special fields on the grid

[Lyx]

In the "crazy ideas"-thread, the idea to have "special fields" on the grid did come up, so i thought it may make sense to give it its own thread because of the wide variety of possibilities of it.

The idea basically goes like this...... on the grid, there may be squarish special fields, which act like instant-effects: when you drive over them, something happens.

So, this topic is not about powerups and cycle-abilities in general, but only about brainstorming about ideas on special fields.

Some fields which i could imagine:

1. "Temporary Wall"-field: If a cycle runs over it, then at first nothing special happens - but after 20secs, the part of the cycle-wall which covers the special-field(s) will go away. If an arena has multiple of such fields spread around the map, then this may create interesting situations in labyrinths, because the maze will have some gaps in the walls. For some maps, this field could also be useful to keep certain key-positions on the map wall-free in the long-run.

2. "Turbo"-Field: simply accelerates the cycle while driving over the field

3. "Brake"-Field: the opposite of the turbo-field

4. "Mine"-Field: when a cycle runs over the field the first time, then the field gets armed after 4-5secs(the field should indicate this someway that it got armed). If another cycle comes close to the field, then an explosion will happen with a pretty nice 10m blast-radius. Either after an armed mine-field detonates, or after 1min, it will disarm and return to normal state. For some maps, it may be interesting to have mine-fields a bit unpredictable on how near you may get before they detonate.

5a. "Mine-Trigger"-Field: Instantly detonates another mine-field. Obviously, this would only be interesting if maps can script those fields. For example, a map may have two "tunnels" through which a cycle may drive. The tunnels themselves would be plasted with mine-fields, and at the start of each tunnel, there would be a minetrigger-field which detonates the other tunnel. This would result in two things: 1. If a cycle enters a tunnel, then shortly afterwards the tunnel cannot be passed anymore for a while because the mines in it are armet. 2. If player-A enters tunnel1, then player-B could intentionally enter tunnel2, therefore detonating tunnel1 and killing player-A.

5b. "Barrier"-Field: creates a 15m wall for a duration of about 10secs. The angle of the wall will be 90° rotated compared to the angle of the cycle which drives over it. So, if the cycle drives along the X-axis over the field, then the wall will be along the Y-axis. This field is mostly interesting if one player is chasing another player and the leading player drives over this special field.


I guess one could get the most out of such fields by letting the maps decide where to place them. That way, some interesting arenas with a twist could be built :)

- Lyx

[Z-Man]

1. and 5. are excellent. They operate on the basic objects the game offers and add interesting twists. 2. and 3. are the obvious basic ones (that does not make them bad).

I'd like to add
6. "Booster": Accelerates when passed in one direction, brakes when passed in the opposite direction.

7. "Qix": collision rules are reversed on this filed: hit an enemy wall on it and he dies.

8. "Ice": can't make turns on it or brake/accelerate (this was from the crazy ideas thread as well, IIRC. It could use a more computer related name, perhaps "Connection Loss"?)

9. "Danger Zone": no rubber on it.

10. "Thunder Dome": Two programs enter, one program leaves. Whenever two or more players are inside the thunder dome, a wall builds around it and only opens again when only one is left. It'll be a one sided wall, additional entrees would be allowed.

11. "Xor Gate": Whenever two players are in it, both get killed. (Does not make too much gameplay sense, what about other logical gates?)

12. "Not Gate": Controls are reversed.

13. "Mirror": Whatever you do inside is repeated by a ghost cycle that is your cycle mirrored at the zone center (turned 180 degrees around it).

Hmm, some of these are special cases of

14. "Setting change": game physics settings are altered. (However, in this generality, it would be difficult to find good graphical representations)

And of course, it would be up to the map makers where those zones appear.

[Jonathan]

7. "Qix": collision rules are reversed on this filed: hit an enemy wall on it and he dies.

That's old. I did that on a server months ago. I can do it again if you want to see it.

Edit: I can't between 18:00Z and 20:00Z.

[Lucifer]

Luckily for all of us, phillipe's been working in this direction for some time and has tossed out most of these as part of specs to various things in his world model.

