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Director Mode

Discussion in 'Starbound Discussion' started by Aviakio, May 9, 2012.

  1. Aviakio

    Aviakio Weight of the Sky

    Tiy's been throwing some interesting thoughts around IRC and I'm just reposting it here on the forums for you guys. I've omitted questions and comments which weren't related to Director Mode or answered by Tiy.

    So essentially, after release, this thing called Director Mode will allow us to carve our own situations and play them out in real time with full control in front of our friends.
    Note that this isn't a real confirmation, but only just Tiy throwing ideas at us. :coffee:

    We'll be able to spawn NPCs and monsters, control them in real time in actions and in dialogue, freely change terrain, and pretty much become the director of the game for some lucky players.

    <@Tiy> i have some crazy ideas for after release support​
    <@Tiy> after release im going to focus on director mode​
    <@Tiy> Director mode is my grand vision​
    <@Tiy> haha​
    <deebee396> whats director mode?​
    <deebee396> like a machinima thing?​
    <@Tiy> no​
    <@Tiy> basically​
    <@Tiy> in director mode​
    <@Tiy> players can log into a normal server as "director"​
    <@Tiy> players who log in as directors can control *everything*​
    <@Tiy> for example​
    <@Tiy> heres the example I used last time​
    <@Tiy> the players are playing normally​
    <@Tiy> on a planet​
    <@Tiy> this doesnt stop normal play​
    <@Tiy> its not something you have to arrange​
    <@Tiy> or make a meeting time for​
    <@Tiy> it works with the rest of the game​
    <@Tiy> the director logs in, sees the players​
    <@Tiy> and then decides to spawn an old man NPC​
    <@Tiy> the director then takes DIRECT control of the old man​
    <@Tiy> and runs up to the players​
    <@Tiy> anything the director says will come from the old man himself​
    <@Tiy> so the director would say​
    <@Tiy> "Help help! there are space pirates chasing me!"​
    <@Tiy> the players can then choose to protect the old man​
    <@Tiy> so lets say they build him a house​
    <@Tiy> and because the director is controlling the npc​
    <@Tiy> the old man can help out​
    <@Tiy> too​
    <@Tiy> now​
    <@Tiy> the house is built​
    <@Tiy> the director releases control of the npc and sets him to idle​
    <@Tiy> so he stays in the house​
    <@Tiy> then spawns a group of space pirates​
    <@Tiy> he sets them to passive, and makes them all go towards the house​
    <@Tiy> he takes control of the leader and says​
    <@Tiy> "give us the old man! and no one gets hurt!"​
    <@Tiy> then its up to the players what they want to do​
    <@Tiy> they could say no, and defend the house​
    <@Tiy> then the director could set them all to aggressive​
    <@Tiy> or​
    <@Tiy> they could say yes​
    <@Tiy> and the director sets the old man to aggressive​
    <@Tiy> because he doesnt want to go​
    <@Tiy> the players could tunnel into the earth to try to escape​
    <@Tiy> and the director could make the space pirates chase them​
    <@Tiy> anything can happen essentially​
    <@Tiy> when directors are controlling the game​
    <@Tiy> the great thing about it all is​
    <@Tiy> that its completely transparent​
    <@Tiy> the players wont know if a director is there​
    <@Tiy> once the director stops controlling things​
    <@Tiy> the game doesnt stop​
    <@Tiy> or reload​
    <@Tiy> or anything like that​
    <@Tiy> there are going to be quests​
    <@Tiy> but​
    <@Tiy> no amount of code will be as imaginative and interactive as a director could be​
    <@Tiy> using this system players can have conversations with npcs​
    <Disreputable_dog> interesting​
    <Disreputable_dog> i can see some people playing as the director all the time​
    <Disreputable_dog> though i do worry about some people abusing it​
    <@Tiy> well director accounts are limited in access​
    <@Tiy> to the people the server admins allow to log in as directors​
    <@Tiy> you can have multiple directors​
    <@Tiy> and they can go to any planet​
    <Disreputable_dog> i mean, the directors could use this to build a planet with, say, the acient ruins of a forgotten civilization, then use the NPC's to point the players towards this planet​
    <@Tiy> Disreputable_dog yeah thats entirely possible​
    <@Tiy> directors can edit maps very quickly​
    <Disreputable_dog> i thought youd have to make the npcs do the building xD​
    <@Tiy> as part of character creation​
    <@Tiy> no Disreputable_dog you can edit the map very quickly​
    <@Tiy> so if you want to prepare a planet and then tell the players about it​
    <@Tiy> you can do that​
    <Disreputable_dog> well tiy, i have another director mode question! will directors have to manualy trigger events? or will they be able to set things to happen on their own. like, does a director have to be in control of an NPC to make them talk, or could he, say, tell it to say something when the players talk to him? or have things happen when players reach a certain area?​
    <@Tiy> thats the kind of thing we wont know ourselves until we get heavily into developing it​

    So what do you think? Will this open up a new space of gamplay that's never been tried before? Do you think that this system is flawed? Is Tiy the best developer ever?
    Yes, yes he is.
     
