Bare-bones OP multiplayer script request

[TarMinyatur]

Is there one out there? I haven't been able to find one. I'd like to see a Free-for-all made for OP that doesn't disable capture, like Taldren's script. I was able to make one for EAW using FMSE but it doesn't work in OP. I don't have a C++ compiler nor the knowledge to write a script from scratch. Maybe someone has a more complex multiplayer OP script that they can simplify for general GSA play.  

[Kid Carrson]

I second that request, with a big pretty please on top!

KC  

[Kid Carrson]

This request was from long ago, but still of serious interest to me. 

I'm still hoping for an SFC OP Multiplayer Free for All that allows capture and allows each of the six players to have up to 6 ships (rather than 3).  Taldren disabled capture and limited the ships per player to 3, although the game machine permitted up to 6.  

I'm pretty certain FMSE allowed this degree of flexibility for EAW.  I'm still dreaming we can get it for SFC OP. 

Is anyone interested.  Please!

K C

[SkyFlyer]

We may get FMSE for OP in the future now that Remus is back

[NuclearWessels]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I took the standard multiplayer free for all script and recompiled it without the disable capture tag.

The script is named Mul_NW1Free4All.scr, and is zipped in the following file:
http://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/downloads/free4all.zip

dave

[Kid Carrson]

You're kidding me.  Holy Smoke NW!!  It feels like Christmas to me!!   Wooo Hooooo!!!!!

I've taught my kids to play SFC OP over the past few years, and we've moaned about not being able to capture in OP Multiplayer. 

I can't wait to try it!!!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

KC R

[Kid Carrson]

Well, the first tries with the free for all with capture were close, but with some problems. 

Basically, we were able to send troops over and capture, but once a ship was captured, wierd things happened.  In 2 of the 3 test battles we tried, the player whose ship was captured experienced a  crash to desktop.  In the other battle, one ship was captured (the player had 2 ships), and play continued on fine, with the computer running the captured ship.

Maybe, the game script doesn't know what to do with a ship when its captured.  Perhaps, a captured ship could just move off the board at that time and flee the battle.  Or perhaps have the computer fight for the race/team that just captured it.  And if a player had no ships left (all captured or destroyed), his role in the battle would end (just like all of his ships were destroyed in the traditional free for all without capture).   

NW, thanks for the efforts.  I'll be away on business for a few days, but I've got to tell you this is exciting stuff for our household!!  Thanks.

KC

[NuclearWessels]

No prob, I'll take a more detailed look at it later - lift some of the capture code from the dynaverse missions and see how we go

dave

[NuclearWessels]

Alright, a partial solution has been completed.

You can now successfully capture the enemy ships, but for the time being the crew self-destructs the ship at the moment of capture.

I'll add the necessary code to allow you to actually fly the enemy ship as soon as I clean up the victory condition code (it wasn't really set up appropriately to support capturing a live ship, so will have to rewrite a bunch of it).

The link is the same as given above,
dave

[Kid Carrson]

Thanks!  This is really exciting stuff!!

KC

[Kid Carrson]

NW (Dave):

The partial solution has worked fine so far after many tries!   

I'll be going on vacation for two weeks, so if you complete the next stage and don't hear from me, don't worry, we're all still excited about your efforts. 

Thanks again for your work.

KC

[NuclearWessels]

Hey, I've added two variants for skirmish or multiplayer, that have a HUGE map and allow you to jump to high warp speeds in mission.

(See the thread on big maps in the dyna forum for all the gory details)

They're located here if you want to experiment:
[url=http://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/downloads/warpmissions.zip
]
http://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/downloads/warpmissions.zip
[/url]

dave

[Kid Carrson]

Dave:

How do you use the high warp?  I've downloaded the missions, but haven't seen anything regarding the use of warp.  Thanks.

KC

[NuclearWessels]

Dave:

How do you use the high warp?  I've downloaded the missions, but haven't seen anything regarding the use of warp.  Thanks.

KC

Whoops, go to speed 20+ and hit yellow alert -- you'll see instructions from there

(forgot to fix the briefing messages - doh!)

dave

[Kid Carrson]

Dave:

These warp missions are simply  SO COOL!!!!  I've been able to play the Warp Combat versions in single player and multiplayer with success.  It's really neat.  I hope to do more testing over the next few days with mutliplayer and all, but zipping around at speed 125 was a hoot!!


Thanks. 

KC

[Kid Carrson]

Dave:

We've been playing the Warp Combat missions for awhile.  They are simply AWESOME!!!  It adds another dimension to the battles.  Thank you so much.

