I was hoping to tap the forge for advice on scripts and handicapping players / teams. Our weekly halo group ranges from Bronze 6 through to mid-Diamond, so getting close games is tricky. My first (ever) script simply starts specific teams with a scoring handicap. Red, Blue, and Yellow start on zero points, Green and Purple on -5 points, Magenta -10, Orange -15, and Cyan -20 points. We're slowly getting a feel for which player groups need to start where. It wasn't a bad start. My second script, "Spongicus" (for the damage sponges), is a bit more ambitious. It's taken me a week or so but I've now got a single script brain up and working that cycles through the players, checks their scores, keeps track of the highest and lowest scores, calculates their range from the lead, and changes the team-scores (for mini-games). What we did last night was set the Spongicus brain to trigger a second brain to change their traits, so that 0-3 points behind the lead = normal, 4-7 points = 150% shields, 8-11 points = 200% shields, 12-15 = 250% shields, and 16+ points = 300% shields. It was only our first game but it worked pretty well. The good guys still won... but the damage sponges had a lot more fun. They stayed alive longer (which gives them more time to improve), they got more kills, and suddenly they were no longer the desired prey. But the damage sponges have asked for more! I'm brand new to forge / scripting... so I'm keen to hear what anyone has done in the past to create game-types that help to promote close games across a wide skill gap.
Ok. I've got three games set up for this Tuesday. 1. The back marker script. At the start of the game the teams have different points 0, +5, +10, +15, or +20. When we've divided up into teams we just need to work out who needs a head start and by how much. I've changed it from negative points for the good teams to positive for the bad teams so that the games don't go longer. 2. "Spongacus" as described above. The 50% shield bonus for every 4 points you fall behind the leader worked well. 3. And a new "Damage Sponge" script that starts everyone off at 10 points... but every 15 seconds you lose a point. If you fall below zero you become a damage sponge. I've scripted a gold sparks object to follow you around (just in front of your abdomen). Your vision changes to Sepia. You are now invincible! Last person standing wins! Scripting is fun. Just wish I got into it earlier.