In Response To: My questions, at least. (FyreWulff)
: 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. We’ve seen new toggles such as Supershields added post ship to the custom
: game GUI. Can Megalo scripters add new submenus?
: 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.
o_O
Dear God, FyreWulff....
| 
