'nano augmentations' and 'nanite procedures'

N_3

<div class="IPBDescription">marine idea</div><b>Abstract for those who can't be bothered reading:</b>
Comm researches to make groups of augmentations available. Marines install these augmentations at will up to a certain max amount (1 or 2). These augmentations are activated abilities by the commander (NOT the marines themselves) through the use of a nanite procedure with aoe similar to scan.

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This idea is more or less a 'way' of implementing upgrades and/or commander spells. There is quite a bit of room for modification with this idea as well. The system in the abstract i've marked with ***'s. It starts with marines being able to be upgraded, ie take nano augmentations, the marines would possibly acquire these in a similar method to the new weapon distribution. Some examples of possible augmentations are given at the end.

There are a few possibilities as to how this takes place:<ul><li>the commander creates augs like equipment, they would behave just like jps/HA/guns now. each one costs res.</li><li>the commander unlocks augs in research and then any marine can install it (for free), but is limited to some number of total augs. ***</li><li>the augs are universal, ie all marines get them and can have as many as the comm researches, just like weapon and armour upgrades are now.</li></ul>
Now whilst these could be passive, always on, upgrades, it's much more interesting to have them activated abilities that last for a certain period of time. But it's not the marines who activate the augs, its the commander. The comm would 'cast' a nanite procedure that would enable all the augmentations (and cost some res). Again, this has a few options:<ul><li>the nanite procedure 'spell' activates all augmentations ***</li><li>it activates only a certain (group of?) augmentation (and there's multiple nanite procedures)</li><li>it has a local vicinity ***</li><li>it global</li></ul>
Now there could be a fair bit of overlap with current upgrades, guns, drops (and they could be incorporated into this) depending on how the system works.

<b>Some example augmentations:</b><ul><li>silent run</li><li>run faster</li><li>build faster</li><li>build silent</li><li>reload faster</li><li>more damage (weapon ups overlap)</li><li>more building damage</li><li>more armour (armour ups overlap)</li><li>'book it' faster</li><li>'book it' recovery quicker</li><li>parasite removal</li><li>slow regen or armour repair</li><li>health boost (medkit overlap)</li><li>weld faster</li><li>gas immunity</li><li>projectile defense</li><li>ammo repletion (ammo pack overlap)</li><li>clip extension</li><li>clip auto repletion (ie no reload, keep shooting)</li><li>longer jump</li><li>teleport to predefined location (beacon overlap)</li><li>reveal enemies/ping (scanner sweep overlap)</li><li>esp (motion tracking overlap)</li><li>resuscitate: downed marines become resuscitatable by other marines (bf2 or republic commando style)</li><li>resurrect</li><li>alien structure resonator: the marine sticks a device into an alien structure at close range and has to hold his position but afterwards destroys the building.</li><li>infestation remover: near the marines</li><li>respawn (old school beacon)</li><li>nanite cloud, like a smoke grenade around the marines</li><li>...many more exotic ideas possible</li></ul>
Obviously not all these augmentations make sense with any choice of how the system works. And there are varying levels of powerfulness, they could be unlocked in tiers similar to w/a ups or from different buildings/branches etc. The best option (and most different from current upgrades and techs) in my opinion i've marked with ***. With this set up, marines choose what they like and work together to choose complimentary upgrades.

Eg. A group of marines ensures one of them has fast build to get a pg/tf etc up quickly, one has motion tracking and one has faster welding. Another group might all take silent move and build to ninja a pg.

Domining

I like, but let me build on it.

Don't take upgrades already in the game for the specials. Just make the commander research a couple of different 'implant sets' each of which has a spell or a couple of spells attached to it. Each marine would be able to select whatever implant set, or class he wishes. Hey look, heres a class idea which actually fits into the gameplay. You can also make them come in TIERS, unlock first tier abilities, second tier abilities and final tier abilities.

