Multiplayer cutscenes

[Blake 0]

Okay, it is possible to make cutscenes in MP missions BUT the real problem is that the stuff you see on the screen has to be included in the mission itself, unlike in single player missions where you have dedicated Intro and Outro cutscene "mission".

This is a problem in some cutscenes including vehicles since they can't be made to "vanish" after the cutscene is over and have to be left on the field in the mission itself. Also, these in-mission cutscenes are unskippable, which might also annoy some people.

So is BIS going to fix this issue by enabling single-player style intro-outro cutscening into MP missions?

Some might argue that cutscenes take too much time but they really help create atmosphere and if real cutscenes are possible the intros could easily be skipped.

[Maddock 0]

Here Here.

All mission types should have 'single player style' cutscenes. I know from your missions Blake, as with my own that this can be much more awkward being 'in-mission'.

A common comment is not to make them too long in MP, but that's only beacause they can't be skipped. This would be a nice feature for BIS to slot in, after all, it's new interesting missions that'll give OFP it's true longevity.  

[Chris Death 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Some might argue that cutscenes take too much time but they really help create atmosphere and if real cutscenes are possible the intros could easily be skipped.<span id='postcolor'>

I don't believe, that they could easily be skipped.

If they could be skipped, then there would be 2 ways:

1) skipped by only one user, host on non ded.server or

admin on ded.server (admin must be present then)

OK if no admin is here, maybe the players could get a

#skip intro command (all or a specified number of players

have to type it, then it will be skipped)

Must be funny, if there's no admin, and about 30 players

starting a discussion wether to skip the intro or not.

2) it has to be skipped by every player connected

no more funny when 9 player skip the intro, and nr. 10

doesn't (he's a fanatic movie freak, and would never skip

an intro, even if it's a total boring senseless one)

Well, just think about, what if: 19 of 20 players have seen

an intro about 100 times, and the last one never saw it.

19 getting booooored about the boooooring well known

cutscene, and 1 gets exciting and scared about the cooool

realistic atmosphere.

Hope you got my point

[Blake 0]

Well, you gotta point there too. But rarely intros are more than 1 minute so skipping is really not the main problem here.

I think nobody wants to make 5 minute multiplayer mini-movies

Main gripe is that multiplayer doesn't support single-player style intro structure. The stuff you see in intro has to be in the mission, there is no dedicated intro possible currently.

Hope this isn't hard to fix, maybe Suma will answer this when he gets back?

[Maddock 0]

Fair point DV, you took this small part of my post quite a long way.  

My point was more that Single player 'style' intros is great for the mission developer to provide a great intro without compromising the mission itself. This is what Blake is asking for and it would be a great feature.

As far as skipping goes, your ideas are all good. it could be a server setting to show them (or not), with Admin, Voting, or majority methods of skipping an intro.

Personally I think you often watch the intro the first few times to get the vibe of whats happening, and then you may not watch it again, it'll be up to the individual/team.  

[badkarma 0]

YES PLEASE! I hope BIS adds this. It's so annoying sitting through a MP mission that's really tough and having a 1.5min nitro. Isn't the intros mainly on coop missions? If someone skips the intro everyone gets skipped... or only allow the "Leader" to skip the cutscene.

[Maddock 0]

You got it.

[Nagual 0]

I try to avoid using even 15 second cutscene for MP, I cant stand sitting through it if all i want to do is restart a mission. If the suggestion you guys are making is implemented, such as skipable intro style scenes for MP, then i probably wouldnt be able to make an MP mission without an intro and outro, as i do think they are important, its just not practical from my perspective at the moment.

[Maddock 0]

Our suggestion is simply to have it the same as in single player:

1. make it optional, have it if you want to, don't if you don't want to

2. allow it to be skipped

3. allow it to be separate from the mission

Other nice things could be the settings, voting, etc. in on-line environments. Basically just needs to be available if mission developers want it. It's not a critical thing, but it'd be nice.  

[Chris Death 0]

Some reasons, why intro/outro isn't optimized for mutliplayer are (at least i suppose):

Multiplayer requires at least 2 players (i mean real multiplayer, not playing mp alone).

If you are playing alone, than it's only your time, you spend

on playing a game. If 2 players are playing together, then

it depends on: how many time have both left?

The more players, the higher probability, that there are some

with less time.

Also, rumours goin around that there are people out there,

who pay for their spent time on being online (not me, but they

exist).

I understand what you want, but i think there are also some other problems, with that. Imagine, if you are creating a mission with intro, mission, outro (probably alternate outro's),

how big would the mission then be? How long would it take

to transfer this mission to the clients?

How long would it take, to load those different parts of the mission into every clients RAM?

I think, the problems with intro's and outro's in mp are located somewhere there.

[Nagual 0]

2 Maddock, just so i'm clear, i agree with you and Blake. I dont really have any view on how it would work though, but imagine it would be most simple if the server had the SP like option to press "ESC".

2 Mr Death, if i were making an intro for MP, i wouldn't care less how much Kbs an intro/ outro would make to the mission, if thats what was required, unless we are talking about MBs due to sounds and voices. I can see what you mean though, and this idea were to be implemented it would be a factor; fast systems would be right through the intro when slow systems have just started. When the game starts, fast players have already started killing things, slow players are watching the end of the intro.

Also what did you mean about people paying for online time, it sounds interesting.

[Chris Death 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i wouldn't care less how much Kbs an intro/ outro would make to the mission, if thats what was required, unless we are talking about MBs <span id='postcolor'>

Have you ever been receiving a big mission, when at least

8 players were connected?

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Also what did you mean about people paying for online time, it sounds interesting.<span id='postcolor'>

Yes it's true; there are ppl, who have to pay per minute, they

spend connected onto the web.

[Nagual 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (DV Chris Death @ Mar. 27 2002,16:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i wouldn't care less how much Kbs an intro/ outro would make to the mission, if thats what was required, unless we are talking about MBs <span id='postcolor'>

Have you ever been receiving a big mission, when at least

8 players were connected?<span id='postcolor'>

I dont really play online anymore, only lan, but let someone in my team run my server online sometimes, they have sent decent sized missions to around 20 people, with lan computers beings the last ones to finish recievieng and be ready. So i have seen nothing but inconsistent timing when it comes to recieving/sending times. But like i said, i dont play online much anymore so i cant answer your question with much experience backing me.

What i meant was, that at the end of the day, a mission has to meet the vision of the mission maker, not the time any given player has. So if i were making a mission that was getting large in the kb way, i wouldn't comprimise the integrity of the vision/mission and cut it down (make it incomplete) just to satiate a person who is in a hurry. When it comes to cutscenes, sometimes thats all the mission maker has to impart a story or a mood or a significance.

People paying for minute by minute internet is strange, if that is what they want to do things, they definatley shouldnt complain to others that things are taking to long. The only other people that have to pay for the time online are called servers

[Blake 0]

*bump*