Crew visualization

[Thomas Boyle]

Are you satisfied with current visualization of crew on the deck? Compare our stupid canonniers and sailors of "total war" / "age of pirates 2". Growth in scale, increase the number of sailors, different movements and actions including boarding fights.
 
(don't know actual status of new boarding)

Game performance will not change: "disable" option, another quality...

Edited November 7, 2017 by Thomas Boyle

[_Masterviolin]

How many times has this poll/topic come up now? xD

As i understand it, the modeling of crew on the decks of our ships will not change for the foreseeable future, as animating additional crew-members puts a heavy toll on the servers and game engine. There are other priorities.

[George Washington]

This project probably ended up in the garbage bin.  

[Hodo]

1 minute ago, George Washington said:

This project probably ended up in the garbage bin.  

If not already there.  Those posts are from about a year ago.

And I dont speak Russian so no clue what is said in those posts.

 

[Thomas Boyle]

12 minutes ago, _Masterviolin said:

...animating additional crew-members puts a heavy toll on the servers and game engine.

Only additonal load on the client PC.

[Hodo]

Just now, Thomas Boyle said:

Only additonal load on the client PC.

Negative sir.  The way the game is designed all models are shared with the server also.  The server tracks all of the crew models, and the sails, and the waves....  So more crew shown more the server has to track.

[Thomas Boyle]

19 minutes ago, Hodo said:

Negative sir.  The way the game is designed all models are shared with the server also.  The server tracks all of the crew models, and the sails, and the waves....  So more crew shown more the server has to track.

Bad way( Sailors could exist only on the client. Because they are only a scenery.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Thomas Boyle

[Farrago]

Sure all visualization and graphics improvement will be welcome but they should be a low priority right now.

[Lz3]

Easy solition: If the crew is just doing their thing make it all client side.

However if a boarding takes place sync up the crew actions during the boarding since this is important for both players now. 

[Hodo]

14 minutes ago, Lz3 said:

Easy solition: If the crew is just doing their thing make it all client side.

However if a boarding takes place sync up the crew actions during the boarding since this is important for both players now. 

Then any time boarding happens there will be an information transfer spike that will lag most people when it happens.  Like when a ship joins your battle instance.  

[Lz3]

3 minutes ago, Hodo said:

Then any time boarding happens there will be an information transfer spike that will lag most people when it happens.  Like when a ship joins your battle instance.  

You can midigate that spike by plopping the crew into a certain preset position before boarding so both clients already know where the enemies crew does that to.

Napoleon: Total War uses for boarding already now that I think of it. The crew runs into a certain position when the ships clash together and boarding commences so the game doesn't have to calculate any certain crew positions. Doing it some other way would use a HUGE amount of computing power

Edited November 7, 2017 by Lz3

[Hodo]

28 minutes ago, Lz3 said:

You can midigate that spike by plopping the crew into a certain preset position before boarding so both clients already know where the enemies crew does that to.

Napoleon: Total War uses for boarding already now that I think of it. The crew runs into a certain position when the ships clash together and boarding commences so the game doesn't have to calculate any certain crew positions. Doing it some other way would use a HUGE amount of computing power

Again... it is not the "physical" models that is the issue, it is the data that has to be sync'ed all of a sudden.  Nap-TW is an offline game with an online battle mode 1v1 so not much needed information wise.

 

[Thomas Boyle]

1 hour ago, Hodo said:

Again... it is not the "physical" models that is the issue, it is the data that has to be sync'ed all of a sudden.  Nap-TW is an offline game with an online battle mode 1v1 so not much needed information wise.

 

Ok. No new boarding. Let's keep the current text-mode. It needs a little sync for a fight like in "total war". A few locators on decks solve the problem. Server doesn't have to know information about sailors, only just coordinates of ship locators. Client contains grids of crew movements/actions for each ship. Something like that. Ofcourse, devs know better.

[Lz3]

1 hour ago, Hodo said:

Again... it is not the "physical" models that is the issue, it is the data that has to be sync'ed all of a sudden.  Nap-TW is an offline game with an online battle mode 1v1 so not much needed information wise.

