OK. It seems my computer is totally uncapable of handling OFP. The lag is so unbelievable (30 mins in the "Wait a moment..." screen, for instance) that I won't be able to make this mission. Since I see a computer upgrade very far into the future (hey, I'm having a son, probably this week :cheers: ), I'll leave this story up for an editor or team who really feels like doing it.
There's a catch to this story: someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the way it works is quite unique. This is what makes possible to use so many units in a single map.
The whole map is divided into different areas. Every area is a different map. There's a script that saves a number of variables every time, so what you find in that map depends on what you have been doing before.
How is this different from a campaign? Well, it's not a linear tree of missions. In regular campaigns, each mission gets you deeper in the story and closer to the end.
This model is rather circular, and it feels like a single, very long, densely populated mission. Since every map is not a further part of a story but merely an area of the island, from map 4 you could go to map 2, for instance.
This story will be written in "modules". That is, each area will have clues and events that you must discover --probably more than one each. As new variables are set to true (that is, as you discover more pieces of the puzzle), other clues and events are triggered. This means that you are free (like in real life) to choose where you want to continue looking for clues. That is the advantage of a circular mission patter over a linear mission pattern.
Saving variables through a script, every time you leave an area and enter another, will make it possible to simulate that it's just one mission. In concept, it's not different from other 3D shooters where you enter new rooms and levels and you must wait a moment while the level loads.
The script that saves the variables will include a list of variables --ammo, weapons, health, vehicles (and all data about the vehicle), hiding places, enemies that should be there, visited places, global events, you name it-- that will make the world in the next map look just like the world you've left.
Since the game will not really work on my comp, I couldn't check how well or bad a circular mission pattern behaves.
I was also thinking of implementing a simple money thing, so you can pay for weapons, bribe people and help others too. And get attacked by crooks too! I call it a simple system because you can only spend the money you start out with, you can never get more money. So you must spend it wisely. You will have tons of opportunities to use it, and you will never have enough money to take advantage of a quarter of those opportunities. So you must control your compulsive buyer issue
To round up: I can't make this mission. Repeat: I can't make this mission.
YOU could make this mission.
So, is there any ambitious mission editor/s who would like to seriously make this story a real mission? I so wish my computer worked; I'd really do this mission myself but it's impossible.
Anyone up for fame and money?
Anyone seriously up for the challenge?
Come on!
I'm waiting for those replies to my e-mail address
(don't answer on this thread, as it's just for the story)
radiosilence00 @ hotmail.com (without the spaces before and after @)
Topic: Journalist (Read 3073 times)