Toy commander plugin

[smartkid]

I kinda wanted to keep this a secret until it was done but I guess thats not going to happen. Basicially heres what I want to do, for anyone that ever owned a Sega Dreamcast you have probably played or at least heard of a game called Toy Commander. For me this game is why I bought my DC, my friend had it and after playing for 30 minites I was hooked. A few months ago when we moved I sold my DC, (I dident want to but anuther friend kept bugging me for it and it was a good offer). So the last few weeks I'v been trying to get an emulation of it working but with no success so far. Anyway to avoid telling my life story I'll move on.

In game screen shot


Toy Commander is somewhat simular to BZF, with the exeption of the air planes so what I want to do is re-create part of some of the levels into BZF (I know BZF couldent handle a full level).

The 3D work I can mostly do myself but in TC there are what are called Ups. I cant find a pic of one but there basicially a round ball with the rotating word UP going around it. There are two kinds of ups, yellow and purple. And you can only have 2 of each kind. Purple gives you stronger bullets are yellow gives you better range. There are also Fixes and Gas, basicially the same thing but are green and in the game they heal you and give you more gas.



I was trying to think of a way I could implemnt these in BZF and heres what I came up with.

Purple up #1 = Faster reload time
Purple up #2 = Some more bullets (as in from 3 shot to 5 shots)

Yellow up #1 = Farther range until bullets explode
Yellow up #2 = Faster bullet speed

Fix = the equivilant of a shield flag
Gas = the equivilant of a high speed flag

I was thinking about how BZF works and since all these are server variables I think it can be done by editing the server file and kinda trick the client into thinking it was simply a server variable change. So the client would think some admin did /set _tankSpeed 100 when they got a gas.

As far as the ups location, it doesent change like flags, an up responds after so long in the same place. Gas and Fix are near a teams hanger or base.



The way it would work is in the map the up group whenever it was touched by a player that player would get the up effect. When the up was touched it would disapear for like 30sec (there would be a set command made to set that) and would then reappear for the next player. All that Im pretty sure a plugin can do what I dont know is can you give a certin player more than one flag (if they had Gas & Fix) and could you make one players shots and bullet amount more than anuthers.

My other topic ( http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=7766 )
was also related to this:



Is there anyone that would be willing to work with me to make this, it would mean alot.

Thanx,
SK

PS:

That COULD be done with a server mod. Send the rabbit that the variables have changed when they haven't . It might not be easy but it COULD be done. but not with a plugin.

this gives me hope that it might be possible

[JeffM]

this is way outside of what a plugin can or SHOULD do.

you are talking about a new game, a branch or fork of bzflag that you would modify.

You would have to add new physcis and game logic to the client and server.

it's all doable, just not as a server side plugin, but as a new game/project based on the bzflag code.

[smartkid]

not exactly, I just want to make a sphere do what a flag would do. The 3D stuff is easy. Now for the ups with the higher reload time and farther shots it would be harder but not impossible. Yes this is more of a server mod not plugin.

I might rethink this... But my C++ skills arn't he gratest.

[JeffM]

the game dosn't support difrent shot speeds or distances per player. Also the server can't change how a flag looks. All drawing is done on the client side.

The plugin API is VERY limited.

What you say you want to do sounds like a server mod to you, but the current game and protocoll just don't support the features you want ( making shots go faster from a "powerup", and the like ).
You will have to make them support it, and that means changing the code in the server and client.

much of the "game" part of bzflag is run by the client, NOT the server. The server can not tell the client to do arbitray things, and the client magicaly understands them. There is a fixed set of things the server can tell the client, and most of those things are text messages.

Get on IRC and I can discuss it more with you.

[L4m3r]

I would strongly suggest reading the API documentation. It's fairly easy to understand, and while you can't really make plug-ins without knowing some C/C++, it will at least help you understand what server plug-ins can and can't do.

[smartkid]

I have already read the API, this was simply an idea. Evedentily I'm trying to make something do something it cant do (I do that alot)