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| My questions, at least. | |
| Posted By: FyreWulff <mkidder@gmail.com> | Date: 8/8/11 3:08 p.m. |
In Response To: Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? (JonnyOThan) Okay, I do still have my own post backed up. [b]Megalo Meta[/b] 1. What programming language does Megalo most imitate? Is it C-like or Python-esque? 2. Is Megalo object-oriented natively? 3 . Who or what group in Bungie made the decision to throw out the tried and trusted gametype setup from previous Halo titles, and why? Was it hard to convince the studio to go for what was definitely a risk? 4 .The previous titles used prebaked gametypes. Were the prebaked gametypes faster and easier to implement, or were the newly scripted gametypes more speedily prototyped, tested, and implemented after the groundwork had been completed? 5. Can any Bungie employee who has the appropriate knowledge script a new gametype, or is the keys to this particular feature reserved for "gametype scripting employees"? 6. How much memory is available for a Megalo scripted gametype? If you can’t answer specifically, would you say it’s “Significant amount” or “Not much”? Is the memory limit dependent on the amount of variable storage or the amount of commands/script or both? VI. From what it seems like, once the engine fires a “Game Over” event, the scripting engine shuts off. Is this what happens, or does a Megalo scripter do this? [b]Widgets and HUD[/b] 7. As we’ve seen with the post-ship Race variants, Bungie can add static text (“Number of flips”) and text that represents a changing variable (number of flips). What other widgets are available to scripters? 8. How much of the default HUD elements can be controlled via Megalo? Can Megalo disable the weapon icon and ammo readout and leave the radar and grenade readouts, or are only a base collection of HUDs (Human, Elite, Monitor, and “blank”) available? 9. Is it possible for Megalo to make a gametype where the HUD graphics are gone but the first person weapon model remains? [b]Object I/O[/b] 10. How much inter-object interaction is possible? Is it all collision based? For example, the existing KotH gametype obviously uses “IF player_model IS TOUCHING koth_hill THEN awardpoints”. Can any object interact with any other object via script? 10. B. For example, you shipped the new label for Invasion called CORE_RESET where if the core is thrown into the boundary of a such labeled object, it gets reset. Could you make a new label that only resets vehicles that enter it’s boundaries? 10. C. You mentioned the Flag Reset radius is accomplished by creating and attaching a spherical volume to the Flag Object. Can multiple actions be assigned to a single volume? For example, would it potentially be possible for the scripting engine to reset a hog that sits over a flag for more than 15 seconds (flag object can check for a colliding unoccupied hog? 11. Do certain objects have certain special properties? Example: Rocket Race teleports you if you’re off your vehicle. Is this done by checking to see if the player is in a vehicle (status property) or if the vehicle has occupants (binded objects property)? Can you detect the difference between an occupied and unoccupied vehicle in script? 12. Can any object be binded to another? For example, in Speedpile the Flag Object is binded to the player biped. Could you clue a bomb to someone’s head, or make it so mongeese in Race have neutral flags on the back of them like go-karts? 13. Since Reach’s multiplayer networking is asynchronous, is there a way for Megalo to sync important variables across all players, or are all internal arrays/labels always just on the host? [b]Object Manipulation[/b] 14. We know that mid-game object creation is possible (Invasion phase spawning, Race vehicles). Can an object be moved (ie teleport a hog from one location to another) without just deleting it and respawning it? 15. Speedpile modifies the size of flags that are worth more points to be bigger. Are only a certain subset of objects able to have their size modified, or can any dynamic object in a .map be modified (giant players, comically big oddball, really big Tunnel, Long piece) 16. To make up for the lack of an OS effect in Reach, you attached a flame emitter to the biped of players. Are any other emitters available or does this apply to Question 12 (where you just used the ability to attach objects to other objects to achieve this) 17. Can a player be spawned as a Monitor in any gametype (ex: Chess)? Can the player be able to edit objects in any mode, or is this something that requires the “root” gametype to be Forge-only? [b]Player Manipulation[/b] 18. We know various traits (player health/speed/gravity) can be changed during the due to Hill/Zombie/Objective carrier traits. Can affects be applied only per-person, or could you (say) make all of Red Team catch on fire when someone stands inside a Hill Object? 