Regarding the capture in Multiplayer (for both the regular Hostile Skirmish with capture and the Warp Combat Skirmish with capture), instead of having the ships self destruct upon capture, would it be reasonably possible to have the captured ship go to yellow alert and then try to exit the map at best possible speed?  The team capturing the ship could be trying to assist its escape from the scene of battle, while the team that's lost the ship could try to recapture it or blow it up.  Just a thought!

Thanks again.

KC

[NuclearWessels]

It's definitely possible, I just have to get around to rewriting the appropriate routines.

Right now I'm doing a major rewrite on my core script for the dyna missions (trying to come up with a stronger blend of efficiency and flexibility along with a number of new features) so that's likely going to chew up all my time for the next month or so.  Once that's done I'll put together a multiplayer version of it, which will support capture and warp etc.

Glad you're enjoying things so far!
dave

[Kid Carrson]

Dave:

Please just let us know.  We'll be hoping for you get a shot at it for Christmas!  Thanks again.

KC

[Skaren]

Hey folks I had a question on this capture, we play campaigns strictly with multiplayer IP hosted and on a LAN.  We use Sector Assault Mod in order to track battle damage to ships across the turns of the campaigns and import damage before battle when needed.

Would this modified script allow for capture in sector assault?  Or is a script selected from the scenario list like Sector Assault is?

We are forced to play all battles with sector assault, just curious if capture would work in that too.

Also if it does I would glad to test the results, I would be most curious what the sector assault dump results would read.  Would the end of battle record  captured?  and what about damage on the captured ships?

So if this script will work could someone give it to me and some instructions on where to put it.

Ya Ya I know where to put it   

I know a bunch of folks who would be mighty happy if this would work.

Much thanks
S

[Skaren]

Sorry I just noticed the script above and will download it and put it where I think it may go.  Will let you folks know what I come up with.

[Skaren]

As I suspected it creates a new scenario to choose from, so that will not work for us.

No chance in hell the mod that is done for that, can be put in the Sector Assault Mod ??

[NuclearWessels]

Whoops - just noticed that I forgot to put the Skirmish/Multiplayer scripts in the last time I uploaded the warp pack, I'll correct that ASAP.

And no, sorry Skaren, as you guessed - this is just enabling capture on a script-by-script basis, so it won't help with sector assault.

dave

[Skaren]

Well maybe some day?

So how do you folks modifly a script, do you use some sort of compiler to read it? 

[NuclearWessels]

Well maybe some day?

So how do you folks modifly a script, do you use some sort of compiler to read it? 

Yeah, we need the C++ source code from whoever wrote it, then compile it using Visual C++ 6.0 (together with the SFC API).

dave

[Skaren]

Yes Dave

but apparently you folks are modding and making scripts now, so my question is how do you do it   

I don't need a 10 page explanation, I was just curious is there a app that allows you to look at a script file?

[NuclearWessels]

The scripts we are making/modding now are ones that we do actually have the source code for -- either code we've written from scratch based on the SFC API or modifications we've applied to the source code for the Taldren dynaverse scripts (Taldren gave us the source code for the dyna scripts a few years back).  There isn't an app that allows us to take an existing script (.scr) file and directly modify it.

If you do have the C++ source code for a mission you can modify it by
 - installing VC++ 6.0 (sp4 or better)
 - installing the SFC API (download available on dynaverse.net)
 - modifying the source code and re-compiling

dave

[Skaren]

I find it interesting they would give you some source code,.. I am sure there is an interesting story to go along with that.

Maybe someday you folks will get it all.  Now that would be a Hoot !

[NuclearWessels]

The API they provided originally had a number of their mission scripts included as examples/explanation, so I'm guessing they didn't think it was too much of a stretch to release the sources for the rest of them a year or two later.

The API is very segregated from the underlying game code (painfully so),  so they weren't too worried about giving away any big secrets

Giving Dynaverse.Net access to the server code was a HUGE deal -- we're still super appreciative of that!   It would be cool if we could get our hands on the rest , but I won't be holding my breath

dave

[Kid Carrson]

Hi Dave:

I was wondering if you've had any time (or may have some time) to work more on the multiplayer capture?  I'm still hoping for a white christmas and a capture multiplayer (that maybe lets the captured ship leave the battle or do something other than self destruct). 

I've got to thank you again for all that you've done; we've had a ball so far with your work.  We're especially fond of the warp variants currently.  Adds a whole new dimension to the game.

I know if you're able to get the multiplayer capture where the ships don't blow up, we'll really enjoy them too. 

Thanks for all of your efforts.

KC 

[NuclearWessels]

Yes, I'm still hoping to go ahead with the multiplayer version of the assorted beasts once I'm through debugging the current lot (it's going slower than expected, as always  )

Keep your fingers crossed!
dave