[karajorma]

Okay here's a couple of things I would like to see.

1) Red alerts with no carry over for Alpha
Admittedly I haven't tried this one yet but is it possible to have a red alert and not carry over alpha's status? In that way we could have missions where alpha leaves a battle changes fighters (or to a bomber) and then returns in a new fresh fighter.

2) Full debriefings and briefings with Red Alerts.
 This one goes hand in hand with the other one by the looks of things but I can think of some things I can do with it even if the first one isn't possible (e.g alpha is forced to land somewhere other than his base so no repairs are possible to his ship before the next mission but he does have time to get a full command briefing.

3) Multiple paths for red alerts
This one bugs me a lot. Is it possible to have more than one mission following a red alert so that you can choose what the actual red alert mission will be like?
 If that's not possible can we do it so that you can have several missions after the alert where one is the actual red alert mission but the rest are normal missions?  
I just hate the way things are currently where if you have a red-alert anywhere in your mission you can only go on to a red alert mission.
 I'd like to see a situation where if you do well no red-alert is triggered but if you bugger things up you have to play the red-alert mission to clean up your mess.

[Goober5000]

1) and 2) can be accomplished with campaign-persistent variables.  Probably the next major thing that should be done now that bug-hunting season is over.

I've looked at 3), but haven't been able to figure it out.  By all rights branching from a red-alert mission should work, but in practice it doesn't.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Goober5000
1) and 2) can be accomplished with campaign-persistent variables.  Probably the next major thing that should be done now that bug-hunting season is over.

I've looked at 3), but haven't been able to figure it out.  By all rights branching from a red-alert mission should work, but in practice it doesn't.

I was going to ask for them instead but I figured that this might be easier But yeah I'd love persistant variables

Actually now that I think of it I suppose I can achieve part of 1) by simply repairing Alpha's hull after the mission starts
 I don't think I could change the ship the player flies though.

[Goober5000]

The more I think about it, the more I think that campaign-persistent variables would be quite easy to do from a coding standpoint - just save them to the pilot file.  Unfortunately, for some time now I haven't had time to sit down and take a look at it.

As far as assigning the ship type to a variable, that just requires some clever sexping - for instance, saving the ship class as a string type.  I've already done the change-ship-type sexp... if someone could modify it to accept variables, you'd have your solution.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Goober5000
The more I think about it, the more I think that campaign-persistent variables would be quite easy to do from a coding standpoint - just save them to the pilot file.

Scariest idea EVER.

what happens when the code has to deal with campaign variables from two different campaigns? Does the one overwrite the other? Does it append its own campaign section and update a campaign TOC somwhere in the file?

Probably better to have a campaign specific save file. Harder to implement, but safer in the long run.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by mikhael


Scariest idea EVER.

what happens when the code has to deal with campaign variables from two different campaigns? Does the one overwrite the other? Does it append its own campaign section and update a campaign TOC somwhere in the file?

Probably better to have a campaign specific save file. Harder to implement, but safer in the long run.

I agree it shouldn't be written to the pilot file but even if it was it shouldn't be that much of a problem. You can't run two campaigns at the same time with the same pilot anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.
 As long as choosing a new campaign wipes the campaign variable part of the pilot file I can't see any way that it would cause problems.

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by mikhael


Scariest idea EVER.

what happens when the code has to deal with campaign variables from two different campaigns? Does the one overwrite the other? Does it append its own campaign section and update a campaign TOC somwhere in the file?

Probably better to have a campaign specific save file. Harder to implement, but safer in the long run.

Even as it stands now a pilot can only be in one campaign at a time.  Persistant variables will not be any problem.  Along with his progress, any persistant variables will also be stored.  Change campaigns, and they'll be wiped like all the rest of the campaign data.

[KARMA]

persisten variables...
you really are going to do this?.....
i'm so happy that i'm crying!!:)
with persistent variables, red alerts and maybe with movies before mission it should be possible to have multiple regions
with persisten variables campaign designing can be bringed to new incredible heights
i was thinking... could be a good idea to make those variables modifyable even outside the game (squadwar...) ?

[mikhael]

If campaign data weren't kept in the pilot file, but in a campaign save of some sort, there wouldn't be a problem dropping a campaign, playing another one for a while, and resuming the first one where you left off.

I might be the only person who cares about that though.

[kasperl]

Originally posted by mikhael
If campaign data weren't kept in the pilot file, but in a campaign save of some sort, there wouldn't be a problem dropping a campaign, playing another one for a while, and resuming the first one where you left off.

I might be the only person who cares about that though.

sounds good!

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by mikhael
If campaign data weren't kept in the pilot file, but in a campaign save of some sort, there wouldn't be a problem dropping a campaign, playing another one for a while, and resuming the first one where you left off.

I might be the only person who cares about that though.

That would require substantial changes to the way campaigns are handled.  It has nothing to do with persistent variables.

[Anaz]

couldn't you save it as something like "pilotname campaignname.dat" in the pilots directory? Or give each pilot their own directory and have campaignname.dat for each one? then mik could be able to play & leave off because things like curr mission, etc. could be stored in that file.

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Goober5000
That would require substantial changes to the way campaigns are handled.

If someone wants to look into it, fine; but it'd require quite a bit of work to accomplish.