Fan-made campaign script

[Glennz]

So yesterday we were talking about campaign on IRC.
Quin said he couldn´t really get campaign right.
So I said campaign needs good linear missions and a story line.

So.... that´s what I have been doing, creating 8 missions and a story.

Very basic summary:

-The models of RE are a human sub-species (Homo Sapiens Effluxus) mutated to live on Lakayo, a colony of Earth
-Lakayo is in war with an Alien group called the Jocezi who live on a planet called Jocezaru.
-A ship called the Ndege is captured by the Jocezi, a Lieutenant called Pteqi Xiqezu is the only survivor
-He is going to finish the fight together with the Ndege´s AI, called Epsilon.

The story:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 1

/Cutscene
System boot....... done
DNA test.... Homo Sapiens Effluxus, Lieutenant B72628-X976, Pteqy Xiqezu... match
Starting awakening procedure...
Authentication requested.... checking.... authorization given
Injecting chemical wake-up cocktail...
Draining cryonic fluid...

*Camera goes to cryotube, a big tube with draining, green liquid. Pteqy Xiqezu is inside attached to an IV cable*
*Draining ends, tube disappears in the floor, camera switches to Pteqy´s first-person view*

AI: Goodevening Lieutenant B72628-X976. I am Epsilon, the AI of the "Ndege". This ship has been captured by the Jocezi. You are the last survivor on this ship. I recommend grabbing a weapon and going to the escape pods.
/Cutscene

*Player gets control, walks out of the cryo-room, finds pistol next to dead ally nearby*
*Enemies show up, player has to fight his way through them. Door is jammed*

AI: This door has been damaged by the blast of their docking vessel, I suggest finding another way

*Player goes through more corridors and reaches escape-pods*

AI: My protocols insist I can´t get captured, I will keep hanging around

/cutscene
Pteqy steps in the pod, gets launched in space, towards a brown planet with enormous green seas.
/cutscene

*End of mission one*

Level requirements: spaceship feeling, modern shiny walls, windows that will let the player see space, cafeteria, bathroom-doors

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 2

/Cutscene
*Escape pod is diving to the ground, covered in fire*

AI: Hang on Lieutenant, the landing is going to be rough

*Escape pod makes a hard landing
/Cutscene

AI: I have detected a lot of hostile activity here. Keep your eyes open, Lieutenant.

*After fighting a lot of enemies, the player will arrive in a cave with a lot of alien bulldozers. The player must kill all the enemies*

AI: It looks like they are mining titanium here. We must have found Jocezaru, their home planet. I am making a note of this planet´s location.... Ok, let´s find out where they are bringing this titanium to. Get in one of their cargo-wagons.

*End of Mission two*

Level requirements: Grassy hills, rocks, a cave with alien equipment (unusable)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 3

/Cutscene
*Enemy opens the door of the wagon Pteqy is in, is greeted with a shot in the face*
/Cutscene

*Player gets control, has to fight a lot of enemies*

AI: I detected a big heat source. I think that´s what they use to melt the titanium. If we disable their cooling system, this place will turn in a pile of ash.

*Player fights to the core of the factory, but door is closed*

AI: The door is locked, you will have to find the key to open it

*After walking through corridors and fighting enemies, a shiny green-silver card is found and the player returns, the door opens*
*In the room, a big golden cylinder stretches from the floor to the ceiling. Two blue hoses and computer systems are attached, hostiles standing near them*
*Player gets rid of hostiles*

AI: If you damage the two blue hoses, the cooling system will fail.

*Player does, alarm sound goes, end of Mission three*

Level requirements: Big rooms, alien feeling, factory feeling

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 4

AI: You got three minutes until this place blows up, you must hurry!
Pteqi: I figured
AI: I will put a countdown timer on your HUD, Lieutenant.

