Random Assassination Contracts

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:36 pm

[quote="leadslug"]Is it possible for you to be the target?

Yes. Now I have a basic script working, I am starting scripting the more interesting stuff. The game will involve competeing two starter missions which are nessary to complete to gain memebership of the Guild. Once a player hits a certain kill count, which will cause "assassins event" being given a chance of occouring. Once it does the event takes place and when that mission is completed, the kill count is checked again. When enough kills are built up, the chance of the next event occouring is added and so on.

The game uses 23 scripted ships who play the roles of "victims", "vengefull relatives", "Mafia Hitmen" "Witnness Protection Vipers" and "Guild Brothers."

The assissans events will include being offered a total of 10 separte hits (as currently scripted), but other events will also call up the chance of vengefull relatives of an earlier murdered victim attacking you, a fellow brother being given a contract on you, etc.

All the ships will be classic elite ships, but heavily made over. Many will be enhacnced so that their stats will give even a commander in a top ship a run for his money!

This is the plan anyway!

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:00 pm

LittleBear wrote:
All the ships will be classic elite ships, but heavily made over. Many will be enhacnced so that their stats will give even a commander in a top ship a run for his money!

Sounds like an interesting OXP. Please keep the makeovers within reasonable limits. There should be limits to which you can push a given ship design. An Anaconda should never be as nible as a Viper for instance. And for the witness protection transport, I suggest they get a cloaking device. It would be so much in character...

Good luck!

Oscar

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:42 pm

A Mafia Annaconder will still be slow, but they may have given over their cargo capicity to shield generators, making it as tough as old boots.

A "Wiseguy Escort Cobra III" will still be a Cobra III, but again may have sacrified cargo capicity for shield and weapons!

lex_talionis · Post by **lex_talionis** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:05 am

you gonna define scoopable extras, like NEUs or something, Cloaking Device-style? would be a nice bonus...

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:59 am

Maybe for version 2.

I hope to get a version that does all the above up within the next week or so, which can go out for playtesting.

I have a feeling though that a ship can only have one "death action" (but I'll check this out). If it can only have one death action, then I cannot have it spawning things, cos I need the death action to be "set: mission_assassins assassins_stage(whatever)" otherwise, the OXP won't know you've killed the ship that was the target of the contract.

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:46 am

it can do several things in tandem during the Death_action, just separate the actions with a comma.

"Death-actions= setvalute to x, award points, do something else, .... " (too lazy to go and look at exact parsing, been too long ago since I wrote something myself... )

aegidian · Post by **aegidian** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:59 am

Let's do an FYI...

death_actions should be an array, expressed in the right form for the rest of the shipdata.plist file (either xml or ascii).

Here, for an example are the two death actions of the cloaked ship from the cloaking device mission:

Code: Select all

		<key>death_actions</key>
		<array>
			<string>spawn: cloaking-device 1</string>
			<string>set: mission_cloak COMPLETE</string>
		</array>

which could also be expressed (in an ASCII plist) as

Code: Select all

"death_actions" = ( "spawn: cloaking-device 1", "set: mission_cloak COMPLETE");

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:04 am

Might try this for V2.

So far I've finished the first two starter missions and have just been inducted into the Guild by the Guildmaster, after a treck to the anachy where he was lurking!

So far competed:- 2 missions, 3 mission briefings screens, 3 mission descriptions, 1 new ship.

A possible bug will be that if another NCP ship happens to kill a victim, you still get the credit (as his death_action activates no matter who killed him). As I start putting in the tougher ships, this is less likley to happen, but is there a way round this?

Right, now to script Victim2's ship and escorts!

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:06 am

LittleBear wrote:
is there a way round this?

currently not. Military.oxp suffer from this too...

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:11 am

Hmm. Well if I put the weaker victims in safe systems, give them viper escorts or cause them to appear near the station (or all three), they should be faily safe until you arrive! Will also toughen the OXP up, as you'll have to perform the hit under the noses of the police!

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:10 pm

Sorry another tech Question!

Is there a standard AI that would make a ship always attack you and preferabley make him quite a skilled piolt?

I could use pirateAI, but I don't want the ships attacking each other, or wandering off to do some piracy elsewhere. I want they to go for you!

lex_talionis · Post by **lex_talionis** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:13 pm

killmeAI?

magamo · Post by **magamo** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:59 pm

LittleBear wrote:
Hmm. Well if I put the weaker victims in safe systems, give them viper escorts or cause them to appear near the station (or all three), they should be faily safe until you arrive! Will also toughen the OXP up, as you'll have to perform the hit under the noses of the police!

Could you also theoretically put the mark somewhere off in the system outside the normal space lane? And mark him with a tracker beacon (Perhaps at a rock-hermet hideout, or something similar), or give a 'landmark' for navigation? ("Your mark adores the darkness. You will likely find him where the sun is always eclipsed.")

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:28 pm

My first victim is very weak, so I've just but him by the witchspace beacon.

Even with all the OXPs installed, I've done about 20 playtests and he's there every time.

I think the rest of the victims, with their escorts will take care of themseves until you get there!

Finished my Second Victim, although still having trouble getting his escorts working.

Is there a way to do a delay?

I've playtested the first 2 missions and there fine. But I want there to be a delay between the Guildmaster admitting you to the Guild, and the next thing happening.

Kill count is ok if the player installs the OXP from as a noob.

But this won't work for someone who installs the OXP with a fair number of kills under their belt. Can I do somthing like:-

Conditions = ("mission_assassins equals assassins_stage1c", "kills>500", "a game week has passed since hits_brief3 was displayed")

If so how?

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:39 pm

Have the custom killmeAI scan for role = player, then setTargetToFoundTarget, attack
TARGET_NOT_FOUND = setStateTo: LURK (wait for x seconds, scan again)
or have it move to witchpoint, while scanning intermittently, and jump out once there.