Arcade Server
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So this topic’s really just there to collect and organize our thoughts about the arcade server.
Descender, I assume you may want to start by giving an overview of what you had in mind?
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Well, the arcade style mod that I had in mind would be very simple, very easy for a player to get into, and really focused entirely on a fun concept. Without having to worry too much about super-advanced graphics past some custom built .ALEs and custom built, very simple models, the game would be quick and easy to push through production.
The idea is to develop an arcade-like game for players to enjoy both off- and online, jump in and pick up for a few minutes to unwind from the day, then depart for their real mods. The inspiration came from Beat Hazard, honestly, and blossomed with discussion.
The overall-concept is very few systems with very few ships to choose from: Light and Fast, Medium and balanced, then Heavy and slow. The weapons would be designed the same way. Fast, inaccurate, a tickle but they shoot quickly; Medium that fires at a predictable speed and rate; and a heavy missile-type weapon. The ships would be designed to accommodate their respective weapon. The purpose of the game? Blow the crap outta each other, respawn quickly, and do it all over again.
The systems would be fairly simple. Nothing really past a base or two (maybe four for a four-way team battle). One system would have nothing but that base, and constantly spawning NPCs that come to attack you. A second system would have those four bases, different colors, and one system would have two bases and spawning NPCs to mix the two concepts.
Ships would be simple in design. I’m talking VERY polygonal with basic black and <team color=“”>grid outlines. Nothing super fancy, so the .SURs and the textures would be quick and easy. Backdrops would be a simple grid to make it look very virtual, very arcade-y. Stations could be modeled the same way, or maybe even redoing the texture for the smaller Freelancer base which seems to fit the idea.
Overall, if we do it right, I could see this as something we could churn out in a month or two of dedicated work. It’d be light weight as a total conversion, and really just a fun place for people to come in, meet, play, laugh, then go on to bigger, better things. Something I think would really give that TSP feel.</team>
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While I think the “simple” concept is pretty cool, I wonder why dont we use just stock FL models and environments? Why do a TC in the first place?
We can alter ship stats and weapon characteristics, but I dont really see a reason to change the game entirely. I mean, when you can have an epic battle with nice models and nice starspheres, why “dumb” the game down on an artistic level?
My idea would be to create deathmatch systems out of the FL vanilla models, with vanilla ships.
Of course we could also make a “arcade” system (=map) where you have these simple models with the grid background and what not. I think its great as part of the mod, rather than it being the whole thing, end of story.
Same applies for other mods, if they’d like to bring in some of their content into the mod, it could be very easy by making them do an arcade system with 2 bases and their models and so on… so people could quickly get the idea about a mod’s style.
For example there could be a Freeworlds map where you battle each other with X-Wings around Coruscant. All still being arcade-style. -
we could easily mod the material files to have team color tinges for team based gameplay, build weapons with team color tracers, etc.
I definitely agree with w0dk4 here, why reduce the art of the game. We dont need complex custome .ales and such, but that doesnt mean it cant still be pretty.
Hell, we could get more involved and build a class based system if we wanted to, tanks, dps, healers, etc. Or we could keep it a simple shoot em up.
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It would be nice for deathmatch - at the end of the round appears list of frags - so players would go away on a cigarette break to discuss the results
(and later players come in again to play the next round 
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Anubis wrote:
we could easily mod the material files to have team color tinges for team based gameplay, build weapons with team color tracers, etc.I definitely agree with w0dk4 here, why reduce the art of the game. We dont need complex custome .ales and such, but that doesnt mean it cant still be pretty.
Hell, we could get more involved and build a class based system if we wanted to, tanks, dps, healers, etc. Or we could keep it a simple shoot em up.
Anubis, I don’t think you understand what I mean by “Arcade”.
I’m really looking for something that is simple to play, simple to code, simple to push through production. I don’t want to have fancy models that we have to upkeep, it’s not even really a demonstration of Freelancer capabilities! It’s meant to be a quick break from the rest of the world, an easy way to wind down and for players to meet up before moving on to bigger, better things.
A class-based system steps away from the “ease of entry” I’m looking for. Having it too class-based limits the player’s ability to play this offline if they want, or on their own.
The basic graphics (with stunning ALEs to make it feel a lot of fun) and the basic game play with the basic feel of “pick up, play, then go back home” will separate the mod from the others, giving TSP a unique modification to call their own, while not competing with the other mods its hosting/advertising.
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Assault mode
Attacker team most dock at or destroy particular objects
How to make the docking part hard for them?
Create some kind of tunnel, maybe more than one in the system which leads to the objective
So they won’t have the freedom to attack totally from where they wnt to - So the fight will start even earlier than at the objective base
Make spawners base (attacker) very strong with high range turrets, maybe more than 5k or so, that way defenders just can’t farm their enemies the whole time at their base to prevent them from completing their objective
Maybe even different weapons & power ups could be created - I mean, a player just loots a weapon and he can mount it while in space (is that possible?), maybe via command
power ups such like damage or range boost, berserker (increased attack speed), bonus hull/shield…
Regeneration…
(Check via FLH and trigger those events)Maybe if it is wise if you include such things that you keep the whole system “closed space”, means that you are just somehow in some kind of a building with tunnels (otherwise it might be also hard to find those power ups)
what doy ou think about this one?
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I think these ideas are great Bas. Powerups and stuff you can loot within one arena.
A class-based system steps away from the “ease of entry” I’m looking for. Having it too class-based limits the player’s ability to play this offline if they want, or on their own.
The basic graphics (with stunning ALEs to make it feel a lot of fun) and the basic game play with the basic feel of “pick up, play, then go back home” will separate the mod from the others, giving TSP a unique modification to call their own, while not competing with the other mods its hosting/advertising.
I think the class idea is awesome, giving special ships special abilities.
I see you are proposing a special TSP mod. I dont think thats really a good idea. I mean, TSP stands mainly for collaboration and variety, so I think this is a great chance to involve everybody who wants to contribute to the mod. Having some persons write something special for TSP will in the end also lead to bias-talk and so on.
The idea is to feature a lot of mods in this arcade mod. Ingame, players could vote on which map they play next, like on a FPS server. So they can decide between a vanilla map, or a StarWars/Discovery/whatever_mod map. Every mod that is willing to code a map (=special arcade system) could be included in the mod, eventually resulting in a massive show-case for Freelancer modding, while not being in the dilemma of having to please everybody regarding gameplay and mod-style.
This is basically the same idea I had in 2006, only that now we have the technical capabilities through FLHook to realise such a server type. Also, I think TSP is the best place to host it, because its a modding hub. As said, this can be a massive collaboration without the mod teams being in conflict all the time, since every mod team could have their own, seperate special arcade system (in FPS servers that would be a “map”).
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Eh, I wonder…since such an instant action server shouldn’t occupy such much ressources (no npcs - at least not in the pvp modes)…might it be possible to run 2 T SP servers?
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Well…I personally thought about the AA server & mod cyclus server, since there is reason to connect to the cyclus server, even if there are no players online - Cause there is a new mod to discover, eh?
Just a random thought as always…
btw w0dk4, nice info line in the forums about the players, Zuckersüßer ^_^
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I just talked about the AA server not about the other one.
At the second one would be of course also NPCs.
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How do you want to create a voting system?
