Random Spawn Direction (position would be cool too...)

[sinewav]

Ever notice how playing in a server with just 2-4 people the grid starts to look a little redundant as players tend to follow the same starting patterns? I think changing the starting direction would help add some much needed variance.

One thing Armagetron is missing when compared to its peers is spawn point variation. Game Grid Champions has two modes, Lightcycles 3D has three modes. FLTron's don't change direction, but they slide position inward and outward (randomly I think, I never asked to find out). But what I'm thinking is the kind that glTron has where you don't know if you'll start out facing the middle, rear, or side of the grid.

At first I thought about a map generator script, but then I was like, "naw, there's got to be a better way than making dozens of maps..." Or, maybe not?

Of course, the default map in Arma might not be the best map to use anyway since the spawn points are already pretty close to the rim; this doesn't mean it wouldn't completely rock on other maps.

Oh, and slight variation of the position would be awesome too.

[dukevin]

I haven't actually tried this to confirm but it should be partially achievable in sty+ct, for starting points anyways.

Code: Select all

SPAWN_POINT_GROUP_SIZE

Code: Select all

SPAWN_ALTERNATE 1

In your map file, have multiple spawn points, say 20, then you can control how many people spawn at the same spot with spawn_point_group_size.

Then set spawn_alternate 1 for it to rotate spawn points (this is what is used in onslaught but onslaught only has 2 spawn points).



But I definitely agree with you in that more spawn point flexibility would be very nice, especially for on-the-fly respawning control.

[Word]

yeah, some days ago I thought of something like this:



(two hostages that have to stay in their zone, the other team has to free them by killing the two other players, then the zone disappears and they can try to kill the hostages. the team whose hostages die first loses. players can't enter the zone of the opposing team. the hostages die if they move out of the zone before the opposing team's free players are still alive.)

[sinewav]

Ok, let's not get excited with wacky game modes, but yeah - more variance. I really just want to know if this is something that can be written as a patch, and if so, how much can I pay someone to write it?

[Z-Man]

Assigning the spawn points randomly to teams instead of sorted by score certainly isn't going to be a big patch. For flexibility, it should probably be developed as a map format feature, though, not a setting.

[kyle]

as for the spawn point directions.

my little patch
set angle="RAND" in map

Code: Select all

=== modified file 'src/tron/gParser.cpp'
--- src/tron/gParser.cpp	2009-03-03 18:08:27 +0000
+++ src/tron/gParser.cpp	2011-04-18 21:43:52 +0000
@@ -362,10 +362,20 @@
 gParser::myxmlGetDirection(xmlNodePtr cur, float &x, float &y)
 {
     if (myxmlHasProp(cur, "angle")) {
-        float angle = myxmlGetPropFloat(cur, "angle") * M_PI / 180.0;
         float speed = myxmlGetPropFloat(cur, "length");
-        x = cosf(angle) * speed;
-        y = sinf(angle) * speed;
+        tString sangle;
+        tString sr;
+        sr = "RAND";
+        sangle = myxmlGetProp(cur, "angle");
+        if (sangle==sr){
+            float angle = ((float(rand()) / float(RAND_MAX)) * (2.0*M_PI));
+            x = cosf(angle) * speed;
+            y = sinf(angle) * speed;
+        }else{
+            float angle = myxmlGetPropFloat(cur, "angle") * M_PI / 180.0;
+            x = cosf(angle) * speed;
+            y = sinf(angle) * speed;
+        }
     } else {
         x = myxmlGetPropFloat(cur, "xdir");
         y = myxmlGetPropFloat(cur, "ydir");

[Tank Program]

Hrmm, not an XML expert, but I'm not quite sure if that's the right way to do it. Maybe a different tag like randomangle="yes"?

[kyle]

I was thinking of a way to do it without needing a new dtd, not sure if it is the best way, but it does work