Coop for Movie Battles 2

[KryoTronic]

I made a thread recently here

The TLDR is that my 5 year old Daughter loves playing Movie Battles 2. So some wonderful people helped me out on that previous thread so that we could fight bots together. The issue I am running into is time... It takes half the round to spawn the bots and so we only have a few minutes per to kill the bots. This isn't the end of the world and I am not asking anyone to fix it for me however...

It's been a long time dream of mine to play Movie Battles 2 in a more casual manner and I know there are others who would enjoy COOP in MB2. I am not asking the devs to do this, however I think I could. It took me about a week on and off to figure it out but I was able to switch the bots team to the correct, reversed, team. So now when I spawn stormtroopers they fire at us rebels. Text editing is mostly all I have done in the past besides some medicore map making, unless you count Black Hawk Down, I made so dope maps for that game. But regardless I don't mind putting the work in to get this moving.

I just finished testing a modded version of Smuggler where all I did was add 1 NPC. Surprisingly it worked! I did have trouble getting a new pk3 I created to work so I just replaced smuggler out right. There were loads of textures missing too so that was interesting. But the point is that I was able to put a NPC on the map and load it in MB2.

So this leaves me with two possibilities. I can either create maps from scratch or use the existing maps and throw NPC's in them. I don't want to take credit away from any mappers and I would never release anything and call it my own work, but I would love to work on making some COOP scenarios with the existing MB2 maps. So is it possible to either get some guidance on loading the textures from my exported bsp to .map files or get the .map files from the devs? I totally understand if this is not possible or frowned upon but I figured it would be better to ask then dump hours of time into creating new maps when the devs may be okay with me creating Coop versions of the existing maps.

With that said there a few issues. Obviously there is no COOP game mode. My current idea is that I just use these maps with Objectives & throw the enemies all over the place. Eventually I will have to play around with botroutes which seems doable for a noob such as myself. So Smuggler for example would be a map with Rebel spawns and loads of baddies across the map. Once you complete the OBJ you win, since killing NPC's won't trigger a win. Boom! Coop map. Now I know this could eventually turn into a huge undertaking but as always my brain is always looking for some new dream project to work on.

I don't know that I have the ability to create a COOP gamemode nor do I know if the devs would even be interested in someone creating that. If I use FA or Semi-Authentic, I could likely limit the opposing team to 1 spawn, maybe a sith or jedi boss type character. Then if I ever did host a server to the public a new gamemode wouldn't really be needed, just FA/SFA with the current OBJ's & NPCs everywhere.

For now I am just going to fool around with Smuggler and get some bots on there for me and her to kill. It's going to be a bit ugly until I figure out the textures but she won't mind lol

If there is any advice or interest in something like this feel free to let me know! And if the devs are kind enough to give me access to some of the .map files or if someone can point me in the right direction for creating a separate pk3 for those maps (like mb2_smuggler_coop) and getting them to run in MB2 it would be much appreciated. I don't have loads of time but I could probably commit to adding bots to a few maps at first and maybe all the OBJ maps eventually. It all really depends on if anyone other than my daughter and I are interested lol

Things of Note:
I have no issues going through the base files and changing over the bot teams (though I have 0 clue how I would release that for others to use)
There is loads of info on Radiant so I don't think I will need too much help there but retexturing the MB2 Maps seems like my only option if it's even okay that I use them for this "coop project."
The bots are dumb as rocks, but since I am not the best saberist, they still kill me if there is enough of them lmao so making Coop a challenge could be an issue for L33T gamers and especially gunners. Adjusting their stats doesn't really seem to change anything and I believe that's because the AI engine is ancient. I still would like to share my work if anyone is interested and it's okay with the devs, if not, then I will just use it here locally for my daughter and me.

Thanks for reading and for all the help I have already recieved!

 

[.biggs]

You can adjust entities and inject new ones into any mb2 map without it effecting anything outside of your server or locally hosted games. For example, you could delete all of the siege spawns (mb2 spawns) on mb2_smuggler and replace them with your own, and then add a bunch of new NPCs. I don't think you can adjust the AI logic of those NPCs, and as for replacing textures - you can replace them with whatever you want, but that will effect all the maps that use those textures.

 

[Valkyrie]

Hello,

Regarding the 5 (or 15) minutes timer. It has been decided by the devs a long time ago, that it would be set to a certain value, and impossible for modders to change it...

You mention having an issue with making new .pk3 files. This is normal since they are encoded in a given format. So there is a "trick" you can do :
Take any existing .pk3 and copy it elsewhere. Open it with 7zip, and remove its content. Rename it to something like "blank.pk3". Keep it somewhere. Copy and rename it when you want to make an addon, and put your stuff in there.

Regarding the map modification. As mentioned by Biggs you may want to edit the entities and then inject that into the .bsp.
To do so, you will need to open the .bsp with notepad. Scroll down until you find something that is actually readable, you should be able to find it by researching "worldspawn" it is usually the first entity being listed. You should now see the entities list. It should be easy to understand.

Now you can decide wether to get coordinate by using Radiant, or you can do it in-game with "pos" or "where".
If you curious on how to add specific entities, I suggest you explore map which you know contain the one you're after, and looking how it is made.

Create a file called "YourMapName.ent" and copy the entities from the .bsp into it, and place it (along with the .bsp) inside your Radiant directory.
Create a file called "EntCompiler.bat" and place the following code into it

q3map2 -game ja -fs_game MBII -onlyents %1

Now you want to drag your .ent file on the newly made .bat file.

