Openra: remove all "pavement" from TD & RA mods

[Jushdrug]

Motivation

back in the original cnc1 this "pavement" was used as a spacer for building placement since all buildings had to be placed right next to each other. in openra this is not an issue and since it doesn't even speed up vehicles it has become quite pointless. as far as i can tell these "pavement" sprites are extra and can simply be ignored.

Proposed solution

From this:

to this:

but for ALL buildings (that includes war factories and refineries)

Also:
if applicable stand alone pavement that speeds up vehicles (destructible so it can not be used to block tib/ore sources)

Side effects

refineries can be built closer to tiberium wich should have minimal impact on gameplay

[pchote]

This has important implications for pathfinding, gameplay balance and general feel. This is something that could be done in a community mod, or in a mod-map, but I wouldn't support this ever changing in the base mods.

[Jushdrug]

what are those implications for pathfinding and gameplay?

[reaperrr]

what are those implications for pathfinding and gameplay?

Both players and AI could - accidentally or intentionally - place buildings in a way that completely blocks units from entering or exiting an area, and even block vehicles from leaving factories entirely. Players would surely exploit this, while AI wouldn't know how to deal with it and pathfinding generally doesn't do well when ordering units into areas that aren't reachable (outside or inside the blocked-off area doesn't really matter in that regard).

From my perspective, the only safe way to avoid all that would be enforcing a minimum space of 1 cell between buildings, which I'm sure players would like less than what we have now.

[MlemandPurrs]

That bib is necessary for Barracks and Weapon Factory to guarantee trained unit will able to come out of production building.
Technically Kennel too should have 1 space empty right below it, as in ORA dogs get trained there.

[Jushdrug]

perhaps it could be done like in TS where only refs and war factorys (and maybe barraks) have an extention at the entrance. after all, the pathfinding and AI building placement will have to be reworked anyways to make TS viable. also

Both players and AI could - accidentally or intentionally - place buildings in a way that completely blocks units from entering or exiting an area, and even block vehicles from leaving factories entirely

don't walls have that property aswell? in the original TS walls give build radius to other walls meaning with nothing but cheap walls you can build towards an opponent and completely box in their factory/barracks/refinery effectivly ruining their day.

[penev92]

That TS exploit sounds terrible.
Also so far I haven't seen an argument why such a (admittedly big) change would be desirable.

[Jushdrug]

it would allow for better space management and make bases more compact.