Swarm Game Play System

Scenarios

The new game play system introduces the concept of scenarios. A scenario is a collection of associated swarm entities. Scenarios where introduced to allow complex objectives to be achieved over several rounds. Scenarios allow a mapper to control the feel of a map during these rounds. A map may contain up to 6 Scenarios; a scenario may contain the following entities:
  • Missions 32
  • Spawn Points 32
  • Mission Destinations 32
  • Ammo Packs 32
  • Regeneration Pools 32
The type of flow invisaged went some thing like this (new mission entities are in bold italics).

The map contains a damaged human base near some caves and canyon with cliffs, there are three scenarios to be played consecutively.

Scenario one: The Xen are attacking the Human base in strength, the Humans have one mission, they must survive this round. The Xen have Three missions, they must capture a crystal, destroy an ammunition truck, and capture some secret documents. The Humans can carry the documents, making it harder for the Xen to find them. The Xen start in the caves, the Humans in the base.

Scenario two: The Xen have driven the Humans from their base, so they spawn in the base. The Humans spawn in a covered area near the caves. This is a consolidation round, the Humans have two missions, capture the documents stolen in scenario one, and escort a commander into the comms center in the base.

Scenario Three: The Humans have retaken their base so they spawn there. The Xen having been pushed backwards spawn on the cliffs around the canyon. The Xen must survive. The Humans must destroy the teleport at the end of the canyon.

The objective here is to allow a player to feel like they are part of a bigger experience. Even though you can 'win' a round, you can still be on the loosing side. Although it would be possible to emulate Scenarios by copying and modifying the map, it is inefficient to do so. No one will be happy down loading the same map three times. You would also loose the continuity that this approach enjoys. Scenarios allows a mapper to introduce the continuity and depth of a single player game in to the dynamics of a multiplayer game.

Missions

The new game play system includes four types of mission, Capture The Object (CTO), Escort The Player (ETP), Destroy The Object (DTO) and Survive (SUR). The structure used to develop the system allows any combination of mission objects during a game. The mapper may set the order, behaviour and timing of all mission parameters.

CTO represents the standard Capture the flag scenario. Other uses would be to use object as key for a door etc.

ETP requires a randomly selected player to get safely to an escape point/s.

DTO initially required the destruction of an object; it has now been extended to allowing any set task to trigger it. The simplest example of this is to use a func_breakable, skinned as a plane, car, computer etc, set to trigger the DTO on death.

SUR requires the nominated team to survive for the round without being wiped out. Players on nominated team do not re-spawn, players on other teams will if re-spawn is set in swarm_map_data entity. Idea behind this is the ‘Alamo’ concept, must defend fort against overwhelming force.

The entire system revolves around several SWARM entities, and the entities from Half-life. The SWARM mission entities are swarm_map_data, swarm_scenario, swarm_capture_mission, swarm_destroy_mission, swarm_escort_mission, swarm_survive_mission and swarm_mission_destination.

Map Data

swarm_map_data is the entity used to control general map parameters and default round behaviour. It also controls Scenario sequencing. This is a required entity.

Scenarios

swarm_scenario controls the behaviour of rounds and scenarios. It controls wether monsters are friendly to players of the same race. If players are allowed to re-spawn within a round. The length of rounds, and how many consecutive rounds a Scenario is played for. Settings here override setting of the same name in swarm_map_data. This is a required entity.

Mission Objects

You can specify the team to be associated with this mission; not setting this allows any player to complete the mission. For CTO & DTO this nominates the team responsible for foiling the mission. For ETP and SUR mission this nominates team responsible for completing the mission. Negative points will be awarded when players of the guarding team complete a mission.

You must select a scenario that this mission is associated with, the defaut is 0, the first scenario. Missions associated with a non-existing scenario, will never be enabled.

Missions objects allow you to set a target destination, for CTO and ETP this will limit this mission’s completion to the named destination only. An empty Target will allow a mission to be completed at any destination. A mission can have only one named destination. For DTO and SUR missions the Target specified will be fired with a use type of TOGGLE.

Team points for completion of missions range between 1 and 10, the points awarded should reflect the difficulty of completing the mission.

