Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:36 am
Some Newbie Q''s
Hi folks.
I am a modeler/skinner/game modder, and I've enjoyed FL's single-player game quite a bit, but don't really care for multiplayer much. So I've been looking at building a mod with the FL engine: more specifically, a WWI-ish mod, centering around multiplayer combat.
I have a number of ideas that I know are implementable already, such as forcing players to pick sides, building a "ground" that can be collided with (with obviously fatal results), building "bases" where players can "land", and having destroyable elements that guard bases, and destroyable bases... that can be destroyed as part of the multiplayer war. I've already seen all of these things implemented in one way or another... so my questions are more specifically about certain gameplay elements. Feel free to tell me these things aren't possible- I've come into this idea with a very open mind
1. Is it possible to lock fire arcs for weapons to the direction that spacecraft (or in my case, aircraft) are travelling? I'd like to simulate "fixed guns", but haven't been able to find a solution yet. I've messed with the Constant MUZZLE_CONE_ANGLE, but that doesn't seem to do what I want... I want players to have to face their aircraft's noses directly at an opponant before their shots will be aimed at their opponant, with some weapons. Obviously, I'd like turrets to still work as they currently do. Is this maybe possible by making polygons around the "fixed guns" so that they collide and quit rotating, just like the turrets do?
2. How is velocity handled, exactly? I would like to have, instead of "insta-thrusters" like in FL, an "emergency power" option for the aircraft, that would get them up to a higher speed... relatively slowly. This would make for a much more satisfying tactical game, where speed control and using the "emergency power" would become assets to be used sparingly- obviously, "emergency power" would run out eventually, meaning that if you used it to begin a combat, then you'd run out. Is it possible to damp down thrusters, so that they accelerate more slowly? I've seen how Mass has an effect on the Thrust of Thrusters in various mods... but I'm looking for something a bit more subtle. Is it possible?
3. I have already seen that different areas of a ship can take damage seperately... and if a part is lost, it can have a negative effect. Can you do this cumulatively, and can you modify a ship's handling characteristics? For example... say that a Sopwith Camel (a biplane) loses the top wing's left-hand side. Is there a way that this could adversely effect handling? I haven't seen any "parts" mods that address anything but thrust and top speed, so I'm wondering if this is at all possible...
4. When a part dies, can it do damage to the main ship? I've been thinking about having "pilots" that are destroyable "parts" of the ship- if they "die" then they'd "explode", destroying the ship. Is this possible?
5. How... exactly... is Trent given his first ship? I'd really... really... really like to make a pair of missions that involved:
A. Getting a "starter ship".
B. Automatically setting up Hostility with the "other side".
C. Involved flying near to the nearest "friendly base" to do some easy "starter mission".
With such a Mission structure, players would then be subject to Hostility from all AI-controlled "aircraft" on the "other side", and would get a free ship. But I guess I could just stick with the FL default, where players just get a ship... and make it utterly worthless, forcing them to fly to one of the two "bases" and take a Mission that would set the Hostility levels and give them enough money to buy an "aircraft" that would be worth flying. If there is a way to make a Mission that gives players a ship... I want to know what it is.
6. Is there *any* way to make shots not travel in perfectly-straight (and perfectly accurate) lines from the guns? I'd really like to get a better "simulation" of machine-gun fire, with a bit of randomness... if for nothing else than game-balance purposes. I haven't seen anything like this, so I'm guessing that the answer is "no", but I'd like this to be the case.
7. Obviously, there are things built into FL that can make ships manuever without pilot intervention- these are used for docking. Are any of these things mod-able, or are they all hard-coded? If they're mod-able... then maybe they could be subverted, and used for a crude sort of "gravity". I'm expecting to hear this is impossible, of course, but it'd be cool if there was something that could be done.
8. Lastly... how is velocity damping handled, and what variables affect it? IOW, can friction be reduced by a bit, so that slowing to a halt takes a while? Yes, I know that you can modify MAX_DELTA_FX_THROTTLE, but again, I'm looking for something more subtle- and not exploitable. After all, in FL you can always just set your speed to zero almost instantly, by killing the engines. I'd like it to take a very looong time for you to reach an effective speed of zero... it'd give people an adequate reason to be very careful while hugging the ground, among other things. I know that there's no good (known) way of making it impossible for people to just sit in "mid-air" in FL... but I'd like to make it so that doing so would require slowing down for quite some time. I can always modify the "landing zones" and other things so that the AI landing routines will still work just fine... it's getting everything else to feel "somewhat like a sim" that is crucial.
My overall goals are *not* to create a flight sim out of FL. Rather, I'd like to make a fun, competitive PvP mod that includes some unique features, game-balance centered around combat, especially PvP combat, and to make the FL engine "feel" like a different kind of game. Y'know... a true "mod", and not just a minor set of gameplay tweaks.
Yes, I know I'm crazy, but I like the engine... liked the single-player game... and the current multiplayer mods are a yawn, unfortunately, despite people's best efforts. I haven't seen a PvP mod that's actually anything like as exciting as playing Counter-Strike, DoD, or UT 2004. I want to make a mod with that kind of skill-based combat and adreneline rush to it. So, if anybody would be willing to at least answer these questions... I'll be happy to listen to you, especially those of you who've made mods for FL. Maybe there are a lot of good reasons why mods have mainly consisted of new ships or changed values for items... or maybe it's possible, but nobody had these ideas
I am a modeler/skinner/game modder, and I've enjoyed FL's single-player game quite a bit, but don't really care for multiplayer much. So I've been looking at building a mod with the FL engine: more specifically, a WWI-ish mod, centering around multiplayer combat.
