The Return of Shield Keys

[Relli]

As this question was never addressed during the beta (possibly because I plunked it down in a spot no one ever looked), I'd like to ask again.
Has there been any thought to adding something to Particle Fleet akin to Creeper World 3's shield keys? There are many clever uses of this concept of cross-map recognition. From concepts as simple as requiring custom story missions be completed in order, to complex masterpieces like J's Unit Map Series, a multi-mission puzzle to collect unit schematics in varying orders. One of my own ideas that never saw completion was to use Shield Keys as unlockable extras, such as a bonus objective that rewarded the player with a key that unlocked an extra feature on their next playthrough, or in subsequent maps. It can be used to store decisions and achieve branching storylines. There are a great many possibilities, and at this moment none of them can be done in Particle Fleet.

[planetfall]

We discussed this a bit in the alpha, before relegating it to the "to think about later" pile. The issue was with the potential for malicious mappers creating scripts that deleted other maps' progression, or filling the hard drive with junk. It may or may not still be on the table.

[Relli]

Didn't know that was possible. Thanks for the answer on this. Even a 'no' is better than silence, so I'm fine with a maybe.

[planetfall]

Those concerns came up because I asked about making the system more robust and able to store and load data locally. That request should naturally ring alarm bells in any dev...

[GoodMorning]

I think that the CW3 key is about as far as you can safely go.

Perhaps allow a check for map completion, too, but no more.

I support the existence of the mechanism, however.

[19chickens]

Stupid question-what shield key mechanism are you referring to?

[Ovalcircle]

Stupid question-what shield key mechanism are you referring to?

In CW3 story mode, you would have to get shield keys ( the yellow thing in top right of picture) from certain planets first in order to access the final planet in the system and progress further. Some CRPL people managed to code that into the custom maps. There are currently 3 uses for custom map shield keys.

1. There is a two-map series. The names are Map A and Map B. The map maker wants me to beat Map A before playing Map B. I decide to enter Map B anyway. A script will check if I picked up a shield key from Map A. If it detects I did pick it up, then all is fine. If it detects I didn't pick up the shield key, then usually an automatic game over will occur or some effect such as an insane amount of spores will make it impossible to win the map.

2. The script can also be used to provide bonuses for people who completed another non-mandatory map in the series. This means if Map A did not need to be beaten to play Map B, but I beat it anyway, I would be rewarded with more energy or anti-creeper or even some enemies would be removed from the map itself. If I didn't beat Map A and played Map B, then Map B would play normally as the map maker made it originally.

3. Refer to first post of this topic. Basically, the map will detect if you picked up certain weapons from other maps. If you did collect the weapons, then you can play normally. If you didn't collect the weapons from the other maps, then I won't have those weapons and will be at a disadvantage, like no reactors or no mortars. Technically, this falls into the second category but it's kinda different from 2 so I made it into it's own number.

I hope I'm not confusing you with the way I worded this.

[GoodMorning]

To be clear: A shield key in CW3 is an item that can be collected from a given map, and is an objective.

If it is collected, it has an ID which is saved to the player's machine.

Later maps can then check if the player has collected a given Key (by ID).

This can allow for interesting mechanical effects.