Enable players to mod their servers.

Okay, If there is one thing I dislike about bitfighter it would be it's lack of modding support.

Sure, sure. There are levelgens... 8 of them... and none of which are used often..

What I am trying to say is players should be allowed to say, Add a custom skin to their server so everyone who joins will see it. Or maybe a gameplay-changing mod like classes or something.

Sure, you can dick around in the ini. But that gives little customization.

Discuss.

Bitfighter is very easy to mod! It's open-source! I have made a few server "mods", like some fancy sounds and text sent to the client when the game ends. The possibilities are endless!

[kaen]

The type of "mods" you're talking about would require a dynamically loaded shared library system, which means you'd not only have to write C++ but then build it for every platform that Bitfighter runs on, and then distribute it. This is essentially the exact same process needed to mod Bitfighter in its current state, so why make an API for it? Not only that, but running arbitrary executable code from someone you don't know is literally the worst thing you could possibly do to your computer.

There are easily more than eight levelgens, I've written twice that many just by myself. Adding in the work by thread, bob, sam, and the handful of one-off scripters would easily put it above 30. I can't speak to why the lua API is (tragically) underused, but since that's the case then what makes you think a C++ modding API would fare any better?

In my estimation, about 2% of the interesting things that are possible with levelgens have been done. This would be a good idea if we had a vibrant scripting community that was constantly running up against the walls of possibilities, but this is simply not the case at all. Maybe we could revisit this topic when the state of affairs changes, but for now I think it solves non-existent problem.

I see where you're coming from. There are in fact limitations to levelgens, and there are some potentially cool things that could be done with engine-level modding, but I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what we can already do with the current system. I encourage you to try the tutorials, write some levelgens, and see how you feel after you've actually given it an honest go. I think the limiting factor is creativity and ingenuity, not possibility.

As always, thanks for the input.

Or maybe a gameplay-changing mod like classes or something.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2046

[watusimoto]

running arbitrary executable code from someone you don't know is literally the worst thing you could possibly do to your computer.

Probably not worse than sticking a pack of firecrackers in the cd-rom drive, or perhaps shiving someone with a chunk of metal from the case.

But I agree it is a bad idea.

[kaen]

Probably not worse than sticking a pack of firecrackers in the cd-rom drive, or perhaps shiving someone with a chunk of metal from the case.

I would take the shiving and the firecrackers over a keylogger any day

[raptor]

I heard about a trick once where you:
1. Take out the magnetic 'platter' bit of a 3.5 floppy disk
2. Soak it in nail polish remover
3. Carefully scrape the dust from strike-anywhere match tips (just the white part) onto the platter
4. Reassemble
5. Write "DOOM" on it, then leave it lying around the school...

I heard about a trick once where you:
1. Take out the magnetic 'platter' bit of a 3.5 floppy disk
2. Soak it in nail polish remover
3. Carefully scrape the dust from strike-anywhere match tips (just the white part) onto the platter
4. Reassemble
5. Write "DOOM" on it, then leave it lying around the school...

Christ.

[Quartz]

Christ.

You called?

But seriously, levelgens are the way to go for "modding". And, maybe one day levelgens will have access to UI things, like the ability to display text and other things directly on screen. That would be neat

[Skybax]

I heard about a trick once where you:
1. Take out the magnetic 'platter' bit of a 3.5 floppy disk
2. Soak it in nail polish remover
3. Carefully scrape the dust from strike-anywhere match tips (just the white part) onto the platter
4. Reassemble
5. Write "DOOM" on it, then leave it lying around the school...

That's one of the awesomest things I've ever heard

I heard about a trick once where you:
1. Take out the magnetic 'platter' bit of a 3.5 floppy disk
2. Soak it in nail polish remover
3. Carefully scrape the dust from strike-anywhere match tips (just the white part) onto the platter
4. Reassemble
5. Write "DOOM" on it, then leave it lying around the school...

Hehehehe

[Little_Apple]

I heard about a trick once where you:
1. Take out the magnetic 'platter' bit of a 3.5 floppy disk
2. Soak it in nail polish remover
3. Carefully scrape the dust from strike-anywhere match tips (just the white part) onto the platter
4. Reassemble
5. Write "DOOM" on it, then leave it lying around the school...

[Quartz]

Someone mind explaining this joke to me?

[kaen]

Near as I can tell, it comes from here:

http://www.textfiles.com/uploads/floppydeathdisk.txt

Soaking the paper in acetone provides fuel for a small fire, the match head shavings act as an ignition source through the friction of the read head on the thin plastic disk. It's all nicely contained in a floppy disk and looks perfectly harmless. You throw it in and it (supposedly?) ignites when the drive tries to read the match shavings disk contents.

You write "Doom" on it so that the angst-filled teenagers from the 90's (which you have time traveled to) are overwhelmed with the urge to play the best computer game in existence.

I'm not sure if it's easier to find a floppy drive or a time machine.

[Quartz]

That's ... pretty amazing. Thanks kaen

[watusimoto]

It sounds awesome! Too bad there are no youtube vids of this... which leads me to doubt whether it actually works.

Gahh I would love to see a video of that!

somone do it and put it on youtube!

but seriousness in wouldn't mind having some more artistic designs to bitfiger is plain with so much black and blue.....

also quit derailing topics

[Skybax]

I believe you can change the color of your walls. I distinctly remember having all my walls be red at one point. It looked epic