New Custom Game Modes

[VAN1SH1NG]

This has been discussed before, but I am going to bring it up again now that we have the ability to really do some special game types in Altitude. There are so many possibilities now that the developers were able to add the overrideSpawnPoint command.

Keep in mind that this is just a thread to get ideas going and it is likely going to be into 2015 before I personally have time to work on any new custom game types (other than coding volleyball).

The obvious game types to me are race and zone control.

Race will be similar to Mario Kart. overrideSpawnPoint enables the ability to respawn near where you die.

Zone Control would be on a big map that two large teams fight for control over. There would be various 'zones' across the map that you have to capture and hold. Hopefully going free will make the population large enough to make big maps and teams possible. overrideSpawnPoint helps here to allow spawning at any of the zones your team controls.

We could also have a new ball mode where you always respawn where you die instead of defined spawn locations. Thinking this might help improve ball_football. Respawn at death location, larger map, and limited plane selection (probably non-hc biplane and/or randa only) might make it more realistic. The brief time where you are invulnerable after spawning might ruin this though.

But to help you with ideas lets also come up with a list of new features this command makes possible:

• Respawn near death location
• Spawn at certain parts of the map your team controls or otherwise get to pick from multiple locations
• Divided maps - maps split into multiple isolated area with different action occurring on different parts of the map. You could have the ability to teleport between them.
• Similarly on a normal map you could have teleport objects that send you to a different part of the map.
• Ability to spawn at a specific players location (For example, could have a mode where you have to keep a specific player alive, defending team always spawns at this player's location.)
• overrideBallScore also enables us to display the score for custom game types, even if they don't use a ball. The ball spawns and goals can be hidden or otherwise inaccessible.

I'm sure there are a lot more things we could do with this.

[Post775]

Capture the flag (?)

[Aki1024]

Originally Posted by Post775

Capture the flag (?)

That would require the ability to remove and add an objective to a new spot. We do have an objective object (which was originally used to play ball before it was a mode), but we can't detect that Red grabbed red objective and place it back at home. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this assertion.)

[Hollywood]

Well if the devs are handing out changes for custom stuff, might be worth asking for that too. CTF is a really fun game mode.

[VAN1SH1NG]

Capture the flag is easy, but I have been told it was done before and not popular. Really all you need to do is make a TBD map where teams spawn at the enemy base. You have to go across the map, grab your teams bomb, bring it back to where your team spawns, and drop it on the enemy base.

[Clam]

I think CTF could be really fun! But it will be impossible if it's just TBDx2. It's hard enough getting across the map with the bomb once. I imagine it'd be even worse having to get the bomb from the other side.

Maybe use a demo charge so you can throw it around at least? But then it's just going to get stuck at the bottom of the map...

Idk somebody surely has better ideas. I think it's worth pursuing though.

[VAN1SH1NG]

I think it is mostly a map issue. I believe TBD maps were used with simple edits to convert to CTF type gameplay. For CTF to work it probably needs maps designed specifically for CTF gameplay.

[Oyster]

Can we do a possession game mode? Like, no goals, just teams seeing who can hold a ball for the longest amount of time.

[Clam]

Yeah I think you're right van...

KEEPAWAAAAAAAAAAAY
We do this informally in the lobby sometimes. I think it'd be relatively simple and wouldn't require entirely new maps.

[Slender]

I've been thinking about recreating UT2K4 game modes on Altitude. There are plenty of crazy game modes, for example Invasion, where one would hold out with its team, waves of attacking monsters, with each wave increasing its difficulty. Or Assault, where there are 2 teams, one of them is attacking and the other is defending but this is held on a map with different stages where, as the attacking team, you must complete certain objectives in order to proceed to the next stage of the assault, each time getting closer to the defending team's base, with 2 rounds available to play and an occasional 3rd in case the teams are tied 1-1. Although the main issue I see in this, is that these game modes on UT2K4 are based on very long timers, say 20+ minutes (perhaps a little less but it's quite a lot compared to the average duration of [ball ladder] games).

It does sound like a lot to work on but at first glance, it sounds quite viable to implement on Altitude.

[ABlank]

CTF sounds like it's worth a try. So does keep a specific player alive. It could be whoever has the most kills like in Halo regicide, or at the beginning, the team can vote for whichever teammate is the best at staying alive. (I use Halo as an example because it's the only game i know how to play besides chess and Altitude.)
Would zone control work like king of the hill, where a team controls a zone just by occupying it? Or you could have each team start out with a few possible spawning areas each defined by a strong turret or a small base, and then when an area's turret/base is destroyed, planes can no longer spawn there.
I think the idea of teleport objects is pretty funny: "How do i get to that side of the map?" "Just crash into that block there." "No, seriously." "Yeah man it's just like in Harry Potter."
You might be able to create something like Invasion from Slender's post by making a 1DM server with a ton of bots. Initially have their spawn points really far apart and far from the players, and gradually make them spawn closer and closer together to make larger hordes of zombie-bots.
When the idea for a game mode comes from a first-person shooter, you can't expect it to necessarily work well in Altitude, but at least one of these will probably end up being fun. I can't think of a cool game idea that's more unique to an airplane game. I still want a trick shots server, which we could make if a server could record the ball's position/velocity.
Sorry for the long post, i'm just throwing stuff out there. EDIT: Hey it's not even that long. It looked longer when i was writing it.