Spring RTS Engine

What we need for it:

Scripted events
Move x unit to x location at x gameframe
The ability to spawn units dynamically
The ability to display a window at the start of the game having some sort of menu so that we can show mission guidelines storyline maybe even audible text reading...The ability to play a WMV inside said menu.
Something that will allow us to save mission progress
Something that will allow us to store mission completion so that the user can pick up where he left off
The ability to give units specific orders (a la patrol)
A gui to be able to set up said events (preferably ingame)

Someone to actually make a mission creator.

Please list all the things you think we need in addition to the above.

Forboding Angel wrote:What we need for it:

Scripted events
Move x unit to x location at x gameframe
The ability to spawn units dynamically
The ability to display a window at the start of the game having some sort of menu so that we can show mission guidelines storyline maybe even audible text reading...The ability to play a WMV inside said menu.
Something that will allow us to save mission progress
Something that will allow us to store mission completion so that the user can pick up where he left off
The ability to give units specific orders (a la patrol)
A gui to be able to set up said events (preferably ingame)

Someone to actually make a mission creator.

Please list all the things you think we need in addition to the above.

ARGH's Worldbuilder will be meant for this, won't it?

need is such a strong word and no world builder is what it's name suggests, a world builder not mission builder

A certain someone wanted a list and I was caught flatfooted and didn't have a good answer.

As of yet nobody has defined how exactly missions are to be built.

Do we create missions as mutators with gadgets?
Do we create missions as maps with gadgets?
Do we use fnordias mission system?

Nobody has said the correct way of creating and starting missions yet, which is causing immense damage to any attempt at progress.

Sort it out and sharpish.

of course we won't use the mission system

we make mission as start script and we'll make a campaign/single mission special file for lobby with braindamage

AF wrote: Sort it out and sharpish.

Yes sir right away sir I'll drop everything and get to work doing precisely what you've commanded!!!




More seriously:

If you need a model for mission building, look at the CA tutorial or NOTA's missions. They seem to work just fine for things like issuing unit orders and general mission gameplay functionality. Stuff like playing movies ingame (wmv? hurrgh) or saving/loading is of course an entirely different story.

To be honest I feel like making a feature wishlist (and encouraging it to grow huge) is probably not the best way to get someone to want to code it, but maybe I'm just pessimistic.

How does the CA tutorial do it? NOTA missions use fnordia mission stuff iirc.

If you make this, I can have our Campaign alot sooner.

People keep saying that SP is impossible... but wouldn't SP be possible with an SP mod?

I mean, didn't we get a feature where a mod can filter through the maps and list only those that are supported by the mod?

So we make a seperate SP version of the mod. One for each faction - so, say, for Smoth, he makes three mods - Gundam, Zeon SP and Feddy SP. When you open up the Zeon SP, you see only the maps that are configured to work with the Zeon SP campaign - you could even rename the maps so that they'd be in a visible order (SP-Zeon-01, SP-Zeon-02, etc).

Then, you use Lua script and an AI to handle the campaign.

Obviously, there is a dearth of tools to make this process easy, and it would be nicer if the map wasn't so rigidly coupled to the mod (you could include map-options if you wanted to have multiple missions within the map)... but isn't it doable, with the current engine/lobbies/lua? Or am I missing something? Is the mod/map filter still incomplete?

People keep saying that SP is impossible...

Don't listen to rumours :]

It's not impossible at the moment, it's just DAMN DIFFICULT :/

Nothing is impossible, people used to think people can't fly, now millions do it each year

Same can be said about leaving the planet into space, oh dear? Proved wrong? ROFL

world builder is what it's name suggests, a world builder not mission builder

Absolutely correct. A lot of it could be used in a mission builder, if I knew how to make code read stuff and write stuff from a text file with Lua, which I'm sure is easy... but I haven't learned how to do it yet.

I think, AF, that SP Missions and Campaigns should be Lua files inside of a "game" that calls the main game / mod via dependency declarations.

It'd be nice if that file had to fit certain parameters, filename-wise, i.e., PURE_SP.sdz could be read, automatically, by a Lobby client as SP Missions and Campaigns, and the client could also read some simple script that would determine what text / pictures to show. That would make this very easy for everybody- build the missions, store them in the little fake-game that calls real-game files, users would open the Lobby, go to that game's tab, and select same... making the user experience much, much easier to deal with- one destination, for all non-developer types, would make Spring sooooo much more coherent for newbies, imo.

If you want me to build some example script, so that we can discuss what should be possible within a Lobby once it's detected SP Missions / Campaigns, let me know, I'll write something up real quick so that we have some kind of skeleton to flesh out.

I have my own ideas about how to sort that out. The problem is how do I actually start a mission? Currently there are 3 different methods, no official method defined, and no community guided preference to assume from.

Well... we could have each Mission in a Campaign be its own game, with a specific name, like "PURE_SP_C1_M1" would be the first mission of the first campaign... that'd keep things really, really simple... the player would be starting it up, and you'd just put one LuaRules script in to run the thing... only real problem is that Lobby clients would all need to see the files and recognize what they were, and Spring itself would probably have to do the same thing, so that it's not such a pain to develop them and distribute them...

Once again I have my own ideas about the lobby side. The problem is I have no consistent set method of starting a mission, I have 3, and theyre all different.

Until I know what method is preferred and being used that i need to focus on I'm not willing to work on it, and Ill just defer it till a later date where Ill ask the same set of questions and then either pick it up or repeat.

Until such a tiem as the community or the developers can give a unanimous statement as to how missions are to be made, and how they should be started Im not going to go to great lengths to build the campaign builder program and the rest of the lobby infrastructure. I'm a one man development team and I have plenty to do.

Until I know what method is preferred and being used that i need to focus on I'm not willing to work on it, and Ill just defer it till a later date where Ill ask the same set of questions and then either pick it up or repeat.

Then specify what format you want, and this can all get negotiated with Lurker, who is, so far as I know, the primary person working on this.

I want an answer to my question, that's all.

I have everything else mapped out.