[Lyx]

Name-proposal for "6.": directional-turbo

Not sure yet how to call the "ice"-field. Connection Loss is a bit long - but yes, something with a similiar meaning would fit.

[philippeqc]

Wanted: Good programmer without opinion ready to do exactly as told, nothing more, nothing less. Answering to every order by "Yes master." optional.
I am also ready to consider independant thinking candidates that are ready to lend a hand to some of my wacky project.

;)

-ph

[Jonathan]

7. "Qix": collision rules are reversed on this filed: hit an enemy wall on it and he dies.

That's old. I did that on a server months ago. I can do it again if you want to see it.

It's up!

[Z-Man]

It's up!

Quite a bizarre experience, I must say

[Jonathan]

I think I'm going to change it to "can drive through all player walls, killing whoever owns the wall". Right now suicide or dead walls may act as usual. Maybe I'll allow going through the rim too.

[Jonathan]

Done.
- Hit an enemy's wall to kill him, but he gets the point.
- Hitting another wall is either suicide or the above based on enemyInfluence.

[philippeqc]

What is this server's name? How can I find it?

-ph

[Jonathan]

It's down now. Its name is "Jonathan's non-dedicated reversed death server" at the moment.

[Lyx]

One thing about which i wondered: Of course such special fields would look strange unless their placement is perfectly aligned with the gridlines(so that they do look like being part of the grid). Doesn't sound like a big deal but leads to more questions... on tight parts of the maps this would mean that the rim-walls also would need to be perfectly aligned with the gridlines to for example create lanes with special fields in them. Actually, everything on such a map would need to be gridlocked to look good when playing.

With multi-axes arenas in the works (octagonal, etc.) how should this be done? Would that mean that we would actually need a gridlocked map-editor for such features to look good?

- Lyx

[philippeqc]

One thing about which i wondered: Of course such special fields would look strange unless their placement is perfectly aligned with the gridlines(so that they do look like being part of the grid).

I dont see such a requirement. What if I want a field to have its axe system to be tilted, wouldn't it be best to show it by also tilting the texture to be applied?

Doesn't sound like a big deal but leads to more questions... on tight parts of the maps this would mean that the rim-walls also would need to be perfectly aligned with the gridlines to for example create lanes with special fields in them. Actually, everything on such a map would need to be gridlocked to look good when playing.

But if the desired effect is to have a corridor where the user is forced to move on the side a few time, then it becomes impossible with what you propose.

With multi-axes arenas in the works (octagonal, etc.) how should this be done? Would that mean that we would actually need a gridlocked map-editor for such features to look good?

HexaTRON looks REALLY good, and it doesn't need any grid locking to do so. I would really invite you to do some of the following:
a) play a game that use a map. Many maps are already available on the forum. Be sure to try HexaTRON.
b) play on the crack pipe on the net
c) read through the tutorial for map designing.

This might give you a better appreciation of the current state and capacity of the engine.

-ph

[Lyx]

One thing about which i wondered: Of course such special fields would look strange unless their placement is perfectly aligned with the gridlines(so that they do look like being part of the grid).

I dont see such a requirement. What if I want a field to have its axe system to be tilted, wouldn't it be best to show it by also tilting the texture to be applied?

I dont understand. The texture of "what" - the grid?

But if the desired effect is to have a corridor where the user is forced to move on the side a few time, then it becomes impossible with what you propose.

I dont see why it would become impossible. I never said that such a lane HAS to have all its width be covered with special-fields - i just said that it should easily be possible.

HexaTRON looks REALLY good, and it doesn't need any grid locking to do so.

And? It also doesn't have special fields which need to be aligned with the grid, so how is this comparable?

I would really invite you to do some of the following:
a) play a game that use a map. Many maps are already available on the forum. Be sure to try HexaTRON.
b) play on the crack pipe on the net
c) read through the tutorial for map designing.

This might give you a better appreciation of the current state and capacity of the engine.

Will do B and C (did A already), thanks for the pointers.

Oh, by the way: i did not say that the markup-language for maps should be gridlocked. I just said that from my POV there would need to be a means(i.e. an editor) to create perfectly aligned maps(obviously, this would also require the scale of the gridlines in moviepacks to be standardized)