Is there any better way to do this? in Developer Help

ID:159547
 
Feb 19 2009, 8:47 pm
 
        Login()
            ..()
            density=0
            world << "<b>[name]</b> has joined. (Faction: [Faction_Check()]) (Team: [Team_Check()])"
            spawn
                while(src)
                    var/X
                    var/Y
                    for(var/NPC/soldier/P in s_group)
                        if(P.leader)    continue
                        if(X>4)
                            Y++
                            X=0
                        for(var/NPC/soldier/R in s_group)   if(R.leader)
                            walk_to(P,locate(R.x+X,R.y-Y,R.z),0,R.speed)
                    sleep(01)


Well, I spent a few hours trying to come up a way for units to walk in formations. This is all I've come up with.

I know there are ways it could be better, especially since there tends to be "gaps" in the formations instead of forming straight lines.

So, how?
#1 Feb 20 2009, 1:01 am
Did you look into animate_movements - SYNC_STEPS?

I don't know if it would help or not.

ts

#2 Feb 20 2009, 3:15 am
You have a worthless loop. You should realize that it won't do anything.

Can you please explain to us what kind of formation are you trying to achive?
#3 Feb 20 2009, 8:39 am
It sort of occurred to me in my sleep. While it depends a bunch on what formations and pathfinding. You would certainly want to store the path information and then call a smaller function for the actual movement so they all leave at the same time.

For starts, you could try calling spawn(10) right before your walk_to which should improve things. If you want more realistic movement, replace the static 10 with a rand(10,12).

for(var/NPC/soldier/R in s_group)   
    if(R.leader)
        spawn(10)
            walk_to(P,locate(R.x+X,R.y-Y,R.z),0,R.speed)