Cube 2 Idea Mine - Discuss

by AlternateLives on 11/23/2011 19:53, 237 messages, last message: 03/22/2018 02:32, 228050 views, last view: 04/29/2024 16:22

After seeing idea after idea get shot down all over the place in these forums, it occurred to me that perhaps this thread might be a good idea.

Got an idea for a Cube 2 mod? Go ahead and get it out of your system and post it here. If you are a modder, scroll through these. Maybe one of them can give you some inspiration.

Note to developers and long-time forum users: this is not intended to be a place where future updates or changes to the game you know and love to be posted. This is merely a place where half-formed (but possibly good) ideas can be discussed at present value without having them immediately shot down.

On that note, the only rule: No attacking of ideas just because they are not implementable within the current engine.

Have fun!

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#199: ..

by asmanel on 10/23/2014 19:12

About the player models selection, I suggest a rule change :

Now, there are five playable characters by default and there can't be more. It's an hardcoded limit. You can customize as you want your characters but there can't more than five.

In any way, the models are identified by their number. A same player can appear with the Arachna's model in a player's hud and with the Captain Cannon's model in an other player's hud. It isn't a problem. There is a problem when there is no model linked to this number and when an error prevent the linked model from being loaded. In both cases the character is invisible.

I suggest this : break the characters number limit. If there is no model linked to the used character number (or if the model fail to load), a default character (like Grism for OA; I suggest the #0) is loaded instead.

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#200: Re: ..

by Papriko on 10/23/2014 19:35, refers to #199

As far as I know, both, server and client clip the model range. When you try to switch to an invalid model, it defaults to fixit. When you hack your client to send an invalid model, the server defaults to fixit. When you hack the server to send an invalid model, everyone elses client defaults to fixit. When you hack your client to accept invalid numbers, you are a moron.

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#201: Re: ..

by suicizer03 on 10/23/2014 23:55, refers to #199

If you want the OA models into Sauerbraten so bad; I suggest to take a peek at the following link.

http://quadropolis.us/node/3797

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#202: ..

by asmanel on 10/24/2014 00:59

I didn't know it.

Before today, each time I tried to change it in game, an error happened, saying the valid range was 0..4, even after I modified the file data/game_fps.cfg.

Here is the change I did (lines 40 to 75 of data/game_fps.cfg) :

playermodelnum = 6

playermodeldir0 = "mrfixit"
playermodelicon0 = "mrfixit"
playermodelname0 = "Mr. Fixit"
playermodelstory0 = [Which orc do you choose when the mission calls for an all-purpose wrecking machine? Who do you call when the odds are stacked against you? Mr. Fixit, that's who. Gifted with the ability to perform deconstructive surgery with any weapon, this orc gets the job done fast and with extreme prejudice.]

playermodeldir1 = "snoutx10k"
playermodelicon1 = "snoutx10k"
playermodelname1 = "IronSnout X10K"
playermodelstory1 = [IronSnout X10K is a hybrid model of the IronSnout series. Bred in the bowels of a top secret underground facility, this walking fragging machine is for one purpose: to annihilate the opposition. Part pig, part machine, IronSnout X10K knows no fear and fears no fragger.]

playermodeldir2 = "ogro2"
playermodelicon2 = "ogro"
playermodelname2 = "Ogro"
playermodelstory2 = [Ogro is smaller than a normal ogre, but just as fat and only slightly less stupid. As opposed to common belief, he is not an evil creature, only killing as is absolutely necessary.]

playermodeldir3 = "inky"
playermodelicon3 = "inky"
playermodelname3 = "Inky"
playermodelstory3 = [Inky is the aspiring younger sibling of an infamous transdimensional celebrity. Often teased as being only the "Lesser Evil", Inky searches the battlefields for infamy of his own, claiming it one fragger at a time.]

playermodeldir4 = "captaincannon"
playermodelicon4 = "captaincannon"
playermodelname4 = "Captain Cannon"
playermodelstory4 = [Cannon Jones dared to imbibe the old imported beer can that had languished at the bottom of his refrigerator. Unbeknownst to Cannon, it had been bombarded with stray gamma radiation. After some serious indigestion, the mild-mannered Cannon Jones became the mighty Captain Cannon! Captain Cannon now has only one known weakness: his overbearingly righteous sense of justice.]

playermodeldir5 = "assassin"
playermodelicon5 = "captaincannon"
playermodelname5 = "Assassin"
playermodelstory5 = [Assassin just want kill more and more]


Today, after reading your post (Papriko), I modified several times the variable playermodel in the files Games/Sauerbraten/config.cfg. It appeared the rule int case of invalid value are the following :
- If it's a number lower than 0, the error message about the valid range appears when Sauerbraten restart and Mr. Fixit is selected.
- If it's a number higher than 4, the error message about the valid range appears when Sauerbraten restart and Captain Cannon is selected.
- If it's a non integer number in the range 0..4, the game act as if it was its integer part.
- If it isn't at all a number, Mr. Fixit is selected.