Time bonuses can be awarded for mission completion. This can be a negative value. You could use a negative value in a SUR mission to encourage the team attempting to survive to move around, and a positive one for the other team/s, giving them more time to wipe out the surviving team..

Flags:

Completing a mission can end the round before the timer had reached zero. In non-timed games with respawn in round enabled this is the only way to end a round.

Mission Objects can begin a round either ON or OFF. Firing a mission object with a use type of ON/OFF will enable/disable a mission’s interaction with players. Firing a mission with TOGGLE will not affect CTO, ETP or SUR missions, and will complete a DTO mission. This allows a DTO mission to be completed by using it as the target of a func_breakable, or for that matter any other trigger/entity that uses TOGGLE.

Missions can reset the round counter, this will cause the round to set itself to the full round time, without ending the round. Does not apply to SUR missions.

Missions can be reset on completion; this causes the mission to return to its starting location and starting state, without resetting the round counter or ending the round. Does not apply to SUR missions.

Auto Return will cause a mission not in its original location to be returned to its original location when touched by a player on the same team. This applies to CTO mission only.

Each mission type has sounds and messages to notify players of specific events related to the mission. Setting these messages to null will prevent them from being displayed.

CTO missions allow the mapper to specify the model to use for the object. This model must be put in the swarm/models directory or, preferably, in an wad file in said directory.

ETP missions allow you to specify the class to use for the escorted player. The mission will only begin when a player of this class is available. Ensure that you pick a valid class for the team specified.

Mission Destinations

Mission destinations control where CTO and ETP mission are completed. Destinations can begin a round either ON or OFF. Firing a destination with TOGGLE will toggle its state as per normal. Destinations allow you to set their name, which is compared to a missions Target when a mission enters a destination. A destination will accept any mission if the destinations name is NULL, if the missions target is NULL, or if the name and target match.

Destinations allow a Target to be set; this Target will be fired with a use type of TOGGLE when a mission is accepted by this destination.

Destinations can be unaligned or Team specific; if a team is set no missions with the same team will ever be accepted.

Where to now?

Experienced mappers will now start to realise the flexibility of this system. You can have any number of missions, aligned or independent, scattered around a map. You can switch these missions on and off at will.  You can set-up complicated scenarios based on the completion of previous missions. You as a mapper are completely in control of what happens on a map. You can even set conflicting/competing goals, for example

You may have two missions, one for each team, using the same named destination. Trick is the destination gets disabled after the first use, thus forcing teams to hurry to get points.

You have discovered the Lair of Nihilanth’s cousin Fubar (just use a monster_nihilanth). You must battle past the Xen team and kill him.

You are Xen infiltrating a Human base; you must destroy the teleporter, a computer, an ammo dump, and kill that pesky Human with the bad toupee. No time limit. Killing Human will end round; other missions will just gain points.

You want to blow up the new super computer in LAB-F. Just to make it interesting you disable the door to the room, no one can get in. To fire the trigger that opens the door you have to complete the secondary mission of assassinating the player with the ‘key’.

You get five minutes to complete the map, with six mission of CTO, DTO types. For each mission you will get a time bonus, more time to complete the level. Not fun with a whole team of unoccupied enemy chasing you.

You get a flag, which you have to take to destination A. When you do this flag B appears, which must be taken to position B, however if the other team steals flag A then flag B can not be put down so you got to go get flag A. Of course you can only carry one object at a time. When B is down C appears etc. Sound familiar?

There are two human teams; H1 has Commanders and Scientists, H2 Grunts and Assassins. Mission is to eliminate a member of H1, mission code-name ‘Gordon’.

There are four teams, two Human and two Xen. H1 has Grunts and Scientists. H2 has Commanders and Assassins. X1 has Gargs and Slaves. X2 has Controllers and Grunts. There are four re-spawning DTO missions, each aligned to one Team. No time limit, just blow up as many of the other three objects as you can.

MAD. There is one ETP mission for each Team, with no destination points. Each mission resets on the Death of the player selecting the next target from the same team. No time limit, round ends when one team is eliminated. The trick here is to get as many points as possible by only killing the currently escorted player.