[TopAce]

This is a quick experiment in which I tried to augment a simple mission's replayability value.

Basically, at the start of the mission, the game will randomize which of the 4 prewritten scenarios will happen. Each has its own directives and debriefs, and of course a slightly different gameplay experience. Some ships' orders or weapons will also be randomized. I would like to know what people think of this attempt. To be honest, players won't recognize a thing of this if this mission were a part of a campaign, which most play only once and leave it. So replay this mission three or four times and tell me what you think of it.

And don't try to find a backstory in it, because it wasn't my goal to have one.

It's tested on 3.6.9 and 3.6.10.

Download [First mission]
Download [Second mission]

[BloodEagle]

Could you put a randomized scenario within a randomized scenario, or would that be too complicated?

[Capt_Thunder]

Cool idea I'll try it tonight.  Would it be possible to use the different out comes or choices made by the player to go to further missions? Therefore creating different paths, but with a few missions that can be reached form more then one path. Or am I jumping the gun to early here? It's a great idea whose time may have come. See if anyone else out there who will like to work on a project like this. But nonetheless great work.

[eliex]

Wow. I never knew that what you're doing was possible . . .
Nice. 

[TopAce]

Could you put a randomized scenario within a randomized scenario, or would that be too complicated?

I was trying to be simplistic with this before going into that. That is something I will definitely do in the future, but not before I find out what people think of the general concept. Currently, I can think of creating nine different easy scenarios and randomize which three of them will happen simultaneously. In this mission, one "relatively hard" random scenario will do.

Cool idea I'll try it tonight.  Would it be possible to use the different out comes or choices made by the player to go to further missions? Therefore creating different paths, but with a few missions that can be reached form more then one path. Or am I jumping the gun to early here? It's a great idea whose time may have come. See if anyone else out there who will like to work on a project like this. But nonetheless great work.

That's possible, but complicated. It will require a real lot of playtesting and patience, not to mention awareness to avoid as many bugs and unanticipated outcomes and scenarios as possible. Someone also has to write the plot for it, and my creativity nowadays is far below the level this idea would require.

[Vidmaster]

FUBAR and myself were planning a Left4dead like multiplayer missions with randomized events, encounters and enemies.

And then we discovered that random doesn't work in multi (yet)

[Shade]

Err, what? Some old Cetanu missions use randomization to have different paths in a mission, so if it doesn't work now that's something new.

[Rodo]

how do you make this happen??? you make like two different missions and fuse them in one, then make some kind of sexp to select witch branch is it gonna take?

[TopAce]

how do you make this happen??? you make like two different missions and fuse them in one, then make some kind of sexp to select witch branch is it gonna take?

I'm using the modify-variable SEXP with the "rand" Operator, so bsaically, yes.

[TopAce]

*tolerable bump*

Here is the second mission that uses the same trick. There are 6 possibilities altogether. It's tested on 3.6.9. and optimized for Medium.

I didn't have as much time as I liked to devote to it, but I hope it's still good enough.

Download

[Mobius]

Cool idea I'll try it tonight.  Would it be possible to use the different out comes or choices made by the player to go to further missions? Therefore creating different paths, but with a few missions that can be reached form more then one path. Or am I jumping the gun to early here? It's a great idea whose time may have come. See if anyone else out there who will like to work on a project like this. But nonetheless great work.

Welcome to the HLPBB, Capt_Thunder!


This is a great idea, IMO. I used something similar in the past in a WIP campaign that will be released after INFA2: basically there are 4 minicampaigns and in the first mission(which is a cutscene) your decisions will lead you to start a campaign and leave the other three for eventual replays.

One of my first FRED attempts was incredibly harder to conceive: a mission in which the player has to make many choices in Ace Combat 3 style(aircraft 1 does something, aicraft 2 does something else. Following either aicraft meant joining the faction it represent). If the choices were too bad and idiotic, the player died. The whole situation was meant to represent a downed pilot in a hostile installation(you can try to escape, join the enemy, wait, etc. etc.)...I would have done something different if only I had FRED2 Open and cutscene SEXPs back then.

May I suggest you something? In order to improve the effect you can make a wide use of send-random-message for single messages so that even the messages vary in the several replays.

[Rodo]

One of my first FRED attempts was incredibly harder to conceive: a mission in which the player has to make many choices in Ace Combat 3 style(aircraft 1 does something, aicraft 2 does something else. Following either aicraft meant joining the faction it represent). If the choices were too bad and idiotic, the player died. The whole situation was meant to represent a downed pilot in a hostile installation(you can try to escape, join the enemy, wait, etc. etc.)...I would have done something different if only I had FRED2 Open and cutscene SEXPs back then.

May I suggest you something? In order to improve the effect you can make a wide use of send-random-message for single messages so that even the messages vary in the several replays. [/shadow][/i][/color]

Interesting campaign concept!

[Mobius]

That mission came later in the campaign. Like in BWO, the possibilty to defect comes later.

[karajorma]

With all due respect to TopAce nothing I've heard him say about the idea is new. IP Andrews BHX campaign is doing much the same sort of thing and I've been thinking of making skirmish missions for something I'm working on for ages.


However TopAce is the first person I know of to actually get something like this out. Which is quite impressive in its own right.

FUBAR and myself were planning a Left4dead like multiplayer missions with randomized events, encounters and enemies.

And then we discovered that random doesn't work in multi (yet)

Huh? Sexps and events are only evaluated on the server and the rand SEXP definitely works there (I remember actually checking that fact years ago). If there is a problem with multiplayer it most likely is due to the problems with the SEXPs you are trying to trigger with the rand SEXP rather than the rand SEXP itself.