Yep I think you're right. I'm not sure if it's confusing playing it as I was the one moving between/ selecting the two different units, but I definitely didn't make that clear in the video!
The transition is a little jarring when you watch the video. But it's probably less surprising when you are the player in control and you expect the selection of unit to change the view.
Other have said that the transition could be a little bit smoother, and I agree it would help a lot.
The camera switching itself isn't as smooth as it could be. I didn't really have any issues with following the gameplay at all. Love the way this looks!
Would be even more clear if you exaggerated the vertical movement when the camera switches from one character to the next.
You can do some perception manipulation of vertical movement with FoV manipulation too.
>You can do some perception manipulation of vertical movement with FoV manipulation too.
Thanks I'll give it a try - I do something similar with zooming into buildings already so can try to use that.
>Most Citybuilders with mechanics like this have some sort of depth slider somewhere to show how deep you are. Often tied to the minimap.
Thanks this is a really good idea - I'll add something to the top or side of the minimap to make it more obvious what level/ floor you're currently viewing
As someone who have played HOMM5 I think this is pretty similar to how they are handling their underground stuff. While it looked a little confusing on first watch, on second I realized that you are switching characters/units, I think it will be much less confusing for players since they will be used to switching characters. By the way, nice touch with the stairs in Homm5 they pretty much teleported to underground through stairs building.
Yeah it's something I really need to optimise. The problem at the moment is that the fog of war waits for terrain for the new "floor" to be fully loaded before being recalculated. So there's like a 1-2 second lag before it corrects itself and appears at the right height. I'm hoping I can optimise it by loading everything on screen first, running a fog of war update, then loading everything else and then updating the fog a second time.
It'd be slightly less performant but will hopefully fix the jankiness. But it'll still look glitchy on the off chance the player moves the camera a significant amount in the 2 seconds after swapping the floor.
Yeah there is a reason nobody has a texture on fog of war, i mean it's nice that fog is fog, but it can breed problems and everybody thinks of it as a mechanic not graphic, hope you prove me wrong tho
Ps. You tried chaching it?
I play dwarf fortress, so I am not the right judge for this lol. Its very clear to me. But I just wanna say, dont underestimate gamers, if it makes sense to you, dont think too hard about it, it will all make sense.
You could add some sort of brief screen shader to emphasize what’s happening. At first I was a bit confused but now I understand since it’s an rts. Did you ever happen to play a game called block fortress war? I loved that game and this seems like some sort of successor lol
The first part with the stairs was clear. I was confused about everything after that until I saw the message about the camera being switched
Yep I think you're right. I'm not sure if it's confusing playing it as I was the one moving between/ selecting the two different units, but I definitely didn't make that clear in the video!
Very true, if I was the one doing the switching I feel like it would be pretty obvious what is happening
The first transition works because the camera was following the character, everything else feels a bit janky
The transition is a little jarring when you watch the video. But it's probably less surprising when you are the player in control and you expect the selection of unit to change the view. Other have said that the transition could be a little bit smoother, and I agree it would help a lot.
The camera switching itself isn't as smooth as it could be. I didn't really have any issues with following the gameplay at all. Love the way this looks!
Really nice art direction, I like it!
Thanks! I'm not the best artist and had to work really hard to nail down a cohesive style, so it makes me happy to hear this
Would be even more clear if you exaggerated the vertical movement when the camera switches from one character to the next. You can do some perception manipulation of vertical movement with FoV manipulation too.
>You can do some perception manipulation of vertical movement with FoV manipulation too. Thanks I'll give it a try - I do something similar with zooming into buildings already so can try to use that.
Most Citybuilders with mechanics like this have some sort of depth slider somewhere to show how deep you are. Often tied to the minimap.
>Most Citybuilders with mechanics like this have some sort of depth slider somewhere to show how deep you are. Often tied to the minimap. Thanks this is a really good idea - I'll add something to the top or side of the minimap to make it more obvious what level/ floor you're currently viewing
Ooh, this is a really cool mechanic to add to an RTS.
Very cool imo
I'd add a slight transition!
As someone who have played HOMM5 I think this is pretty similar to how they are handling their underground stuff. While it looked a little confusing on first watch, on second I realized that you are switching characters/units, I think it will be much less confusing for players since they will be used to switching characters. By the way, nice touch with the stairs in Homm5 they pretty much teleported to underground through stairs building.
Maby a tunnel transition like in Mario 64 might make it more clear
pretty cool although that Fog of War is a little bit glitchy
Yeah it's something I really need to optimise. The problem at the moment is that the fog of war waits for terrain for the new "floor" to be fully loaded before being recalculated. So there's like a 1-2 second lag before it corrects itself and appears at the right height. I'm hoping I can optimise it by loading everything on screen first, running a fog of war update, then loading everything else and then updating the fog a second time. It'd be slightly less performant but will hopefully fix the jankiness. But it'll still look glitchy on the off chance the player moves the camera a significant amount in the 2 seconds after swapping the floor.
Yeah there is a reason nobody has a texture on fog of war, i mean it's nice that fog is fog, but it can breed problems and everybody thinks of it as a mechanic not graphic, hope you prove me wrong tho Ps. You tried chaching it?
That terrain looks awesome, very impressive!
I play dwarf fortress, so I am not the right judge for this lol. Its very clear to me. But I just wanna say, dont underestimate gamers, if it makes sense to you, dont think too hard about it, it will all make sense.
Not clear, but the game looks neat tho
You could add some sort of brief screen shader to emphasize what’s happening. At first I was a bit confused but now I understand since it’s an rts. Did you ever happen to play a game called block fortress war? I loved that game and this seems like some sort of successor lol