Many readers here are probably aware of playlists, these allow people to control the music they listen to. Many create different types of play lists to suit their mood or even the time of day. Why can’t we do this with levels?
A player can choose a selection of levels from a giant list based on what is currently on their PC. Detailed knowledge of the type of level would be needed. The player would then click play and he or she would play the first level. At the end of the first level the system/engine would then transition to the next level on the list. The player continues through to the end of the list. As the player transitions they keep whatever weapons or items they have collected.
Players would then create different types of lists; closed-quarters combat, outdoor, with-vehicles, stealth, crowbar-only etc. The type of list is only dependant on your imagination!
Of course players could then share these lists with others. It would depend on what maps and mods each player has on their system but it’s not hard to download and install maps, is it?
Taking Half-Life 2 as an example. The player would open the options menu and select Playlists, there they would be able to make and save export and import selections. Beside each level name could be a manually-updated description that would help with creation and sharing the Playlists.
Players would no doubt want to create speedruns of different types of Playlists. displayed.
Who is to say whether different combination of levels would make games or mods better? Of course the transition is important and jumping from an indoor map to an outdoor map with going through a door will be strange but after playing Gene Troopers you get used to it!
I have no idea whether this idea is technically possible with SP games but I think it might be really fun to try somebody else’s lists and increase the replayability of maps and mods.
Credit goes to Katana for proving the spark for this idea.
As always I’m interested to hear your thoughts and suggestions, please feel free to comment.
I like the way you think, it parallels the way I think as well; and I think this is a brilliant idea.
Will it get implemented?? Based on the argument I had this afternoon with a programmer-friend of mine, the answer will be “NO”, for whatever reason that a programmer will come up with.
Oh, the nature of our disagreement?? Graphical User Interfaces, and how I think they can be simplified for most general users of computers–of course, he says it can’t be done. :shrug:
Sorry for venting, but at the moment I’m none too happy about people who sit in their little boxes and say something can’t be done.