MechDawn, an RTS development

Hi Michael,

glad to get some feedback here! Thank you. I love to answer your questions, too.

  1. I started with AGraphStar implementation and hex tiles. After getting the basic implementation done, I desided to use a landscape for the visuals. As you can see in the screenshot, I made a GridManager which holds the tiles (UObject). Marked as black and glowing dots on the landscape. The Editor-Widget can update the dots after changing the landscape, which is pretty handy. The colored dots are angle and off-plane indicators, you cannot walk on these tiles.

  1. The mechs are from the Marketplace, I got them all. Awesome work from that artist.
  1. It does not matter for the AI, the post-process is just part of the visualation for the player, not part of data for AI. The post-process is just the best way to implement it. For the visual effect, I am writing data with Render-to-texture, so I can use the same data everywhere the AI needs to.

  2. This is my very first Unreal Engine project. I have strong coding skills and already much experience in creating DirectX 3D engines in C++. I started this project like 5 month ago. I am playing around with alot of Unreal features, learning on the fly, finding good ways for implementations.

  3. Hex tiles work better if you have everything with ranges, like weapon ranges, because it’s circular. Units can walk evenly in every of the 6 directions. I like the hex style, it matches the sci-fi theme very well. I like the clear layout of the tiles, every unit has it’s place to be. That’s even better for A-Star pathfinding. No need for NavMeshs and realtime collisions between units. It is more like just a boolean of the tile if it’s passable or not. I don’t see it that sharply separated between turn-based and realtime.

Thank you.

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