Recent changes to feature-requests

player:nameVisibleToEnemy(boolean)

2010-04-06T04:28:44Z

There was a bot:setName(string) in the other thread, but actually, doh, in a lot of zones (aka cm) there is a serious problem with truce-raping. Thus, something like

player:nameVisibleToEnemy(boolean)

would be highly useful, the server not transmitting any name to enemies, or transmitting a blank string.

Obvious extensions are:

player:nameVisible(boolean)
player:setVisibleName(string)
player.realName

Selective routing

2010-04-02T18:51:07Z

1) Sometimes, you want an explosion that's only visible to certain players, and routed to no others. Normally, you have to get creative when doing this, but since the server has full routing control, why not:

player.explosion(usual parameters) - only routed to player
arena.explosion(usual parameters, optional array of players it gets routed to)

2) It was always a problem that players don't get credit for their LUA explosion kills, so if possible,

arena.creditedExplosion(usual parameters, player it's credited as a projectile of, array of players it gets routed to)

3) Then I thought, well it's a classical problem in inf to try to say, halve someone's damage, and I don't think this is entirely possible with C# alone, but with some tinkering of the editors, I think it might be:

player:dontRoute(itemid)
player:dontRoute()
player:doRoute(itemid)
player:doRoute()

If an developer, for example, makes all weapons shoot 2 parts, then dontRoute(one of the items) would effectively halve its damage.

Another option is:

player.substituteRoute(actual itemid, resulting itemid) - When routing shots to other players, substitute first item for second, the second being a gun that does half damage.

4) If bots can eventually see explosions in the same way as players can (they should in order to take damage), perhaps we can avoid base hack completely by making an "observer bot" that does nothing but observe the projectiles fired, and sends the explosions that destroy the turrets, rather than the shooter sending their own explosions.

player.setLagLimit(ping,ploss, latency)

2010-04-02T18:18:10Z

I'm going to keep dumping important ideas which I probably mentioned before. Customizable lag limits have definitely been long-necessary, laggers commonly choosing fast classes in order to abuse a zone limit. You might have them in the cfg or some other file you make up, but I'm guessing the most flexible way is just through the C# scripts. Best function overloads are probably:

player.setLagLimit(ping)
player.setLagLimit(ping,ploss)
player.setLagLimit(ping,ploss, latency)
player.setLagCheckTimer(time)
player.checkLag()

Ping player.ping()
Ploss player.ploss()
Latency player.latency()
Lag player.lag()

where the subclasses are:

Lag.ping()
Lag.ploss()
Lag.latency()

Ping.average()
Ping.current()

Ploss.youtoserver()

etc.

Those I think are the minimum necessary, while other possibilities include customizing the force speccing criteria themselves.

Ignore - Spectator

2010-04-02T18:07:35Z

This has been needed for a long time in games where spec hunting is a big problem, and should probably be turned on/off by the dev (and possibly mods for events).

Basically, you should be able to have Ignore - Spectator, which prevents someone from spectating you. If server is built from scratch, it should even be possible to prevent spectators from seeing you, or your weapons, at all!

Feel free to substitute for better sounding commands:

?ignorespeclist - list of names you're ignoring (should probably include * as a name if it is there)
?permitspeclist - list of names you're allowing (should probably include * as a name by default)
?ignorespec (name1), (name2), etc - adds them to ignore list
?ignorespec *
?permitspec (name1), (name2), etc - removes them from ignore list
?permitspec *

If you want even more flexibility,
?ignorespectrack ?permitspectrack etc which allows them to see you but not spec you. But maybe you should just only have 1 option for simplicity, and allow zone dev to select what type of spec ignore exactly. Changable by mods for events would be a bonus.

Bot movie features

2010-03-31T11:46:58Z

Elaborated here: http://infantryarena.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2327