Any progress on flying units?

[Soulflame]

I've been away for a long time, and I was wondering if anybody was working on units that could fly, and what the progress on them is.

I never delved deep in it, but I remember there were a few obstacles like collision size, but most importantly a Z coordinate that isn't in the game. I kind of remember that people talked about making a very large unit with just a lot of empty space below the actual graphic of the unit, 'simulating' a Z coordinate in this way.
The worst part of course is the animation part.


Anyway, wondering if anyone was working on this and curious as to what has been accomplished. It's obviously for the mythological based mods like Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, etc.

[wlesmana]

No, the worst part is that the engine has no Z coordinate for unit position, except the Z coordinate of the landscape. So you CAN make the unit fly in the air but ground troops will still hack at the ground below him and he'd still get hit.

[Odin1985]

wouldnt you be able to edit the defence of the unit so that the ground units where not able to touch it?

[wlesmana]

They would still hack at the ground. Arrows and javelins would attack the ground too. And if the flying unit has a large mass, it will push troops on the ground like an invisible moving wall.

[Soulflame]

Yes hmm... that was (and is) one of the large hurdles.

But on a different note, I think most tabletop games let you attack flying units and such as well.

If there is a swooping animation for attacks, then the hacking and such isn't all that bad. It would just seem like the ones on the ground are waiting for him to swoop and then attack, but failed the timing part.

The same can maybe apply to the collision circle; would you be willing to fight underneath a large flying animal like a dragon or gryphon?

Anyway, this is just thinking out loud ;). If I just had the skills to model such a flying unit, maybe I'd try, just for the heck of it, and see how it looks. Unfortunately, my drawing skills were are so bad I'm still amazed I passed those classes in highschool.

[Bwian]

Put simply...there is no way to make a flying unit work effectively and realistically in the game engine. It just isn't designed for it.

Archers will fire ( and hit ) the base of the unit....and you can't stop that.
Soldiers will attack it's base
Units will be affected by it's passing
Terrain such as rivers WILL stop it, just like a walking unit.

Can't imagine a unit of dragons being held up by a bridge......

You CAN make a unit which appears to be up in the air, and you can make the animations to make the flying unit attack the ground....but it's a LOT of work and would still result in a unit which the REST of the game units didn't respond correctly to. Which is why no-one has bothered.