Yet again...dynamic campaign

Hi ED team,

I know this has been asked many many time, I`m sorry I just coudn`t resist :wink: .

Is there any news that you can tell us about dynamic campaign ? do you consider it (or I hope you already begin develope it) in your next Lock On Addon (1.2 or maybe 1.3) ?

That`s all and and good luck :wink:

I think this will come about possibly when they enhance the editor some more. You need to have some event-trigger system in place to start with to have a dynamic campaign, just for the individual missions, and the campaign on top of this.

Ideally a scripting language would also help, but that may be too much of a bother - especially since they can just use LUA for it, I think.

To this end, I have a small wish list for LUA exports:

Export the following messages if possible:

-joining (not loggin ginto server, but pressing fly, or recovering) with timestamp, side, and name, with option to also export at this time payload and fuel load

-weapon release with timestamp, side stamp, and aircraft the weapon was released from with player name

-damage caused to object including timestamp, damaged object name/ID and condition (dead, damage %?), damaged object side, as well as the weapon it was hit by, and who fired the weapon and the side this weapon belongs to

-landings with timestamp, side stamp, pilot name, and base aircraft has landed on

-exit from the game with player name, timestamp, side stamp

-rearming and refuelling, player name, fuel loaded, payload loaded - this in the future might be used to control base supplies and limit them.

Im not sure if a Lock On 1.2 or 1.3 will ever come out. I think Eagle Dynamics will start working on a new sim, with a new name, but then again it will be almost lock on i presume. :wink:

Im just speculating, dont take my post too seriously. Im not a dev nor an ED spokesman. :)

I`ve no idea about what kind of DC suitable for Lock On and I`ll let people like GG share the idea (thanks GG) but one thing for sure I hope the DC would be FPS friendly. @ Skywall...be optimistic will ya :lol:

Cheers

Well, the funny thing is if you run LOMAC on one computer and an LUA DC campaign on another computer, you could have the DC working without smacking the poor lil' server around for FPS.

Why, could even end up with a distributed dynamic cmapaign! O.o. ALthough the LMOAC world isn't big enough for this.

LUA exporting has been expanded quite a bit with 1.1, but it's not detailed enough yet for a dynamic campaign system. It's also impossible to influence objects through LUA (like dynamically setting new targets or spawning new objects). I certainly hope there will be more LUA expoting/importing hooks in the future as it seems like a good and flexible way to do things like that. On a sidenote, what I am currently experimenting with for 1.1 is a simple AWACS overview based on the LUA functions that could be displayed on a seperate computer.

I've always said that the biggest obstacle for a dynamic campaign is the AI, and with 1.1 it has improved to a point where I no longer consider it a critical issue :) That leaves us with the following problems:

1) Auto-generation and evaluation of missions and their results

I can do that in theory, but be sure it's a lot of work and will require quite some tweaking. It is limited to single player campaigns as so far, that is the only way to save and extract mission events like who killed what target etc.

2) Amount of objects

Lock On does not have a "bubble" system for simplified AI calculations of objects that are further away. This will limit the amount of objects that any mission should have. Any dynamic campaign system should be scalable enough to work with both a few or more objects (for the future).

3) A believable theatre

It is hard, but not impossible to come up with a somewhat believable background for a conflict in the Lock On map region. However such a conflict would by all means not involve ground combat on Russian territory - which is a pity because I think the most interesting terrain area is just right there... I understand this is not equally important to everyone (some people would just want a dynamic war no matter how realistic), but I think it's a point to consider.

4) Integration with Lock On

Quite frankly a dynamic campaign system would have to run in a seperate environment if it provided more than just dynamically created missions. I'm talking about things like statistics, strategic overviews, squadron and resource management etc. Switching back and forth between Lock On and such a system would be necessary, no way around that.

So this is my view on it. With the AI improvements, 1.1 has now reached a level where I consider a dynamic campaign possible. All hooks are finally in place :) But it is clear that the game was not designed that way, so various compromises will be necessary.

For those who remember Longbow II, this is maybe a good example on how a Lock On dynamic campaign system could work. It also lacked the real-time factor of Falcon4, did not include too many AI objects at once, but still provided a great experience.

Re: Yet again...dynamic campaign

Dynamic campaign features will not be considered in the Ubi Lock On family. Let's return to this question in future projects.

Fair enough. I think the enhancements to the game that Flaming Cliffs will provide are good enough for an add-on.

There are a thousand things that could be defined as "a nice thing to have in this game." For example, it would be very nice to be able to climb out of your cockpit after having landed your plane, and walk around the airfield. :D

Im not sure if a Lock On 1.2 or 1.3 will ever come out. I think Eagle Dynamics will start working on a new sim, with a new name, but then again it will be almost lock on i presume. :wink:

Well, maybe there will be a 1.2. Remember the news of the KA-50 helicopter? I believe they also intend for that to come as an add-on to Lock On. They mentioned a release of that one sometime in 2005, so maybe we will have something to look forward to, in the not-too-distant future. Keep your fingers crossed!

Re: Yet again...dynamic campaign

Dynamic campaign features will not be considered in the Ubi Lock On family. Let's return to this question in future projects.

To be honest, this is not good news for me :cry: , but I believe in your decision.

Thanks for your answer and good luck :wink: