MM8BDM Forum
[SUGGESTION] More Details on Automap
LlamaHombre • June. 2, 2024, 1:01 PM
Go read Umineko
June. 2, 2024, 1:01 PM
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In modded play (Gondola, mostly) I've grown quite fond of using the Automap for keeping track of my position, as well as briefly tracking other important pieces of map-level information. Vanilla in comparison has little if anything to display to the player, when it could potentially be adding much more.
Below are a list of my suggested additions to the automap, starting with ones that I think are pivotal to improving gameplay experience and ending on ones that are more wishlist additions, or those with more questionable gameplay effect:
Personally I would be content with just the top three, but I figured I would list more in case there was desire for the rest. Some of these could be linked to server variables if needed? Thanks for any consideration.
Below are a list of my suggested additions to the automap, starting with ones that I think are pivotal to improving gameplay experience and ending on ones that are more wishlist additions, or those with more questionable gameplay effect:
- -Stationary markers for Objective Gamemodes, like Flag Spawners (CTF), Helmet Spawners (Skulltag) and Point Totems (Skulltag)
- Markers for Weapon Tokens (all modes).
- A marker that replaces the Player Arrows that represent you and your teammates in play, or all players while spectating
- -- Some indicator of their facing direction.
- Markers that indicate dropped or freshly spawned Objectives, including Flags, Helmets, the Circuit Board, the Terminator Pickup.
- Markers that indicate Objectives in Motion, including Flags, Helmets, the Circuit Board, the Terminator Pickup.
- Markers that indicate Large Health/Ammo Pickup locations, regardless of whether they are currently on respawn or not.
Personally I would be content with just the top three, but I figured I would list more in case there was desire for the rest. Some of these could be linked to server variables if needed? Thanks for any consideration.
Korby Administrator
Benvenuto nella room italiana!
June. 2, 2024, 5:10 PM
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I've long since wanted and pushed for more automap usage in stuff I make so I'm in support of utilizing it more.
I know part of the reason we historically haven't is so that mods can use whatever behavior they want, but I'm not sure what the team's general opinion on it is nowadays.
I know part of the reason we historically haven't is so that mods can use whatever behavior they want, but I'm not sure what the team's general opinion on it is nowadays.
Trillster Administrator
what's a code
June. 2, 2024, 10:11 PM
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As the person who implemented this initially for Gondola, I definitely would be interested in having a similar feature carry over. Regarding weapons, however, the concern was that it'd require modders (and ourselves) to implement an extra actor and graphic for every weapon that we make.
Reason being, Zandronum doesn't have the feature to allow us to transfer the sprite from one actor to another. Even if it did, we'd still probably want to use a separate graphic that's offsetted differently, since using the current weapon icon's offsets causes a weird swivel effect as you rotate the automap.
I'm also not sure if automap icons for the circuit board and terminator sphere pickups would be the most fitting for those game modes since they don't use the radar like CTF and Skulltag. While those modes were still getting overhauled in V6B, we toyed with the idea of having a "proximity" radar instead of the typical CTF radar, but I'm not sure if there'd be a way to reflect that mechanic on the automap.
Reason being, Zandronum doesn't have the feature to allow us to transfer the sprite from one actor to another. Even if it did, we'd still probably want to use a separate graphic that's offsetted differently, since using the current weapon icon's offsets causes a weird swivel effect as you rotate the automap.
I'm also not sure if automap icons for the circuit board and terminator sphere pickups would be the most fitting for those game modes since they don't use the radar like CTF and Skulltag. While those modes were still getting overhauled in V6B, we toyed with the idea of having a "proximity" radar instead of the typical CTF radar, but I'm not sure if there'd be a way to reflect that mechanic on the automap.
Trillster Administrator
what's a code
November. 28, 2024, 11:40 AM (Edited by Trillster)
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Been working through an implementation of this. It's designed to have server toggles for disabling player markers, pickup markers, and objective markers. The user also has the option to toggle player markers, objective markers, and individual pickup type markers.
On the modding end of things, map markers can easily be defined for classes and any pickup that inherits from BaseMM8BDMItem, BaseMM8BDMUseItem, and BaseMM8BDMBusterUpgrade, or BaseMM8BDMWep. In the absence of a map marker being defined, a generic default icon is shown, so it's partially optional as well. An example is of defining a weapon map marker is below, but the format is the same for every type of map marker.
Note that any sprites for class map markers should be colorized the same as their skin (blue / cyan), as the player's current translation will be copied to the map marker. Addtionally, with players having death map markers, you can additionally define a [classactorname]_Death_MapMarker actor to customize the look of that if necessary.
Due to the way that this is currently implemented, modders could actually set up support early, since barring any unexpected pushback, I think we're likely to go forward with this feature. I'll just give the obligatory caution that as with any in-development feature, there's a chance that the implementation may require changes when tested further.
On the modding end of things, map markers can easily be defined for classes and any pickup that inherits from BaseMM8BDMItem, BaseMM8BDMUseItem, and BaseMM8BDMBusterUpgrade, or BaseMM8BDMWep. In the absence of a map marker being defined, a generic default icon is shown, so it's partially optional as well. An example is of defining a weapon map marker is below, but the format is the same for every type of map marker.
// TEXTURES to create a centered sprite
sprite MAP5U0, 16, 16{offset 8, 8 patch LTRIA0, 0, 0}
...
// Actor defined in the scheme of [actorname]_MapMarker
actor LaserTridentWep_MapMarker : MapMarker
{
States
{
Spawn:
MAP5 U 2
stop
}
}
Note that any sprites for class map markers should be colorized the same as their skin (blue / cyan), as the player's current translation will be copied to the map marker. Addtionally, with players having death map markers, you can additionally define a [classactorname]_Death_MapMarker actor to customize the look of that if necessary.
Due to the way that this is currently implemented, modders could actually set up support early, since barring any unexpected pushback, I think we're likely to go forward with this feature. I'll just give the obligatory caution that as with any in-development feature, there's a chance that the implementation may require changes when tested further.
