Weapon tracking
afratnikov
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18931Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18931Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Small change to encourage recycling of weapons</div>Weapon tracking would allow marines and commanders easily see where dropped weapons are. This small change would make NS more friendly towards new players, make weapons a possible early investment, make a more diverse shooting experience, and give aliens more ambush possibilities.
*When i talk about weapons/guns, i mean equipment that is dropped when killed for which you have to pay - not LMG or pistol (also, to "drop" implies getting killed - not buy a weapon)
*I use "newb" for new, inexperienced players - If NS2 is to be a success, it should be accessible to new players. In fact, i truly hope most NS2 players will be newbs
Weapons in NS1 pub games:
On public servers weapons are rarely dropped and instead commanders usually opt for upgrades. Weapons are only dropped just before a hive rush or when there's an abundance of res. And this has been generally a reasonable strategy, because when the comm dropped a weapon and the marine died, players didn't make an attempt to look for it, unless it dropped right in front of them. I'd imagine that elite NS teams always communicate about where each weapon is, and when it's dropped they consider retrieving it. I propose to make this part of NS accessible to new players.
Positive gameplay changes
- Commanders should be more willing to buy a shotgun earlier, confident that it might last through the entire game.
- Adds a new rewarding goal to <u>earn</u> a gun besides the old build RTs, kill RTs, build PG, kill hive.
- W-tracking would give newbs access to better weapons
- Less need to drop good weapons selectively to best player: good players will search and take weapons dropped by newbs
- Generally, this should reduce the trend of marines firing an LMG/pistol 95% of the time
This is not just for marines:
- Dropped guns provide another ambush spot for aliens (This would play a larger role than NS1, since now marines would purposefully try to get dropped weapons)
- Since the dropped weapon should be unloaded, it will still be balanced (as in NS1)
How W-tracking might work:
- it could be standard or a cheap researchable tech
- For commanders, it would show up as an icon on the map and allow him to give direct orders to marines to retrieve it
- For marine soldiers, it could show up as a tiny icon or dot
- It should also somehow show how long is left before it disappears: it could be a methodical flashing of the icon, flashing at an increased rate when it is about to disappear
-- Solid icon when dropped; slow flashing when 30 seconds left; faster flashing when 15 seconds; and even faster at 5 seconds (or it could fade)
- W-tracking should not clutter the HUD, since there are usually only few dropped weapons and standard LMG and pistol will not show up.
More complex ideas:
- Make weapons a mini character in the game: weapons count number of kills, get more dirty and bloody, and might even get tiny upgrades the longer the more they kill
- Allow heavies to take a second weapon, dropped by his teammates. However, as a second weapon, it loses all ammo and so is only useful to get it back to other teammates.
I apologize in advance, if this has already been discussed at length. In that case, would you kindly show me to the right topic?
Please post your thoughts, ideas, and criticism.
*When i talk about weapons/guns, i mean equipment that is dropped when killed for which you have to pay - not LMG or pistol (also, to "drop" implies getting killed - not buy a weapon)
*I use "newb" for new, inexperienced players - If NS2 is to be a success, it should be accessible to new players. In fact, i truly hope most NS2 players will be newbs
Weapons in NS1 pub games:
On public servers weapons are rarely dropped and instead commanders usually opt for upgrades. Weapons are only dropped just before a hive rush or when there's an abundance of res. And this has been generally a reasonable strategy, because when the comm dropped a weapon and the marine died, players didn't make an attempt to look for it, unless it dropped right in front of them. I'd imagine that elite NS teams always communicate about where each weapon is, and when it's dropped they consider retrieving it. I propose to make this part of NS accessible to new players.
Positive gameplay changes
- Commanders should be more willing to buy a shotgun earlier, confident that it might last through the entire game.
- Adds a new rewarding goal to <u>earn</u> a gun besides the old build RTs, kill RTs, build PG, kill hive.
- W-tracking would give newbs access to better weapons
- Less need to drop good weapons selectively to best player: good players will search and take weapons dropped by newbs
- Generally, this should reduce the trend of marines firing an LMG/pistol 95% of the time
This is not just for marines:
- Dropped guns provide another ambush spot for aliens (This would play a larger role than NS1, since now marines would purposefully try to get dropped weapons)
- Since the dropped weapon should be unloaded, it will still be balanced (as in NS1)
How W-tracking might work:
- it could be standard or a cheap researchable tech
- For commanders, it would show up as an icon on the map and allow him to give direct orders to marines to retrieve it
- For marine soldiers, it could show up as a tiny icon or dot
- It should also somehow show how long is left before it disappears: it could be a methodical flashing of the icon, flashing at an increased rate when it is about to disappear
-- Solid icon when dropped; slow flashing when 30 seconds left; faster flashing when 15 seconds; and even faster at 5 seconds (or it could fade)
- W-tracking should not clutter the HUD, since there are usually only few dropped weapons and standard LMG and pistol will not show up.
