Port to Android

[MomoRazor]

Hi there, I'm completely new here, but I just found out about this community and just wanted to say what an amazing job you all have done. Loved this game when I was a kid and I'm so glad it's still alive and kicking thanks to all of you.

I'm aware that 3 years ago there was a discussion re porting this game to android, and back then it was concluded that that is an unrealistic target. So 3 years later, I'm wondering if there where any changes that might have made that no so unrealistic anymore. If so, I'd be super interested to work on that as a moderately seasoned (6 years+) software dev myself.

[past-due]

One of the key factors that has to be solved (beyond the technical matters of porting - and there are some issues there) is revamping the user interface and user interaction model to support the option of a touch screen as the primary input.

Right now, the game is heavily biased towards - and essentially requires - mouse and keyboard. Simply “simulating” mouse input via touch is not going to cut it, I don’t believe.

The one piece that has been implemented to help with this is an actual groups UI - assigning and selecting unit groups used to be entirely a keyboard-only affair. But there is still much else to be done.

There may be a WebAssembly port at some point this year - if so, that would probably help provide an easier target for continuing work on controlling the game via touch screen input.

[gexgamingyt]

I remember playing Warzone 2100 on a PC with a touch screen, believe me though it actually works just like the mouse
the downside is the menu is not mobile friendly so if you have big fingers then it could be hard to tap on the menus

[MomoRazor]

I understand your point, RTS games in general rely very heavily on keyboard and mouse. That said, I have seen RTS games on android (for example Warfare Incorporated) as well as PC RTS Games emulated on Android, so people have figured out a way to play RTS games with only touch.

I'm not sure if I can help somehow, both in the Groups UI thing, or the WebAssembly port, if so, I would appreciate if you could point me to the right issues. Other than that, would you think it makes sense for me to come up with a couple of ideas (maybe some visuals) as to how user interaction can be revamped to better support touch only input? Obviously I can move that somewhere else as well.

Thanks for responding!