So I came up with an idea for a single-player RPG that uses a constant in-game display, that uses lines and text on the screen at all times to display location, ammunition, objectives, the player's status such as standing still or moving, or engaging an enemy and reloading. It will also detect when an enemy is nearby and whether or not to engage depending on the current status and ammunition of the player, and the closer you get to the enemy the display gets more red.

There are 3 display settings; Primary, Secondary, and Data Log, and when a text from the game comes up the display is turned off and the player is forced still, so basically without the display you don't move/take damage/attack/interact. I don't have screenshots at the moment, but this is my idea of what it will look like on Primary setting when no enemy is nearby:


Status:
Radial Frequency:
No Detections.

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--- ---

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Objectives: N/A

Oxygen Meter: 100%

Now imagine that on the screen of a game, where the center cross hair is always centered on the unit owned by the player.
The second display would be:

Interface Display

Status:
No feedback detected...
Type: N/A Distance: N/A

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--- ---

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Bullets Remaining:
Clips Remaining:

Oxygen Meter: 100%

I've already started making the basics, but it's not really a game yet, just a system, so I put it in here to see what people would think of playing a game with this in it. Of course you wouldn't play expecting to talk with friends since this is always up ...

Also i still haven't thought up an idea for the data log, but I kind of have a generalization for it, where it displays your inventory and your other statistics like kills. Also, you won't be able to move since the cross hair won't be displayed.

With a barracks and by making either a marine firebat or medic, you can switch between each display.

What do you think? Would you want to play a game with this in it?

None.

I skimmed your idea, and forgive me if you already said something about this... but... what if you could implement a way to "Turn Off" the display, so you could talk with others?

Other than that, it sounds way cool!

He said it would only be for single player.

I like this idea. Gogogogogogo!

I will have a 'button' like the marine/fbat/med that turns it off completely while being able to move, and also there will be times where it turns off automatically.

So far I've finished the Primary basic/reloading status, secondary basic/reloading status and all ammo situations (max is 2 clips, 4 rounds.) I have also gotten the basic Data log, which is this:

Interface Display: Data Log

Data Log Status: Normal
No Transmission interference.
Text Logs acquired: # Intel Acquired: #
Hostiles Neutralized: #

Oxygen Meter: 100%

Bullets remaining:
Clips remaining:

hmm only problem is this would eat up strings like crazy

yea especially if u plan to update the amount of ammo you have, not to mention the % of that oxygen tank thingy

There isn't a limit to strings though, is there?

http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Strings

See for yourself.

Well, if the limit is 60,000+, and if I DO set all my locations to the same name once I finish, and I try to keep other things to a minimum, then I should have enough room.

I believe you only have 11 lines of text to work with, as only 11 lines of text show up on the screen at any given time. In order to conserve string usage, you are going to need to divide up your displays into separate strings, or rather, divide up each line of text into a certain category and reuse strings as often as possible. In my RPG I'm using an in-game menu, and in order to do so I just split up each line of text into separate trigger actions inside of separate triggers. So if you are going to create a display with multiple features, you are going to need to place those features in different lines out of the 11 that you have, otherwise you would have different features within the same line of text, meaning within the same trigger actions. That would be near impossible to create due to the different amount of combinations required.

Here is an example:

Lines 1-11:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

You can use the red lines for your crosshairs, the purple for something like oxygen levels, and the blue for something like remaining hit points. You cannot however, use the red lines for both the crosshairs and oxygen levels, as you cannot use variables in display text, the text itself has to be a single variable (you can't have mutliple features within the same lines). If you try to display the oxygen levels in the same line of text as the crosshairs, you are going to have to account for all the different possibilities of oxygen levels and crosshair display within separate triggers, meaning within separate strings.

I hope this is making sense, and good luck.

Cecil it makes sense, but thing is, I've already configured, centered, and created the display, where it does have different settings to look at that you can access. I reuse a lot of words in the same place, so hopefully that recognizes it and reuses the same string for three different displays.

Well you can have different features doing different things at different times, as long as those are in different lines of text, or not showing up at the same time. I also didn't know you already made the entire system

And about re-using strings, any two strings in SCMdraft that are identicle, will be reused wherever you place them in the map. Although, two strings containing similar words with minor differences, will be counted as two entirely different strings. The string "Rawr" and "Rawr" would be identicle, and could be used any amount of times without using more than the single string's worth. The two strings "Rawr" and "Rawr!" will be counted as two entirely different strings. So when I say reuse strings, I literally mean cut//paste of the same exact strings into different areas ;D

Post up some screenshots eh?

Screenies:
Primary Display:
Choosing Secondary: Secondary: Data Log: Detecting an Enemy on Primary:
And yes, there is an enemy it is detecting, it's slightly off screen to the bottom right, in the substructure tile.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Dec 26 2009, 6:42 am by Marine.

For the Data Log, I'm willing to bet that you can save strings by separating Text Logs from Intel, and Oxygen from Hostiles.

and its 60,000 characters total. In the rpg I made I was careless at first with display texts, and I reached that limit pretty quickly. It all depends on what you plan to do with this system.

cecil i thought there were 12 lines in sc text...

11

Lol, my word isn't respected around these parts

You started with "I believe".

I nearly made a system with that for multiplayer but my map's gameplay sucked because of general bnet lag (map is similar to tron, just with a lot of items... 1s lag isn't fun then.).

I would like to see a good implementation in maps.

There are 12 tiles in a screen (vertically), but 11 lines of text. Don't mix those up.

I've seen a multiplayer DotA - like map made before that used constant display. All I can remember is that is was on installation, made by T-a-r-g-e-t and that your main building was a stationary defiler. If anyone remembers this map or has it, please link it here.