BarrierShape

[karamazovapy]

It would be awesome if there was a BarrierShape item in the editor that could be manipulated to create barrier polygons similar to Zones. Right now, if you want solid barrier "islands" , you have to make an outline and fill it in with a bunch of smaller barriers. We do it all the time, it's a hassle, it's easy to screw up and leave little gaps, it's time consuming, and it creates much heavier levels. This would be a HUGE step forward.

Please?

I can't believe no one has thought to propose this before. This would be great. Really great. Fantastic.

I like it. It might even be somewhat easy to implement, based on how the collision system seems to work.

What if we would just make the outline, press a button and poof! It's filled in. Is that what you had in mind?

[karamazovapy]

What if we would just make the outline, press a button and poof! It's filled in. Is that what you had in mind?

That was my initial idea, but I think it would actually be much more difficult to execute that way. You'd have to introduce a method of checking for closed barriers, and then how would the editor render it?

[watusimoto]

It's already in there. They're called "solid" barriers. The only problem is that, for some reason, using them completely grinds the server to a halt.

If you look on the SF bug list, you'll see there is an open case to get them working. You'll also see the case has been there for a long time.

So yes, it's a great idea, and it will get done, probably for the 014 release.

An easy (though not exact) alternative would be to just fill the inside with an exact fit goal-zone like area colored like the wall. The only real difference between it being solid on the inside and having it just be colored on the inside would be that the "Wall glitch" won't work, but what ever, we can't get that to work with polygons as it is.

[karamazovapy]

So yes, it's a great idea, and it will get done, probably for the 014 release.

Awesome!

[watusimoto]

OK, I was playing around with this, and they pretty much work, but there is currently no editor support. At the very least, this level of rudimentary support will be included with 013.

Here's the main question at this point that I have been wrestling with for a while. Regular walls are buffered by "width" in order to give them thickness. Should we do that with the solid walls as well?

The benefits are that it will be very easy to convert existing hollow walls to solid walls with a simple text file edit, since all the coords would stay the same.

The drawbacks are that it is fairly more complex to do this, especially in the editor, and it may be more natural interacting with solid walls as if they were true polygonal items like loadout zones, rather than as if they were walls that were filled. On the other hand, perhaps all walls should work the same.

Also, I need some ideas about how to specify a solid wall in the editor. I'm thinking you'd create a regular wall, then set an attribute (much like you do GoFast speed), but maybe there's a better way.

What do you think?

[karamazovapy]

I say no barrier width, personally. I'd be happy to work with a solid in the zone format. I don't know if an attribute really makes sense to me, just because a minority of barriers are intended to be solid shapes. At the same time, I see the rationale behind leaving all types of barriers with one method of creation. At the end of the day, I really don't care how it works. I'd also be really excited to have 013 support even if it's just via text editor. Thanks for the last minute addition/fix.

Is there any way to get a trial soccer mod in for 013?

[watusimoto]

I'm thinking of holding off until 014 for that, but I'd also like to make that a fast release, a month or two after 013. More releases == more buzz == more players. Maybe.

Also, I need some ideas about how to specify a solid wall in the editor. I'm thinking you'd create a regular wall, then set an attribute (much like you do GoFast speed), but maybe there's a better way.

That seems a very sensible method. The menu on the right is already getting cluttered and there is currently no editable attributes for barriers.

As for width or no, it probably doesn't matter. It might make more sense to go for a width if this becomes an editable attribute of regular barriers.

[watusimoto]

The way I originally conceived the idea was to create a solid barrier, you'd simply change BarrierMaker to BarrierMakerS in the level def file, and that the outer boundaries of the levels would remain the same. The thinking being that on the original levels, there are lots of hollow barriers that might look better solid, but you wouldn't want to change the outer bounds of the wall at all.

Now that we all agree we should get a better set of default levels, that fit better with the way the game is played now, this is probably less important. But that was my original thinking.

[Skybax]

I was thinking about how if you want to make a filled in polygon, you have to either make the wall width enormously gianormous or just scribble a bunch inside of the polygon. Would it be possible to make some sort of "Fill" tool, such as the ones that are used in graphics editing software, to sort of connect all the walls of the polygon and therefore fill it? I think that would be a really cool addition, both for gameplay and looks-coolness.