EmptyEpsilon Mission Generator
Hello,
I'm working on a random mission generator for EmptyEpsilon. Right now my main task is to isolate snippets of code from my previous missions, to provide "building bricks" for the mission generator. Here is how I envision the differents bricks :
- A main mission (sector under attack, convoy escort, ...) that is pretty much the "story"
- Events/Side missions (transport ship tailed by pirates, resolve dispute, ...). They are randomly generated and provide random perks (reputation, energy, system upgrade, ...).
- Common functions (terrain generation, randomization)
Where I'm not sure where I'm heading is on my approach to implement it correctly : even if the LUA script capacities are very good for mission randomization, I would prefer rather have an external program to do the heavy lifting (assembling code snippets) in order not to have a monster single LUA scenario.
I started to do both a script generator and its very simple GUI, and I plan it to be available for Linux and Windows later. I don't know when I will release a first version, my objective is to be able to generate a single type of "main mission" with a few events.
What are your thoughts on this ?
- Are you interested by such a tool ?
- What would be better in you opinion : a program generating scripts or a all-in-one script ? (I'm more biaised towards the former)
A sneak peek of the GUI : http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/553078Capturedu20151208103258.png
Comments
It is possible that you might be able to do something like this using the Game Master screen with the new button functionality. You will just need to make the main generation script in LUA. Once the map is generated how you like, press F5 to copy it to the clipboard and paste it into a empty text editor.
For me, using the GM screen (for now) would be limited in terms of random event generation and gestion.
Right now I'm working on reward generation for random events : rewards are divided in 3 tiers (for now), here are some images :
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/864081rec.png
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/593457rec1.png
(please disregard any grammatical inconsistencies since I'm not a native speaker ^^')
The event associated with this is just flying to an idle transport for now.
I've only 2 remarks :
Having a very limited coding experience (mostly in C), I'm afraid I cannot help with the game's code
I also started to write down a few ideas for side missions (and a main mission) involving the Ghost faction.
I've ported the mission generation to a custom mission. It has been a great while since I've worked on it.
It was pretty basic and buggy... it selected a few events from a list and once all are done, it spawns a big attack.
I've since moved 850 km away (far, far away from my regular EE crew), so most of my stuff is a bit scattered. I think it may be in my old laptop... I'll see over the weekend if I can find it again.