Operation FM -- Story mode WIP

[archer01]

NOTE:

Beta version released: http://www.gametoast.com/index.php?name ... pic&t=7866


*** Update:

A better description and more pictures of the level are further down this page. Examples of the dialog engine and story are there too.


*** Original post:
I've been working on another little project. I've been working on a map that is focused on a story-like campaign mode: Operation Ferret Master (OFM).

What I mean by "story-like" mode is that it will focus around a single player for most of the mission. Only human player frags will count towards the reinforcement count (think of them as retries), and the player will be alone (no teammates) for the beginning of the mission. I'm going to "try" and simulate a checkpoint system for the mission (a la Halo), that will respawn killed enemies, reset objectives, change the spawn location, etc based on the last checkpoint reached. I'm also hopeing to get a 'very' simple dialog system up and running: walk up to a character with an indicator over them and the "objective text" window will display what the character says (I'm not going to spend the time creating a new IF screen for speech, so don't ask). This mode will be single player only of course since making it co-op capable would be very difficult considering the game engine.

As far as the map itself goes, it's working but unfinished. Conquest is "playable" but the map could use more props, new units, working sounds, the other era, etc. The story mode is in the works, but a LONG way from being finished. Now here's where I would like to get the input of some experienced players out there (please be patient as I try to explain)...


With the story mode going to take a while to finish, and map exploration being part of the experience, I can't release a beta for people to try without ruining the "effect". But since the map was designed with the mission in mind, the conquest gameplay is less than "stellar" as it is right now. So I'm wondering if there are any experienced players out there (multiplayer especially) that wouldn't mind trying out the current conquest version and give me some suggestions about how I might improve it (through CP placement, vehicle placement, etc). It would be easy for me to make these kind of changes while also working on the story mode at the same time. It would ruin the "inital-impact effect" of the story mode for you, but it would hopefully improve the conquest experience for everyone else. So would anyone be interested?


Here's some screens because they are required by the WIP rules, but keep in mind they don't show much because I don't want to ruin the experience:




I like this one because it looks like Obiwan is stealing stuff from the droid's "corpse":

[Rockwind]

Cool looks as if the heroes are cp characters. I like the look of it.

[valiant]

beautiful country side.

[plasmoidmonkey]

Nice screens. Unusual approach though. I don't recall that being done before. Nice work.

[Protector_Pulch]

Mhh, If you have a more or less linear gameplay, this means fun. fun with scripts. Lots of fun.
Anyway, the terrain is simple, but good-looking.

Seeing that this map is meant to be singleplayer-only, you could have some kind of choices : The choice between the dark side and the light side, the choice to kill the rogue wookiee or not. These choices would affect the next task: So a dark-sider would have to kill the princess, while the light-sider had to kill 3 dark jedi. In case of that wookiee , not killing him would mean that you are no longer allowed to enter the wookiee village, whilst leaving him alive makes him you ally and so on.

Another cool thing would be "leveling up", with points as XP. This would mean that with the progress of the game, better classes of your clone are unlocked, with more health/a better DC-15 etc.

You could also use points as money, so a player could buy a wookiee merc for 10 points, purchase healing for 1 point, new ammo for 3 points ....

[Epena]

I suggest changing the terrain and sky color. The Yavin stuff gets old fast. Make it some Semi-foresty moon with an orange sky instead.

[jangoisbaddest]

lol, it's Kashyyyk terrain, sky, and foliage. The only thing Yavin I can see in the pics are the trees. Anyway, I would be glad to test for you, as I have little time to actually mod these days, and would like to be part of something creative. Besides, I like giving input. It's fun!

[trainmaster611]

I suppose you will put that Order 66 in there?

[archer01]

@Protector_Pulch
I considered doing some stuff like that (it would be fun to play after all), but I'm taking it "one step at a time". This mission will be linear for the most part, but I've designed the mission's "helper functions" (the respawn state restore, dialog engine, etc) so that they can be used on another map easily enough. I'm considering this attempt a "test of the water" to see how things work out.

