Missions, Massive System

[»Xog]

This question and suggestion is aimed more toward the powers that be. I'm not sure if it's possible but this is what I want and hope it's a feature many people would like. It's also going to take a lot of time and effort to implement.

 

With the ASSS capabilities, is it possible (or how much is possible from each number) for this to happen:

1) When a player reaches a certain spot on the map (like for instance, J14) can the ASSS server automatically spawn a bot that will chase and fire at a player for a certain time or until he reaches another point in space (like L14)?

a. Can ASSS detect damage taken to a bot and disconnect, kill or cloak it once it reaches a certain number?

b. Can players kill bots spawned from ASSS?

 

2) Can new commands be implemented with a whole new, additional system in place like ?listmissions?

 

3) Can ASSS pop up an LVZ or other on your screen displaying text (or an image of text) when you make a command?

a. >>> Can it pop up when you reach certain points on a map?

b. >>> Can it pop up when you have completed specific tasks?

 

4) Can ASSS save money/experience you gained from another (or specific) arena on your name and have it be useable in the pub arena?

 

5) Can a specific arena not allow you to use certain ships (like, a shark and a leviathan)?

a. >>> Can this specific arena have different ship sizes than public arena?

 

6) Can the ASSS server not allow you to use a certain list of commands in the pub arena, but allow it in another arena?

 

The reason I ask all this is because I'm completely obsessed with space combat simulators that deal with different ships, missions, etc. like Jumpgate and Black Prophecy. I'm pretty sure this isn't unheard of, but it's something I would really like. I'm pretty well-versed in the different types of missions and I've even thought of some really cool ideas that could be added to Hyperspace (or even its own zone). For the first time, we would have real, actual, PvE content thanks to ASSS.

 

The system I have thought about, and I've been thinking about this for a while now - constantly jotting down ideas in my downtime at work, is a mission system and I think Hyperspace is the perfect environment for this. There's a couple things that I've realized first and foremost and would be highly suggested to read before going any further.

 

1) With the implementation of this, I've realized it would be ideal to have this in a seperate arena, so it doesn't interfere with:

a. >>> Normal pub functions such as flagging, powerball and center fraying.

b. >>> Download size

>> 1.>>> The sheer amount of file size needed for a system like this would be far too large for a normal player to download on top of all the files that are downloaded on a normal pub map.

 

Moving on, here's how the system I have in mind would operate.

 

Xog> ?go Missions (I'd suggest making a storyline, even if it's short and simple, and name the arena to something that corresponds with it)

Enter warbird (free, default ship for this arena)

 

Xog> ?listmissions

This command can do two things, and is decided upon by whoever wants to implement it.

1) Pop up a LVZ image of available missions (they could alternate for a wider variety of missions).

2) Give a list of missions in the chat field

 

Ex:Xog> ?listmissions

[A] Transport

Scout

[C] Guard

 

Xog> ?missions A

 

[A1] X Station is in need of Water. Use ?buycargo Water and deliver the item to X Station. Difficulty 1/5

[A1] Reward: X amount of $ and/or Experience.

[A2] X Station is in need of Gold. Use ?buycargo Gold and deliver the item to X Station. Difficult 3/5.

[A2]Reward: X amount of $ and/or Experience.

[A3] X Station is in need of [insert Expensive Weapon]. Use ?buycargo [insert Expensive Weapon] and deliver the item to X Station. Difficulty 5/5

[A3]Reward: X amount of $ and/or Experience.

etc

 

 

Xog> ?missions B

[b1] Scout along the southern hypertube’s sector and enter the [X Sector (P13 or whatever)] by using the Hyper Gate. Touch the flag beacon to announce you’ve made it.

[b1] Reward: X mount of $ and/or Experience.

[b2] etc.

 

Xog> ?missions C

[C1] Guard [bot that flies to specific waypoints] as he/she flies to X Station.

[C1] Reward: X amount of $ and/or Experience.

[C2] etc

 

Deeper Discussion on A,B,C.

A - When you’re transporting cargo to another station, there’s certain areas of the map that triggers events, like for instance, a bunch of enemies suddenly spawn and start shooting at you, and based on the answers to my aforementioned questions, they can fight back or [try to] run away (will be difficult), or maybe if you’re going through enclosed areas, a burst could go off.

 

B - When you’re scouting an area, your main objective is to go to a flag and capture it (like in trench wars). Once the flag is captured, the mission is completed. On your way there, things will trigger events just like in part A.

 

C - When you’re Guarding someone, it’s a bot set to fly to certain points on the map, and on the way, there are events that trigger, such as bots spawning or anything else that’s possible just like in A and B missions.

 

Discussion of ability of team-oriented missions

The ability implementing team-oriented missions is also very possible. For instance, ?teammissions could list a bunch of different missions just like A, B and C and even more. Flying with pilots turns this some-what singleplayer game with chat into multiuser teamwork. More difficult bots, trickier traps, and the absence of wingmen could create a very arduous mission for people.