However, I didn't tried to chek what happen online.

What I think stupid, it's limit to a low number (only five) the number of playable characters, even if it's the default number if playable characters.

There are several alternative characters on the Quadropolis site. To use the models of the humanoid monsters is also possible.

@ suicizer03 I already know and use the Open Arena Appearance Mod. This is the only reason I quote Arachna.

Actually, I modified the file data/game_fps.cfg to make possible the selection of any of the models of this mod.

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#203: Re: ..

by suicizer03 on 10/24/2014 10:53

It might be stupid that Sauerbraten only has 5 different playermodels to choose from, but think of this; it started with just 1 playermodel (Ogro) for 6 years straight. Then, finally another playermodel was added (ironsnout), which eventually lasted 2 years and was replaced by snoutx10k (while another playermodel (mrfixit) joined the arenas). Eventually only 1 release ago (although that occurred 4 years ago) Inky and Captain Cannon have been added. So seen in the time line of development of Sauerbraten and Cube 1; it's a pretty big privilege to be able to choose between that number. We played way longer without any choice at all.

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#204: ..

by asmanel on 10/25/2014 14:37

OK, in Cube and in the early versions of Sauerbraten, there was no mechanism to select a character, and the same model was used for everyone.

Now, it's different the way used to implement five characters can theorically be used to implement any number of characters.

I think limit to low value the number of playable characters is nothing less than an absurd mess.

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#205: Re: ..

by suicizer03 on 10/27/2014 19:49, refers to #204

Well, if you look at other games on Cube Engine 2, you'll notice they have even less choice to choose (like none).

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#206: ..

by raz on 10/28/2014 12:23

The amount of playermodels in sauer is hardcoded, and thus you changing the default selected character index var in game_fps.cfg does absolutely NOTHING. Of course it's gonna throw an error if it's out of range.

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#207: ..

by asmanel on 10/28/2014 16:34

In Eisenstern, ther is no model choice and, in Red Eclipse there only are two playable models (male an female).

here there are five, implemented in a way that allow more.

Since my previous reply, I looked at the C++ source code to try to understand how it's implemented.

I found this :


static const playermodelinfo playermodels[5] =
{
{ "mrfixit", "mrfixit/blue", "mrfixit/red", "mrfixit/hudguns", NULL, "mrfixit/horns", { "mrfixit/armor/blue", "mrfixit/armor/green", "mrfixit/armor/yellow" }, "mrfixit", "mrfixit_blue", "mrfixit_red", true },
{ "snoutx10k", "snoutx10k/blue", "snoutx10k/red", "snoutx10k/hudguns", NULL, "snoutx10k/wings", { "snoutx10k/armor/blue", "snoutx10k/armor/green", "snoutx10k/armor/yellow" }, "snoutx10k", "snoutx10k_blue", "snoutx10k_red", true },
//{ "ogro/green", "ogro/blue", "ogro/red", "mrfixit/hudguns", "ogro/vwep", NULL, { NULL, NULL, NULL }, "ogro", "ogro_blue", "ogro_red", false },
{ "ogro2", "ogro2/blue", "ogro2/red", "mrfixit/hudguns", NULL, "ogro2/quad", { "ogro2/armor/blue", "ogro2/armor/green", "ogro2/armor/yellow" }, "ogro", "ogro_blue", "ogro_red", true },
{ "inky", "inky/blue", "inky/red", "inky/hudguns", NULL, "inky/quad", { "inky/armor/blue", "inky/armor/green", "inky/armor/yellow" }, "inky", "inky_blue", "inky_red", true },
{ "captaincannon", "captaincannon/blue", "captaincannon/red", "captaincannon/hudguns", NULL, "captaincannon/quad", { "captaincannon/armor/blue", "captaincannon/armor/green", "captaincannon/armor/yellow" }, "captaincannon", "captaincannon_blue", "captaincannon_red", true }
};

I suggest, instead a such array, implement as a dynamic array, such as a liked list or an hash table, or a non dynamic array with an enough important number of slots (I think 256 will be enough) and load the character via a script.

