wont require any extra objects in db. However, icons or something similar will probably be my next go.

What I'm gonna try now is see how the flag idea works, by quickly sticking a flag on a few vehicles with a block colour. I'd be nice if the flag animated, but I think that'd be adding too much complexity at this time. Then I'll try the icons out next.

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Chris K
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 15:30
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How about you just have a "Show Sides" key that throbs all the units their team's colour.

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 15:42
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Interesting idea, but I dont think the user should have to press a key to know if a unit is theres or not. It's easier if they can see at a glance.

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Oddmind
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 17:58
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what happened to the old days where every player was distingueished by not only their personality but by the goals he/she had set in life?

formerly KrazyJimmy
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dark coder
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 18:11
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i think there should either be some some red coloured shadow under the enemy that throbs :p, or all hp bars are shown from ally units but enemys dont so you can tell.

Halowed are the ori.
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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 18:33
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@DarkCoder
I might go with that technique as well. There will be damage info and stuff when you select a unit, so that will help to distinquish between them (as you can't select enemies), but the flag idea was easy to implement and has an 8 polygon per unit overhead (so basically nothing). A really good suggestion Van.

The troops look a little funny, like Samurai units, but they actually look pretty cool when moving with their flags.





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MikeS
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 18:36
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That does look really cool, I like it. It's simple yet uniqued.



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dark coder
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 19:08
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yes flags looks cool, i think they should be less bright tho, and im not sure about the helis, you should just have a flag painted on the side thats different, or give each team a different heli model.

Halowed are the ori.
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David R
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 19:13 Edited at: 19th Feb 2006 19:13
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I think the colour coding looks fantastic. Well done The helicopters look pretty damn cool with their rotor blades too. Its gonna be one kick-ass game!

Quote: "Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 19:24
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If you wanted, you could have two textures for each unit, one being a light tan, and the other being a dark brown, and use that to destinguish teams. And that would preserve the style of the game as well.

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 20:38
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@David R - Thanks mate.

@Bizar Guy - That's a good point actually. I can keep desert camo, but just change the toning. I think I'll keep that one on the back burner as a possibility. The only problem with that method is if I eventually have more than 2 teams, I'd need more shades.

Anyway, it seems most people think the flags look ok, so I'll stick with those for now. Cheers again Van B for the suggestion.

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Chris K
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 21:04
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I'll tell you what would be un-friggin-believable.

Instead of slapping a flag on every single infantry man (that does look a little silly), there should be one flag per squad (they move in squads, right?), and one dude carries it around, then when they stop moving he just jabs it in the ground. If that flag carrier dies then someone else in the squad should pick it up. If the whole squad dies it should just fall over and sink into the sand.

Should be pretty obvious who is who that way.

The cursor should also have a green icon for friends and red for enemies.

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The admiral
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 21:26
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I dont think they do you can individually select them by the looks of it. I like it though looking very impressive.

The admiral
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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 21:36
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Now, it would be cool to have one flag per squad. And it'd be especially cool if someone ran and picked up the flag from the dead flag carrier. I do like that idea, but unfortunately, admiral guessed right. You can build one man and move him around individually, so they do all need to be distinctive.

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Flindiana Jones
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 21:46
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Well, on the vehicles and buildings, the flags are a great idea. But I have to agree on what Chris K said; it looks a bit silly on all of the individual infantry units. so, here's an idea I just thought up: why not have a little textured plain be under the men, with a ring of color on it indicating allegiance? If done right, I think it could be just right; easy to tell who's who, but not blugeoningly un-subtle. Just a thought!

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 22:34
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Well, I've made two model sets now - one with the flag and one without. They can use the same animation models for animation, so they're interchangable. I might have a bash at changing the shadow object beneath human units to a circular tile instead, like you said. That means no more overhead.

Hmmm. Good idea mate. Maybe I'll have them selectable so you can choose the samurai look if that's your bag, or the floor tile look if it's not.

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Chris K
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 22:50
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I recon you should just build them in squads. I think it would be a shame to taint your otherwise very realistic and gorgeous game with unsubtle markings.

If I remember correctly, Sudden Strike didn't have any team identification and it still worked fine. Don't worry too much about it. It's pretty f**king obvious whose your enemy from their actions.

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