Can the AI units negotiate things like a spiral ramps?

[Zero Angel]

Hmm, tried for 20 minutes, all sorts of things, but couldnt duplicate it.

Then I thought of another idea


But now that I think about it, its kind of useless for most purposes.

[Spawn]

It would be much easier to do that with a sheildwall, now that they work.

[Zero Angel]

Do they work on public 3? And if they do, then tell me more! I have no idea what shieldwall does. Can they project in a single direction? Or do they project in all directions like m-curtain?

[Nielk1]

The shieldtower creates a square magnetic plane the forces in the direction the building faces. The quare is diamater by diameter in size and its center is 1/2 diamater above the dummyroot.

[Spawn]

I think there was one included in the pak as an example, and thanks to nielk to correcting me on the name.
It should also be in the modlog, but I cant find that anywhere currently.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Tanks ZA, I visited your site and started to read up on the tunnel guide, and it was very informative for me to try things out on. The minimun number of segments is 3 in gsl, but I can adjust the radius setting quite a bit larger, and I'll try extruding with another method into a climbing ramp with 90 degree angles with say a 20 degree incline as well. Another possibility would be to adjust the rotation setting to essentially make the ramp straight along the swept path instead of asideways curve as is the default resulting in a sloped ramp which the ai should better be able to negotiate

[bigbadbogie]

on the subject of bridge segs - why does the isdf bridge need 2 tunnels?? shouldnt it just need 1 that is up and down???

[Nielk1]

The top and the bottom BBB.

You can go over the bridge or you can go under it in the perpindicual direction.

[Spawn]

Unless you tell the ai somehow it doesn't know that a building can be navigated around/past.

[bigbadbogie]

ah - makes sense now

[CmptrWz]

For the record on shieldtowers (as I researched quite a bit on them) - the effect has a forward and back, is a box, but not a cube. It does not have to be over the model generating it, or even centered on it, it can in fact project quite a ways AWAY from the model.

At one point I made a model I could put off of the map that projected a shield straight across the map through which no ordnance could travel, but ships were able to pass through at will.

Effects, on the other hand, I had issues getting to work. But I suck with effects.

My favorite trick with them, however, were my expressway tunnels.

I think Greenheart was going to use them on a couple of maps that were going to go into PB4, so that there would be examples of how shieldtowers could be used.

Here, have a couple of odfs. I would put the expressway then the brakes. Coming out of the expressway tunnel without the brakes......lets just not do that, ok?

[Nielk1]

The only way I could find to really affect the position and orientation of a magnetic plane was to have it tapped on.

[Zero Angel]

I have completed the elevator thanks to Greenheart making the tunnel model for me. I found out that M-Curtain-like fields are better at pushing the ships off of the lift - if placed correctly they can even force the player down the shaft when he is entering from the other side. Which means, by luck, my elevator works for both directions!

My prototype doesnt work on assault tanks yet (they usually just hover a few cm off the ground)

[Zero Angel]

Just tried CmptrWz's expressway ODFs. These things are awesome, and should be added to 1.3's default asset pool. The first time I tried it, I placed without the brakes and flew across the map a few times, the second time I placed braking segment and it worked perfectly.

I created a mine-based boost pad while working on my elevator, but the shieldtower idea is much better.

I can definitely see how these same principles could be useful in an elevator. I have an idea in my head for a 2-way elevator that works for assault tanks (using the shieldtower design), but it requires a much more complex model.

[CmptrWz]

Somewhere I had modified models from Lizard too. GH might have copies, I don't recall. Still haven't bothered to check if GH included copies in 1.3 for the next public beta.......

Hell. Let me check.

...

Yep, looks like he has them in there, in the MPI Suprise Map. Even has the stuff Lizard did up to make them look like there is something to be doing it to ya. So PB4 should have them stock.

As for two-way elevators, you need two ODFs, one shieldtower for each direction. I had ODF riggings for two-way tunnels at one point, but walkers collided in the middle, decided it would be easier to just have two side by side.