This is a long lost idea and I've been told its impossible. But I don't believe in impossible things.

What I want is simple: A way for the player to kill monsters and be rewarded with a choice, to boost certain characteristic of his.

I already have items that boost speed, damage, maximum health, and that persists through death and map travel with JCoopZ. That part is all well and done.

However, I have no way to distribute them. I'm looking for possible suggestions on how to do this.

The main idea I had in mind, that I -could- work with, is a specific section in a map (or even, a separate map one goes to between each coop map) with triggers that can exchange an item (that would be XP) for an upgrade item.

My problems with this idea are:

-I could not possibly have a clue how to make the exchange. Lets say XP were flares, and a trigger would take 10 Flares and give you an upgrade. How would this be done?

-The XP. Making an hidden item that can replace the flares above is easy: but how can a player acquire it? Ideally, killing a monster would automatically give the killer X amount of that item. But how? (and ideally, this needs to be doable in the default classes as well!)


This all has to be technically possible. However, I'd need quite a bit of guidance to make it happen. But before going any further, the main question is:

Can it be done? It doesn't have to be done in -this manner-, its just one idea.

Alright. I'll start with the part with which I haven't the slightest clue how to tackle it.

The XP: I need some way to reward players from their kills, beyond mere item dropping, and something that is different depending on their monsters.

I have little/no experience in mutators, if they could handle that. What should I do? Any game plan?

Yea, if it wasn't possible, then UT2004RPG wouldn't exist But yes, you might need some more mutator functionality, provided by either custom co-op modes or 227.

Alright, after a while, I decided to try this. Was easier than I expected, but I met a problem.

I have this actor (under pawn), and just having it in the level makes the players get XP for their kills. Great.

However, when a player died by certain shots, it crashed, saying it couldn't find "ParseKillMessage" in SFKillCheck. Okay, added that, it fixed it.

But now, when a player kills himself, it causes a General Protection Fault, be it on a projectile suicide or on using the suicide command, and the only error thats ever in common is:

Code:

Critical: UObject::ProcessEvent 

I'm at quite a loss. :/

EDIT: It crashes even on a map change (!) when the game tries to delete the player.

EDIT2: Well nevermind, I fixed that. Force the functions in Killed() to happen only when a Player is the killer -and- when the thing killed is not a player. Seems to work for now.
Code:

//=============================================================================
// SFKillCheck.
//=============================================================================
class SFKillCheck expands Pawn;

var int bSFXP;
var int bSFXPTotal;

function ScoreKill(Pawn Killer, Pawn Other)
{
	if(!Killer.bIsPlayer)
	{
		return;
	}
	if(Killer == none && (Other == none) )
	{
		return;
	}
	if(Killer != none && (Killer.bIsPlayer))
	{
			if(Other.AttitudeToPlayer >= 5)
			{
				BroadcastMessage(PlayerPawn(Killer).PlayerReplicationInfo.PlayerName @ "killed" @ Other.GetHumanName() $ "!");
			}
			else if(Other.IsA('Pawn'))
			{
				if ( Other.VolumeBrightness <= 0)
					bSFXP = bSFXPc(Other);
				else
					bSFXP = Other.VolumeBrightness;
				if (Other.VolumeFog > 0)
					bSFXP = bSFXP*Other.VolumeFog;
				if (bSFXP > 0)
				{
				GiveXP1(Killer, Class'SFXP', bSFXP);
				PlayerPawn(Killer).ClientMessage("+"@bSFXP@" XP, Total"@bSFXPTotal@" XP");
				}
			}
			else
			{
				PlayerPawn(Killer).ClientMessage("You killed" @ Other.GetHumanName());
			}
	}
}



function Killed(Pawn Killer, Pawn Other, name DamageType)
{
	if(Other == none)
	{
		ScoreKill(Killer, Other);
	}
	else
	{
		super(GameInfo).Killed(Killer, Other, DamageType);
	}
}

function GiveXP1(Pawn Other, class<Pickup> InventoryName, int bXPAmount)
{
	local Pickup A;

	while ( bXPAmount > 0 )
	{
		bXPAmount-=1;
		A = Pickup(Other.FindInventoryType(InventoryName));
		if ( A != None )
		{
			A.NumCopies++;
		}
		else
		{
			A = Spawn(InventoryName);
			Other.AddInventory(A);
			A.BecomeItem();
			A.GotoState('Idle2');
		}
	}
	bSFXPTotal=A.NumCopies+1;
}

Function int bSFXPc(Pawn Other)
{
	if(Other.IsA('Zombie'))
		return 1;
	else if(Other.IsA('LesserBrute'))
		return 40;
	else if(Other.IsA('Behemoth'))
		return 115;
	else if(Other.IsA('Brute'))
		return 75;
	else if(Other.IsA('Devilfish'))
		return 10;
	else if(Other.IsA('Fly'))
		return 5;
	else if(Other.IsA('GiantGasbag'))
		return 135;
	else if(Other.IsA('Gasbag'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('KrallElite'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('Krall'))
		return 40;
	else if(Other.IsA('GiantManta'))
		return 80;
	else if(Other.IsA('CaveManta'))
		return 12;
	else if(Other.IsA('Manta'))
		return 15;
	else if(Other.IsA('MercenaryElite'))
		return 60;
	else if(Other.IsA('Mercenary'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('Predator'))
		return 20;
	else if(Other.IsA('Pupae'))
		return 15;
	else if(Other.IsA('Queen'))
		return 500;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjGunner'))
		return 50;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjInfantry'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjOfficer'))
		return 55;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjSniper'))
		return 40;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjTrooper'))
		return 40;
	else if(Other.IsA('IceSkaarj'))
		return 50;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjAssassin'))
		return 55;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjBerserker'))
		return 80;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjLord'))
		return 80;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjScout'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('SkaarjWarrior'))
		return 50;
	else if(Other.IsA('Slith'))
		return 45;
	else if(Other.IsA('Spinner'))
		return 22;
	else if(Other.IsA('Squid'))
		return 30;
	else if(Other.IsA('Tentacle'))
		return 5;
	else if(Other.IsA('StoneTitan'))
		return 400;
	else if(Other.IsA('Titan'))
		return 400;
	else if(Other.IsA('WarLord'))
		return 275;
	else if(Other.IsA('Hawk'))
		return 20;
	else
		return 0;
}

function string ParseKillMessage( string KillerName, string VictimName, string WeaponName, string DeathMessage );