@Anti-Yavinists
Actually, the only Yavin thing in the map so far is the "brick-like" texture on the ground in a few spots (like the town for example). The trees are from the Kashyyyk assets.

@trainmaster
Sort of... The story behind the map is based around Order 66 (it was inspired by your comment of course), but it takes place a short while after the order. Let me explain...

Story:
Order 66 had been given several months before. Although the Jedi Order was destroyed, there were of course a few knights that got away. One of these Jedi have been tracked to a remote, recently settled, world consisting of several small colonies scattered across the surface. Although the recently formed Empire has a vast military, conquring and patrolling an entire galaxy is a strain even on their resources. As a result, only a single cruiser has been dispatched to hunt down this fleeing Jedi and any rebel scum that might be protecting him. The captain of the cruiser, being an intelligent commander, decides that landing in force would be useless. Doing so would alert the Jedi to their presence, giving him plenty of time to evade the landing troops and easily slip by the single attack cruiser as it "tries" to blockade and entire planet.

The captain instead selects several of his best troopers to land on the planet disguised as civilian travellers. Each trooper would investigate one of the settlements each, and attempt to ascertain the exact location of the Jedi's hideout. Once discoved, the attack cruiser can then move into a prime intercept position should the Jedi attempt to escape, and will proceed to land it's attack force in full at the target location.

You of course are one of these investigating troopers, you land in a remote area and transfer to a captured transport which takes you to the settlement you are supposed to investigate. That's where the mission begins...


-- Progress Status --
So far I've gotten the "helper functions" and dialog engine finished. Now I just have to actually script the mission.

--Here's some screens of what little I have so far (read the descriptions too)--

At the remote location where your mission starts, board the transport and it takes you to the mainland:


Flying over the trees as a passenger in the transport:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/t ... t_0027.jpg

Where it lands:


Example of the dialog engine...
Walk up to a character:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/t ... t_0030.jpg
Then use the "Talk" weapon on them:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/t ... t_0031.jpg

Here's the town with people walking around minding their own business:


...and the bar (always a good place for info, except at the moment all the bartender says is "I'm a bartender! Isn't that neat?"):



So far it runs fairly well... I just hope the final product works as smoothly.

[Linus]

Oh my god! This is so great! YOU ROCK!

- Linus

[Protector_Pulch]

WoW is absolutely worthless compared to this

The screens look nice so far, but the different villagers should be different from each other, that means: One in a red tunic, one in one with blue dots on it, a twi'lek lady amongst them etc. etc.

But I'm sure you already have this in mind.

PS:Will the villagers attack you when you shoot them ? And how will the special agent get to the remote outpost ? I recommend a short flight with a Serpent-Class Transport during the night, until the agent is disembarked and the serpent rises through the clouds and leaves orbit...

[t551]

Is the jedi going to be so good that you will need an entire battalion of clones to take him down? that would be pretty cool.

[Linus]

Do you need any skins, archer01?

- Linus

[Maveritchell]

Well-played on the creation of a dialogue weapon/feature. I would guess that all the dialogue is scripted in the .lua, and tied to the weapon being used on a specific NPC. Does this exempt NPCs from making multiple different responses?

Again, though, kudos on the talk weapon to begin with. It's highly unique.

[Karnage]

As everyone's been saying, amazing!

I'm surprised no one thought of this before.

The one thing I really think is neat, is the dialog system.
How you have to come up to a character and use a press a certain button, in this case click, to talk to them.

What i'm wondering is what will happen if you die during the campaign?

Do you automatically respawn or do you select the last checkpoint to respawn at?

The screens look nice so far, but the different villagers should be different from each other, that means: One in a red tunic, one in one with blue dots on it, a twi'lek lady amongst them etc. etc.

