33 replies to this topic

[Scryer]

These Epic battles, you're describing seems like it would require a hell of a lot of coding. I'm against it because it would just add ontop of the huge workpile that the team has on their plates. This kind of a system you're describing, would take a couple of tries to get it right.

If you want to play epic battles right away, save your game at the beginning of the match. If you want to do epic battles with different factions, wait for the LWM campaign to get finished. If I remember correctly, the LWM campaign will allow tons of flexibility.

[Captain of Arnor]

Someone said before that it wouldn't require much coding at all. They said that if you go into the campaign coding area and single out the battle map for Minas Tirith and Helms Deep, and the Black Gate (assuming those are the three chosen) that it wouldn't be hard to re-code it to make it selectable from the skirmish menu.

I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, but thinking about it, it doesn't really sound like it would be as hard as, say, rebuilding the entire campaign. A talented coder could do it no problem, I'd think. But thats just me guessing. I'm no modder, never have been, just a hardcore fan giving the opinion most other fans out there have, from a fans prospective.

Take my word for it when I say that including this in the mod would be a huge increase to your fan base, guys.

(ADDITION)

And of course I'm not saying you should be able to do the battle Minas Tirith as the Elves, or Helms Deep as the Dwarves. You've got the factions you've got for the battle. You just jerk the battle right out of the campaign (only copying it, I mean, not removing it from the campaign) and add it to the Skirmish selection menu, with like, an icon beside it or something. Or titled 'Epic Minas Tirith' or 'Campaign Minas Tirith', or maybe 'Battle Minas Tirith' or something along those lines.

Edited by Lord_Faramir, 27 October 2008 - 05:06 AM.

[{IRS}Athos]

Yep, I'd be pretty much sold on that.

[Ed Of The 3rd Kind]

What you seem not to be thinking about is that this would require tinkering with the menu art & buttons. And saying that all you would have to do is take the code from the campaign for those 3 missions is an understatement due to the fact that there would be more coding required than simply copying and pasting. And it doesn't take that much effort to save the game before a major battle come on guys, we're not that lazy!

However I do like the idea, I just think if you do this it kinda stumps the importance of having a campaign and skirmish (to some degree) Particularly when what you would be doing would be having a cloned scenario attainable right from the beginning, just serves to make the reward of the scenario seem somewhat redundant....

[Captain of Arnor]

They can obviously tinker around with the skirmish menu because they're adding new maps to the skirmish area. They've done it quite a few times, because there are the new RJ maps added.

I'm not saying add a new area to the main menu. That would be the best option, a whole new area for it instead of adding it to the skirmish menu, but I've been told that it would be quite impossible to code so I'm not even considering that a possibility anymore.

Basically, (example here is Minas Tirith) you give the battle map a name like 'Epic Battle Minas Tirith' or something along those lines, like I said earlier, and put it in the Skirmish menu underneath the normal Minas Tirith. So you can chose to play the normal four-player basic Minas Tirith map or you can play the Epic Battle Minas Tirith with a set amount of Rohirrim reinforcements coming. I hope I'm putting this in the right terms XD Its hard to explain what I'm thinking.

In terms of mod-attractiveness, What I'm saying is this. There are some pretty big BFME fans out there who just don't want to go through the entire campaign to play a single battle (which is what I will have to do since I had to recently install a clean copy of Windows XP.) I'll play through the campaign anyways, because I enjoy the campaign. Story mode is a great way to pass spare time.

But if you don't want to have to worry about saving your game right before a major battle, then shouldn't the option to select the battle you want to play through be there on the skirmish menu? Its hard to recreate those battles in a normal skirmish because of how the enemy attacks constantly with small waves instead of one huge onslaught (which is what I wish they would do. Epicly huge battles where I'm outnumbered at least 5:1 are my forte.)

Edited by Lord_Faramir, 27 October 2008 - 03:21 PM.

[rjorrin28]

come on guys, we're not that lazy!

Mmm.. I don't agree with you there Ed

[Lauri]

Coding - Requires no coding
Mapping - If campaign map's already there, it requires some modifications.. If not, it requires more

First off, it's a map designed for you against the AI... Do you guys want it to still be a You vs. AI? You'll have to add another player to it, and if the armies are already built, you'd have to (I think) change the AI so that not only the enemy Mordor uses AI, but also EVERY OTHER faction... Of course, that wouldn't be required if you all would know that you'd always have to have an enemy Mordor And you'll also have to copy all the scripts and the likes from the evil-campaign map (if it's been done yet?), and put them among the already-in ones, and that would most likely make a MESS... probably loads of bugs would occur, with scrips named the same, timers colliding, ect... why do you need this? Well, you want to be able to attack Minas Tirith too, right? And you'd have to use Gondor as enemy AI too... And it it hasn't been done, it would require probably just as much bunch of work anyways by making it from scratch

And unless I'm mistaken, that's not everything that would need to be done
I don't know if it's possible to make a one-player map where you only choose your own faction, but I doubt it works, and you'd have to decide the difficulty on the enemy anyways And it should be able to be played in Multiplayer too...

I don't know if you see where I'm going with this, but I'm trying to say, that's it's a lot more work than you think it is... No, there's not problem getting it in the Skirmish section, no problem naming it Epic Minas Tirith, but there's problems when it comes to make it playable.. the way you want it
So I'd say just drop it...
There's other things that the team should focus on than something that some of you think will bring LOADS of new players, and I rather doubt that...

[Dalf32]

its a fine idea, but, like ed, i think it detracts from the campaign just a bit. it discourages people from playing the campaign when they could simply play their favorite battles straight off. its the reward after the struggle imo and i dont really think we should do it, let alone whether or not we can.

[Scryer]

its a fine idea, but, like ed, i think it detracts from the campaign just a bit. it discourages people from playing the campaign when they could simply play their favorite battles straight off. its the reward after the struggle imo and i dont really think we should do it, let alone whether or not we can.

Sometimes the reward can be the struggle for terrible players like myself .

I think that this idea is definitely something to consider after the entire mod is finished. But as of right now, more important things need to get done first such as the completion of the campaigns, Elves, and maps.

Edited by Scryer, 27 October 2008 - 09:02 PM.

[Devon]

It's really not that much work. The linear campaign missions are already just jump in missions, so we could easily port one over. The issue is whether we actually want it.


Don't forget, I think rob was planning on adding a skip feature to all the lesser missions of the campaign...so you don't need to play through all the search and destroy missions to get to MT.

[Hexman]

The epic battles can be on skirmish.

[Devon]

I realize that, but like I said, the issue is whether we want them there.

[Ed Of The 3rd Kind]

Well perhaps if it is possible could the missions not be added under the condition that they were all ready cleared, that way people have to play the scenario to unlock it - makes sense as this is what happens in other games...

I still don't think we should have it in there, am of the old school of thought that "dessert before dinner ruins the appetite....."

[{IRS}Athos]

I think that the finish campaign/then get scenarios idea would be the best.
And should be in the mod.