Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: T-Man on February 16, 2010, 04:52:57 pm

Title: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: T-Man on February 16, 2010, 04:52:57 pm
Had an idea i wanted to run by the coders among us, see if any of them think it possible in Open.

The idea revolves around an ability to assign missions to not appear on the mission selection screen in the tech room, so they could only be accessed within a chain of missions or a campaign. Had it in mind for people who want to do missions spanning multiple locations (via a series of red-alert missions without breifings/debreifings), or have in-game cutscenes within their own mission file (such as the one seen in the TVWP Act 1 Demo). Thus, the red alert chain would feel like one large mission (as the player would only be able to access the first mission of the chain), and the cutscene wouldn't appear among the missions in mission selection (and perhaps later on be given a 'appear in cutscenes' option so they appear there).

So yeah, just wanted to see how a coder felt about this fasability wise.

Cheers
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: chief1983 on February 16, 2010, 05:37:17 pm
So you mean that, even though the mission is not available in the tech room at the start of the campaign, playing through the campaign enables it in the Campaign missions list, and you want it to never show up there?  Just trying to clarify.  At first I thought you were asking for something that is already possible.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: T-Man on February 17, 2010, 02:15:37 am
So you mean that, even though the mission is not available in the tech room at the start of the campaign, playing through the campaign enables it in the Campaign missions list, and you want it to never show up there?  Just trying to clarify.  At first I thought you were asking for something that is already possible.

The mission wouldn't appear in either menu; the player would only be able to access it if it came after an earlier mission. Is that already possible then? (if so, it'll be the 2nd time i've done this! :rolleyes:).
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: Goober5000 on February 17, 2010, 03:28:02 am
What's the point?  If they're playing in campaign mode, they'll encounter the missions in precisely the order you specify.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: T-Man on February 17, 2010, 04:37:47 am
What's the point?  If they're playing in campaign mode, they'll encounter the missions in precisely the order you specify.

If you have a red alert mission, and intend it to be a 'part-II' of the previous mission (to simulate a player warping mid-mission), you might not want the player having the ability to select the second part manually in the tech room. Also considered it so missions which are used as cutscenes dont appear in the missions menu.

Suppose in hindsight you do have a point about it not really being needed; just me being a clean freak really. :lol:
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: Dragon on February 17, 2010, 06:45:22 am
Red-Alert chaning in simulator would be usefull though, as it would enable replaying chains properly.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: Goober5000 on February 17, 2010, 10:56:06 am
If you have a red alert mission, and intend it to be a 'part-II' of the previous mission (to simulate a player warping mid-mission), you might not want the player having the ability to select the second part manually in the tech room. Also considered it so missions which are used as cutscenes dont appear in the missions menu.
However, campaign continuation is by definition not supported in the tech room.  So in your scenario, any player who wanted to play the mission again would be unable to play past the first half of it.

And as for your cutscene suggestion, what if a player wanted to re-watch a cutscene?

Your feature request is arbitrary and honestly doesn't make much sense. :p
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on February 17, 2010, 03:48:57 pm
Also people would just edit the missions or .fc2 file so they could play them in the tech room if they wanted to.  So it's pretty useless too.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: karajorma on February 19, 2010, 01:54:11 am
One thing that might be nice though is to make it possible to unlock campaigns once you've played through the main one. Unlocking a version of the campaign without the tutorial missions for instance.

Use the CTRL + SHIFT + S to override it of course. :)
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: chief1983 on February 19, 2010, 02:29:51 am
The Elite difficulty version :)
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 19, 2010, 03:11:38 am
Winzip archive password in the final mission debrief recommendations is my method of choice. Campaign persistent variables can be used to hide them unless the campaign is played through beforehand.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: karajorma on February 19, 2010, 03:41:44 am
Why would I do that when I can code in a better solution? :p
Title: Re: Feature Concept: Missions invisible to mission selection?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 19, 2010, 09:40:15 am
I always think things through at a retail level first for compatibility reasons :nervous:
 
 
I can't code either :p