Drag 1 and more units in RTS game

Odin

I watched some tutorials on youtube about the "drag and move 1 or more units" problem. Those instructions are very wordy and confusing. Is there a way to do it that's concise, complete, and easy to understand? I hope Admin and Mods or anyone knows please guide me. Because I love making RTS games. But I don't know the code for some problems related to RTS games.I am very grateful to Admins, Mods and friends who have helped me a lot through code examples that are very concise, easy to understand and especially very effective. Hope you will achieve success in life. .

Erich_L

Do you already have a method to select units? Do you have a method to instruct one unit to move to another place?

Odin

Ok, to pick 1 unit and move it to another location is already known. But that's pick. As for dragging, you have to draw a rectangle,...then those units have to collide with the shape. Japan. Quite complicated. Does anyone know an optimal and easier way to understand?

cybereality

You'd probably create an Area2D with code, then set it's position to the original mouse click, and then set it's size to the current mouse position (after dragging). You can hide or remove it when you let go of the mouse. Then use the function get_overlapping_areas() or get_overlapping_bodies() to find the units that are inside the rectangle. I think that should work.

Erich_L

Continuing off of what cybereality said, get_overlapping_areas() will return an array of objects or nodes. You'll have to filter for the ones you want (or have the groups already set). Then you'll have to figure out how to move them. You could go through the array and move them all to the same point, or do it one at a time and have the "move to" points be occupied so that successive units can't go to the same place. Some games get really fancy and let you hold right click and draw a line for how you want them to line up after walking.

Odin

i saw in youtube tutorial, they do it by "var recta = NewRectangle.new()"....and then 1 string of code almost 1000 lines. Too complicated for a newbie like me. At the same time, they also use adding and subtracting to an array when selecting or deselecting.That way I feel is quite reasonable but too verbose for me. Do you guys have a better way than that?

Erich_L

After you get the nodes you want I'd first just try iterating through them using your existing move function on one unit at a time.

cybereality

The way I said could be done in 10 or 15 lines of code.

Odin

OK, i see Erich and Cyber.I unstand your meaning. But you may code that which is an example for me ? I really need that so much.Please understand me.Thank you

Erich_L

@Odin said: i saw in youtube tutorial, they do it by "var recta = NewRectangle.new()"....and then 1 string of code almost 1000 lines. .... But you may code that which is an example for me ?

Do you have a link to this code? Shouldn't be hard to find then copy paste the part you need.

Odin

I've already made that.But I would like have a simple example from you.Because I don't like that way.

Erich_L

Ah sorry I haven’t done this sort of thing myself yet so I can only offer some pseudo code ideas as given above.

Odin

Oh, it's okay Erich. Since I'm just a novice, things are a bit annoying for everyone. Maybe I should put this issue aside for a later time. Anyway, many thanks for your kind help.

cybereality

I can look into it. Sorry, I've been very busy these last few days.

cybereality

Here, I coded you an example but it was a lot harder than I thought (it took me 3 hours). Hope it helps.

Odin

Sorry for not replying to admin these past few days. It's true that Cyber is different. Your code is always concise and very effective. I appreciate it very much.But one thing I wonder is in your code, where should you put the "mouse click" command? Because compared to other people's code, that command will be in the PROCESS function and under the IF "event.mouse button...." where is yours?

cybereality

I have the input mapping in the project settings with "click" set to the left mouse button. This is the correct way to do things, you don't want to manually check the Input or event as this is not flexible (for example, let's say you wanted to support game controllers, that would be easy with my method). I call it in physics_process() because I am doing overlaps on the areas and I believe that works better in physics process. It can work in process too, but it may become unsynced and cause bugs.

Odin

I mean when the units are selected then we will right click to move them to the cursor position of the mouse. Usually other people's code will be marked as " Units selected". When right click, units selected will move according to the command. But in your code, I only see the command select by "drag" or "click". So what block will the move command be in?

cybereality

You would have to write that yourself.

var tanks = get_tree().get_nodes_in_group("tank")
for tank in tanks:
    if tank.hovered:
        tank.last_position = tank.position
        tank.z_index = 1
        drag_objects.append(tank)

Now you have the objects that are the "units selected" inside the drag_objects. So you would write code that will move them, for example by adding some value to their position.

Odin

Please understand me. Your code is obviously very short and efficient. I have copied a piece of code that has such a feature, but it's not as good as yours. And I'm using it temporarily. Because I think your code is much better. So I decide to use your code.But actually the other code I look at I know where to place the move order. As for your code, it's a bit confusing and strange to me. Hope you don't mind for me to guide.