I have a number of ideas that I know are implementable already, such as forcing players to pick sides, building a "ground" that can be collided with (with obviously fatal results), building "bases" where players can "land", and having destroyable elements that guard bases, and destroyable bases... that can be destroyed as part of the multiplayer war. I've already seen all of these things implemented in one way or another... so my questions are more specifically about certain gameplay elements. Feel free to tell me these things aren't possible- I've come into this idea with a very open mind
1. Is it possible to lock fire arcs for weapons to the direction that spacecraft (or in my case, aircraft) are travelling? I'd like to simulate "fixed guns", but haven't been able to find a solution yet. I've messed with the Constant MUZZLE_CONE_ANGLE, but that doesn't seem to do what I want... I want players to have to face their aircraft's noses directly at an opponant before their shots will be aimed at their opponant, with some weapons. Obviously, I'd like turrets to still work as they currently do. Is this maybe possible by making polygons around the "fixed guns" so that they collide and quit rotating, just like the turrets do?
2. How is velocity handled, exactly? I would like to have, instead of "insta-thrusters" like in FL, an "emergency power" option for the aircraft, that would get them up to a higher speed... relatively slowly. This would make for a much more satisfying tactical game, where speed control and using the "emergency power" would become assets to be used sparingly- obviously, "emergency power" would run out eventually, meaning that if you used it to begin a combat, then you'd run out. Is it possible to damp down thrusters, so that they accelerate more slowly? I've seen how Mass has an effect on the Thrust of Thrusters in various mods... but I'm looking for something a bit more subtle. Is it possible?
3. I have already seen that different areas of a ship can take damage seperately... and if a part is lost, it can have a negative effect. Can you do this cumulatively, and can you modify a ship's handling characteristics? For example... say that a Sopwith Camel (a biplane) loses the top wing's left-hand side. Is there a way that this could adversely effect handling? I haven't seen any "parts" mods that address anything but thrust and top speed, so I'm wondering if this is at all possible...
4. When a part dies, can it do damage to the main ship? I've been thinking about having "pilots" that are destroyable "parts" of the ship- if they "die" then they'd "explode", destroying the ship. Is this possible?
5. How... exactly... is Trent given his first ship? I'd really... really... really like to make a pair of missions that involved:
A. Getting a "starter ship".
B. Automatically setting up Hostility with the "other side".
C. Involved flying near to the nearest "friendly base" to do some easy "starter mission".
With such a Mission structure, players would then be subject to Hostility from all AI-controlled "aircraft" on the "other side", and would get a free ship. But I guess I could just stick with the FL default, where players just get a ship... and make it utterly worthless, forcing them to fly to one of the two "bases" and take a Mission that would set the Hostility levels and give them enough money to buy an "aircraft" that would be worth flying. If there is a way to make a Mission that gives players a ship... I want to know what it is.
6. Is there *any* way to make shots not travel in perfectly-straight (and perfectly accurate) lines from the guns? I'd really like to get a better "simulation" of machine-gun fire, with a bit of randomness... if for nothing else than game-balance purposes. I haven't seen anything like this, so I'm guessing that the answer is "no", but I'd like this to be the case.
7. Obviously, there are things built into FL that can make ships manuever without pilot intervention- these are used for docking. Are any of these things mod-able, or are they all hard-coded? If they're mod-able... then maybe they could be subverted, and used for a crude sort of "gravity". I'm expecting to hear this is impossible, of course, but it'd be cool if there was something that could be done.
8. Lastly... how is velocity damping handled, and what variables affect it? IOW, can friction be reduced by a bit, so that slowing to a halt takes a while? Yes, I know that you can modify MAX_DELTA_FX_THROTTLE, but again, I'm looking for something more subtle- and not exploitable. After all, in FL you can always just set your speed to zero almost instantly, by killing the engines. I'd like it to take a very looong time for you to reach an effective speed of zero... it'd give people an adequate reason to be very careful while hugging the ground, among other things. I know that there's no good (known) way of making it impossible for people to just sit in "mid-air" in FL... but I'd like to make it so that doing so would require slowing down for quite some time. I can always modify the "landing zones" and other things so that the AI landing routines will still work just fine... it's getting everything else to feel "somewhat like a sim" that is crucial.
My overall goals are *not* to create a flight sim out of FL. Rather, I'd like to make a fun, competitive PvP mod that includes some unique features, game-balance centered around combat, especially PvP combat, and to make the FL engine "feel" like a different kind of game. Y'know... a true "mod", and not just a minor set of gameplay tweaks.
Yes, I know I'm crazy, but I like the engine... liked the single-player game... and the current multiplayer mods are a yawn, unfortunately, despite people's best efforts. I haven't seen a PvP mod that's actually anything like as exciting as playing Counter-Strike, DoD, or UT 2004. I want to make a mod with that kind of skill-based combat and adreneline rush to it. So, if anybody would be willing to at least answer these questions... I'll be happy to listen to you, especially those of you who've made mods for FL. Maybe there are a lot of good reasons why mods have mainly consisted of new ships or changed values for items... or maybe it's possible, but nobody had these ideas
at elsat i did when i changed the ship's mass to that.