How is the documentation on the RTS kit?
by Paul Sisneros · in Torque Game Engine · 03/05/2008 (11:08 am) · 5 replies
I'm thinking of getting the RTS kit, but based on the demo i cant figure out much. How is the documentation once you've bought it? I can do some basic stuff in the demo, but I'm not sure i want to buy the whole version if I'll need to stumble and guess my way through the new features it adds. Also, has anone who's gotten it figured out how to add the basics that are missing, like path finding and avoiding obstacles, tech trees and so on? I can see how these might be added, i just wonder what they give you. What do you get that isnt in the demo?
#2
03/05/2008 (11:46 am)
Thats the impression i got. I might just start from TGE.
#3
The RTS-SK is a GG product, but as Morrie stated, it has not been updated by GarageGames to the latest version of TGE (1.5.2). However, it has been community maintained, and there is a simple porting process that will let you bring it right up to TGE 1.5.2 within a few hours, tops.
The RTS-SK is the result of more than 4 resource-months of work by extremely experienced Torque engineers. While I cannot make any predictions as to the success rate or total time spent writing the functionality from scratch, and having it work smoothly and seamlessly, as well as optimized for Torque on your own, I'd suggest that it will be more than 5 hours. Personally, I value my time at more than $10/hour, so at the price point the RTS-SK is sold at, if it would take me more than 5 hours to implement even a few of the features the kit provides, it makes sense to me as an individual to purchase the kit--even if I don't use a majority of what it provides, I'm still "ahead of the game".
Finally, the RTS-SK is a Starter Kit. It does the low level work for you, but it does not in any way allow you to make Warcraft 4 or an MMORTS out of the box. One of the reasons in my personal opinion that people become frustrated with the kit itself (disregarding that it has not been updated by GG, which is something we had to make a very hard, but important business decision about) is that it doesn't hand them everything they want in their game--you will need to learn, and then use the functionality the RTS-SK provides you to accomplish your goals within your own game.
All of that being said, those that realize the purpose and intent of the RTS-SK, and spend some time learning how and why it does things the way it does are very successful in their development goals, and there have been commercial games released using the kit itself (modified of course with game specific design requirements).
Finally, there is a pretty comprehensive community mod called the "World Domination through Collaboration" mod that leverages the capabilities of the RTS-SK to more game level capabilities, such as programming building upgrades, using buildings to create units, collecting resources and storing them, and several additional tasks that are common to many RTS games. It is located on TDN, and as far as I am aware (I managed the mod several years ago, but haven't spent any time on it since it was originally written) works in a drop in manner with the port instructions to TGE 1.5.2 also available on TDN.
03/05/2008 (11:48 am)
Ok, a couple of corrections:The RTS-SK is a GG product, but as Morrie stated, it has not been updated by GarageGames to the latest version of TGE (1.5.2). However, it has been community maintained, and there is a simple porting process that will let you bring it right up to TGE 1.5.2 within a few hours, tops.
The RTS-SK is the result of more than 4 resource-months of work by extremely experienced Torque engineers. While I cannot make any predictions as to the success rate or total time spent writing the functionality from scratch, and having it work smoothly and seamlessly, as well as optimized for Torque on your own, I'd suggest that it will be more than 5 hours. Personally, I value my time at more than $10/hour, so at the price point the RTS-SK is sold at, if it would take me more than 5 hours to implement even a few of the features the kit provides, it makes sense to me as an individual to purchase the kit--even if I don't use a majority of what it provides, I'm still "ahead of the game".
Finally, the RTS-SK is a Starter Kit. It does the low level work for you, but it does not in any way allow you to make Warcraft 4 or an MMORTS out of the box. One of the reasons in my personal opinion that people become frustrated with the kit itself (disregarding that it has not been updated by GG, which is something we had to make a very hard, but important business decision about) is that it doesn't hand them everything they want in their game--you will need to learn, and then use the functionality the RTS-SK provides you to accomplish your goals within your own game.
All of that being said, those that realize the purpose and intent of the RTS-SK, and spend some time learning how and why it does things the way it does are very successful in their development goals, and there have been commercial games released using the kit itself (modified of course with game specific design requirements).
Finally, there is a pretty comprehensive community mod called the "World Domination through Collaboration" mod that leverages the capabilities of the RTS-SK to more game level capabilities, such as programming building upgrades, using buildings to create units, collecting resources and storing them, and several additional tasks that are common to many RTS games. It is located on TDN, and as far as I am aware (I managed the mod several years ago, but haven't spent any time on it since it was originally written) works in a drop in manner with the port instructions to TGE 1.5.2 also available on TDN.
#4
EDIT:
Stephen beat me to it in a much more articulate manner, as usual.
03/05/2008 (11:49 am)
The RTS kit is a GG product, not a third-party one. Which probably doesn't make things better in your view. I just thought I would clear up the misconception.EDIT:
Stephen beat me to it in a much more articulate manner, as usual.
Torque 3D Owner Morrie
Not to be harsh or inconsiderate; But I feel if your going to sell a product on GG website, there should be a contract for the seller to keep it updated with the current version of TGE.
Maybe someone should write a new RTS kit. hmmm