@ raz Actually, for now, it only change the menu.

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#208: Re: ..

by suicizer03 on 10/29/2014 02:22, refers to #207

Well, knock yourself out adding another playermodel into the code (shouldn't be that hard as there's even a tutt on the wiki if I remember correctly).

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#209: ..

by Papriko on 11/16/2014 02:04

Nerf the hell out of rockets, so you can dare to come out of insta modes again.

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#210: Re: ..

by hypernova^ on 11/17/2014 18:42, refers to #209

+10, this and the awkward shotgun made me quit the game ^_^

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#211: Re: ..

by Papriko on 11/17/2014 21:47, refers to #210

The shotgun is alright. Nobody uses it anyways. Only rockets, chaingun when they wanna be really creative.

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#212: ..

by Papriko on 02/09/2015 23:26

More consistency in the -color vs -colour area. Rename some vars. The first 1-2 later sauer releases would need conversion rules or something, but later on you could say "screw you all"!

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#213: ..

by asmanel on 01/27/2016 20:56

I suggest add circular light (as a new entity type or at extending the possibilities of the light entity), to avoid light problems with map imported from Cube.

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#214: ..

by suicizer03 on 01/28/2016 00:28

Maps imported from Cube isn't something to rely on very well.
/importcube an awesome feature, but nearly everything that makes a map being a map, is getting beaten up (from geometry being totally screwed till entities inside walls).
In the end; it's better to keep the rough layout (or carve it out from scratch and let the flow be more sizable) and build from there instead.

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#215: ..

by asmanel on 01/31/2016 00:14

Maybe you prefer restart from scratch but there are people who'd like play in Sauerbraten their old Cube maps without doing this.

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#216: Re: ..

by suicizer03 on 02/01/2016 13:23, refers to #215

You could better have asked an .obj importer for Cube Engine 2. That would make it way more compatible with other programs than it currently is.

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#217: Re: ..

by hypernova^ on 02/01/2016 18:11, refers to #216

You mean OBJ-> Cube octree geometry? That would be awesome!

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#218: ..

by chasester on 02/07/2016 00:14

@hyper
cube oct-> OBj is what i think hes talking about. Currently its subpar and sometimes flips verts and does random stuff. And if its to big some times it just corrupts the entire thing, Tho cube really isnt a modeler, and shouldnt be used as such. Modelers can do what cube can do and more.

Obj->cube octree, would be almost impossible, and probably if it was implemented it would be buggy and touchy. A voxel is not a vert, verts are dynamic, voxels are static based on the positions of other voxels. You can do more research if you'd like more info on it, but its like converting from an 8 bit picture to a 32 bit picture, ya its plausible but its not always gonna end up pleasurable to the eye, its probably just easier to rebuild it 99% of the time.

@sauer gameplay
YA this is probably the worst "Feature" in sauer. Im suprised this hasnt been an issue in the past. It really has not playable value, it is very much about positioning and getting to the perks first (pickups). Kinda a lil skill a little luck, but honestly a good portion of the weapons are underpowered, or plain useless. Some weapons require so little aim, or skill to use where as others require great aim and skill yet very little reward. The reason every one uses the rocket launcher, is that the explosion radius is so large, and the fall off, is basically bullshit. Plus you can basically kill some one in one direct hit, Yet the rifle which takes a large amount of skill and no forgiveness (you either hit or you dont) has no reward, and does less damage then the direct hit rocket. You can shoot 4 or 5 rockets in the time it takes to shoot 2 rifle rounds. Even some one with poor aim can do more dps with a rocket launcher then a rifle. This is also true with the chain gun, but this really is only good at close range, though it does 30 damage every 300 mms. If you can hit every shot this is the highest dps, in the game. The spread on the shotgun is just weird its just way too random, and way to many rays, it really makes the weapon worthless, when the reload time is almost as long as the rifle, you will literally nv run out of shotgun ammo, because it takes way to long to shoot the amount of shots you are given.

Any number of things could fix this, although sadly I doubt any major changes to the weapons will be made. Simple things like increasing the damage fall off for the rocket launcher, and making the gun wait longer. Giving the rifle more damage, say 150. etc. or more advance features like weapon reloads, switch waits, damage fall off, direct hits/head shots, etc. These "advance features most people have implemented with in a few hours. It really isn't all that difficult. This probably falls in the same boat of fixing the client-server interactions to reduce cheats, or allowing getmaps in non coop edit modes.

Sadly its not gonna happen :(
chasester

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