Ape Apps

I had originally wanted to do away with units/rovers in MC2 for performance reasons (since the world is now infinite in size, and path-finding is expensive), but I think I have settled on a new strategy that will both allow units and keep the server path-finding to a minimum.

In MC2 there will be two types of units, "global" units, and "tethered" units.

A global unit will work pretty much the same way that a unit in MC1 works. The unit is assigned to a player, and a player can move it around the map as he/she pleases. The unit's pathfinding is controlled by the server, and it's state and location is synced between all connected clients. An example of a unit that will be in the global class for MC2 is the Lander, or any other future type of unit that has the ability to "unpack" into a base structure or outpost.

The other class is the tethered unit, which conceptually did not really exist in MC1 (although the transit bus was similar in some ways), but most of the types of units from MC1 will be turning into the tethered type for MC2.

To explain Tethered units, I will give the example of an ore refinery. In MC1, you would build a refinery, and then you would build Ore Miners. Ore Miners would search the map for ore and bring them back to whatever refinery was closest.

This behavior changes for MC2. Now a building will be able to support X number of "child," or "tethered" units, varying based on the individual structure, and these units will operate within a certain radius of the parent structure.

For example, suppose a hypothetical refinery supports 10 tethered units and has a unit radius of 30 tiles. When you build the refinery, it may come with one free unit, and then you can click on the refinery and build more units up to 10. Those 10 units will harvest any Ore deposit they find within the 30 tile radius. Also, the state and location for those 10 units are unique to the client. On the server side, Ore in the area is simply harvested statistically based on how many tethered units a building has, so there is no server-side path-finding required. On the client, it will look like rovers are driving around doing things, but it will be mainly for show, and they can be disabled in engine settings. The client will only need to do path-finding within the 30 tile radius.

This new system should improve unit performance significantly VS MC1, while still keeping Rovers as an integral part of the game.

Like Colony wars.

If the resources in radius will end, what will happen to the units and building?

es: if i have 100 refinery, with 10 units each, and only 1 refinery with resources in rage, all 1000 units will use active refinery?

If i delete 50 refinery, i will have 500 units?

Won't have more sense to use some tech or build upgrade for increase the "child" unit?

Well I don't know if resource deposits will work the same way ib MC2 as they do in MC1. They might be a lot less common, but on the other hand they might not run out, or at least have a way higher capacity. Anyway, I don't know what the balance will be yet because it's still way early on, but I do not expect the harvesting to work exactly the same as it does in MC1, and I dont expect the strategy of building 500 harvesters to be valid either.

I see, like the "soil propriety" idea in some old post. Instead to have resources like MC1 or Colony War, having different soil %, different soils with different basics components. Each "soil tiles" can have a bots limits for harvest (1-3), should avoid the "500" harvesters army.

Yes pretty much. A lot of the decisions come down to performance, and I am really 100% dedicated to having MC2 perform light years better than MC1, particularly on mobile. I want people to download the game and think "wow this game is 3d and runs way better than MC1, what kind of voodoo magic did bast come up with here?!" lol

Love it, even if i play only on pc, having a very light game is always welcome.

So @bastecklein does this mean there is going to be deposits in the game, and not buildings that dig the ground ? (A bit like the ore fracking facility in MC1).
Reference to the thread: https://www.ape-apps.com/viewpage.php?p=37882
I liked that. It included prospecting devices (buildings) to get a local heatmap of the surroundings with the proportion of ore or other mineral in the ground (thus locations where the digging facility would yield more)

I like the underground resources + heatmap method as well @Sobeirannovaocc but it dawned on me that the engine must support both methods of harvesting. This is simply because some resources would not make sense to be underground, such as trees/wood.

Why not? Everything can be moved underground. We only need bigger tunnel. Underground train using magnetic levitation.

Yes everything can be moved underground, that is fine. I am thinking of the actual harvesting from the standpoint of the player. They are going to want to see a forest start to disappear while they are harvesting trees.