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Don Bowen -> RE: Question - On-Map & Off-Map TF Issues & Tips (5/8/2011 2:46:21 AM)
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In a nutshell, off map TF routing was originally a minor subset of regular TF movement. Note that off map TFs have no real location on the map, just an image in a holding box. If you click on one you don't get x and y coordinates.
In the first developmental version, off map TFs were very simplistic. Players had to manually move the TF from on map to a map edge, then issue a second command to move it off map. Same (in reverse) for moving on to the map. This is because a TF had only one set of movement controls.
The designer, and testers too, wanted more functionality. So we extended the processing to allow a single order for movement onto or off of the map. Players did not have to make one move to map edge, then another to destination. Instead they could select the final destination and the program would handle the two movements. Still one "on map" set with x,y coordinates and one completely different "off map" set without x,y but with a set of range/destination/progress controls. The TF would automatically switch from one set to the other when it reached the map edge (from either direction). Both on-map and off-map movement were calculated to/from the map edge and a rather nice set of code determined the entry/exit point at map edge.
The problem came in with the two sets and the automagic switch. They were set up for a simple set of one-than-the-other. But players began to use "normal" controls for TFs moving onto or off-off the map. Home port and destination changes while off map, return to home port, etc. Each of these stressed the switch between on-map and off-map controls and cracks soon appeared in the process. One big one showed up in testing just a couple of days before scheduled release. Bad one, very bad. It had to do with reversing course in an off-map pipe and caused the auto-switch of controls to become unhitched at one end. No longer was it off map to edge to on map, it was now off-map to off map with no "at the edge". The control logic could not rebuild the off map controls because it wanted a TF going off map to have a map edge from which to calculate distances. We actually considered delaying release (for the nth time) but instead put in a patch that we hoped would work. For a while there was a control that prevented certain types of reversals while in the off map pipe. Especially multiple ones. More issues showed over time. Patches were made, some improvement, but there are still weaknesses.
So, the more one does to change course of TFs in off-map pipes, the greater the chance that a TF will get it's controls crossed and "go 9999". Sometimes it will correct itself, or can be corrected with subsequent move orders. Some times the TF (and the player) and just flat out screwed.
Long winded way of saying let them move normally throught the pipes if you can.
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