Reversing gameplay mod...

[gizmoguy1]

Last night, I was desperatley trying to think of the ULTIMATE mod. The good news is I found it, the bad news is my modding abilities aren't muy bien . Imagine playing Darwinia all the way through again, but as the other team . YOU ARE THE VIRUS. During gameplay I noticed you had to use an Engineer to convert a red lighted (infected) building to a yellow lighted one. There are two ways I thought of playing the game:

1) The map starts out blank. It has control towers, incubators, landscape, etc. but no virii or Squaddies, Engineers, etc. You must place different virii on the map in an effort to stop the AI-controlled Squaddies and Engineers taking over the map. They start with one control tower and they have to complete all objectives in a set amount of time, or they lose and you win. You also win if you kill them all. Obviously, there will be limits as to the number of virii you can put on the map.

2) Once again, blank map with towers and blah blah blah. This time, there is no time limit on building the map, or for the Squaddies and Engineers to do there job, it's real-time. Each team has one control tower, all the rest are blank. Each team must complete there objectives before the other team, or until one team dies. These objectives could be taking over more than 50% of the control towers, or something else like that.

Basically, it's Sqaddies & Engineers vs. Virii, but you play as the virii and the computer the others, instead of the other way round. I hope someone likes the idea and makes it into a mod.

[martin]

nice idea but:

you cannot control virii, only squads, engineers and darwinians are under your control. Virii, centipedes and spiders can be on your team but they do wtf they like.

also the AI cannot control the squads.

[xander]

It is an interesting idea, and I admit to having thought about the same thing many moons ago. The problem is that it just doesn't work within the limitations of Darwinia.

The only player controlled team is team 2 (the yellow team). Squads, engineers, and armour are all team 2 (generally speaking). Squads and armour will do basically nothing if placed on another team; engineers will reprogram nearby buildings, and collect souls, but won't behave "intelligently." Furthermore, watching a team 1 (red) engineer try to reprogram a building is kind of funny -- basically, it doesn't work properly.

The only "enemy" team is team 1 (red). You can place most of the enemy units on any other team, but they tend not to work properly. Addtionally, virii (the red, snakey things) are invisible unless they are on team 1. Even if you place spiders or soul destroyers on team 2 (the player controlled team), they will not be directly controllable.

Finally, the hostility between the teams is hardcoded -- green fires on red; red fires on green and yellow; yellow is player controlled (though squads will make some feeble attempts at firing at red).

Also, you can't really place units on the map, except for squads and engineers. Thus, your set up phase doesn't really work.

So, while I like the idea of playing through as the other side, it just isn't practical within the confines of the Darwinia engine. As I said, I had a similar idea many moons ago, and it evolved into Insurrection. That, I think, is about the extent of playing for the other side that is possible (though I am sure that someone will create a mod that proves me wrong ;)

Both of your ideas sound like reasonable ideas for two player maps, but would never work single player, because of the limitations of the Darwinia AI. However, as Chris has been promising multiplayer since day one, it is possible that you may have a chance to implement that idea in a year or two :P

xander

[Puzzlemaker]

I thought of this too. If it where possible to dynamically move around AI spawn points, it could be done. But I dont think thats possible.

[Rampage Starfire]

I just wish it was possible to create and place a building from a script....

[xander]

I just wish it was possible to create and place a building from a script....

In a way, that is possible.

You need two mission files. In the first mission file, you do not have the building that you you want to place. In the second mission file, you have the building. Then, you switch the mission files at some point, using a script that looks like this:

Code: Select all

ExitLocation
SetMission level mission_level_2.txt
EnterLocation level


The screen will turn black for a moment, and you will have a new level with the new building.

So, it is possible, but very limited, and does involve a cut to black.

xander

[Puzzlemaker]

Hmm.

Do you think they will ever release the Darwinia source code, like they did for Uplink?

And if there was some sort of way to write to the .txt files from the game, dynamically, this sort of stuff might be possible.

Like, have a script or program or something that runs in the mod, that lets you use an engineer to spawn Virii or something, trying to hold off the Darwinians.

Or have it so you place your engineers where you want Virii to spawn, then once you move a squad to a certain position, the engineers are destroyed, Virii are spawned, and now you have to hold off the Darwinians?

Hmm.

Probobly not possible. If you want to do a mod like that, your best bet would be to beg Introversion for the source code.