Rotating Buildings?

[PS2MAN]

is it possible in this game?

if anyone knows how it would be much apreciated :duck:

[Dante]

does it matter?

you an set the points of where squads come out and turrets move thier thingies anyways...so i dont mind it...

unless ur one of those...artistic guys who wants a beautiful base?

[PS2MAN]

No

I am one of thoose Guys Who like to Fit Buildings Between other buildings AKA make the most of my space as unless your eldar, building space is often limited unless u build a second HQ.

[Doomhawk]

Remember that Listening Posts have a control radius as well. Putting your plasma generators and similar buildings around LP's (preferably LP's behind the front lines!) will free up room in your base.
I usually find that my base gets crowded by tier 3, but it's always possible to fit things, as long as you place your buildings with a little thought.

[Jumjalum]

Those Eldar gits have it easy D:

[trazer985]

select build and rotate camera? just a spontaneous idea, and ask a feng shui expert about where to put em too.

OR: put them down, get an army, kill enemy. make tea

[Vertigo]

No

I am one of thoose Guys Who like to Fit Buildings Between other buildings AKA make the most of my space as unless your eldar, building space is often limited unless u build a second HQ.

You have something against Webway Gates? They project a control zone, also...

[Kjon]

OR: put them down, get an army, kill enemy. make tea
i like tea

[Tumbler]

Yes, please allow us to change directions of buildings. As an ork player when you build that vehicle barracks you have to consider if the squiggoth can get out from where you place it, or even if the tanks can get past the other buildings. Often times this could be fixed just by turning it around.

[Dymo]

Yes, I concur as well. Building rotation would allow for a more organized base. Or shrink the building graphic for the Machine Cult unit. It is massive in the extreme. :)

[Vertigo]

Again, please take note. Many people who ask for rotation use the exit point as justification. BUT, there are NO SET EXIT POINTS on buildings. If you set a rally point they pop out on the edge CLOSEST to the rally point. If you don't they commonly pop out on the 'south' side. Rotation will NOT help you.

Also, this isn't SimDoW. It's actually farly easy to build a base without rotations, and I play every faction. There's no gameplay reason to need such a thing.

Since Relic has a finite amount of manpower, I think there are FAR better ways they could invest time to improve the game than adding a window-dressing feature like rotations. Like, say, bug fixes or new units...

[Glacialis]

Many other RTS' have building rotation, and it comes in quite handy for arranging your base. I and I'm sure many others use it to make optimum use of space, which is always a pain. I can make do with what is, but I would like to have more control over building placement.

[Vertigo]

Many other RTS' have building rotation, and it comes in quite handy for arranging your base. I and I'm sure many others use it to make optimum use of space, which is always a pain. I can make do with what is, but I would like to have more control over building placement.

I'll agree that it couldn't HURT to add it in, given infinite resources at Relic. But I just hope Relic has it waaaay down on their to-do list.

On a tactical note, I'd also like to mention that packing bases ultra-tight can be a bad idea, due to AOE weapons. I once saw a Ork player basically lose every important building from a single Orbital Bombardment. Every critical building was adjacent to the Orky Fort. Bad idea.

So, even if I could rotate buildings to pack them tighter, I wouldn't.

As an example, vehicle factories are never in my main base. I like placing them in the zone of the closest LP.

[Tumbler]

Since Relic has a finite amount of manpower, I think there are FAR better ways they could invest time to improve the game than adding a window-dressing feature like rotations.

If this were something difficult to do I'd agree with you, but since this game is 3d that object is simply a polygon with a mesh around it that you can rotate a camera around. You can just as easily rotate the object. Simply reassigning some x,y,z values will give you the 3 additional directions you'd need. Shouldn't take more than 5 min.

But you did bring up an excellent point regarding rally points. I didn't even think of it, but that would be a good work around for the problem. If you have to make a mek shop with the entrance pointing into other buildings, you can just set the rally point and your units will show up on the side closest to the rally point.

I think this should be considered a bug and the rally point will suffice for now but rotating the buildings is definitely something worthy of their time.

[Vertigo]

If this were something difficult to do I'd agree with you, but since this game is 3d that object is simply a polygon with a mesh around it that you can rotate a camera around. You can just as easily rotate the object. Simply reassigning some x,y,z values will give you the 3 additional directions you'd need. Shouldn't take more than 5 min.

Spoken like someone who's never written any industrial-grade code in his life. Well done!

As a man who makes his living as a Software Engineer, I'm just going to tell you your estimates are totally wrong (by orders of magnitude) and leave it at that. The UI code alone would probably take a man-week of work.



I think this should be considered a bug and the rally point will suffice for now but rotating the buildings is definitely something worthy of their time.