Example implant sets: (commander chooses ability and the player is informed)

Assault implant set (Frontiersman ++)
Z key, 2 res - Restore all hand grenades and special expendables which are not restored by ammo packs.
X key, 3 res - Catalyst

Ninja implant set
Z key, 3 res - Increased movement speed for 7 seconds and allows chained jumping, can only use secondary and tertiary weapons.
X key, 2 res - Can scale walls for 10 seconds.
C key, 20 res - Teleportation device, can teleport anywhere on the map.

Spellcaster implant set
Z key, 7 res - Repair armor of all nearby marines
X key, 10 res - Instantly equipped with a steel tube, a rubber band, a nail and a couple of sonic rounds which can be used to shoot buildings through walls.
C key, 20 res - Eh, psionic storm please.

killkrazy

I love the idea of marines being able to "customise" themselves... possibly having an icon / text to indicate their chosen "nano-program" (like each soldier can program their own nanites to perform different tasks, but only 1 at a time) so the commander can give that marine a specific task he is more suited to...

perhaps it can be chosen on spawn, but not changed until he dies (to stop "hot-swapping" of nano-programs)

and instead of an AOE, the commander can trigger each player's sub-routines (sci-fi woooo) individually when he needs them, or deems them necessary!

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<ul><li>Each Marine chooses their own Nanite's sub-routine program</li><li>Sub-Routines can only be chosen on spawn</li><li>Commander can see, and activate each marine's program</li></ul>
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This would be good if the nanites were "reinforcing skin" (giving 10% more armor) all marines could chose a rush type style...
or if lots of marines chose different sub-routines, they could split up and do different tasks

If could make public-play alot more fun because you are unique... and it would add a new level of tactics to the RTS value of organised play

NEX9

great idea N3 this could work well,

my obious only fears are, that one or two will stand out so much so that they will be adopted as the nessacary norm to how do they say it "PWN FAC3!!".

I think they should be chosen on spawn, to stop hot swaping or teams instatly changeing the flow of the game, so rapidly that there is no way to counter it.

and i think the com should activate ether indovidualy or squad based, each ability has a lasting timer then a cool down timer unquie to each ability.

i belive this idea is a great way to give coms that extra need thing they can work with, that keeps them bizzy, in the down times, but makes then choose between abilitys and or med spamming in the heat of the momment.

i dont know what name the community wil ladpot for these little suckers but i cant wait to hear what they come up with.

my second main thought what are the kharaa spells and how do they benifit me and how are they activated.

umm perhaps static mods to the kharaa or activated in a way that works like a bezerker rage, you pick your unlocks based on the hive or chamber number's/chamber type so 6 of said chamber may give you 2 unlocks of tier 1 or two unlocks of tier one.
perhaps once activated kharaa lets loose a sort of rage scream were the abiltiys kick in.

hum lets tie a gorge to it, to activate yoru rage you need to be used or spat at by a gorge. from there your rage activates depending on your unlock, if its speed it might unlock strait a away, if its offencive it might activate on attack and only last for X attacks.

another way your abilitys could activate are is if your with in a certain radius of a gorge, as in each unlock might need a require ment

Dodgeing - the players straff movment is uped to 110 - prequ with in 100 range of gorge.

Strait speed - player FF movment is uped by 40 - prequ with in 70 range of another player.

Lock jaw - a landed bite will turn your model into a rag doll with your teeth choped onto the enamy, corses them massive control issues, can only be shot off by another player, deals damage over time. - prequ must be over healed.