*Countdown timer is placed on HUD*
*Player has to fight a lot of aliens to where he started in mission 3, he escapes via a door and goes outside*
*Player must keep running and kill tons of enemies*

/cutscene
*the factory explodes*
AI: This sure got their attention, move into those hills, I have a plan
/cutscene

*End of mission 4*

Level requirements: See mission 3 + grassy hills and rocks

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 5

AI: I detected an Alien vessel coming in, pick up the Rifle I spotted on the rock

*Alien ship lands, aliens come out*

AI: Jocezi are streaming out of the vessel, inspecting the destroyed factory.. aim for the head..

*Player gets rid of the aliens outside*

AI: Get into the ship

*Player fights a lot of aliens and arrives in the control room of the ship, a big alien with white armor is standing in the room*

AI: That´s the captain! Get rid of him!

*Mini boss-fight*

AI: Another ship is coming in and dropping soldiers! Grab the rocket launcher and shoot one of its engines!

*Player shoots engine, ship crashes. Now player must deal with dropped soldiers*

/cutscene
*Pteqy is walking into the captured ship*

AI: Analysing alien files. No... oh no... The Jocezi are planning a massive attack on Lakayo... home. I can fly this ship, if we go to their military base, hack their systems and nuke them with their own bombs... we might save billions.
Pteqy: We will save billions
AI: I detected a large amount of electromagnetic waves coming from one location 10 kilometres from here, I guess that´s a radar system, it can tell us the location of their military base.
/cutscene

*End of Mission 5*

Level requirements: Green hills, rocks, alien ship.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 6

/Cutscene
AI: They don´t know this ship has been pirated, keep it clean and cool

*Ship lands, player gets out
*Enemies spot the player and run towards him
/Cutscene

*Player must kill hostiles, a shotgun is close-by to help him*

AI: Now enter the building and climb the staircases

*Player does and fights enemies on the way*

AI: We reached the source of the electromagnetic waves, analysing... a lot of vessels are coming from one point 34 kilometres to the south-east. Bingo
AI: Climb the ladder and escape via the roof, enemy troops are approaching via the stairs

*Player does and can jump and slide from roof to roof*

AI: Our ship is surrounded, you have to fight your way in

*Player does*

/Cutscene
*Pteqi jumps in the pilot seat and watches approaching Jocezi*
AI: We are now off the ground Lieutenant. I have to shake them off, prepare for a bumpy ride.
/Cutscene

*End of Mission 6*

Level requirements: Big alien parabolic antenna + buildings, mountainous rocky environment

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 7

/cutscene
AI: Landing at Jocezi military base in 3..2...1...
*Ship lands, player gets out*
/cutscene

*Player has to fight a couple of enemies*

AI: Get in the air vent, it will lead you further to the centre of the base

*Player walks through air vent and suddenly the vent cant hold him anymore, he falls into a building with hostiles*
*Player kills hostiles*

Pteqi: Great Epsilon, that vent-idea almost got me killed
AI: Please forgive me, Lieutenant. You should go outside and walk to the tower on your left, that´s the central controlroom.
Pteqi: Understood

*Player walks to the tower killing all enemies outside*
*Player reaches tower, gets inside, kills all hostiles*

AI: Hacking systems.. 3%.. oh no, they found out what we are trying to do, protect the controlroom while I am busy!

*Player fights hordes of enemies until the progress bar on his HUD is full*

/Cutscene
AI: Disabling enemy security systems... disabled. Launching nukes in 3...2...1... That´s it. We have to reach their hangar and get the hell out of here!
/Cutscene

*End of mission 7*

Level requirements: Very alien feeling, very military feeling

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission 8

*Countdown timer appears on HUD*
*Nav point of alien hangar appears on HUD*
*Player fights tons of aliens*

*Player reaches hangar*

AI: Hurry! They are closing the hangar doors, if we get trapped we get killed by the nukes! Get in the alien ship!

*Player runs through hangar killing aliens on the way*
*NAV point reached*

/Cutscene
*Pteqy jumps in a small alien jet*

AI: I can fly this thing
Pteqy: OK Epsilon, fly us home

*Jet reaches space*

AI : You will not only be seen as a hero at home, but also Earth, Mars and all other colonies. You did it.
Pteqy: No.. we did it
Radio: This is Admiral Wiqetyru, Lieutenant B72628-X976, Pteqy Xiqezu, do you copy?
Pteqy: Copied, sir
Radio: You made your nation proud lieutenant, get home ASAP. Wiqetyru, out.

