Engine questions

Questions about the engine for the purpose of original game development.

Information and discussion for custom maps and mods.
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pujok
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Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 11:33 am

Engine questions

Post by pujok »

Okay so, me and a couple of friends have an idea for an RTS and are looking for an engine to base it on. So I prepared a few questions about the capabilities of OpenRA.

Is it possible to:
  • Implement Blizzard-like basebuilding?
  • Implement a different resource system beyond money+energy (bonus if it can have 3+ resources)?
  • Implement a day/night cycle that affects gameplay?
  • Make branching techtrees?
  • Add unique units (as in can't be trained more than once)?
  • Have units have active abilities?
  • Modify the rank-up system to have it affect something beyond stats?
Thank you for your answers!

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Sleipnir
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Re: Engine questions

Post by Sleipnir »

The answer to all of these questions is: yes, but you will need to create some of the new logic yourselves using C#. Mods can include dll files with custom game logic, and if needed, you can also make changes to the engine directly (but we don't recommend this because it makes updates more difficult).

Take a look at the "Creating a standalone mod" section of the Mod SDK Getting Started guide and the KKnD mod for an example of how to implement and use custom game logic.

pujok
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Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 11:33 am

Re: Engine questions

Post by pujok »

Sleipnir wrote:
Sat May 02, 2020 12:17 pm
The answer to all of these questions is: yes, but you will need to create some of the new logic yourselves using C#. Mods can include dll files with custom game logic, and if needed, you can also make changes to the engine directly (but we don't recommend this because it makes updates more difficult).
And invidually, how would they fare in terms of difficulty to make? Would any of these *require* engine changes?

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netnazgul
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Re: Engine questions

Post by netnazgul »

Unique units are simple (see TD Commando and RA Tanya).
Branching techtree can be implemented via YAML traits/conditions, so is also rather unsophisticated.
Blizzard-like basebuilding - if I assume correctly that you mean buildings constructed on site by a worker unit, then yes, it is possible and is already implemented in (somewhat outdated) mod Medieval Warfare.
Units with abilities will require a modified UI to be able to trigger those abilities. FWIW some of the current gen1 games units already have abilities like mine laying or chrono tank's blink.

pujok
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Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 11:33 am

Re: Engine questions

Post by pujok »

Thank you for the reply!

I've explored the engine and default mods a bit more after posting the question and have also found MW.
netnazgul wrote:
Sun May 03, 2020 2:22 pm
Unique units are simple (see TD Commando and RA Tanya).
Branching techtree can be implemented via YAML traits/conditions, so is also rather unsophisticated.
Those two should be pretty similar in execution, right?
netnazgul wrote:
Sun May 03, 2020 2:22 pm
Blizzard-like basebuilding - if I assume correctly that you mean buildings constructed on site by a worker unit, then yes, it is possible and is already implemented in (somewhat outdated) mod Medieval Warfare.
You do assume correctly. How applicable is MW's code to the current state of the engine?
netnazgul wrote:
Sun May 03, 2020 2:22 pm
Units with abilities will require a modified UI to be able to trigger those abilities. FWIW some of the current gen1 games units already have abilities like mine laying or chrono tank's blink.
Those abilities are activated by clicking the unit, like with MCV deployment, right? How difficult would it be to modify the UI to supply units with multiple abilities?

Also, I'm still curious about my other questions:
  • A different resource system, maybe even new ways of gathering said resources.
  • A day/night cycle complete with visual changes, not only the hijacking of an ingame timer.
  • An experience system to replace the current rank-ups, where you can see a unit's progress and the unit being able to gain aforementioned abilities with those levels. (like Warcraft 3's heroes)
Also I've come up on some additional questions:
  • Are per-building training queues possible, as in multiple buildings not reducing time to train but producing units independently? (I suppose that would need a big UI redesign at the least)
  • A clickable unit portrait for ease of map navigation? (Maybe I'm just spoiled or bad at controlling this game or both though.)
To be clear none of those question are decided to be a part of the finished product if it ever sees the light of day, I'm just exploring our capabilities. So if anything I propose seems like blasphemy to subject the engine to, please bear with me.

EDIT to avoid doubleposting:
Another one:
Would multiple player colors be possible? As a sort of tamer version of the Dawn of War Army Painter.

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