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[Lugaid of the Red Stripes]

I've been doing some alpha work for my next project, a rebuild of 'The Last of the Danaan', and I've decided to release the improvements I've made to the tactical system as a stand-alone demonstration module.

The file can be found on the Vault here and at the Nexus here.

Aside from a lot of bugfixing and finessing, the big improvement is that now squads can now march in formation, with a variety of line, column, and phalanx formations programmed in.  Soldiers can now also take cover on their own, meaning that they can make spontaneous use of terrain to protect themselves.

I've also tried to keep non-ranger classes in mind, too.  If healed, routing soldier can rejoin the battle, and bards and paladins can help keep units intact by raising their will saves.  As before, the easiest way to disrupt an enemy formation is to pick off the squad leaders, though the squads are a bit more resilent, now. 

I've also streamlined the battle management, condenscing the orders into a single 'general' script for each side.  Routing squads can be replaced by reserves, and the whole army ordered to attack or fall back in response to heavy losses.

And the framerate isn't as bad you might think.  I've put about 60+ NPCs into battle at one time with only an occaisional studder. 

It's a neat little module to mess around with, thought the vaguely Napoleonic tactics and slow-walk pace might be an acquired taste.  I'd really like to hear to players about any new possibilities it brings to mind, not just for rangers but for other classes that need a chance to shine on the battlefield in unique ways.  For example, I feel that low-level skirmishers make a lot more sense here than they do in things like the Total War series, as they can harass defensive formations and break their cohesion.  Bards and Clerics might be uniquely useful now, too.

[kamal_]

This post made me click on the Last of the Danaan link in your sig, where I found akibara's post to be perhaps the funniest review I've ever read. 'I played your ranger mod with my eldritch theurge, and...' and it just gets worse from there.

That said, I want to try this out. Advances in the tactical ai like this sound great.

Modifié par kamal_, 26 mars 2012 - 12:01 .

[Lugaid of the Red Stripes]

@kamalpoe: yeah, I'm not quite what to make of that review. On one hand, the module does have some serious limitations. On the other hand, the review, well, you know...has their own limitations.

Anyway, a lot of what he talked about (like lack of defensive terrain) got fixed in the sequel. And I'll certainly keep him in mind for the rebuild, maybe script in a pack of high-SR wargs that hunt casters exclusively.

And for builders who might not really care about the tactics: The scripts manage to get NPCs to march around in formation, like columns, lines, and a 3-rank deep phalanx. The scripts may not help you much with your battles, but they could be useful for ambiance, like a unit of soldiers drilling on the village green, or a column marching down the road. Feel free to borrow bits and pieces as you can use them.

[Happycrow]

This is awesome, man. Hell, just as a DM I've practically wept for inability to move people around like that. Checking out the links.

[Lugaid of the Red Stripes]

@Happycrow: if you're just going for appearance, there's a lot in the system you could strip out. The 'iCheckEnemy' function seems to be a necessary but vicious resource hog. The 'squad_repeactcommand' script controls how many times a round the orders get repeated, the more repeats, the more fluid the formations look, and the more computing has to be done. For a small group of drilling soldiers, you could easily bump it up to 3-4 times a round (every 6 seconds).

[kamal_]

I finally had a chance to try this, and it works as advertised. Groups of soldiers visible move as squads.

[Lugaid of the Red Stripes]

I've just uploaded an update to the Vault and Nexus.

As I've been working on the new module, I've done a lot of testing and bug squashing, and generally learning how to use the CSL scripts more effectively and optimizing the code to run more quickly.  A lot of the stuttering in the big battles seems to be gone now.

The real impetus for the update, though, is the fiddling around I did with the weapon ranges in the baseitems.2da.  To test out the ranges on polearms, I had to form troops into larger and larger phalanxes, and just watch what they did to eachother (and my short-armed little PC).  With a 2.5m spear, the effects are subtle, but maybe this will inspire somebody with lance models laying around their harddrive to load them up and see how they work en masse.

Then I added in some new battle formations with goblin troops, new utility options in the main conversation, and a few chat commands using the module on-chat event.

Here's a pic of that gap between the lines:
400x225http://vnmedia.ign.com/nwvault.ign.com/fms/images/nwn2scripts/398/1361323914_fullres.jpg[/img]

Modifié par Lugaid of the Red Stripes, 20 février 2013 - 01:43 .