#Casting Director

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halcyon hull
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I just finished reading the article on the Casting Director and how you use tags to do procedural generation for missions. When I was getting my Master's in game design (technically Games for Learning), I had an idea for a courtroom game that did something similar.

The setting would be consistent and detailed, and the core mystery would be generated at the start of each case but the twists and turns would be generated by player action in the current and previous cases. Sadly, my programming skills aren't great.

I'd be curious to hear (in broad terms, obviously) how you implemented your Casting Director, especially the more long range planning.

inland willow
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I am also interested in designing games with something like a casting director. I have done story line based modding for a few games, notably Wildermyth ("Love is in the Air", "Legendary Weapons").

I think we can divide the missions in CKF into several categories, from least interesting to most, relative to a casting director. In case you do not recognize the missions, visit: https://cyberknightswiki.tresebrothers.com/Storylines

  1. Simple random: the mission can appear randomly at any time with no prerequisites. Example: Heartbreak Rush; it can appear at any time. Team PL does not count as a prerequisite.

  2. Simple sequel: the mission can appear randomly after a different specific mission has been run. This is a basic "quest chain". Example: Haven Smokeout. It can appear any time after Plan B.

  3. Invariant prerequisite: the mission has a prerequisite which is an invariant attribute on characters, such as their home faction or sibling status. Examples: Cube Run (requires Emille on the team), "recruit a friend" (requires a merc with Los Zag background), Sibling Breakout (requires a merc with no other sibling and the "raised on the streets" background)

  4. Consequence prerequisite: the mission has a prerequisite which is granted as a consequence of another mission. The wiki linked article on Casting Director gives some examples of this, but there aren't any in the game yet.

I think there is a big backlog of #2, such as "Truck Job", Zasha's neuro-rot, the rest of the Null Deal storyline, etc. Presumably once these are done, the dev team may be able to add missions like #4. Once modding is available, I hope that modders can add a lot more of #4. IMHO that is really where the rubber hits the road.

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Wiki
Storylines
high shell
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I'm not sure there are any examples of (1) except the start of Daedalus bloc. Heartbreak Rush requires New in Town to be completed

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there are some others that are close, but require a contact or type of contact who is currently available

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(2) and (3) are pretty clear. I'm having trouble finding the examples of (4) in the article, could you clarify that, please?

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I'm not quite clear what (4) means

inland willow
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Surely there are many examples of (1)? I am not sure which require the WB era, which makes them (2), but if WB never happened I am sure many missions must still be available?

high shell
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no, not really

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some might, but most are either clearly 2 or 3 or require Treaty of '31 era

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carnivore might be (1)

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dead drop hit is close, it may not require Treaty of '31 era, but does require a specific type of contact

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Truck Job might be (1)

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Snitch Out Snuff is close, it only requires that you owe an Obligation afaik

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still, (2) and (3) are pretty clear. what is the example in the article you were thinking of for (4)?

inland willow
high shell
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yes, I'm looking at the article. what is the example within the article you are thinking of?

inland willow
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"We've got an input like 'this character gets shot—probably with a weird prototype weapon—and now he's sick and gets sucked into this storyline, and the storyline [may] resolve in a couple of different ways. He'll come out of it on the far side with new metadata attached to him saying 'he was wounded by this weird prototype nanoweapon, but he [was] surprised, and now he hates this corporation.'"

high shell
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okay, got it. we don't quite have an example like that.

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we do have examples of events causing new traits which could be used in a story

inland willow
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The difference between (3) and (4) is that (4) relies on a tag which didn't exist at the start of the game. Emille is going to trigger Cube Run regardless of anything that happens (except dying/firing). The Los Zag mercs are going to generate "recruit a friend" regardless of anything.

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Yes, they "could" be used in a story. But currently they aren't.

high shell
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and we do have events that lead to obligations, which can lead to Snitch Out Snuff

inland willow
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Not sure about that. Does "snitch out snuff" occur due to anything else but the obligation in the starting storyline? that makes it (2) not (4).

high shell
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but yes, other than that we don't have a clear example of (4)

high shell
inland willow
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somewhere there is a game of thrones quote from ned stark, "i did not know that was an option!"

high shell
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so I think that is an example of 4, but it is not common and is the only example I can think of

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yes, I do hope we see more