[Psyckosama]

Would a campaign like Mechwarrior Mercenaries, where the players picks and chooses his own missions, ships, pilots, and uses earned capitol to survive be possible to impliment?

The likely conditions that would have to be met to make the kind of game mode possible would be the ability to buy fighters, and AI pilots, weapons, and ammo in a kind of trade screen. The ability to choose your own missions, the ability to have weapons and equiptment move from mission to mission. The ability to set your own AI pilot. The ability to get paid for compleating mission objectives and carry that over to other missions and the trade screen, and the ability to equip AI pilots like weapons and other equiptment are.

Would this be possbile and how hard would it be to impliment? I don't know about you guys but I find the concept absoutly kick-arse.

[Nico]

everything is possible with the source, but I doubt you'll find anybody to code all that, unfortunately.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by Venom
everything is possible with the source, but I doubt you'll find anybody to code all that, unfortunately.

Yeah... it would be of work. It's cool, I bet everyone would love it, but it's not likely. Oh well... maybe when the coder guys  come on they can state the likelyness. Who knows, it might be easier then it looks! ^_^

[Sticks]

I hate to say it, but no one really knows the user interface code all that well, and it would require tons of work there. Not to mention a dynamic mission generator of some sort, etc.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by Sticks
I hate to say it, but no one really knows the user interface code all that well, and it would require tons of work there. Not to mention a dynamic mission generator of some sort, etc.

A dynamic mission generator would be nice but not REALLY nessasary. Just look at MWMercs. They use prescripted missions... 50 of them, but prescripted.

[karajorma]

Something like it could be done now that we have persistant variables. The next thing that needs doing is being able to set the mission loadout dependant on those same persistant variables.
 Personally I think that's something that should be implemented regardless of whether we do anything else towards setting this sort of thing up.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by karajorma
Something like it could be done now that we have persistant variables. The next thing that needs doing is being able to set the mission loadout dependant on those same persistant variables.
 Personally I think that's something that should be implemented regardless of whether we do anything else towards setting this sort of thing up.

Oh absoutly sweet...

The select-a-mission should really also be a reguardless aswell. Add some nice non-linier potential for campaigns. ^_^

[Culando]

If I knew more about the source code, and wasn't a complete and total lazy ass, I'd absolutely love to help. I'm a decent programmer and quite adaptive. This sounds like a great and very interesting idea.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Psyckosama
The select-a-mission should really also be a reguardless aswell. Add some nice non-linier potential for campaigns. ^_^

I agree with you there. That said you can kind of get around it using the loop option (but that only gives you two choices and is an ugly way to do it).

You could never get it quite as good as a game with all the stuff set up to do it this way but keeping track of money, buying your own fighters and weapons etc can all be done already. (A mixture of ship-allowed and persistant variables could solve this).

Code to allow you to use the fighters you buy requires the team loadout upgrade I mentioned but with a little creative thought a lot of this stuff can be done. Basically you really only really need the two upgrades we've already mentioned to make things work (unless I'm missing out another big one somewhere).

[Flaser]

By using the training messages and press button sexp, you can change a log file as you see fit.

With this technique conversations, deals, trading could be handled. You have to build a menu with a set of infinite events that would allow you to do so.

The constant variables could handle the log file I mentioned earlier.

Now, the only part that actually needs to be made is the load-out upgrade.

Doing things like this, would allow you to buy and trade things in-mission.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by karajorma


I agree with you there. That said you can kind of get around it using the loop option (but that only gives you two choices and is an ugly way to do it).

You could never get it quite as good as a game with all the stuff set up to do it this way but keeping track of money, buying your own fighters and weapons etc can all be done already. (A mixture of ship-allowed and persistant variables could solve this).

Code to allow you to use the fighters you buy requires the team loadout upgrade I mentioned but with a little creative thought a lot of this stuff can be done. Basically you really only really need the two upgrades we've already mentioned to make things work (unless I'm missing out another big one somewhere).

I think you got most of it... maybe something for timeflow and the like for travel and maintniance costs but I think you nailed most of the conceptual stuff RIGHT on the head.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by Culando
If I knew more about the source code, and wasn't a complete and total lazy ass, I'd absolutely love to help. I'm a decent programmer and quite adaptive. This sounds like a great and very interesting idea.

*sigh* Chances are you know more then I. I'm really just asking theoreticals here. I used to be a good skinner (I made about 2 dozon ship mods, none published) and decent mission designer but it's been a couple of years and I know next to nothing about programing.

I'd love to do this and probelly could deal with some of the modding/artwork/mission design but sadly code is not my area of expertise.

Regardless, it's cool to throw the ideas around, and who knows, someone might impliment some of the ideas!

[Taristin]

Well, stick around, someone'll have more of an answer for you.

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by Raa Tor'h
Well, stick around, someone'll have more of an answer for you.

Can do that.

If anyone is interested in the idea, I'm doing models and possible art for it "just because". If anyone likes the idea lets take it to the mod forum and see what we can dig up.

[Trivial Psychic]

This might not be what you had in mind, but the discussion here touched on something I remember reading in another thread.  Its mostly a chat log so you'll have to bare with them, but you might be able to pull something out if it that crosses paths with your idea.

Later!

[Psyckosama]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
This might not be what you had in mind, but the discussion here touched on something I remember reading in another thread.  Its mostly a chat log so you'll have to bare with them, but you might be able to pull something out if it that crosses paths with your idea.

Later!

Thank you. Doesn't cross paths in that many spots and it's honestly kinda... more then then I'd ever go for but it has it's potental.

[kasperl]

well, uhm, there are idea's similar to this flying around the forum, check some thread by me including ramblings from me, Thunder and an0n.

but this would indeed take an awfull lot of work, unless you make it kinda online, and use PHP and HTML to generate sutff, by that evading any need for a ingame dbase or interface. have a scriopt generate campaigns for selected wmissions and ****, and collect a pay-out from the server when you're done with all the missions, so you can select the next.

[karajorma]

What might be nice is to have a few script generated missions with hand coded plotline missions in between. That way you'd have a main story with lots of little side quests.

I'd say that Goober is probably the best coder to get hold of for this sort of thing since he wrote the original persistant variable code and cause he's the one who seems to concentrate the most on what you can do with FS2_open rather than how it looks (not that I'm having a go at those who are improving how it looks! ).

[Drew]

hmmmm thats an idea, making it more nonliner would be an improvement...

btw, i rember somthing from MS combat flight sim. 2
all the missions effected one another....
i.e the amount of fighters you downed, or the amount of supplies you destroyed or if you destroyed an aircraft carrier or not would directly effect the amount of fighters or sumthing you would face in another mission...

doing somthin like that to fs2 would be kewl, it be an incentive for the play harder

[Falcon]

i would like it if you could chose a profesion fighter wing bomber wing cruiser.....