*BAMBAMBAM several nuke explosions are seen on the alien world*
/Cutscene

*End of mission 8*

Level requirements: See mission 7 + hangars

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changes made: Some mission made longer, mission 6 and 7 merged. New Mission 6. Improvements in script.

Feel free to express ideas, improvements or what ever. <:D

[TheLastProject]

The problem, albeit this being interesting, is a huge lack of replayability for a huge amount of work. Simply put: adding a random map to DM is a lot less work and allows for a lot more replayability. I would personally vote for switching "Campaign" with "Survival Mode", which would go something like this:

- Each round is a "wave", spawning a predefined number of enemies with health and damage defined by the wave number which you have to kill.
- After completing a wave, all team members which are still alive are given full health again, and the next wave starts after a short countdown.
- Every 5 waves, there will be a "boss wave". This boss will have a predefined amount of HP, depending on the wave number.

There will be a few mutators for those that seek more of a challenge instead of the default mode that ends after a predefined number of waves:
- Endless (waves will keep continuing until all team members have died, with monsters and bosses normally increasing in difficulty each wave)
- Only Bosses (there will not be any "normal" waves, only boss waves)

Besides that, normal mutators still exist as well (only those that can be chosen are listed here):
- Instagib (players die after one shot, does not affect bosses)
- Medieval (players can only use melee weapons)
- Ballistic (players come equipped with only rockets)
- Survivor (on by default, when disabled unlimited respawns are possible but Endless cannot be chosen)
- Arena (players can choose weapons theirselves instead of picking it up on the map)
- Hover (players come equipped with a hover pack)
- Jetpack (players come equipped with a jetpack)
- Vampire (players regain health for damaging enemies and bosses)
- Expert (players can only damage enemies and bosses by causing headshots)
- Resize (players, but also enemies and bosses, resize depending on their remaining health)

P.S.: Our bosses need to be less retarded than this

@Glennz:
I have nothing against your idea, but I do think you have to watch out to not make it single player only. I think it would be better to be able to play it with up to 4 players like which is normal with campaign.

[Glennz]

@Glennz:
I have nothing against your idea, but I do think you have to watch out to not make it single player only. I think it would be better to be able to play it with up to 4 players like which is normal with campaign.

That would be awesome, co-op campaign. <:D

[arand]

There is no reason why a survival campaign wouldn't be able to coexist with a heavy-story-on-rails campaign, just saying that the one shouldn't exclude the other, if there are people willing to work on them (though it may spread already thin resources thinner.., though maybe it would attract more in the end...).

The script definitely has potential, the cut-scenes I have a feeling will be complicated. And as I've mentioned earlier, I really think time-trial/obstacle course elements has their place in a campaign mode

[inpersona64]

I like the story. Perhaps the nouns mentioned in your scripts (Jocezi and Lakayo) could be replaced with much easier names to say, or even just use some of the map names. It would be easier to include maps that are already in the game in the "Campaign"; just build on them some bit and you have a nice campaign map. For example, Dawn could definitely be a campaign map (plus it's like the most beautiful of them all). I do also agree that for some levels, there could be a "survival mode" where there are waves of enemies and you just have to survive to continue the story.

And if I may add, since the reinclusion of Multi, i think that the campaign should include perhaps 4 warring factions then the aforementioned two.

[ZeroKnight]

Am I the only one who likes TLP's idea way more than the already existing campaign suggestions? It'd be a lot easier to implement, and with survival type gameplay, there would always be some re-playability. Campaigns really lose their appeal after the first or second playthrough. That would be a lot of work for little re-playability.

