Proposal: FAF "Alarm Clock"

[codepants]

I've had this idea for a while now and I'm wondering what it would take to get it started. It could be that it's completely out of my league, it could be fairly easy. I have limited experience modding games, but at the least, I thought I'd put it out there and see what people thought/if somebody wanted to guide me or take it and run with it themselves.

As we all know there's a lot going on in FAF at any given point and it can be hard to remember to do certain tasks, such as upgrading mexes or building an anti-nuke. FAF Alarm Clock (FAFAC, I guess) would remedy this by sending you alerts at pre-set time marks in the game. For instance, you could have it message you at 20:00 reminding you to build an antinuke. It would be up to the player to pay attention to them and act on them: it's beyond the scope of the idea to continue to message you if you do not build an antinuke (or whatever). That seems much harder -- though I could be wrong.

Ideally it would come with different profiles and even be customizable in-game; for instance, you could have an "eco" FAFAC setting that reminds you to upgrade your mexes sooner, or you could add a reminder to upgrade your air factory at 10:00 if you didn't realize you'd be building an air factory when the game started.

Build I foresee:
- Interface (alternatively, we just have players create a text file with the messages the want and they times they want them, though without an interface in-game customization would be impossible)
- The timer itself (relies on game time, just have to trigger the message)
- The chat function (should be able to copy this from the ACU upgrade notification mod)

Problems I foresee:
- Having FAFAC be specific to each player (though I haven't dug through the ACU upgrade notification mod; this could be as simple as setting a number to a player's ID).
- Using FAFAC as a mod when only one player is using it.

Whether or not this would be a "training" mod (eg if it would be allowed in ranked play, how it would be handled by the community) I leave up to the higher-ups and/or the community.

Thoughts? Worth pursuing? Or is forgetting to build an antinuke reminder enough?

[nine2]

Yeah I've wanted something like this. Just a buzzer I could set to remind me in a minutes time, so I can change build queues, etc. I would also like an audio reminder at intervals when I have idle facs/engineers and the ability to turn this off completely ingame / or turn off just for a factory.

[Aurion]

Yeah I've wanted something like this. Just a buzzer I could set to remind me in a minutes time, so I can change build queues, etc. I would also like an audio reminder at intervals when I have idle facs/engineers and the ability to turn this off completely ingame / or turn off just for a factory.

This might help, a timer which you could set in-game to do something would be nice. Generic timers are almost impossible to do as they differ too much from map to map and game to game.

[Ze_PilOt]

Moved the thread to suggestions subforum.

The contributor forum is reserved to actually contribute (code) to FAF, not suggesting new features.

[Blodir]

Playing like this will only degrade your gameplay even further. Don't rely on timings in FA, instead respond to your opponents actions.

[IceDreamer]

This is a flippin incredible idea, so long as it's kept simple enough to not become something a player relies on. Think of it as training wheels; the more times the buzzer goes off to remind you it's about time to build and anti-nuke, or upgrade to T3, or do a scout sweep, the more likely you are to remember it in games without the mod.

[codepants]

Moved the thread to suggestions subforum.

The contributor forum is reserved to actually contribute (code) to FAF, not suggesting new features.

Sure, thanks Ze. Apologies for the misplacement -- still figuring things out.

Playing like this will only degrade your gameplay even further. Don't rely on timings in FA, instead respond to your opponents actions.

Maybe. I think it depends on how you take the reminders. If you take them as a brainless robot telling you what to do, then sure. But for learning purposes -- for those of us who have difficulty with multitasking the 5, 10, 20+ things that happen in this game at any given time, maybe it will help it settle into the rhythm of "oh, I should think about doing this."

Not, "I should do it right now or else." Just, "I should think about doing this."

A perhaps off-topic thought: Isn't responding to your opponents actions being defensive and being the first to act being offensive?

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So it seems 3/4 people like this idea. I'll start digging through code and figuring out what this takes at some point, but any pointers/assistance appreciated (this is now the suggestions thread, after all).

[nine2]

Isn't responding to your opponents actions being defensive and being the first to act being offensive?

Building a nuke defense because it is minute 20 is not offensive ... unless you mean insulting . I think Blodir means you should build stuff like that in reaction to a real threat. I think he also means is that if you rely on timings etc you will only reach a certain skill level, to transcend that you need to constantly watch what is really happening and respond to that. Having the timer might actually make your gameplay worse in the long run because the skills you need won't develop.

Having a reminder to check if they have a nuke is not a bad idea though.

[codepants]

Building a nuke defense because it is minute 20 is not offensive ... unless you mean insulting . I think Blodir means you should build stuff like that in reaction to a real threat. I think he also means is that if you rely on timings etc you will only reach a certain skill level, to transcend that you need to constantly watch what is really happening and respond to that. Having the timer might actually make your gameplay worse in the long run because the skills you need won't develop.

Having a reminder to check if they have a nuke is not a bad idea though.

You haven't played much with the people I play with. Nuke rushing at 20:00 is a great way to end the game. Maybe once I get to your level it won't be.

In any case, it sounds like it depends on how you use it. You're saying the reminder should be, "Check if they have a nuke." That's fine. The point is not that the mod forces you to be brainless and rely on it to give you a build order. The point is that it's customizable and you can use it however you want. Sounds like we're in accordance.

[Lame]

if you play certain turtlemaps like water of isis at some points nuke defenses just become a must.
Not only is it not possible to scout wether he is building a nuke once t3 naval is reached but the buildtime for the missile and the antimissile is actually pretty similar (antimissile has 80% buildtime) which means that against unassisted nuke only a little more than 1 minute of not scouting it means you wont have a defense against it.
the more you assist the nuke (for example next to air factory) the harder it becomes for the defender.
on top of that the guy taking the initiative (building nuke,antinuke) will be less likely to stall (stall causes a complete stop of building for antinukes)