Toying....

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

... with the idea of new jail release.

Would 2 people in an arena match fighting for a release lock make any sense?

I was thinking of putting 2 locks in an arena (hard to get at of course) and make the players fight for the right to release. Each player would be made an easy-ish target so if they haven't killed one or the other beforehand in the arena they could attempt a release while fighting.

Just an idea...

 

[RabidZombie]

That would lead to maybie oth teams getting released, also that when you kill the other person you might not get enough time to reach the switch! would it be possible to say when a person wins make it so they automaticly release there team, or if thats not possible, spawn the player in a room with there release switch thatb when they step on the release switch they spawn to there base?

 

[TheSpoonDog]

I'd say it'd be better to make it an option in addition to the normal releases... only... I'm not sure if it is possible for Arena combatants to trigger the release, unless maybe TagAttachPickups in the JBInfoArena would allow it...

 

[Birelli]

In order to allow in-game arenas I think arena combatants are specifically stopped from hitting release switches. You can set player starts for arena winners though so you could easily have the winner transported to a release switch room, or even just spawn them on top of the main release switch.

It sounds more like an idea for a mutator than a map feature to me though. Sure, it's possible to implement, but it would seriously change gameplay, that's not usually something people are looking for in maps.

 

[Mychaeel]

In order to allow in-game arenas I think arena combatants are specifically stopped from hitting release switches.

Yes, they are. Also, arena combatants cannot hurt (or push) free players and vice-versa.

We even toyed with some nifty "transparency" effects during development to differentiate arena combatants from free players, but they didn't work out as well as we thought they would.

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

It's just just sometimes if you win an arena match you get thrown back into the game again and if your opponent in the arena was a bot then you feel cheated of accomplishing anything - what I was thinking of is if the arena time is set to say 2 or 3 mins - kill opponent - jump a few obstacles - get to lock - release team.

One problem I can foresee is that arena calls need to be set a fair distance between calls otherwise it may go on for ever.

Are random arenas possible?

Sorry if I'm going on a bit - got the mapping bug and just seeing what I can get away with at the moment.

Cheers guys,

 

[Trueblood]

So for this arena idea ... the player has a choise to make a run for a remote 2nd release (or alternate release maybe) to free some of the team or fight so only you to be released?
If made well enough, i think it may be alright... but only an alt-release ... however thinking about it now, it may clash with the auto arena cam

I still like the "race to the finish" idea of arena when 2 race to the end (which could be a button) that kills the person you race

 

[Birelli]

Are random arenas possible?

You may have as many arenas as you like, you just have to take care of triggering them in succession (with different timed triggers). Set the min/max of one to like 30-60, the next to 90-120, the next 150-180, etc. and it'll seem like you get one every 30-60 seconds. Just modify that idea to the timing you want.

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

So for this arena idea ... the player has a choise to make a run for a remote 2nd release (or alternate release maybe) to free some of the team or fight so only you to be released?
If made well enough, i think it may be alright... but only an alt-release ... however thinking about it now, it may clash with the auto arena cam

I still like the "race to the finish" idea of arena when 2 race to the end (which could be a button) that kills the person you race

Yes to all 3. The winner of the arena match can go for his/her release during the arena
or fight and hope to win to release team
or wait until time out after match just to join game and leave others jailed (not a nice option but if not enough time left to release then that will happen automatically)

With regards to the camera clash - I foresaw a few problems but I think they can be worked around.

It could be like a surprise arena match in the way that you don't know whether you will get it or not - a lottery type arena, or perhaps make it a trigger-able arena if you think your opponent is worth fighting.

My initial idea was to put 2 locks on a rotating platform and the two players fight and jump for the locks - Hmm......

At the moment, just fed up with my jailed players spawning at the locks instead of being jailed

JB-DuoPlex coming soon-ish (release date whenever)

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

You may have as many arenas as you like, you just have to take care of triggering them in succession (with different timed triggers). Set the min/max of one to like 30-60, the next to 90-120, the next 150-180, etc. and it'll seem like you get one every 30-60 seconds. Just modify that idea to the timing you want.