Everybody loves a good couple rounds of survivor. The way the AI works in Red Eclipse could bring forth new enemy types with extremely little work. For example, you could have a "colossal" type enemy by creating another AI type in the source code, and altering his height. And that's not a lot of code. You can change the weapons they start with, their health, speed, whether or not they can jump, etc.
And we can always add more actor types that go beyond just grunt, bot and turret. We could end up with full on tanks (Kitsune and Wazubaba are actually playing around with that idea), or flying enemies.

It would, IMO make for a much better experience than a campaign mode. Especially because you can play survivor a lot before getting tired of it, whereas with campaign, I usually lose interest after just the first playthrough, unless there's a special continue sort of thing that will net you more things to do. But that would be even more work for maybe one or two playthroughs extra.

Campain really isn't worth it, IMO. This is a pretty multiplayer-oriented game as it stands. Survivor would be a way better investment.

[FlyinHigh]

I like survivor mutator better than a campaign

[Glennz]

There is no reason why a survival campaign wouldn't be able to coexist with a heavy-story-on-rails campaign, just saying that the one shouldn't exclude the other, if there are people willing to work on them (though it may spread already thin resources thinner.., though maybe it would attract more in the end...).

The script definitely has potential, the cut-scenes I have a feeling will be complicated. And as I've mentioned earlier, I really think time-trial/obstacle course elements has their place in a campaign mode

The script has three times where the player can do a lot of jumping and running.

I like the story. Perhaps the nouns mentioned in your scripts (Jocezi and Lakayo) could be replaced with much easier names to say, or even just use some of the map names. It would be easier to include maps that are already in the game in the "Campaign"; just build on them some bit and you have a nice campaign map. For example, Dawn could definitely be a campaign map (plus it's like the most beautiful of them all). I do also agree that for some levels, there could be a "survival mode" where there are waves of enemies and you just have to survive to continue the story.

And if I may add, since the reinclusion of Multi, i think that the campaign should include perhaps 4 warring factions then the aforementioned two.

I couldn´t come up with easier names without making the story a total Halo rip-off.
The story has one time where hordes are coming.
The 4 factions might be interesting, but could be confusing if not done right in the story.. maybe turn the story 360 degrees and have four Homo Sapiens Effluxus clans fighting over power on Lakayo....

[GooshGoosh!]

Maybe the suit will able to talk to you instead of the AI thingy? Like in Crysis 2, the nano-suit talks to the player (Alcatraz) through the game.
Also, I think that the whole campaign shall be in First Person perspective, it will be more interesting!




by the way, I WANT TO BE THE VOICE ACTOR!! :P

[Vaecrius]

Am I the only one who likes TLP's idea way more than the already existing campaign suggestions?[see original post for awesome]

Hell yes to all this and TLP's idea.

Also possibly a competitive (team?) mode where you're trying to kill more than your competition but you lose lots of points for hitting an opposing player.

[Glennz]

Why cant I post stuff anymore?

EDIT:

Seems to be working again... weird.

[derper]

The problem, albeit this being interesting, is a huge lack of replayability for a huge amount of work. Simply put: adding a random map to DM is a lot less work and allows for a lot more replayability. I would personally vote for switching "Campaign" with "Survival Mode", which would go something like this:

- Each round is a "wave", spawning a predefined number of enemies with health and damage defined by the wave number which you have to kill.
- After completing a wave, all team members which are still alive are given full health again, and the next wave starts after a short countdown.
- Every 5 waves, there will be a "boss wave". This boss will have a predefined amount of HP, depending on the wave number.

There will be a few mutators for those that seek more of a challenge instead of the default mode that ends after a predefined number of waves:
- Endless (waves will keep continuing until all team members have died, with monsters and bosses normally increasing in difficulty each wave)
- Only Bosses (there will not be any "normal" waves, only boss waves)

Besides that, normal mutators still exist as well (only those that can be chosen are listed here):
- Instagib (players die after one shot, does not affect bosses)
- Medieval (players can only use melee weapons)
- Ballistic (players come equipped with only rockets)
- Survivor (on by default, when disabled unlimited respawns are possible but Endless cannot be chosen)
- Arena (players can choose weapons theirselves instead of picking it up on the map)
- Hover (players come equipped with a hover pack)
- Jetpack (players come equipped with a jetpack)
- Vampire (players regain health for damaging enemies and bosses)
- Expert (players can only damage enemies and bosses by causing headshots)
- Resize (players, but also enemies and bosses, resize depending on their remaining health)

If they do this, than they should add new types of enemies. and not just acters. they need to add:

a juggernaught-type monster
a flying enemy
a 4-legged monster

Those are my ideas about it.

