/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>24275597
These threads never get a whole lot of real discussion and I feel like talking, so maybe my disjointed ramblings about working on a prophunt gamemode might be interesting to any lurkers.

How do you create a fun gamemode that enables a player to, as close as possible, imitate a nearby object that is completely indiscernible from the original? The way it works is that when a player presses a certain key (like "e") it fires off a colsphere on that player's position, and if there are any valid objects within the colsphere, it attaches that player to one of the objects. Now, right off the bat there are three problems with creating a perfectly believable imitation player attachment to an object:
- The targeting marker that appears when you aim at a player
- The player's shadow will still appear even if the player themselves are not visible
- Allow said player to be damaged through the object

The solution to the first problem was simple, as it's a built-in function within MTA. The second problem can't be resolved through scripting but what you can do with a bit of creativity is use shaders to remove the shadows on pedestrians for the duration of the gamemode. The third problem has proven to be trickier, and I wouldn't say I've found a "real" solution to it yet, and that's because of GTA's collisions. If you simply attach yourself to an object, then it functions almost like armor because of its collision - you can't be damaged. If you remove the object's collisions, to damage the player however, then you also make it immediately apparent that the object is a player if they bother to check. For most objects this isn't actually a problem, it's only on larger things like vending machines, and tables, that it's obvious. I feel like I'm pretty close to a real solution to this, but it still needs more work.

Of course, there's also things like balance. How do you make it as fair as possible to both teams? This will need more than just my contained testing to actually adjust for, but right now, Hunters can miss 5 shots before dying, and the timer is set to 5 minutes before props win. 5 shots might seem low, but if you figure the server's average players are around 20, and the teams are split evenly, then Hunters would need to either: A. Miss 50 shots cumulatively or B. Run out a 5 minute timer to lose. You want to make sure they can actually make a couple of mistakes too, and don't die right into a match, so 5 shots seems like a good medium right now, might raise it to 10 or more depending how many objects I place in a single map.

All in all it's been fun to work on so far despite my inexperience writing gamemodes. Something else I might add is allowing you to imitate NPCs as well, but I fear I might be giving too large an advantage to the props. Although props will be able to play sounds to "taunt" nearby players and clue them in to their relative position for fun too.