So this would most certainly prevent the problem of constant release before a team is captured! - Cheers Birelli.

At the moment I am just working on a simplified map - bit harder than I thought, but I have all the Paths, Lights, Movers, Player starts etc done.

Just some of my triggerable events are, how shall I say?, not triggering

 

[ChaosJester]

Darchangel- please tell us if the arena timings are hardcoded and if so, when the last one is when you realease this.

 

[Birelli]

It just occured to me that what I said before is bogus. The first arena will keep re-triggering and such. What you really need to do is use a ScriptedTrigger (search on UWiki if you don't know how to use them) to keep track of and control the multiple arenas. It may be complicated to set up, but ScriptedTriggers are very powerful. With a good understanding of how the system works you can achieve just about any affect you want in regards to triggering the arenas.

 

[Mychaeel]

As Birelli says -- arenas are activated by being triggered, so it's up to you to determine the logic behind when which arena is triggered. The entire "random arena" thing is up to the mapper, not JBInfoArena.

ScriptedTriggers are the best way to implement a "round robin" trigger for arenas.

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

As Birelli says -- arenas are activated by being triggered, so it's up to you to determine the logic behind when which arena is triggered. The entire "random arena" thing is up to the mapper, not JBInfoArena.

ScriptedTriggers are the best way to implement a "round robin" trigger for arenas.

AH! - Need to really knuckle down to scripting then how precise is the tutorial on scripting?

Hell I set myself some goals -

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

Darchangel- please tell us if the arena timings are hardcoded and if so, when the last one is when you realease this.

Just using what is available at the moment within the editor CJ (when it is not crashing) coding is not my forte (yet).

I have assumed (probably incorrectly) that all of the above could be done within UED without too much coding, but I have since found out that random arenas will have to be scripted.

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

It just occured to me that what I said before is bogus. The first arena will keep re-triggering and such. What you really need to do is use a ScriptedTrigger (search on UWiki if you don't know how to use them) to keep track of and control the multiple arenas. It may be complicated to set up, but ScriptedTriggers are very powerful. With a good understanding of how the system works you can achieve just about any affect you want in regards to triggering the arenas.

Aha! But you still have given me hope that it is possible so not completely bogus.

Easier to draft than to program shall we say?

 

[TheSpoonDog]

Maybe I'm not reading correctly, but it sounds as if you believe you are going to have to write some script? Take a look at Actor > Keypoint > AIScript > ScriptedTrigger - most of the actions are self-explanatory, but if you get stuck, UDN's Scripted Sequence Actions doc is always fine for me. No actual "script" required - that's the best thing about the engine so easy for level designers and artists. (Believe me, I argue with the coders at my work all the time about how good the engine is, and I always lose unless I bring up the quality of the editor and artistic freedom).

 

[Birelli]

Yeah, the only thing that could be better about the ScriptedTrigger is if it was a subclass of Trigger and wasn't called ScriptedTrigger. Subclassing from Trigger wouldn't make the slightest bit of sense code-wise, but an obscure part of the class tree and the word "script" combine to make it one of the most underused actors of all time relative to its usefulness .

 

[Symbolikal]

bunnytrack arenas! That would be really cool actually

 

[-=DARCHANGEL=-]

Maybe I'm not reading correctly, but it sounds as if you believe you are going to have to write some script? Take a look at Actor > Keypoint > AIScript > ScriptedTrigger - most of the actions are self-explanatory, but if you get stuck, UDN's Scripted Sequence Actions doc is always fine for me. No actual "script" required - that's the best thing about the engine so easy for level designers and artists. (Believe me, I argue with the coders at my work all the time about how good the engine is, and I always lose unless I bring up the quality of the editor and artistic freedom).

You were reading correctly - I did make references to having to code. I want to add something to JB with a little edge that can be done easily.

I love this gametype (notice I didn't say MOD) and want to add to the JB community. I have designed 1 map and re-written some music for it plus running a dedicated server (soon to be put back online) and I thought having to learn 'script' would just put too much time into making one map.

You guys are making it a lot easier to understand - thanks.