*note overhealing should be a abiltiy gorges can do to kharaa like the medic in TF2.

so you could have radius unlocks, gorge radius unlocks, gorge activated unlocks, < note those two promote gorges.
if yo uwent player unlocked or hive unlocks them randomly in segments or some such the abilitys would ether need real nurfing or be really creative, if you use hive unlocks say ever 40 seconds the hive auto activates your over clock gland founded to be a sort of second heart that pumps sepersific chemicals thru the kharaa, other such fabled creatures have had this, bane from bat man is a leading contender, once activated with these fluids pumping he become near unstopable. the TSA are still finding new chemicals with in kharra they havent seen before.

if 40 second activate windows were to happen, i think kharaa would need a 5 second warning before it activates for ambusher to say right form up lets push to the next point.

the other options with the hive activate is you could have gorges reset/ reroll the activate timer, promoteing gorges in hives rooms
which would give some player control but still leave some randomness to it so the enamy cant guess when the abiltiys are on cool down or not.

N_3

well yer, i would imagine there's some building at spawn you need to use to install an augmentation.
Having the commander trigger each marine's augmentations individually is a bit tricky and finicky in my opinion. i think it's cooler if it's an aoe because it encourages marines to group together and it activates a whole range of different abilities that each marine then has to use differently. Depending on the res cost of casting the nanite procedure, i'd imagine the effects only last say 10-30 seconds or so?

NEX9

yeah that aoe sounds good, but i was just saying blowing the entire maps augments and puting them on CD could be bad for other players, things like that. squad based wouldnt be to bad ether. But yeah the AOE's great.

I think the gorge should have a invis radius like on SC's or some such, that if kharaa are with in range of they can active their chemical glands.

killkrazy

Activating 5 marines' sub-routines in a combat situation, and 4 of them have "improved build time" then its wasted.
or vice-versa, having 3 marines building but 2 have "health regeneration" sub-routine...

obviously the commander could say "move away from so-and-so, I need to activate his nanite program"... but thats ridiculous :>

it makes sense for the commander to have an interface to see and select each marine's individual program

some other programs:
<ul><li>Sonic detection - (can "hear" cloaked units, echo-location?)</li><li>Reflex enhancement - (fire-rate increased, reload time decreased)</li></ul>

N_3

the idea is that the marines get a clue and work together in picking augmentations. it would be a set cost to 'cast' the nanite procedure, if multiple marines are hit then its more bang for your buck.

invader Zim

I love this developed idea, but it wud be uber cool if the modifications were shown on the ingame models in some way. Partly for immersion partly so you could identify your enemys abilities

tallmidget22

I feel that if you allow marines to get their own guns, and are in classes with ranks and stuff you will ruin the game, I hate stuff like that in other games, and I won't like it in a NS adaptation.

NEX9

I sort of agree with tall midegt in some reguards, your the same meat sack grunt as the guy next to you. You get what your given sort of deal, its the kharaa that get the freedom of pick and choose.

But I would like to see this idea still, be the com droping augs or rines picking augs, it still seams like a idea worrth cheacking into.

Hum perhaps a page from WoW can be taken a look at again, they have potions now in two forms gardian and something else elixers, basicly offence defence, you can only have one of each active at one time, some even rejister as both like flasks and such.

AOE spell offencive augs when your rushing, or *cough camping hive, AOE defencive Augs when setting up new bases or defending.

As for the kharaa version of Spell, i really think this would bring more gorges into the game, setting up med bays a few courners form combat, groups of kharaa working togther gorges really sticking on there toes, and kharra hovering around gorges just to activate there glands.

afratnikov

This is an interesting idea, but it seems like a big departure from NS. Max mentioned that they will follow the rule of thumb of 1/3 old, 1/3 improved, and 1/3 new for the sequel (can't remember where exactly he said/wrote that).

Your ideas for augmentations are very creative and i like your idea of making spells interact/overlap with other things. Spells could interact with, maybe not augmentations, but instead weapons or upgrades. A marine buff spell might add different bonuses to different weapons such as increased pellets if you have a shotgun, faster fire rate for HMG, bigger explosion range for GL and so on. Another spell might give percent increase to armor complementing armor upgrades.
If the developers decide to do this - great! But they will most-likely try to improve existing things and put their creative efforts and balancing into Dynamic Infestation, tunnels, welding system, alien comm, spells and many other new things.