PD blocked area overlay

[Steel_Panther]

It is very frustrating when you build a pd, especially t2, then later find it has no effective range because of the terrain. Sometime this is extremely difficult to predict because even tiny hills that are difficult to see, even when you zoom in, can block shots.

E.g. replay ID 6677533, from about 9 minutes to 10 minutes.

My idea is some sort of overlay which would highlight areas within the t2 pd range, that could not be hit due to terrain. This would make it much easier to tell if you are picking a decent spot for a pd, just like the range overlay helps. A bit similar to the aoe damage when you ground fire strat bombers, or tmls or nukes.

Sure maybe you think "stupid noobs need to just memorize where every barely detectable hill is" but you could say the same thing about needing to "just know" the range for pd, or radars, or engi/acu build ranges. But here it's also far more helpful than, e.g. build range overlay, because it can be difficult to figure out and is not some perfectly constant value.

[ZLO_RD]

that would be insanely good.

[Exotic_Retard]

sadly i cant think of a direct way to do this, that would require some pretty clever maths, especially since things like projectile drop actually change based on firing angle and that changes based on distance. could be some interesting maths actually.

a sidestepping approach i might suggest is highlighting with decals anything higher than the placement location but its not going to be super accurate.
a developed version of that is highlighting it on a scale, so things way higher are highlighted differently, with layered decals

in either case just displaying this will be a challenge. and no promises on the performance either.

[ZLO_RD]

sadly i cant think of a direct way to do this, ... , especially since things like projectile ... .

since biggest pain in the ass are lasers, maybe could do with just sera/cyb lasers 1rst. (and maybe t1 pd since they shoot straight line)

[PsychoBoB]

Is it possible to replace the content of the range ring with the height lines of the mini map?

[speed2]

*cough* engine *cough* no *cough*

[MayorDamage]

what about placing a plane at the barrel height of the pds barrel? it could just clip through terrain and indicate interference that way. so just a visual aid with 0 computing apart from rendering a plane or other shape. but then again this also might fall under the "engine limitations".

[Steel_Panther]

sadly i cant think of a direct way to do this, that would require some pretty clever maths, especially since things like projectile drop actually change based on firing angle and that changes based on distance. could be some interesting maths actually.

a sidestepping approach i might suggest is highlighting with decals anything higher than the placement location but its not going to be super accurate.
a developed version of that is highlighting it on a scale, so things way higher are highlighted differently, with layered decals

in either case just displaying this will be a challenge. and no promises on the performance either.

I expected that it would be difficult to implement, but thanks for considering it. highlighting higher areas would help, but you can even have this issue if you build it on a hill, but where the decline slope is not consistent. Maybe the easiest solution is just making cybran and seraphim t2 pds fire from a higher point, which would not solve it but just slightly help the problem without really changing anything else in the game.