[karajorma]

I'm definitely not promising to implement these any time soon but what other built-in messages are needed/would be nice.

One that springs immediately to mind is one similar to the rearm one which is used if ballistic primaries are out. Some of the current ones would work but "Missile banks depleted! Calling in support" definitely doesn't

Messages for being out of fuel would also be useful if FS2_Open ever supports a fuel system (Which looks pretty likely given that I have code to do that sitting on my HD thanks to LuaPineapple).

Any others?

[Aardwolf]

I reckon there are a bunch of things that there are existing messages for, but for which the messages aren't very specific.

Mostly I'm thinking of wingman directives.

[karajorma]

I really doubt it's worth making them more specific though.

[Zacam]

A revision of the error checking that (for release builds) calculates VP FileCount and VP FileSize to a list and warns (without breaking out) that there is a discrepency so that a Debug can be launched to get the checksum to look up?

Or am I thinking the wrong kind of messages here?

(On a related to this note: I'm in communication with Kevin Bentley (who gave us the existing CRC system) to try and optimize it. I already have it to where -verify_vps is no longer needed as a command line option, since it generates the same value in the debug log. I'm working on making that value match the CRC value generated by Zip/7z CRC checking so that log results can be verified against external applications.)

[chief1983]

Homeworld mod will be glad for a fuel system, I can tell ya that.

[karajorma]

Or am I thinking the wrong kind of messages here?

Wrong kind. I'm on about in-mission dialogue. Every spoken line you'll hear comes from one of two sources. Either you have dialogue that the mission designer added themselves or you have built in messages which are defined in messages.tbl. Built-in messages are played whenever the code feels that they are needed. So if the code notices an enemy fighter on your tail it will send a message and one of your wingmen will shout something like "Check your six!" or "Behind you, pilot!"

Built ins are easy to recognise, any time you hear a voice in a mission that doesn't have voice acting, it will be one of FS2's built ins.

What I'm asking is which others might we want to add in the future. That's nice from the feature standpoint but it's also good for mods and TCs to have an idea what might be coming in the future so that they can record their voice acting now to support it. Adding a couple of extra lines which are currently unused isn't going to cause huge problems but they'll be glad they did it if the engine ever supports them.

An example of this is the Oops 1 dialogue. recorded every single pilot shouting something in cases of friendly fire but eventually decided to not use them. When I was solving another issue with built-ins I noticed this and turned them back on. As a result you no longer only hear "Invalid target! Hold your fire!" but also a whole host of new messages which didn't play in retail.

Similarly if WCS want the SCP to add a message when a ship goes into autopilot or something (Not that I'm promising anything), now's a good time to ask.

[asyikarea51]

"Seeker open!!!, Fox Two, Fox Two!!!"
"Missiles/Bombs away!!!"

(And more random text like that )

When launching a missile/bomb/etc; maybe make it adjustable like i.e. have a random squadmate say it once at the beginning of a mission when on approach to a target and his/her missile is already locked onto the enemy fighter...

I for one would love that even though it doesn't have that much purpose to me... unless the more 'advanced' people around here can find creative uses for it in FRED or something.

Pardon the lameness, but that's all I can think of atm. XDDDDDDD

Or some other speech, like deploying countermeasures when dodging a missile...?

That what you're at?

[Dilmah G]

I always thought messages for when ai pilots get a kill would be good. I mean, they congratulate me on MY kills, shouldn't they be leaping for joy too?

I'm pretty sure you could get some similar sounding voice actors if you ever wanted to voice these.

"Oh yeah, bandit down!"
"Target neutralised!"

Hey, you could even use the "Objective neutralised" message. If you've ever played any of the games in the Combat Flight Simulator games you'll notice wingmen call out occasionally when they get a kill.

[karajorma]

I don't know how feasible it would be but yeah, it's a nice idea.

[Dilmah G]

I don't know how feasible it would be but yeah, it's a nice idea.

I'm no coder so I'm not very helpful on that front. I can think of several ways to FRED it however.

I'm looking at messages.tbl at the moment, I've not a clue how the hell it could be implemented, since I don't know how "Praise" is triggered in it's exact form and where, but if it were possibly to make a new entry in whatever table that's stored in which accounts for ai-wingmen getting a kill then it would be possible I'm guessing. I know ****-all about coding so completely disregard it if it's unfeasible.

[karajorma]

I mean I don't know how feasible it is because I haven't looked at the code at all. I've got a vague idea how to add new built-ins but right now I'm trying to figure out if there are enough useful ones to make it worth me fiddling with the current system.

[Dilmah G]

I mean I don't know how feasible it is because I haven't looked at the code at all. I've got a vague idea how to add new built-ins but right now I'm trying to figure out if there are enough useful ones to make it worth me fiddling with the current system.

Ahh forgive me then. I'll leave you to your devices, as I've stressed many times before, I can't tell **** from bananas when it comes to these things.

[karajorma]

Feel free to make other suggestions. As long as you have a good idea what built-in messages are you can always suggest some. I might say that it's too hard but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

[Tolwyn]

Well, since you mentioned WCS

It would be nice to have Request status feature from WC games. I loved checking on escorts/wingmen.

Not that it is possible without major changes to the comm system, I guess. What should be possible if wingmen would report on their own kills. Kinda like "nailed that sucker!".

[chief1983]

I _thought_ those friendly fire messages sounded different...

[Solatar]

Have the wingmen send that "fighter down!" message when AI fighters die, not just when the player bites it. Maybe not every time, and mix up the messages.

[karajorma]

Mixing up the messages isn't possible due to the way the system works at the moment. Of course it might be possible to change that.

[Mobius]

I'd like to know if the following are doable:

- Praise Mk II

Played when the number of kills achieved by the player is pretty high during the mission. The minimum number required to trigger this might be the result of this calculation:

number of kills => 1/5 number of hostiles

...or something similar.

- Self praise

What Tolwyn said - wingmen rarely send messages when they score kills.

- Subsystems' destruction

Wingmen come out with specific messages if vital subsystems of their spacecraft(engines, navigation, weapons, sensors, communications) are down. If the communications subsystem is down, the message would be nearly unreadable.

[karajorma]

I'd like to know if the following are doable:

- Praise Mk II

Played when the number of kills achieved by the player is pretty high during the mission. The minimum number required to trigger this might be the result of this calculation:

number of kills => 1/5 number of hostiles

...or something similar.

Almost ridiculously easy if I hardcode the number. Very easy if I stick the number in the AI Profile.

- Self praise

What Tolwyn said - wingmen rarely send messages when they score kills.

Compiling as we speak. No idea if it will work though.

- Subsystems' destruction

Wingmen come out with specific messages if vital subsystems of their spacecraft(engines, navigation, weapons, sensors, communications) are down. If the communications subsystem is down, the message would be nearly unreadable.

Probably possible.

[Black Wolf]

"Bombs away" type messages would be cool, maybe automated 50%, 10% hull warnings for friendly/hostile caps (possibly linked to the escort list and off by default so as not to trigger in existing missions), although it might be difficult to word it so it sounds both natural and generic.

Can't think of too many other useful ones for the moment, but if the random mission generator is ever to come to pass, generic messages for warping in and out of friendly caps (again, off by default) would be very useful