That's what I was going to say, but i'm sure you already were planning on doing that.

PS:Will the villagers attack you when you shoot them ?

Smart AI? In BF2? You've got to be kidding me. (jk)

That would be awesome! Although i'd probably be attacking them all the time if they did that lol.

[archer01]

@Protector_Pulch
When you first spawn you're on a VERY small island hidden by tall rocks (this island is a long way from the main island in the center of the map). To create the "illusion" of a drop off, I put the Imp transport prop on the island too. I could have made the whole "OnSpawn-ForceCharIntoTransport" type thing, but I didn't feel it was necessary. Besides, the mini island is very close to the edge of the map, and making the player fly too high at that point would ruin the effect, so no animated landing. Sorry. It's just one of those things I didn't have in mind while building the map, so now I'm kinda stuck... Once the salvaged transport drops you off, it "leaves" to transport the next agent into another area (as per the story).

As for the villagers... Right now they don't do anything if you shoot them, but if one of them is killed that results in a "mission failed" (as I say in the mission, in such a remote area a death like that would draw too much attention to the operation). Assuming the "SetTeamAsBlah()" functions work correctly after the match starts, I might consider adding in some Gammorians at the bar or something that you could get into a brawl with, but killing civilians is a "No-no".

...and yes. I was planning on having a variety of characters in the town, I just haven't had time to make them yet.


@t551t551
Yes and no. That's part of the mission's story and you'll have to wait for the finished product to see what I mean.

@Linus
I likely will eventually. At the moment though, the story mode isn't far enough along to figure out what I will need. Some different civilian designs are a sure thing though. I take it you're volunteering to make some for the mode?

@Maveritchell
It is not limited to only one dialog. Dialog is specified on an entity basis, so all a scripter would have to do is change which localization string the entity is pointing to. Enitiy dialog activation can also be given a function pointer to call. So when a character is talked to, the dialog engine will also call the function (if any) that is associated with that entity. That function can do anything you want it to, including change what that character will say next.

If an entity has no dialog set, but is still identified as a speaker, it then goes to a random pool of dialog for that team (if there is one) and uses one of them at random. Right now the villagers say one of three random things. The only exceptions are the guy at the landing pad, and the bartender. This will of course change as I script the mission further.

@Karnage
Reinforcements will start at only 5 for your team (ie your character). Only human deaths can decrease this. There is only one CP for your team on the map, but as each checkpoint in the story is reached, the spawn path for it will change. When you get "fragged", you will return to the last checkpoint you reached and one reinforcement point is taken off. Any characters killed since the last checkpoint will spawn back in (to a point, random spawns for savage wookies and creatures will be skipped, but they will spawn in automatically anyway)


@Everyone
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what game asset would make a good "boat"? The mission progression I have in mind will require travelling on a boat at a certain point, but I don't want to just give the player a speeder as that would give them access to regions of the map I don't want them to be able to get to by that point. So I need something that would work like a boat/hovercraft/etc that I could just animate across the water. Thanks.

[Linus]

I take it you're volunteering to make some for the mode?

Yup.

- Linus

[Maveritchell]

@Everyone
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what game asset would make a good "boat"? The mission progression I have in mind will require travelling on a boat at a certain point, but I don't want to just give the player a speeder as that would give them access to regions of the map I don't want them to be able to get to by that point. So I need something that would work like a boat/hovercraft/etc that I could just animate across the water. Thanks.

The obvious choice would be one of the skiff props, but really anything - a wall, a landing pad (provided it has collision, obviously) could fashion as a makeshift barge.

I'm not sure of the level of advancedness (?) you're looking for here, but you could use one of the wookiee barricades as a makeshift log barge/raft.

[trainmaster611]

I've thought about that boat thing before and I think the Hovernaut is best :biggs:

Btw, the dialog thing is awesome! This a toatlly new twist to the objectives mode!

[jango232]

this rocks gr8 work