After that point, the only thing left for you is to create the correct folder path (maps) and add your modded .bsp there.

Have fun !

 

[KryoTronic]

Holy crap you guys got back to me fast lol

I will give all this a go and then reach back out if I have anymore questions.

I was able to fill Smuggler with stormtroopers, we played for about an hour but now I got to get back to work lol Either way she was having a blast, so far so good. Thanks again for all the help!

 

[KryoTronic]

I just wanted to update this post because I am overly excited about this.

I currently have 2x MB2 maps which are broken (shaders, textures, etc.) but working for my daughter. Theed & Smuggler. Theed has multiple B1 droids for her to kill and Smuggler has some Imperial scum for her to defeat. She can just about solo Smuggler which is just hilariously cute to watch. Regardless, that portion of my work is complete. Unless I manage to pull off my next goal, I doubt I will be screwing around with MB2 maps anymore, well because, I really need the original files if I want to build a Coop gamemode on them. Otherwise it's a huge chore to fix the shaders, textures, lighting, & leaking issues lol which is why I totally understand why people say DO NOT EDIT .BSP maps!

My new goal, bring a COOP Mission Set to MB2 & Host a dedicated server for it.

At first I was really worried about this dream becoming a goal, mostly because of the backlash on this forums in the past (not my previous posts). But before I go any further, I just want to say, the MB2 Mappers are god tier... Holy shit. Yall made some amazing maps and I appreciate them SO much more now that I am creating my own, it's mind blowing and humbling as hell. Hats off, seriously.

But now I think this goal is actually achievable. The biggest issue, if I ever ask the devs to allow me to throw my hat in with them, will be a game mode. But currently my work around is decent. FA gamemode, with a server pop of 6, any more players would have to spectate. I am working on creating 5 Player Characters for the Red Team (Sector Rangers) and 1 Player Character for the Blue Team (Crimson Dawn). My idea is to make a small campaign where Sector Rangers go after Crimson Dawn and possibly, eventually, face off with someone like Maul or maybe another Dathomir leader that took over after he died on Tatoonie. The story side of this is still heavily in the works but that's my rough idea.

The next issue will be modeling, which I have never done... However I just read a tutorial here today that will get me going with just the MB2 assets. The RGB skins are a god send so I can't wait to play with that some more. But who knows, maybe I will eventually custom model the Player Characters at some point

The final issue is the AI. However, there happens to be a Mapper (IrocJeff) who released a Single Player Project with loads of Scripts included. He said it was okay for people to learn/use his scripts so eventually I will be playing with that as well. My main concern will be getting the AI to switch targets, because currently they focus on whoever they saw first. But either way, it looks like, with some intense scripting, I should be able to make the AI less stupid.

Lastly I just want to mention, that thanks to all of you in the MB2/JKA Community, I have a WIP map. The goal, which I have not started on, will be to rescue a prisoner and escape on a ship. Luckily, you (MB2 devs and Mappers), have demonstrated this type of goal in other maps so I already have something I can work off of.

Thanks for all the help thus far and hopefully you will be hearing from me again with a finished mission & working AI!

 

[Valkyrie]

Im glad to hear news about your progress and that your daughter do enjoy your game design ! It is very cute indeed =)

About the textures issue, if you do not export the map on GTK, and instead only edit the entities (.ent) then you can add your NPCs, on specifics coordinates. Which done that way, would fix your texture issue.
I explained the procedure before already, but hit me up if you need more precision on the matter.


Regarding your server idea, Im affraid the MBII Team has a serious regulation on the matter. "Running any server modification which alters gameplay elements"
So you might end up working on something, with all your heart, and the result would be having your server removed from the in-game listing for other players.

There has been different situations with how they handle this. I won't go further on the topic, but I just wanted to let you know that. To perhaps avoid a frustration on your side.

 

[MaceMadunusus]

Regarding your server idea, Im affraid the MBII Team has a serious regulation on the matter. "Running any server modification which alters gameplay elements"
So you might end up working on something, with all your heart, and the result would be having your server removed from the in-game listing for other players.

Special maps have not really fallen under this rule. That rule mainly applies to code modifications. That said, I know some of us want to have some coop campaigns, but we do not have the resources for that currently and it somewhat relies on the second phase of tutorial stuff to even be considered (ie cinematics).

 

[KryoTronic]

I explained the procedure before already, but hit me up if you need more precision on the matter.

You did a great job explaining before so I think it should be sufficient should I decide to try it. The only reason I didn't try it yet is because I don't' quite understand radiant or entities as much as I would like. Once I have a better grasp on how to use entities I may give your suggestion a try. Regardless I appreciate your help and response.

As far as the TOS is concerned I hadn't thought of that today, though it seems eerily familiar, someone may have mentioned it to me before. Regardless it looks like MaceMadunusus thinks it could be okay? So here is to hoping? lol

I was wondering about cinematics but I haven't even gotten close to that yet. But I will definitely keep that in mind, I certainly don't have any planned for this first map. As far as code modifications go, I have 0 interest and 0 experience. The only thing I think might get the server taken down, if I hosted it right now, would be that I had to add my map and teams to the FA lists in MBAssets3.pk3 So that might count as a code modification.

As always, thanks for your responses everybody!

P.S.
I would apply to be a dev so I could discuss directly with them, but I don't want to get people's hopes up or waste the dev teams time. Once I have something polished and working then I will specifically approach the devs. But for now, I just want to see if the concept pans out.

Edit: Don't put lights near caulk... just panicked, thought my map was broken, and it was right after the mb2 update so I was really paranoid rofl