  2. Breather

    Breather Oxygen Tank

    Wow... that sounds amazing! Great job tiy! :up:
     
    SolidSnake and Dragrath like this.
  3. 777eza

    777eza Existential Complex

    huh I picture it not being as transparent as they hope mainly because, when you give someone the power to destroy or defend there going to be one sided a lot more then balanced, although with the right director it could be the best gameplay experience in a game that we've seen.
     
    Elate, WhiteMousse and Guthrie28 like this.
  4. Pentarctagon

    Pentarctagon Over 9000!!!

    *takes control of tentacle planet*
     
  5. Marokutai

    Marokutai Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Dungeons and Dragons mode more like it <3
     
  6. Marokutai

    Marokutai Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Dungeon master~
     
    Halon, dtanotrew, Hedix and 13 others like this.
  7. Ashen

    Ashen Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Well, this idea sounds very interesting. My only contentions regarding it though is if you got a director that wanted to grieve people and ruin a gaming experience how would that be handled? For example a director intervening by removing all the goodies from chests or changing the atmosphere of a planet to fatal. Could the admin not only /kick the director but, also revert the harmful things that the malicious director had done back to the way it was prior to the abuse?

    Other than that I am highly excited for this type of mode and I hope the team if they do implement it can find a way to minimize greifing.
     
  8. Aviakio

    Aviakio Weight of the Sky

    The first time Tiy talked about it he actually talked about it in terms of how cool it would be to have Dungeon masters in the game, though this time he said Director Mode. Don't have the log of the first time though... :speechless:
     
    legendros and Marokutai like this.
  9. Iznano4nik

    Iznano4nik Big Damn Hero

    there is only one - wait for the game release:ninja:
     
  10. Lord Kain

    Lord Kain Ketchup Robot

    cool idea
     
  11. So the players and npcs are now your little chess pieces... Only, you play against yourself.

    I like >w>
     
  12. Marokutai

    Marokutai Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I vant to be Director and make them all go on an adventure where they think they just have to mine said amount of ores, but once they do i will spawn an ancient creature who looks over the caves of the planet and they must defeat it or run, and if they run there will be an earthquake (if there will be commands to make that happen, or if those are even in the game) and they will be trapped :sneaky: and if they dont give up then i would give them a chance to dig out of the cave and will reward them by not killing them :3, but if they do kill the boss they get loot and get out of the cave with their lives.
     
  13. Eddy Steel

    Eddy Steel Existential Complex

    I'm going to spawn an anime school girl on a tentacle planet. Nothing fishy going on here!
    Seriously though, this does sound awesome. I think that it should be an unlockable feature as to stop griefers spawning 20 bosses right on players and stuff.
     
  14. Marokutai

    Marokutai Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I think instead of that, they should make it so you have to spawn certain things to put up a bar to the point where you are allowed to spawn a boss.
     
  15. If this was implemented I wonder how many people will confuse actual player-made stuff with actual bugs :0
     
    Dragrath and Axe Garian like this.
  16. Eddy Steel

    Eddy Steel Existential Complex

    Like an entity limit?
     
  17. Marokutai

    Marokutai Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    In a way, but you can keep spawning even after the boss but once the boss is dead the bar resets, unless under special conditions you can spawn more than one.
     
  18. A.N.T.I.

    A.N.T.I. Spaceman Spiff

    Tiy viewed this thread, it's Legit.
     
  19. Alexblex

    Alexblex Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Starbound was great. I was thinking of cool things to be added. Never thought of this and now that I see this I think Wow this is awesome. Because I would love to have a whole story to play with my friends and get to control it and have there input on it. This is perfect.
     
    Soul64x likes this.
  20. Aviakio

    Aviakio Weight of the Sky

    Hm, I'd rather prefer if it's unlimited, so we could do whatever we wanted to control the experience whenever.
     
    Breakout and firekirby135 like this.

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