Major breakthrough: editing cities!

**eadingas** · 05-02-2005, 17:56

Re: pathfinding and models:
I have once put a settlement on the map as 'ambient building', without pathfinding model attached. The units refused to went through it if I ordered them to go from one end to another - they went around the whole thing instead. When I guided them with mouseclicks over short distances, they did went through eventually, following the streets, but as soon as I clicked too far, they retreated and went around again, from where they came from.
Hope this helps anything...

**SigniferOne** · 05-02-2005, 18:12

Actually yeah that helps, thanks.

**Lord Adherbal** · 05-02-2005, 18:45

Anyhow, back to my question, the answer to which I didn't fully understand. Can you send a unit to 'in between' area between two nodes? If so, then what purpose do nodes serve?

eadingas already answered the question for the most part. Dodging a single square object isn't very hard, but finding a way through a complex city is a whole other matter. That's what pathfinding routines are for - the CPU checks all possible routes to the destination and returns the most efficient one. A human would be able to guide their troops trough the streets, but the AI player would probably go insane. The node system splits the cities up in squares connected by straight lines.

**SigniferOne** · 05-03-2005, 01:04

Ohh, I get it. So the units will go anywhere, not just on the squares, because they can use the algorithm to travel large distances from square to square, and then just use localized pathfinding for shorter distances. Makes sense! In fact, it makes a lot of sense why, even though I'm using a barbarian town pathfinding file for my city at the moment, the troops still walk around properly.

**SigniferOne** · 05-03-2005, 01:07

I should note on the 'limitations' point that we do have one pretty big limitation at the moment -- the cize of the battlemap tiles. This really cramps down on how big of a city you can have, and made me really have to fiddle around with scales of those hills and cut some corners (literally). But I guess, that limitation makes a lot of sense within the parameters of the game.

**Vercingetorix** · 05-03-2005, 05:26

As a note, "TVFaces" deal with the uvw mappings. Just apply a uvw map to all the objects and it should export without a problem.

**SigniferOne** · 05-03-2005, 07:34

My post from TWC:

First post updated with a better panorama pic of Rome, with some improved textures and a new building: the Curia, the place where the Senate sat and deliberated on matters of state; the building is located on the map where it was historically. This will likely be my only update for the next few weeks, when I finish up finals for grad school etc.

Oh and also, I will convert the Curia model into a sprawling model of the entire Forum area, because the game mechanics insist that this model should be about the trading center, not just the Senate House itself. So all three buildings you see there will be considerably modified, the Curia, the Circus Maximus will become a monumental structure, and the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus will be bigger, with a proper architecture, six rows of columns, with the statues of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno inside, and with a set of terracota statues on the roof, culminating in a four-horse chariot sculpture at the pinnacle.