More complex ideas:
- Make weapons a mini character in the game: weapons count number of kills, get more dirty and bloody, and might even get tiny upgrades the longer the more they kill
- Allow heavies to take a second weapon, dropped by his teammates. However, as a second weapon, it loses all ammo and so is only useful to get it back to other teammates.
I apologize in advance, if this has already been discussed at length. In that case, would you kindly show me to the right topic?
Please post your thoughts, ideas, and criticism.
Comments
Would also add that weaopons should be able to be cashed in at the armories returning all/ least some of the res to the com or be stored for later pick up by the marines.
Would also like to see alteration to the auto pick up of higher weapons an full loaded LMG>HMG/GL/SG with no ammo. If their are aliens around and the weapon is empty then it should not be automaticly picked up.
Basicly that is guns on infestation gets devoured by infestation slowly over the despawn time, and guns not in infestation, fade out with a ireadecent blue water marks effect. OOow nanites.
In turn guns being droped on infestation would obiously be a little harder to get back, guns droped off infestation are most likely with in your grasp and should stand out like dogs balls be it HUD related map or visualy in the game world.
A obious reason to this promotes gorges more to the front line, infest that weapon, to make it harder to spot, harder to pick up.
Infestation may even decrease the life span of the gun fadeing, and if its half way through its despawn cycle with nannites the infestation being spread to the gun may near on instantly consume it. *note onos should beable to target and eat guns, at least in my opinion.
Also be it on infestation or not, I would like to see not skulk chomping or alien attacks destroy the weapon, except perhaps bile bomb or acid rocket, but perhaps they should just speed up the despawn timer. But I would like to see attacks move the weapon, similar to that of the golden eye engine on N64. Obiously its not like you would clearly beable to navigate the weapon to a hive and beyond grasp of a marine in 4 bites or 5 seconds, but clearly to move it through to the ambushing side of a door frame or area would have merit. in golden eye it would clearly take you a lot of messing about to move a weapon from point A to point B, and some times all it took to disorientate your oponent seeking said weapon was to shoot it to a area thats not of its normal spawn location. Clearly the effect needed as apose to moveing it out of a room down a hall and into a secret passage.
My 2 cents
"Max: Um, you know, they wouldn’t be able to purchase anything, they would still be tied to the commander. In terms of the commander would research new technologies, and resources also factor into there, but the guy on the ground would have a lot more flexibility in choosing, ok I really like working with the shotgun so I’m gonna get that. Or, um, you know that kind of thing."
Dropped weapons may not be a big issue anymore - it depends on how weapons will be handled.
Will marines "buy" weapons using their own resource pool?
Can marines give their "bought" weapons to others?
What will the commander be able to drop?
Will anything be reusable - will marines drop anything when they die?
It seems to me like commanders won't invest significant resources into marines, and instead their job will be to build bases, choose research, and give temporary buffs to marines.
Maybe this weapon tracking could be something for NS1 though...
This is mainly a help for pub games. Originally i thought this might help all the new NS2 players, because it would be too much to expect new commanders and marines to keep track of dropped weapons. Also, if the weapons have their own tracker, maybe it would be possible to let the commander know which marine has which weapon and act accordingly...
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You could easily put this suggestion in the NS1 forums (if you haven't done so already) and I imagine it would be taken seriously.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I've put it on NS1 suggestions board. Though i think this idea still could work very well in NS2, provided that the weapons remain a big investment and are retrievable after dropped.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I support this idea, and they already have most if not all the code needed to do this ( basically be like motion tracking or parasite.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I also hope it's easy to implement in NS1.
It's really not hard to tell your team where fallen weapons are, as long as you have a microphone. And really, if you don't have a mic, you've got no business in the chair period.
It's really not hard to tell your team where fallen weapons are, as long as you have a microphone. And really, if you don't have a mic, you've got no business in the chair period.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I want the game, as a whole, be more intuitive and "noob-friendly." Also, mic should not be an absolute requirement for a comm. Finally, the commander will be a bigger part of NS2. Don't trust me, listen/read to Charlie in <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/2007/10/seventh_podcast" target="_blank">7th Podcast</a>. Here's a quote from the transcript:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Max: And the commander is going to be a bigger part of NS2, I would say, than NS1.
Charlie: I think so. You might say twice as big.
...
Max: So, giving people on both sides, actually, more they can do is the other way of making sure that it’s fun for everyone. So now the players can get the weapons that they want more often, and to trade off, like, that historically was a role that commander would do, doling out weapons. So we’re taking something away from the commander there, and to compensate that we want to add more stuff.
Charlie: We’ll give him more spells.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So you shouldn't worry about NS2 in that respect... The W-tracking idea is just to make pub games more enjoyable. The problem is that even if a comm yells in his mic "GO TO THIS PLACE! GET BACK THE SHOTGUNS!!!" players might not listen and/or if they do and get there, they might still have trouble finding the gun in the room.