19. The shipping Juggernaut variant forces the Juggernaut’d player to switch to a weapon. Can a player’s weapons be stored in a variable, then forced to a weapon, then forced back to the original weapon? Is it possible for players to be able to choose what weapon the Juggernaut switches to (and toggle his flame effect) or do these HAVE to be scripted only? 20. Is it possible for Megalo to take actions (trait modifcation, kill, teleport) on a player based on weapon they are holding? IE, could you make people that are holding a Sniper Rifle get a waypoint over their head, but it disappears if they drop it? 21. We’ve seen with the Chess gametype that Megalo can spawn NPC bipeds in a gametype, with predetermined armor configurations. Could a gametype potentially force everyone to a Mark V Spartan with base armor, or does this only apply to special bipeds? 21. B. As a followup to 21, the Chess gametype also lets you “take over” a biped by standing in it’s bounding box. Is this true takeover (ie the engine is now saying “you are this biped now”) or is it just done by deleting the biped and respawning the player as the biped? 21. C. And finally, if it’s true takeover, would it potentially be possible to use this functionality to do player possession? For example, if you can stand behind an opponent long enough, you can take over their biped, and they can only observe their possessed body walking around, as a crazy silly example. 21. D. Since this functionality also amused me, would it be possible to have a variant of Invasion where an invading Spartan could stand in a hill, drain it down to “capture the disguise”, then they’re switched to an Elite to help them infiltrate the enemy base? 22. Can the scripting engine boot a player out of a game, or just force them to be a spectator? [b]Map Manipulation[/b] 23. The special Invasion: Breakpoint gametype for Breakpoint does neat things like make it so the computer cores raise up while being captured, spawns the special pretty purple Covie bomb for phase 2 (kudos to the artists on that one), and makes the last phase explode with debris when the bomb is armed. Using the default Invasion gametype removes all of these little extra polishes. As a result, Invasion: Breakpoint is locked to that map. Can designers elect to lock a gametype to a map themselves or is this automatically handled by the engine (ie it checks to see if a required object exists on the selected map)? 23. B. Can that Covenant bomb be used in the disc maps or was it a special model made for Breakpoint? 24. Can you add virtual soft or hardkills to maps via scripts (ie IF PLAYER_X > 500 THEN KILL)? Although I guess this one kind of applies to Meta (accessible variables) and Player Manipulation (player properties) 25. Does Megalo have any animation capabilities (ie you could smoothly move a Block 2x4 across Forge World) or are all the custom animations for Spire/Breakpoint/Boneyard just baked .map animations called by Megalo at runtime? [b]GUI additions[/b]
26. B. Which sort of GUI widgets are available? Can a GUI widget be an integer selector (ex: respawn time, trait cooldown), weapon selector (ie Starting Weapon), or string selector (ie Loadout names)? 26 C. Do these GUI additions count against the memory cost of the gametype? 27. We’ve seen with the Chess gametype that you can change the team colors in the lobby to something other than their name (ex: “Red” is Black, “Blue” is White, and displays as such in the lobby). What other in-lobby changes can you do? 27. B. Can you limit the amount of players by gametype in the lobby, or does a Megalo gametype always have to allow 16 players to be in it? 28. Does the Megalo script have anything to do with what information you see in Game Details when looking at a friend? 29. We’ve seen with Race that you can add “Number of flips” as a Postgame Carnage Report statistics category. Can you add or remove pages from the PCR with Megalo? For example, could you remove the Kills and Deaths columns in CTF, or add “Time not moving” to a gametype, or something silly like “Amount of time near other players” ? 30. If you save a gametype from The Arena, you get the dynamic “Rating” readout on the scoreboard. Was this something hard baked into the engine or can Megalo change/add strings to the Scoreboard screen? [b]The Arena[/b] 31. Are Arena Ratings done in the gametype and then fed to the server, or is it all done in script? Would it be possible for two playlists to have separate Ratings Formulas or do they all have to be the same? 32. Is the TS Ladder at the end of a game determined by arbitration or by Megalo? This one is just pure curiosity on my part. [b]Bungie Meta[/b] 33. When was the decision made to implement Megalo? Was it a goal from Reach’s inception (“We’ve gotta have a better gametype engine this time around”) or did it come in later? 