[DefeatedRemus]

Hello,I am new to this forum.First of all,I'd like to thank all for the hard work of SCP.

The campaigns are awesome but there are only few campaign are available for 'mp coop',and I found that it becomes a bit repetitive after playing the same 'coop' campaign over and over again,so i think it'd be great if there are AIs in other mp game modes:dogfight and TeamvsTeam,my questions are:

1.Is there any 'easy' way to add AI to dogfight and TeamvsTeam mode?I looked at the source but my 'non-existent' C++ is too thin for understanding/modifying such a massive ai project.

2.Pilotable capital ships:I think it would definately make both single player(campaigns created specifically for capital ships) and multiplayer more enjoyable,and mods will also benefit from this addition.Again I want to ask if there is any 'easy' way to implement such a feature without messing around with the source.

3.Which scripting language SCP is using,I saw lua stuff in source,but the mission file(.fs2) looks like 'plain' text,or it's just lua with 'simplified syntaxs'?

Thanks for reading and sorry if these questions had been asked before/sorry for the 'indescribable subject'.

[Shade]

Haven't looked at any of the MP code yet, but the last two are simple enough to answer:

2) Already possible. There's no mechanic in the game that prevents players from piloting specific ships, it's simply a matter of modding to enable it. It doesn't offer any gimmicks such as turret views etc. though.

3) There are two different script types. SEXPs (symbolic expressions) which are used only for scripting mission events in FRED, and LUA which can be used for, well, just about anything, including interface changes, spicing up mission events and lots more.

And the mission files are indeed plain text. Which can be a godsend, as it lets you cut and paste such things as background whenever you like, without going through the hassle of FRED. And also lets you do stuff that would cause FRED to throw a fit. LUA scripting is not actually specified in the mission files at all, though SEXP code is.

[Goober5000]

1) No.  Even veteran coders shy away from it.

What you might consider is downloading some of the other multi co-op campaigns available.  The FreeSpace Conversion project includes several FS1-era co-op missions and campaigns, and karajorma's FAQ provides links to several multiplayer downloads.

[Colonol Dekker]

1- A healthy alternative to MP missions with AI, is to play, <tension>wait for it</tension>............................

<TADA!!>SINGE PLAYER CAMP</TADA!!>

[karajorma]

Hello,I am new to this forum.First of all,I'd like to thank all for the hard work of SCP.

The campaigns are awesome but there are only few campaign are available for 'mp coop',and I found that it becomes a bit repetitive after playing the same 'coop' campaign over and over again,so i think it'd be great if there are AIs in other mp game modes:dogfight and TeamvsTeam,my questions are:

1.Is there any 'easy' way to add AI to dogfight and TeamvsTeam mode?I looked at the source but my 'non-existent' C++ is too thin for understanding/modifying such a massive ai project.

Improving the AI to make them a match for a human (or even close) is very hard. Most of the coders (myself included) are loath to touch the AI code. It always breaks something if we try.
 If you're asking if you can make it so that four human players can play on the same team against an AI team (basically making a TvT mission into Co-op) then that is probably possible but is likely to be a very big task. The game is expecting someone to set up Zeta team and you'd need someone to code a way around that. It's unlikely that anyone is going to be willing to change that any time soon.

2.Pilotable capital ships:I think it would definately make both single player(campaigns created specifically for capital ships) and multiplayer more enjoyable,and mods will also benefit from this addition.Again I want to ask if there is any 'easy' way to implement such a feature without messing around with the source.

Pilotable capships are already possible. Missions with them tend to be boring as hell though since you aren't in control of your guns.

[DefeatedRemus]

Thanks for replies.

Haven't looked at any of the MP code yet, but the last two are simple enough to answer:

2) Already possible. There's no mechanic in the game that prevents players from piloting specific ships, it's simply a matter of modding to enable it. It doesn't offer any gimmicks such as turret views etc. though.

3) There are two different script types. SEXPs (symbolic expressions) which are used only for scripting mission events in FRED, and LUA which can be used for, well, just about anything, including interface changes, spicing up mission events and lots more.

And the mission files are indeed plain text. Which can be a godsend, as it lets you cut and paste such things as background whenever you like, without going through the hassle of FRED. And also lets you do stuff that would cause FRED to throw a fit. LUA scripting is not actually specified in the mission files at all, though SEXP code is.

2)can 'pilotable capital ships' feature be done via scripting?or it requires modification to the source?

My ideas for pilotable capital ships:
Replace the shield energy with flak power or sumthing(since capital ships dont have shield? in freespace2).Players can only control the capital ship's movement/energy management,all gun/beam/turrent etc are controlled by ai,because i think it's nearly impossible for a human player to fire/aim tons of guns/beam/anti-fighter weaponry at one time,dont know if this is possible or not though.

3)Thanks for clarification.Is there a script reference guide for lua-related scripting available?because I didnt seem to find one.

1) No.  Even veteran coders shy away from it.

What you might consider is downloading some of the other multi co-op campaigns available.  The FreeSpace Conversion project includes several FS1-era co-op missions and campaigns, and karajorma's FAQ provides links to several multiplayer downloads.

1)Just curious what makes the 'TeamVsTeam/dogfight ai' so hard to implement,the huge network code or the ai is not capable to 'play' those 2 modes?

And thanks for the co-op campaigns advice,I'll give them a try.

edit:oops messed up the 'quote' tag,never used this cms before 

[Shade]

2) Making them flyable is all down to simple table modifications, no scripting or code changes involved. Capships can also have shields, again it is simply a matter of modding and not something that is determined by code - In this case they need a shield grid added to the model and, again, table changes.

3) Look at the wiki links in my first post, one of them should be exactly what you're looking for. In fact the wiki is a good port of call for many questions as that is generally where the documentation goes whenever a new feature is added

1) The AI is not 'smart'. Even in SP missions it needs the mission designer to tell it when it needs to do anything but pick the nearest target and attack, and it doesn't even do that very well. So it can't play effectively in a free-for-all, unscripted environment.

[DefeatedRemus]

2) Making them flyable is all down to simple table modifications, no scripting or code changes involved. Capships can also have shields, again it is simply a matter of modding and not something that is determined by code - In this case they need a shield grid added to the model and, again, table changes.

3) Look at the wiki links in my first post, one of them should be exactly what you're looking for. In fact the wiki is a good port of call for many questions as that is generally where the documentation goes whenever a new feature is added

1) The AI is not 'smart'. Even in SP missions it needs the mission designer to tell it when it needs to do anything but pick the nearest target and attack, and it doesn't even do that very well. So it can't play effectively in a free-for-all, unscripted environment.

2)I'll try to mess with the table editor thing a bit.

3)Thnx.Think I missed the 2 'underline link'.

1)Hmm there is no way to tweak the ai behaviors and stuff except source change?are the ai functions(path planning,targetting,ai 'stance') accessible from lua scripts?

[Shade]

No, the AI is mostly hardcoded . It is possible to tweak it with table changes but it doesn't make it smarter, it just makes it act dumb in a slightly different way. And it's not something that's likely to change soon, it's way too complicated. Anyways, if you want to fiddle with tables, documentation for them is also in the wiki.

[DefeatedRemus]

No, the AI is mostly hardcoded . It is possible to tweak it with table changes but it doesn't make it smarter, it just makes it act dumb in a slightly different way. And it's not something that's likely to change soon, it's way too complicated. Anyways, if you want to fiddle with tables, documentation for them is also in the wiki.

ok thnx.I'll try to understand ai source files if I could compile the source I grabbed some time ago(still fighting the free compilers  )