• Home
• T3A:Online
• Tournaments & Games
• Replays
• Tutorials
• Mods
• Maps
• Downloads
• Forum
• Showcase
• Users
• Links
• Help

Quick Lists

Top Rated Popular New Updated Last Comments Users

The Basics - Locomotors

Written by: Hostile

The purpose of this tutorial is to give a better understanding on what locomotors are and how they affect a units behavior ingame.

A Locomotor tells a unit how to move. It controls the terrain types, turning speed, and dictates movement parameters.

Let's look at a locomotor...

              

Code

Locomotor HumanLocomotor Surfaces = GROUND RUBBLE TurnTime = 500 TurnTimeDamaged = 500 FastTurnRadius = 3 ; Can turn in a 10 foot radius circle when moving. SlowTurnRadius = 1 ; Turns in place from a standing start. Acceleration = 510 ; .5 second to accelerate to full speed. FormationPriority = MELEE1 ;MELEE2 Braking = 510 ; .51 second to brake from full speed. MinTurnSpeed = 0% ZAxisBehavior = NO_Z_MOTIVE_FORCE Appearance = TWO_LEGS StickToGround = Yes ; walking guys aren't allowed to catch huge (or even small) air. CanMoveBackwards = Yes ; Can move backwards when afraid. BackingUpSpeed = 33% End

Surfaces mean what kind of terrain can I move around on. I'm going to give a list of some examples of possible surface types.

              

Code

GROUND RUBBLE IMPASSABLE WATER AIR OBSTACLE

TurnTime is how quickly can I turn.

TurnTimeDamaged is how much time to do the same as above if I'm really hurt.

FastTurnRadius = 3 ; Can turn in a 10 foot radius circle when moving.
SlowTurnRadius = 1 ; Turns in place from a standing start.

FastTurnRadius/SlowTurnRadius - determines how much space I need to turn if I'm arleady moving and if I'm standing still. Fast, by nature, should be larger than turning from a standstill.

Acceleration - How quickly do I speed up when I am told to move?

Braking - How quickly do I slow down when I am told to stop?

ZAxisBehavior = NO_Z_MOTIVE_FORCE - This allows the locomotor to move the unit along the ground. SURFACE_RELATIVE_HEIGHT would be used for airbourne units such as Fellbeasts and such.

Other possibilities include:

              

Code

SEA_LEVEL - AOD FLOATING_Z - AOD FIXED_ABSOLUTE_HEIGHT - Birds and such things that always stay at one height.

Appearance = TWO_LEGS - this tells the game the basic mode of travel. Looking to the Fellbeast is uses Appearance = WINGS. I'm not totally sure how it helps the game, but it's worth noting.

Other possibilities include:

              

Code

HUGE_TWO_LEGS FOUR_WHEELS HORDE FOUR_LEGS_HUGE HOVER GIANT_BIRD

StickToGround = Yes - This is important to keep units attached to the ground as they roll over hills and such. If you were going to add a dune buggy to the game, than you certainly can adjust this and add many parameters to it to determine how much air you can catch.

CanMoveBackwards = Yes ; Can move backwards when afraid.
BackingUpSpeed = 33%

This allows a unit to backup and turn around to leave the scene. Also determines the speed by which a unit moves when backing up.

Setting the actual top speed itself is referenced in the unit code itself where you assign the locomotor.

              

Code

LocomotorSet Locomotor = HeroHumanLocomotor Condition = SET_NORMAL Speed = NORMAL_GOOD_HERO_SPEED End

Speed itself can be defined in gamedata.ini, as above, or you may simply place the value here.

Condition = SET_NORMAL - This can be adjusted to another condition state like SET_NORMAL_UPGRADED. That way when you get a locomotor upgrade you adjust adjust the speed here. Another common condition is SET_MOUNTED. This is used when you unit can mount and dismount. You can also use SET_MOUNTED_UPGRADED if your calvary get faster with an upgrade.

Behavior = LocomotorSetUpgrade ModuleTag_custom
TriggeredBy = Upgrade_YourUpgrade
End

This behavior can be added to your unit code to allow a locomotor upgrade to go into affect. Imagine using this to increase the speed of your calvary as they gain level? Many things are possible.

This gives some insite into locomotors. The best teacher is experience. So play with some numbers and see how the effects change the game. Any further questions should be addressed in our forums.