THE BOSSES SHOULD HAVE UNIQUE MODELS, TOO!

[greaserpirate]

If they do this, than they should add new types of enemies. and not just acters. they need to add:

a juggernaught-type monster
a flying enemy
a 4-legged monster

Those are my ideas about it.

THE BOSSES SHOULD HAVE UNIQUE MODELS, TOO!

I agree that onslaught should have more types than just drone, turret, and grunt, but as far as I know the only modelers we have are Luckystrike-Rx and possibly CDXbow, and both are busy at the moment.

For now, you might want to look at MekArcade. CDXbow is making a fast-paced mecha game with a detailed story mode, and he's already got a variety of models for characters and NPC types. You might be able to ask him nicely for some models to use in the meantime; I know he's made a model of an alien and a Anubis/space marine hybrid that look pretty cool.

A Singleplayer campaign could be possible for Red Eclipse, once enough people decide it's worth the effort to refine the singleplayer mode we had a long time ago. (I think you can play it by going into onslaught time-trial and typing /trialstyle 3). For now, the main focus is still multiplayer.

[Sniper-Goth]

"I think you can play it by going into onslaught time-trial and typing /trialstyle 3"

Gauntlet-Onslaught on AlphaCampaign works better.
Still, in 1.2, alphacampaign worked great, but now if you try to play it, the grunts spawn in so high quantity that it freezes almost.

[cdxbow]

Warms my heart to see interest in SP modes. There always are a lot of very frustrated SP mappers in the cube community, I know there are a couple of scripters who are interested SP modes and we can probably do some models to support a SP development.

So perhaps the time has come to pressure Quin to look at SP modes. I have asked Zeta to do a special trip up to Queensland, find Quin and apply the anal probe, vigorously. After we soften we'll ask again what he needs or what would encourage him to look at SP mode(s).

arand pointed out that maybe it would attract more in people to the community, and I think he is right. A lot of the 'transients' who come to the cube engine with ideas and possibly some skills, often want to do SP stuff, but soon bump into limitations of the engine and general sauerness, and leave.

Thoughts?

[restcoser]

Sp modes are very important for me. I'm one of the frustrated mappers of the cube community, seeing the overflow of multiplayer maps, I got VERY frustrated when the (still not finished) campaign mode got officially taken out of RE, stole a lot of my inspiration.I'm actually participating in a sp campaign mapping challenge over at quadropolis.us starting tomorrow to try and realize one of the old ideas I had for a campaign. I have pages written full of campaign ideas, have played every cube campaign I found and while I consider RE in almost every aspect superior to Sauerbraten, the lack of campaign is a huge drawback for me. I actually was mapping out SP campaign ideas in RE already when alphacampaign was out, simply enjoying to take the player on a journey. I don't even request much, even though it was limiting, the campaign possibilities satisfied me at the time of alphacampaign.

One question: Is it still possible to have a trigger modify a weapon(was it ever possible)? That was one of my ideas, start the player of with lousy weapons, and then they can find or buy weapon upgrades.

Edit: I also hate the idea of a survival mode. For me, taking the player on a journey is worth every bit of work, I enjoy mapping for sp, not for dmsp.While it's maybe a nice addition, it can't replace campaign.

[Unnamed]

Why has a campaign mode to be SP only? Of course it wouldn't be good for too much player, but with 1 - 5? It just has to be more difficult with more players.
It will be much work I think. So if you add bosses these also could be used for new modes. My idea is: every team get's a boss and you have to defeat the enemy boss. If you do so your team scores and the bosses will be resetet.