MP Create screen: scenarios/campaigns/maps selection

[thunderstruck]

As part of my GSoC project, I'm working on allowing users to play singleplayer campaigns in multiplayer. In other words, the [campaign] tag with all its features should be usable in multiplayer context. These are changes related to game's engine, but they require to do some work on the gui so that they could be visible and useful.

The MP Create screen is being modified to take new changes into account. The screen in the current state looks like this:

If pressed, "Switch to maps" button changes its label to "Switch to campaigns" and displays maps and stand-alone scenarios:

However, not all campaigns with [campaign] tag are going to be adjusted for multiplayer. To deal with this there is going to be attribute "type" in [campaign] tag with possible values "sp", "mp" and "hybrid". The campaigns with "type=sp" won't be displayed along with "mp" and "hybrid" campaigns, but some users might still want to be able to play them in multiplayer. There has been some discussion about this in the development channel. The proposed solutions are as follow:
1) Leave screen in its current state, but add an option to main preferences to see "sp" campaigns next to other campaigns in MP Create screen.
2) Add radio buttons which would allow to switch between all possible game types. Possible buttons: Scenarios, Campaigns, User Maps, SP Campaigns.
3) Same as above, but only do it with combo box.

The "Switch to" button is fast and simple way to change between different types of game, but it limits the available options to 2. Radio buttons allow to display all options and are fast to switch, but takes quite a lot of space. Combo box requires far less space, but it is slower to switch.

The reason for concerns about space (lowest supported resolution is 800x480):

Express your opinions about suggested options how to display games in MP Create screen and/or suggest your own.

P.S. The screen's interface has been revamped by lipkab, not me.
P.S.S. If you would like to make other suggestions related to my GSoC project, you're welcome to leave them by pm or here.

[H-Hour]

However, not all campaigns with [campaign] tag are going to be adjusted for multiplayer.

Very excited to see the progress on this. Can I ask what you mean by the above statement? What adjustments do you have in mind? If a user's campaign selection screen is likely to be populated with several singleplayer campaigns which do not play well in multiplayer and were never intended to be played that way, then I would go for one of the options which does not lump them in with campaigns designed for multiplayer. However, if a singleplayer campaign needs to be configured properly before it will appear in the multiplayer (ie - an add-on author must deliberately enable a multiplayer mode), then I would think it's unnecessary to have the distinction.

[doofus-01]

However, not all campaigns with [campaign] tag are going to be adjusted for multiplayer. To deal with this there is going to be attribute "type" in [campaign] tag with possible values "sp", "mp" and "hybrid". The campaigns with "type=sp" won't be displayed along with "mp" and "hybrid" campaigns, but some users might still want to be able to play them in multiplayer. There has been some discussion about this in the development channel. The proposed solutions are as follow:
1) Leave screen in its current state, but add an option to main preferences to see "sp" campaigns next to other campaigns in MP Create screen.
2) Add radio buttons which would allow to switch between all possible game types. Possible buttons: Scenarios, Campaigns, User Maps, SP Campaigns.
3) Same as above, but only do it with combo box.

Like H-Hour, I'm a little confused by this. There will be a way for SP campaigns to be forced into MP, somehow? (As an SP campaign author, that makes me a little apprehensive.) Or they will just be displayed in this MP screen, but then are regular SP when loaded?

[gfgtdf]

i still wonder how singleplayer campaigns are ported to multiplayer. (the other players play the enemies?? or all player play rotatory the same side? :S or is it just for unification?).

i think i'd like the combo box version the most, because i don't think switching is that hard, (but without remembering the default value from last time, of from prefs it might be annoying ), and i think player usualy play the same kind of game, more or less.

You modification list kooks like it is only possiblso to select one modification, plus i dont think normal scenarios are compatible with different eras.

[thunderstruck]

However, not all campaigns with [campaign] tag are going to be adjusted for multiplayer.

Can I ask what you mean by the above statement? What adjustments do you have in mind?

I was probably not very clear on this. Sorry. The most important adjustment I have in mind is that campaign author should specify which sides could be playable by players. Currently, all campaigns with [campaign] tag are playable by only one player. That doesn't really work well for multiplayer. Of course, we could just make all sides playable by users and let them choose who is a player an who is an AI, but game balance will likely to suffer because of that. So, to not populate the new MP campaigns selection, all the campaigns with attribute "type" set to "sp" would be excluded.

There will be a way for SP campaigns to be forced into MP, somehow? (As an SP campaign author, that makes me a little apprehensive.) Or they will just be displayed in this MP screen, but then are regular SP when loaded?

There might be an option to force them to appear along with campaigns with "type=mp/hybrid" or there might be some other way to do it. In any way, they wouldn't be exactly regular SP campaigns when played in MP, because of all options/eras/mods you get in MP.

i still wonder how singleplayer campaigns are ported to multiplayer. (the other players play the enemies?? or all player play rotatory the same side? :S or is it just for unification?).

The campaigns themselves are not going to be ported (except for LoW). But they would share the same syntax, so MP campaigns would benefit from proper difficulty selection and other things. As for the pure SP campaigns played in MP, the player could assign all sides as he wants and play it like that.

You modification list kooks like it is only possiblso to select one modification

You're actually right. We currently don't have a proper widget for that, but lipkab is planning to work on it. However, if the widget won't be ready in time, it would be always possible to use previous mods choose dialog.

[lipk]

I like the combobox the most and maybe the preferences + switch button the least, but, as I stated on IRC, I believe that all three approaches could work. Anyway, though, I think that it doesn't make much sense to maintain separate categories for user maps and mp scenarios, as the two types don't differ from a player's perspective.