Thoughts from the Trucker - BZIdeas

[Trucker Tricker]

Greetings fellow BZGamers,

Here are just some thoughts that I have. Some may be cool. On the other hand, they may all be bad ideas. But, they're just thoughts that I had. Please feel free to give some feedback. If any ever get any kind of consideration, I'd be flattered; however, my feelings won't be hurt if you all think that my ideas all stink. At any rate, I look forward to seeing you all out there...

1. Haunted BZFlag. I have seen some awesom new maps recently. What would you folks think of haunted BZFlag - maps and such centered around haunted house themes? Check this out: also have "ghost" tanks. These tanks would randomly appear to shoot at you and then leave. Perhaps they could be like bot phantom tanks that could shoot real bullets but only be able to be "thwarted" by SW or avoided with swift skill Perhaps these ghosts could even go after tanks with wings in the air. Even more, imagine that if they were drawn with cob webs, weeds, dragging chains, and such on them. Maybe, a first warning might be a ghostly "Oooooooooo" (doesn't quite have the same effect in text - lol). Another cool thing would be that only the player being attacked by a ghost tank could hear and/or see the ghost.

2. BZFlag for broadband. BZFlag for broadband would be an idea to allow streaming music, voice chat, and/or more complex maps, textures, and sounds. I've read about the idea of voice chat being flushed down the toilet. Would it be possible for BB-only users? Streaming music would be cool. On the other hand, I wonder if there would be license issues (does a radio station have to pay for playing an artists music on the radio? Would BZFlag with streaming music be considered radio?)

3. Teleport flag. Perhaps using right click, this flag would teleport you instantly away to another part of the map (like shield it would be one use, drop flag). This might be useful if death is on the way in the midst of a dogfight - and it would certainly beat having to resort to deliberate suicide to prevent the other player from scoring off of you

4. Super shield flag. This shield flag would shield you from the same number of shots as the max shots allowed on a server. For example, if a server is a 10 shot server, you would be shielded from 10 shots. If it is a 5 shot server, you would be shielded from 5 shots, and so on.

5. Waffle House. This would be a spot on the map where you wouldn't get killed, but you could sit down and have some smothered hash browns and coffee without getting booted for idle time. Lol... just kidding. Being a trucker, I had to throw that in

[Hannibal]

some of those things would make bzflag too overly complicated, something many of us dont want. I dunno about the super shield flag, but the teleport is ok.

[Trucker Tricker]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

What would you think of a "stove pipe" flag? This would be along the lines of a towering SW or wide laser blast that shoots very high up. That might be cool for getting folks with wings or (with SW property) nailing folks way up in a very tall structure.

As for the ghost bot idea, my thoughts are that they would momentarily fade in, take some pop shots, and then fade out. If a player has some slick moves, he or she may be able to dodge them until they fade out. The ghosts would not be listed in the player list. Instead, the server would mention them in the MOD (Message of the Day) or something when a player logs in.

[DTRemenak]

3. Teleport flag. Perhaps using right click, this flag would teleport you instantly away to another part of the map (like shield it would be one use, drop flag). This might be useful if death is on the way in the midst of a dogfight - and it would certainly beat having to resort to deliberate suicide to prevent the other player from scoring off of you

One-use flags, flags that disable or reappropriate controls, and flags that require new controls to be mapped, have all been broadly vetoed by Tim. In other words, if you can't do it with just the controls we have and without affecting their normal functionality (e.g. the key mapped to "identify and lock-on" in this case), it won't get in the game. Also no one-use flags...shield being the obvious exception.

4. Super shield flag. This shield flag would shield you from the same number of shots as the max shots allowed on a server. For example, if a server is a 10 shot server, you would be shielded from 10 shots. If it is a 5 shot server, you would be shielded from 5 shots, and so on.

Tim has also vetoed shield getting more than one shot. We had planned to make the number of shots that shield could absorb server-configurable.

5. Waffle House. This would be a spot on the map where you wouldn't get killed, but you could sit down and have some smothered hash browns and coffee without getting booted for idle time. Lol... just kidding. Being a trucker, I had to throw that in

Now that sounds good to me. I could use a good breakfast every once in a while .

[Trucker Tricker]

Wow, DTRemenak, that's virtually getting it straight from the horse's mouth.

We had planned to make the number of shots that shield could absorb server-configurable.

I like that idea. That gives the server owners the option.

What do you think of my thoughts of ghost tanks? I imagine that coding ghosts would utilize code that's already been developed for the most part such as, phantom properties, bot logic, timers, and so on. The only thing I think may be a challenge would be the random ghost spawn code (who to attack, when, how often, etc.). But then, I don't code so I don't know for sure. A ghostly moan or howl ogg file shouldn't be difficult to create (similar to going into phantom zone). Also, I don't imagine that the server initiating a ghost to a specific player would be difficult. On the other hand, do you think that may be tasking too much for the server? I've seen some servers with many bots, so I wouldn't think that would be too terribly difficult.

Thank you very much for addressing me with direct reasons.

[Hannibal]

I assume that tim has final say over bz...anyway...the ghost tanks would be hard, i think, b/c the server could set(maybe) for the tanks to only attack certain ppl, ppl w/certain flags, stuff like that, and instead maybe a /ghosttank commmand , followed by the players name, to be used as an alternative to /kill?

[Trucker Tricker]

I wasn't necessarily thinking along those lines. I was thinking that the server could randomly send ghost bots after players - maybe one at a time. As for who, I think that could be random. Flag type of the player would only come into play if the player had wings and was up in the air. Perhaps that a ghost could go after a player at the player's height in the air.

On the other hand, then you'd have to compensate for jumping. Slaving a ghost's height to player height would be taxing on the server, I'm thinking. It's starting to sound more complicated now. Geeze, I wish I could code. Maybe ground only ghosts like the bots that are already on servers would be an easier way to go. I wish I could remember which, but one owner was trying out a server with jumping bots. Oh well. What if the bot code were included with the client? The server could send a ghost message or something, and then the client could initiate it internally so as to reduce the burden on the server.

... it was a fun thought while it lasted. Thanks!

[RPG]

You could sorta imitate the ghost tanks on a server by having random world weapons firing at random places around the map. That way, you have no clue where the shots would shoot from.

[Hannibal]

ya, but there would hafta be alot a coincedence going on there to kill someone...