 

 

18 minutes ago, Thomas Boyle said:

Ok. No new boarding. Let's keep the current text-mode. It needs a little sync for a fight like in "total war". A few locators on decks solve the problem. Server doesn't have to know information about sailors, only just coordinates of ship locators. Client contains grids of crew movements/actions for each ship. Something like that. Ofcourse, devs know better.

No, on any ship during the boarding preperation the crew just needs to be moving into position "client side" (looks nice). 

The important part is that in every god damn boarding the crew will be at a certain position no matter what - NO data needs to be collected, the server already knows exactly where the crew will be at. Then it can simulate a boarding which will require more data transfer but not anywhere  near the amount of data you would need if the crew would be randomly scattered on deck. This way data transfer is not much more than it is for the current boarding (+ some visuals) and it looks much better if your marines line up.

 

Quick chain of events:

1. Player preps for boarding. Crew starts moving into position (client side)

2. Boarding preperation reaches 100. The crew members are exactly on certain spots on the ship, varying on vessel. Server already knows will be the case. If the crew didn't have enough time to get into position they will just be teleported.(half client / half server)

3. Boarding commences. Each move is simulated by the little guys on deck performing actions. Crew members will fall on deck but this requires about as much data as a chainshot going through sail. The 'dying' and all other  animations the crew perform are all client side and the server just tells the game what to do. Minimal data is used, about as much as if two ships broadside eachother.

4. Boarding finishes, crew move back to their stations (client side again).

 

As you can see the server and data transfer is minimal here. 

Edited November 7, 2017 by Lz3

[Hodo]

17 hours ago, Lz3 said:

 

No, on any ship during the boarding preperation the crew just needs to be moving into position "client side" (looks nice). 

The important part is that in every god damn boarding the crew will be at a certain position no matter what - NO data needs to be collected, the server already knows exactly where the crew will be at. Then it can simulate a boarding which will require more data transfer but not anywhere  near the amount of data you would need if the crew would be randomly scattered on deck. This way data transfer is not much more than it is for the current boarding (+ some visuals) and it looks much better if your marines line up.

 

Quick chain of events:

1. Player preps for boarding. Crew starts moving into position (client side)

2. Boarding preperation reaches 100. The crew members are exactly on certain spots on the ship, varying on vessel. Server already knows will be the case. If the crew didn't have enough time to get into position they will just be teleported.(half client / half server)

3. Boarding commences. Each move is simulated by the little guys on deck performing actions. Crew members will fall on deck but this requires about as much data as a chainshot going through sail. The 'dying' and all other  animations the crew perform are all client side and the server just tells the game what to do. Minimal data is used, about as much as if two ships broadside eachother.

4. Boarding finishes, crew move back to their stations (client side again).

 

As you can see the server and data transfer is minimal here. 

I get what you are trying to say, but the problem is the game does not work like that.  The crew is not client side, it is a server tracked object.  Even the models in game, if I see your guy scratching his head, you will see the same thing from the same guy at the same time. 

While it seems simple it is far from it.  The current game engine while powerful has its limitations.  It does physics calculations better than most but slows down when tracking other "scene" items. 

[Lz3]

On 08/11/2017 at 2:57 PM, Hodo said:

I get what you are trying to say, but the problem is the game does not work like that.  The crew is not client side, it is a server tracked object.  Even the models in game, if I see your guy scratching his head, you will see the same thing from the same guy at the same time. 

While it seems simple it is far from it.  The current game engine while powerful has its limitations.  It does physics calculations better than most but slows down when tracking other "scene" items. 

1. Yes crew doesn't wouldn't  like that, I am suggesting letting it be clientside until a boarding commences (since then it's important). There is no reason for the server to track crew otherwise.

2. As said in 1. - there is no reason for other players to see what your crew is doing in synced manner.

3. It is a very powerful engine. However without syncing every crew movement (as said only in boarding) adding dynamic crew adds none of that (only in boarding).

 

What i suggest I assure you is possible with Unity 5, it is light-load on the server and engine and it makes the game look so much better. 

Edited November 10, 2017 by Lz3

[Thomas Boyle]

translation->

Quote

 

New boarding and additional graphic options will be considered after the game release.

The main priority is the interface and localization at the moment.