 

 

Discussion of Pirating and getting items from kills.

 

Pirating is a great aspect of many space MMOs. A player can become a pirate - but at a cost. And this is where faction points come in to play. Say you were on your way through a transport mission with an expensive item in your cargo (the pirate has no idea what you have) - and he decides to kill you. If he kills you:

 

1) Your mission is failed.

2) The item that was in your cargo is now in his.

(speculative) 3) He creates a bounty on himself.

4) He takes a big hit in faction points.

 

 

Discussion of Faction

As for faction, if I were allowed to construct the story for this whole feature, there would be two factions.

1) The aliens/bots (named something else ofcourse)

2) The main ‘good’ organization (named something else ofcourse)

Of course, there would be a neutral zone/station where players could go to “dock” their ship (enter safe zone) and sell items they obtain from pirating or doing other things, but is often under attack by the alien race

 

 

Deeper Discussion on Bots/Aliens, ships, and loot

There’s a lot of possibilities for this.

1) The alien race can have two unique ship models. With ASSS allowing multiple ship sizes and models in an arena, one model could be an edited shark, while the second a large, slow-moving Leviathan as a ‘battleship’ that sharks spawn from (spawn at the exact location and then fly away from ship to attack player)

2) Have 7 different models, ships 2 through 8. Pilots can only use the Warbird for missions, and they gear up their ship through the pub map.

 

 

Items - Bots can drop items when they are killed, and they go to whoever killed it automatically.

 

There’s many different ways you can go with this.

 

 

Total list of commands for this system:

 

?missions - lists available missions categories

?mission [a, b, c, etc] - lists available missions under this category

?mission [a1, etc] - Selects this mission

?objectives - Lists the objectives of your currently selected mission.

?buycargo - Lists items available at this station

?cargo - Lists items currently in your cargo

?sellcargo - Sells cargo when you’re at the station/safe zone

 

I really hope at least some of these ideas shed some light on this type of system. I think making this happen would draw a lot more people to the zone, and it would give them something to do rather than fray in pub when nobody’s flagging. It will also present an initiative to play as well. A lot of people get bored by not playing.

 

NOTES

 

1. I’ve also noticed that this could actually be implemented as an entire zone itself.

2. I can create the storyline/background if anyone wants to take the initiative on creating this dream.

3. This is a very large and complex system, but it can be done given the time, patience and dedication.

Edited February 3, 2010 by Xog

[L.C.]

Yes to all your questions.

 

EDIT: Also, I am fairly sure that HTTP content servers are also possible. Someone correct me on this if I am wrong.

Edited February 3, 2010 by L.C.

[Dr Brain]

I only read the stuff in bold. ASSS can do all of those things, except having fake players take damage (smong wrote a module to do this, but it doesn't work well, and he hasn't let anyone improve it).

 

Even though it can do those things, no one here is going to write the code to implement your system. We don't have time, and we're working on more promising ideas. If you want to program it, that's different.

[»Xog]

Damn, an hour and a half to write, and 5 minutes to shoot down

On a scale from 1-20, how difficult would this be to program

 

How long do you think it would take to continue to learn through online tutorials to be able to be at the skill level for this kind of project?

current level: very basics of python and C, done a few tutorials on each. I'm not saying I'll do this because that would just be prude - but I would consider it if it's plausible.

 

If I were to start creating this, would you send me all the files I'd need to study to know how the hyperspace ASSS operates?

Edited February 3, 2010 by Xog

[Dr Brain]

It'd take a few weeks for someone that knows what they're doing with lot of free time. Adjust this based on your experience level and free time.

 

All of hyperspace's core files are here: http://bitbucket.org/drbrain/hscore/ if you need source for a specific non-hscore module, ask me for it. I expect everything you'd be interested in will be in the hscore repository.

[»Xog]

Thanks

[tcsoccerman]

I read on a little bit to here:

 

Xog> ?listmissions

This command can do two things, and is decided upon by whoever wants to implement it.

1) Pop up a LVZ image of available missions (they could alternate for a wider variety of missions).

2) Give a list of missions in the chat field

 

Having a dynamic LVZ is not possible. By that, I mean you could not color in finished missions green and unfinished missions as red. ... Unless you had a LVZ image for each possible combination of finished/unfinished missions... which would be ridIculOUsly huge.

[»Xog]

I read on a little bit to here:

 

Xog> ?listmissions

This command can do two things, and is decided upon by whoever wants to implement it.

1) Pop up a LVZ image of available missions (they could alternate for a wider variety of missions).

2) Give a list of missions in the chat field

 

Having a dynamic LVZ is not possible. By that, I mean you could not color in finished missions green and unfinished missions as red. ... Unless you had a LVZ image for each possible combination of finished/unfinished missions... which would be ridIculOUsly huge.

 

Which is why I said, if that doesn't work, then it would display in text (in the chat field). Which I assume is possible.

 

But thanks for clearing that up for me.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Xog

[Dr Brain]

I read on a little bit to here:

 

Xog> ?listmissions

This command can do two things, and is decided upon by whoever wants to implement it.

1) Pop up a LVZ image of available missions (they could alternate for a wider variety of missions).

2) Give a list of missions in the chat field

 

Having a dynamic LVZ is not possible. By that, I mean you could not color in finished missions green and unfinished missions as red. ... Unless you had a LVZ image for each possible combination of finished/unfinished missions... which would be ridIculOUsly huge.

It doesn't have to be a single image.

[tcsoccerman]

^ He's a thinker

[»Xog]

Crashed through the first 5 chapters of learning python It's a lot simpler than I thought. I got really frustrated when learning C++ with the several tutorials I've tried in the past, and it discouraged me.

 

I think, after all these years, I've actually found something that I can stick with it and finish an entire tutorial book. I think it might also be because I've decided to actually write down a lot of stuff as I go along to understand it better. I spent the past 4 hours on these chapters, and I've written a full 4 pages by hand on printer paper with little notes and definitions !

 

I'm not learning python just for this thing though, when I was about 14 or so I discovered HTML and learned that using a book I bought. I guess you can consider that a language, although it's not very useful in the things I want to do Anyways, I've always wanted to pick up some other languages .. and I think Python's the gateway drug

 

PS- I'm 21, and about twice a year I've tried re-learning C++ with a different tutorial LOL.

 

Edit: The book I'm using for Python can be viewed and downloaded here: http://inventwithpython.com/

 

It's free. It's also got a printed version if you want to actually spend money on it.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Xog

[Dr Brain]

Python is a good place to start. Also learn C instead of C++.

[»Xog]

Python is a good place to start. Also learn C instead of C++.

 

Had a little chat with adam and DoCk> a few weeks ago and they were telling me to learn C# first. Were you mentioning C first so that I can start coding for you or was it an honest suggestion? :-p

Edited February 4, 2010 by Xog

[Dr Brain]

I'm recommending C before C++, not saying there's any rush to learn C. Keep going with python.

[»D1st0rt]

I always say my 3 primary languages are c, c#, and python and each is better suited to different situations so there is no reason you can't learn them all in time. I would focus on python initially as there are a lot more "starting out" resources available for it.

[»Xog]

So what do you guys think of the actual IDEA .. lol. Let's pretend we're in an alternate universe where I'm a programming God. Would you accept this if I made it? Would you allow this type of thing as a permanent addition to hyperspace (in a separate arena)? Edited February 9, 2010 by Xog

[Kilo]

If you are asking because you need motivation from us to make it, I don't think your heart's in the right place.

[»Xog]

If i were to make this it would probably take a year and a half, which is obviously unrealistic. I still have to finish learning python and then I'd like to get my hands on some more C language before I even begin doing anything (if I were to ever actually do this, which I highly doubt).

 

I'm just curious about some viewpoints, what the community's thoughts are on the idea itself.

Edited February 9, 2010 by Xog

[Dr Brain]

More likely, this is something you'd start your own zone with.

[Samapico]

A zone about mercenaries, and call these jobs instead of missions, that could get interesting

[L.C.]

I have some ASSS zone ideas, and also a project of converting Jackpot SVS to ASSS.

[»Xog]

More likely, this is something you'd start your own zone with.

 

I just think it fits in with the hyperspace theme too well to have its own zone. Although you're absolutely right, it could very well be its own zone. I just think it would be better if it were part of HS.

[Samapico]

I think it could be seen as being distractive from flag games

 

 

A zone based on this could be nice... And with LOTS of effort it could even be amazing. Ever played Freelancer? Lots of factions, you do missions for either of them, you gain respect from them, etc. A bit of RPG elements in there... Resources being traded from one system to another (different arenas perhaps)

If ASSS is ever able to provide fake players that can be, for example, larger ships (transport, cruiser) that need to be defended. It could even have turrets positioned at different places on it, if the thing is made of a couple of fake players, for example. You could blow the ship's engines, or whatever... Give them a defined path to follow and it should be doable. One step further would be to have ASSS provide AI ships for pirate ambushes or whatever. Or players themselves could be pirates and intercept convoys. Perhaps being able to buy AI mercenaries as wingmen (that don't respawn)

 

Just throwing ideas out there... I'm aware that all this is probably way out of the scope of what you had planned, though

[»Xog]

Actually it was right on target. If you go back to my blog thread and look at the "wtf" image, you'll see my folder to Freelancer. Hah!

[»Lynx]

Depending on how serious you are about making this, I think you should push for your own zone. Just keep up with the Python, once you've exhausted that go for C. Provided you understand the concepts behind Python, and then understand the concepts behind C, actually learning the language shouldn't take too long at all.

 

When you need a development zone, contact me - I'll sort out hosting for you to make things easier.