[gershom]

I'm hoping to make sandbox co-op campaign that plays like Darkstar One or Galaxy on Fire 2. I've never played Freelancer, but from what I've seen it looks to be about the same. I don't know much yet about what can be done or how to do it, but I just want to put up some ideas for feedback, as I need to know what kind of foreseeable problems there might be with my plans.

1. I want one mission to be the players base, where they can make purchases and allow other players to join as wingmen, with additional missions that represent different systems the player can visit freely. Is it possible to set up non-linear campaign missions?

2. I want the player to earn money and XP to use on purchases and upgrades. That by itself should be relatively simple, but I also want to be able to buy ships and weapons which will be stored in a hangar. I want to restrict available ships and weapons based on the player's XP level.

3. I want the player to be able to purchase upgrades for their base, which also cost money and are restricted by XP. For example, I want a higher level player to be able to purchase a shipyard and build capital ships that can be called in as reinforcements in other systems.

4. I want to emulate a persistent economy. I hope to use some variables and SEXP's to manage events across all of the different systems to make it apprear as though they are interacting in real-time. For instance, I want the player to be able to purchase trade convoys that will take goods and personnel to friendly space stations for trade. Would it be feasible to use SEXP's in one mission to manage what the state of another mission will be when the player loads it? I want to be able to send a convoy, watch it jump out, and follow it to its destination to watch it complete it's mission and return to the base. For another example, could the player be in one system when a random event plays and notifies them that their convoy in another sytem is under attack, and then jump to the system to fight off the attackers?

[karajorma]

All of that should be possible. The Campaign Editor will complain about number 1 but you can always edit the file in notepad if need be.

If you need specific advice on how to do any of it, just ask.

[gershom]

I can follow a tutorial once or twice and then repeat it from memory, but I seem to be stuck when it comes to implementing my own ideas. I can follow instructions, but I don't seem to actually understand all of what I'm doing. I'm reluctant to request help for things I feel should be obvious. I don't want to look like I was just too lazy to read through the documentation.

[karajorma]

Variables are one of the things that have historically given new FREDders the most trouble. So don't worry if you can't understand them at first. As long as you have actually read the documentation we're happy to help with the bits that are difficult.

If you have played Diaspora, take a look at the documentation there too (It's also available here). I spent quite a bit of time making sure it covers a lot of the stuff the standard FRED docs don't.

[gershom]

Diaspora won't work on my laptop. When I try to start a mission, it crashes. I have read through the documentation though. I plan to read through it a few more times.

[bomb3rman]

Since some of your ideas are based on my questions about creating a bank account, it might be helpful for you to see how I managed to create the "buy option" with variables. I made a little test campaign with 3 missions to demonstrate this, based only on fs2 without any mods. If you wish I can sent these 4 files (M 1, M 2, M 3, Campaign file) to you so you can look at them in FRED and play it to see how it works. This might give you an idea on how to start.

Anyway, I like your ideas, especially the part of building a base with a shipyard

So if you need the files, just ask

[gershom]

Another idea I had was to make it so that alt-j will jump the player to another system, like this:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87372.0

Also, I want to make it so that landing at a space station will take a player to the Main Hall, where they can recruit other players to fly as wingmen, as well as purchase available ships and weapons. I know from reading that Diaspora already did something like this, with in-mission carrier landings.

I would also like to implement capship command and the rts mod, if possible. By the way, did anybody ever get player-controlled turrets working properly? I couldn't find anything about it except that it was buggy.

I don't know if anybody has made one, but a freighter with a player controllable turret, (similar to the Millenium Falcon) would be nice to have.

[wookieejedi]

Another idea I had was to make it so that alt-j will jump the player to another system, like this:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87372.0

Also, I want to make it so that landing at a space station will take a player to the Main Hall, where they can recruit other players to fly as wingmen, as well as purchase available ships and weapons. I know from reading that Diaspora already did something like this, with in-mission carrier landings.

I would also like to implement capship command and the rts mod, if possible. By the way, did anybody ever get player-controlled turrets working properly? I couldn't find anything about it except that it was buggy.

I don't know if anybody has made one, but a freighter with a player controllable turret, (similar to the Millenium Falcon) would be nice to have.

All very creative ideas! Just a little advice from someone who was in exactly yours shoes about 4 years ago, start small and work your way up. All of those ideas can in theory be done with some creative scripting or FREDing, but I would recommend by first making a small conventional mission which uses variables. It sounds very boring (I thought it did, too!) but it goes a long way in understanding how FRED works. Once you start to really understand the ins-and-outs then the creative ideas will start flowing more easily. This forum is a great place to ask questions and develop your mission/campaign making skills. We all want you to succeed at your goals of making something that you enjoy playing!

More on the specific side, while the RTS mod by Admiral_MS is an quite an impressive accomplishment it runs on custom scripts, so to implement it properly some knowledge and experience with scripting would be very valuable.   

In regards to your "HUB" mission idea, this can be done in the campaign manager and also with scripting. There are many different ways to create the solutions you are looking for with both scripts and sexps/variables and using both, and choosing how is one of the fun parts!

[Nyctaeus]

Use this.

It's awesome and it's must have for projects like that. You can use it to store whatever data you need in external files, and elicit them in various missions + all possible combinations like gathering data from various missions, and sum them up to use in another. Exile is running on it gathering various data in every mission to use in multiple, further ones.