User:Hectate/Dump

Dump

This page is my general dumping grounds for ideas and thoughts. In particular, ones that will take some time to flesh out completely before I'm satisfied with their quality/functionality to continue.

Tactics Mod

Theory

Dumping thoughts before creating an "official" design doc.
wikipedia:Tactic (method)
My goal for a tactical mod is to have a single and multi-player mod/conversion where a single player controls a squad of about 4 characters, preferably in a turn-based style gameplay system, with a top down viewpoint. I believe that this can be accomplished without seriously altering the core game engine (Source). It would most likely require some major alteration to the player class, however, as well as custom maps and entities, with particular attention to the squad member NPCs/bots. The following are the major design points that I would like to incorporate or are currently considering. I highly appreciate all comments and suggestions, and recommend that you make them on my talk page as needed. Thanks!

• Multi-player
  • Either Turn-based play cycling through players, or
  • Plan-phase/Action-phase system, where everybody selects actions simultaneously, and then those play out simultaneously
  • Voting system to eliminate AFK players and griefers
  • Timers for the Turn/Plan phase?
  • Scoring based on "squad" (player) effectiveness, not individual character's
  • Teamplay
    • Round-based games ala Counter-strike
    • Objectives and such
    • Multiple squads arranged into two teams, starting points for the different squads may vary (different "entry" points?)
  • "Deathmatch" free-for-all
    • Respawn during turn/planning phase
• Single player
  • Separate tutorial mission, functional for both SP and MP
  • Objectives and missions that follow a story
  • Briefings and Debriefings including game statistics/score
  • RPG elements to develop your team?

Other elements:

• Grid-based movement/actions
• Clickable mini-map ala RTS games
• Action points to make grid movements and actions a "cost" issue?
• Different stances effecting movement/actions (prone, crouch, stand, run, etc)
• Pre-assigned weapons and proficiencies? Complete squad customization? RPG elements in MP?
• Bots for Multiplayer? Or just same AI as Singleplayer? Scripted actions and pre-planned movements for the enemies?

• Action points for movement.
  • The heavier weapons/too much gear reduce a character's action point total (per turn)
  • Walking from gridpoint to gridpoint costs an average number of action points
  • Running costs less? (moves faster/more grids) but incurs other penalties (cant shoot?)
  • Crouching and Crawling costs more (moves slower) but gives benefits (aim, cover)
  • Jumping, Climbing, and other unusual moves vary according to the movement itself
  • Overloaded characters may not be able to make certain moves (jumping, running, for instance)

Practical

Control Viewpoint

There are a few different ways that the control viewpoint could be implemented.

1. Copy the Observer-mode code and change the VGUI to include command functions
2. "Float" the player above the playing area by having them walk around on a noclip brush over the map
3. Require players to control the characters from a first-person view
4. Use an expanded map for actual control, and then the 3d view to observe like above options

Movements

Using action points as a starting point, here are a few samples of how it might work out, utilizing CS:S as an accessible starting point. Note that the values may change from time to time as it is further tweaked for balance.

• Characters have a base point value, say 100.
• Each action/movement costs points, but they are reset at the beginning of each turn.
• A character carrying a M249 (heavy weapons) loses 20 points (equipped or not)
• Walking across a flat surface costs 10 points per grid.
  • Therefore, at maximum, a character could walk 10 grid squares
  • However, assuming no other actions, a character with a M249 will only be able to move 8 grids
• Running across a flat surface costs 5 points, but characters cannot aim or fire
  • Therefore, at max, a character could run 20 grids, or 16 if overloaded
• Half crouch/walking costs 20 points, making movement slower - up to 5 grids (or less)
  • Crouching gives benefits to aim and reaction time, plus increases difficulty to hit over longer distances
• Crawling/prone movement costs 30 points, much slower - up to 3 grids, w/ points left over (or less)
  • Prone gives benefits to aim, particularly for rifles, and increases difficulty to hit over longer distances

Grid system

It's likely that custom maps will be required to take advantage of this turn-based system. Any system using existing maps would probably revolve around moving characters X distance per turn (in effect, reflecting their speed for the amount of time that the turn represents). A few ideas of how to implement a complete system including new entities if needed is below.

• Maps based off of a 64-unit size grid (square grid)
• info_grid_point entities similar to the info_node entities for "legal" grid points/positions
  • Placed on the surface the player would stand upon, and then all needed calculations (sight, attacking, etc) take place using relative positions and data
  • Movement between points as above (w/ points) is customizable for each connection/path that connects to another grid point.
• Smaller (than 64 units) but passable areas are possible (ducts/tunnels). Mappers need to make sure that the character models fit though
• Characters on the same team can pass through each other's current grid point, but cannot stay there at the end of a turn unless the other character moves
• Ladders need to have multiple grid points or higher costs to move vertically (up/down) if they are large enough so it takes longer to climb