It's NOT a BUG. If you are going to complain, at least use the proper terms. If you are going to complain, it's a DESIGN LIMITATION. Bugs are unintended defects. This is neither unintended nor a defect. It's just a design choice you don't like.

[Elite Guard]

Alright, lets have a happy medium then.

Personally, I'd HATE having to rotate buildings a full 360 degrees, since getting it off even by a smidge would mean the building couldn't go where you want it to.

Additionally, this game is about ATTACKING, not base building, so feng-shui isn't all important.

But most of the time, all a player would need is a 45 degree button to get a building flush with a wall or something. Essentially, this would make "square" area blocks "diamonds" to fit into those not so conveient spaces. Rectangular buildings would... uh... become rectangles laying on a corner by 45 degrees.

I haven't written any code, but this REALLY doesn't give the impression of ball busting work. Push some assigned key building simply rotates to predetermined position. Maybe this kind of thing causes programmers to go home and beat their wives, but then I don't know why they'd be in the gaming business anywhoo.

Just a suggestion that would require the least work while making most of the people happy.

[Vertigo]

I haven't written any code, but this REALLY doesn't give the impression of ball busting work. Push some assigned key building simply rotates to predetermined position. Maybe this kind of thing causes programmers to go home and beat their wives, but then I don't know why they'd be in the gaming business anywhoo.


Not ball busting, but not 5 minutes work, as he was saying. A man-week is a fairly small unit of time, relative to programming, as the smallest common unit is a man-month.

Think of it this way. To do it right, someone has to:
* get clearance from THQ to fund this feature
* add code to the engine to understand rotated buildings
* add code the UI to accept the new control inputs
* create UI bitmap graphics to show direction
* create new documentation (in all supported languages)
* (preferably) enhance the tutorial to explain it
* (preferably) enhance the AI so it understands how to rotate buildings
* merge all the work into the master sources
* build a test framework for the above
* actually test all of the above
* submit to THQ QA department for final approval

Hell, I couldn't type the above list in 5 minutes, much less do the work.

Actually, I remand my estimate. Make it 3 man-weeks, minimum, to do it right.

Due to the overhead (documentation, testing, QA), even small features take a certain minimum amount of time. It's like trying to build 5 feet of highway: it's still going to take a long while due to the overhead (hiring crew, buying supplies, safety inspections, ground samples, machinery), and you could build 20 feet in about the same amount of time.

BTW, I'd prefer not to use a keystroke for this. It's inelegant to require a mouse click and button click at the same time. If we are going to to it right, I think the best solution is "click and hold to rotate" like C&C Generals, where the building snaps to 45 degree angles.

[Tumbler]

This is definitely a bug, as if an ork player builds a machine shop against another building(s) and something is built it gets stuck. Squiggoth is a perfect example of a unit that gets easily "stuck".

As for all those steps needed to get this done, this just isn't that difficult. I've made plenty of 3d Objects as my Major was design and I am certain that since I can press the ALT key and rotate around and see every angle of the building already that adding this feature would be a snap.

All I want is 2 keys on the keyboard assigned to rotating the building 90 deg in either direction.(I suggest q/w) Values are already set so that the buildings look the same everytime you place them. So if you just add a rotate on the z axis line +/- 90 deg and you are done...

And tbo, I could care less about this feature, I'm usually so busy kicking tail that I just drop buildings where ever, but I still think it's something they can quickly, easily add that will help the game.

[Chris]

Rotating buildings would definately be helpful. While LP do give you a control area to build on, I find half the time terrain interferes with this and the control area is wasted.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Turrets build with their gun facing in a default direction, meaning it has to swing round to fire. Rotating it so it faces towards the enemy rather than away from them would be kinda helpful :D

[Oryhara]

This is definitely a bug,

NO.

[Vertigo]

This is definitely a bug, as if an ork player builds a machine shop against another building(s) and something is built it gets stuck. Squiggoth is a perfect example of a unit that gets easily "stuck".

No, it's not a bug.

Again, buildings do NOT have built-in Exit points, so even if you could rotate the building it would make ZERO difference.

Also, the Squiggy is an issue to be sure, but it's not a rotation bug. The bug is that the collision code won't let it squeeze between buildings. We could even split hairs here and call that a design limitation, too.

Use the Rally, problem solved. Or, perhaps, just choose a more logical base layout.

[ÜberJumper]

Listen to Vertigo, he is wise.

You do NOT need to rotate buildings when all you have to do is set your rally point where you want the unit to exit from.

[Vertigo]

Listen to Vertigo, he is wise.


Made my day. Thanks, Über. :bandit: