IT/Scrivere una gamemode

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Questa guida cerca di definire a grandi linee le regole per scrivere una gamemode ben fatta. Se hai appena iniziato a programmare per MTA, vorrai probabilmente controllare prima gli altri tutorial che troverai nella Pagina principale.

Introduzione

Una gamemode è una risorsa che, una volta avviata, domina l'intero gameplay, dicendo ai giocatori cosa fare, creando oggetti, definendo come i giocatori possono vincere o accumulare punti eccetera eccetera. Alcuni esempi sono le gamemodes Race o Deathmatch.

Cosa si intende per gamemode "ben fatta"?

Per essere semplici, una gamemode "ben fatta" è una gamemode che utilizza appieno le potenzialità delle mappe(.map)di MTA; vale a dire che la gamemode non contiene elementi specifici delle mappe(pickups, oggetti, spawns, veicoli eccetera)hardcodati al loro interno. Questi elementi vanno invece inseriti nelle mappe di MTA(.map) che verranno poi caricate dagli scripts. In questo modo possono essere caricate mappe diverse per la stessa gamemode, o è anche possibile creare delle mappe grazie al map editor di MTA. Un ovvio esempio di una gamemode "ben fatta" è MTA:Race: permette ai giocatori di caricare mappe personalizzate(i file .map). Non c'è bisogno di modificare la gamemode stessa per cambiare gli spawnpoints, i veicoli, eccetera.

Files mappa

Tecnicamente, i file mappa non sono altro che documenti XML con estensione .map; definiscono le basi di gioco di una o più gamemodes, anche se non possono cambiare le "regole del gioco", essendo queste definite dalla gamemode(.lua).

Ogni elemento nel gioco corrisponde ad un nodo nel file .map. C'è una sintassi predefinita per elementi quali oggetti, veicoli eccetera; comunque, per elementi "speciali" delle tue gamemodes, dovrai creare tu una sintassi apposita.

Esempio

Per il nostro esempio, prendiamo in esame la gamemode Capture the Flag. Una mappa per questa gamemode deve sostanzialmente definire gli spawnpoints dei giocatori e la posizione delle bandiere, ed eventualmente la presenza di altri oggetti come i veicoli o i pickups. Un file .map molto semplificato apparirebbe così:

<map>
    <spawnpoint id="spawnpoint1" posX="1959.5487060547" posY="-1714.4613037109" posZ="877.25219726563" rot="63.350006103516" model="0"/>
    <pickup id="Armor 1" posX="1911.083984375" posY="-1658.8798828125" posZ="885.40216064453" type="armor" health="50" respawn="60000"/>
    <flag posX="1959.5487060547" posY="-1714.4613037109" posZ="877.25219726563" team="blue" />
    ...
</map>

Qui possiamo vedere due elementi di MTA: uno spawnpoint ed un pickup. Ancora più importante, questa mappa ha un nodo chiamato flag che definisce la posizione ed il colore della bandiera. Gli spawnpoints ed i pickups possono essere gestiti da risorse esterne, ma gli elementi personalizzati devono essere processati dalle gamemodes.

Insomma, vogliamo che i giocatori possano creare le proprie mappe senza aver bisogno dello script LUA.

Example of getting the .map information

As mentioned above, your gamemode needs de retrieve custom elements that are defined in a map file and process them. This is quite easy as demonstrated below.

-- retrieve a table with all flag elements
local flagElements = getElementsByType ( "flag" )
-- loop through them
for key, value in pairs(flagElements) do
	-- get our info
	local posX = getElementData ( value, "posX" )
	local posY = getElementData ( value, "posY" )
	local posZ = getElementData ( value, "posZ" )
	local team = getElementData ( value, "team" )
	-- create an object according to the flag position
	createObject ( 1337, posX, posY, posZ )
	-- output the team that we created a base for
	outputChatBox ( "Base for team " .. team .. " created" )
end

The getElementsByType function retrieves a table of all the elements of a certain type (the type corresponds to the node name in the .map file). This works for both custom types and built-in MTA types (like "vehicle" or "player"). getElementData can be used to retrieve the xml attributes set in the .map file. In this simple example, an object is created at the flag's location and a message is outputted in the chatbox. In reality, you will of course need to do more during map loading, like in this case setting up collision shapes to detect players taking the flag.

Map manager

Having read the section above it should be clear that a gamemode should always consist of two parts:

• The gamemode resource that always stays the same
• Many different maps resources that give the gamemode map-specific information

Now instead of writing a map-loader for every single gamemode, the Map manager provides functions to load gamemodes and maps. Simply put, when you enter the correct command (for example 'gamemode ctf ctf-italy') it will start both resources 'ctf' and 'ctf-italy' while triggering an event (onGamemodeMapStart) to tell the 'ctf' resource that a map was loaded. The 'ctf' resource can then access the information 'ctf-italy' contains and start spawning players etc.

How to use the mapmanager

To use the mapmanager service, your gamemode resource has to be tagged as such first. More specifically you'll be setting the "type" attribute of its <info> tag to "gamemode" inside meta.xml. Also, you can set the "name" attribute to a friendly name (like "Capture the flag") that will be shown on ASE instead of the resource name.

<!-- meta.xml in "cowcatapult" gamemode -->
<meta>
    <info type="gamemode" name="Cow catapulting 2.0"/>
</meta>

If your gamemode is going to load custom maps, you should add handlers for

• onGamemodeMapStart
• onGamemodeMapStop (if any unloading is necessary)

These are fired when a map for your gamemode is started or stopped, and pass the map resource as a parameter. Within the handler function for these events you can extract all info you need from the resource's map files and configuration files.

Example

function startCtfMap( startedMap ) -- startedMap contains a reference to the resource of the map
    local mapRoot = getResourceRootElement( startedMap )        -- get the root node of the started map
    local flagElements = getElementsByType ( "flag" , mapRoot ) -- get all flags in the map and store them in a table
    -- go on loading information like in the example above

    -- spawn players etc.

end

addEventHandler("onGamemodeMapStart", getRootElement(), startCtfMap)

Making maps compatible

Maps are separate resources. This is done so no editing of the gamemode resource is ever necessary in order to create a custom map, and also allows you to pack map-specific scripts/config files with them.

To make a map compatible with your gamemode, open its resource's meta.xml and tag it as well: the "type" attribute must be set to "map", and the "gamemodes" attribute must be a comma-separated list (no spaces) of gamemode resource names that the map works with.

<!--map's meta.xml-->
<meta>
    <info type="map" gamemodes="cowcatapult,assault,tdm"/>
</meta>

Once you have everything set up, admins will use these two commands to start/stop gamemodes: /gamemode gamemodeName [mapName] (optional parameter allows picking an initial map, defaults to none) /changemap mapName [gamemodeName] (optional parameter specifies the gamemode to start the map with, defaults to the current one)

Map manager exports a few more access functions which you don't have to use, but may be useful.

What else should you do

There are several other resources that gamemodes should use/be compliant with.

Helpmanager

The helpmanager is ought to be the standard interface for players when they need help. If you use the helpmanager to display your gamemode's help, every player that used helpmanager before (e.g. in other gamemodes) will immediately know how to get there. It also displays help for different resources running resources in one window, if necessary.

There are basicially two ways to use the helpmanager:

• Provide a simple text that explains how to use your gamemode
• Request a GUI element from the helpmanager that will be displayed in its own tab in the helpmanager window and lets you add any GUI elements to it. This is the recommended way for gamemodes that need to display more complex information that needs its own GUI.

Read the helpmanager page for details on how to do it.

Scoreboard

Scoreboard displays players and teams currently ingame. You add custom columns to it to provide map specific information. For example the column 'points' in the 'ctf' gamemode could represent the player's points gained through kills or captures. As usual, see the scoreboard help page for more information.

Map cycler

The map cycler controls what gamemodes and maps are played on a server. You can specifiy for example how many times in a row a map will be played until it switches to the next. To achieve this, you need to tell the map cycler when your gamemode finished (e.g. when a round ends).