Marius_A wrote in Fri May 26, 2017 11:47 am:I have a working prototype of a mission system on my local copy of FG, but I'm limited by my imagination while creating actual missions.
Thanks for taking initiative!
It is already hard to have someone working on feature you like, but if there is also requirement that some one also has to create
content for it, i.e. missions definitions in this case, that too unrealistic IMHO
.
So how about tackling this problem by creating procedurally generated mission system?
Imagine like this. Player starts FG with some aircraft, let's say it's Eurocopter.
First of all, there should be aircraft mission traits "database", describing what type of missions it should support.
Missions could be of various types, from just a quick though:
- Search & Rescue [earth] (for helicopters only)
- Search & Rescue [water] (for helicopters and amphibians)
- Passenger transport (maybe some subtypes, idk)
- Refuelling (multiplayer? )
- Reconnaissance (to take a photo with target on screen within required distance? )
- etc...
So, user selects mission type (or it could be called a template), let's say its S&R.
Then, user selects starting point:
- User entered airport/helipad
- Random (Eurocopter being a helicopter supports helipads, airports, carriers. Priority for helipads).
- Random helipad
- Random airport
- Maybe something else...
Then, user selects distance limit (might not want to play for an hour..), daytime (exact time, random, midnight (
if aircraft mission traits says that it can perform these missions at night, and Eurocopter with searchlight can), dusk, ...), maybe weather conditions (true, random, selected...)
There could be gazillion of additional settings, like probability for failures (mission traits should define how mission system should access failures, may be some sort of hooks, not sure how FG failures works anyway), G limit, fuel limit (if Eurocopter has defined it's fuel quota in mission traits database), disabled map for realistic navigation, time limit (should be suggested by cruise speed defined, again, in aircraft mission traits database) etc, etc.
And, well, if user selected search & rescue mission, you can make route with two or three (if destination is "hospital" were rescued passenger has to be delivered) waypoints:
First waypoint, is user selected or random airport/helipad.
Second = first waypoint + random distance with regard to user entered limits (and of course amphibian aircraft should not have it's rescue mission target selected on land, because it's traits did not allow "Search & Resqcue (land)"). Waypoint would be on
approximate position of person to be rescued with random deviation, so player will be actually searching for him.
Third waypoint - could be same as first or some another airport/helipad nearby. It would be super cool if Flightgear would have database of coordinates of actual hospitals with helipads, but don't dream to much for now, any helipad/airport would suffice
.
There could be penalty point system of some sort, for rating players performance, depending on how fast it is done, how much fuel spent, did it hit G limit specified, if managed to reach main objectives, but for starters it would suffice a "success!".
And with this kind of mission generator, with all different aircraft Flightgear has, different mission templates and whole Earth of play area, that would be huge fun!