[sausage]

Hi Guys, excuse the question if the answer is well known. I am in the very experimental stages of modding freespace 2.

I am wondering if it possible to place a restriction on the flying area within a multiplayer level. I want to centre the action around a large object like a desert moon (got that working) and any ship that tries to fly too far away from the central point, cannot fly any further than a particular distance from the central point.

From my research, I am not sure if this is something achieved in FRED, in the tables or requires custom coding.

I'd appreciate any insight.

[Solatar]

Like the "walls" you run into on some games?

[The E]

There is, AFAIK, no elegant way of solving this. It is possible to Autodestroy players if they stray too far from a given point, but invisible Walls as such are not possible.

[General Battuta]

Try SEXPing a set-object-orientation that forces the player to point towards the center of the area if they move past a certain distance.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Problem with any of the methods is respawns.  Sexps can have a problem with them so if you do something like self-destruct a player when he respawns he may instantly self-destruct again.  There are some newer sexps to help get around these problems (respawns-left for one). 

Even if there were invisible walls the respawn code can still place you outside of them.  Vid made an enclosed arena for TBP with the moon landscapes which are huge but if you die near a wall you tend to respawn outside the walls. 

[Mav]

Try SEXPing a set-object-orientation that forces the player to point towards the center of the area if they move past a certain distance.

Sounds like it could work...
And maybe set a SEXP for set-object-position if respawning too far out, if it's possible to trigger that.

Btw., what do you need that for? Quasi-atmospheric fights?

[sausage]

Thanks for the replies. I've seen SEXPs mentioned a bit but don't know about them as yet. Looks like I have a bit of reading to do.

The idea of the game is to centre the action around a small moon, keeping the players hopefully close to the complex structures there. So there is to be dogfighting and a need to avoid the city structures, mountains.. or whatever the theme of the actual moon is.

Not looking to implement hard walls so that the player 'bumps' and stops, but rather slows as they get too far away. Maybe I can call it an atmosphere thing.

I started coding such a thing in Ogre3D some time ago, but it's re-inventing the wheel when freespace appears to be able to achieve a similar thing.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

People have been trying that with little success since the retail days.  Not saying it can't be done since I haven't given it a try with some of the newer sexps but you might want to start with an easier project.  Your will be getting into areas of using events in ways few fear to try and those of us who do usually break something in doing so.

[sausage]

Probably a good idea. I'm going through the extended fred tutorial at the moment, then be reading up on sexps. Once I'm through all that, I'll probably have an idea about how complex it is. A do have some easier ideas so I'll tackle those first for the learning curve.

[Mav]

Happy FREDing, then .