34. If you can find out, besides Slayer, what was the first gametype re-implemented in Megalo? 35. How much time, from inception -> scripting -> test -> more scripting -> ship does a post ship gametype take to create? 36. The sky’s the limit and the world is your oyster. Would it ever be possible to say, implement an ability via XNA for players to script their own Megalo gametypes for customs? [b]Wishlist[/b] 37. We can tell from a leftover labeled object on Powerhouse that there was a VIP gametype cut before ship. Is VIP going to ever appear again, or is it up to 343 now if we want to see this gametype come back? 38. Will we ever be able to change what weapon the Juggernaut switches to, is it even possible, or is there something engine-specific that is preventing this from being implemented? 39. Can we get a “Games ends if this kill spread is met” feature for Slayer? 40. Calvinball. We know it was just a prototype, but could we see this gametype appear (with a different name of course) as a parting gift from the Reach sustain team? Please? *sad eyes* [b]???[/b] 42. I’d like to acknowledge the hard work Bungie has put in for Reach and past Halo titles, where later patched versions always interoperate with earlier unpatched versions. This is a gigantic lifesaver like you would not believe for LAN situations (especially if you’re stuck with Core 360s that have no HDDs or storage mediums for the client consoles). This not only takes extensive engineering, but also significant restraint as you must resist the temptation to add a new feature that the client would need new code to understand. To this this end, it is obvious that Megalo is set up so that in a possible Reach 1.1 situation, Reach 1.0 could still scripted host actions on a 1.1 session. We’ve also seen that Forge variants also handle new labels silently without exploding. To this end, has this sort of interoperation been a core of Bungie’s beliefs in the console space, and if your future project were to have multiplayer on console, would this still be a goal? These are all written without concern as to whether they will be answerable or not, hence the 'throw all the questions I'd ever have and see what sticks to the wall' strategy.
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| Replies: |
| So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | FyreWulff | 8/5/11 3:35 a.m. |
| Ive heard nada about it since the Optimatch thread *NM* | kornman00 | 8/5/11 4:00 a.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | DEEP NNN | 8/5/11 6:13 a.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | DEEP NNN | 8/5/11 6:37 a.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | General Vagueness | 8/5/11 12:05 p.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | JonnyOThan | 8/8/11 11:06 a.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | General Vagueness | 8/8/11 1:00 p.m. |
| Re: So, is the Megalo Q&A DOA? | FyreWulff | 8/8/11 3:06 p.m. |
| My questions, at least. | FyreWulff | 8/8/11 3:08 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | Raaascal | 8/8/11 4:22 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | BlueNinja | 8/8/11 5:53 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | FyreWulff | 8/8/11 7:20 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | JonnyOThan | 9/21/11 2:07 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | DEEP NNN | 9/21/11 2:41 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | FyreWulff | 9/21/11 3:30 p.m. |
| Thanks for this! Really cool info. | ncsuDuncan | 9/21/11 3:58 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | Dani | 9/21/11 4:35 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | NOKYARD | 9/21/11 4:58 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | JonnyOThan | 9/21/11 5:30 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | GhaleonEB | 9/21/11 5:41 p.m. |
| 0.o | RC Master | 9/21/11 7:31 p.m. |
| Re: 0.o | JonnyOThan | 9/21/11 8:32 p.m. |
| Re: 0.o | Ibeechu | 9/21/11 11:00 p.m. |
| and A's in resource mgmt | kornman00 | 9/22/11 12:53 a.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | General Vagueness | 9/22/11 10:46 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | JonnyOThan | 9/22/11 11:20 p.m. |
| Re: My questions, at least. | FyreWulff | 9/25/11 9:50 a.m. |
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