Alternatives for restowers
.trixX.
Budapest Join Date: 2007-10-11 Member: 62605Members
Budapest Join Date: 2007-10-11 Member: 62605Members
<div class="IPBDescription">electricity?</div>Those small white puffs always seemed pretty odd in the ns universe, im sure there is a resource(gathering) type that matches better!
Marines would use electricity for their high-tech nanite improvements while kharra for their extended nervous-system.
An electric system running through the entire level (spaceships, planetary mining stations, laboratories etc, ns maps are based on) fits to the theme imho. The wiring would have extends resembling computer terminals the teams compete for as resource. Rines would either weld or build a structure on it (i suggest the former <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />), and the kharra infest it.
Teams controlling these terminals would also be given access to some kind of features of the room: the DI which grows around them automatically contains these for khaara i suppose, as for the marines access to doors, vent-mechanisms, lighting(!) etc...
Maybe the teams should compete for a more banal thing like oil? xD
Marines would use electricity for their high-tech nanite improvements while kharra for their extended nervous-system.
An electric system running through the entire level (spaceships, planetary mining stations, laboratories etc, ns maps are based on) fits to the theme imho. The wiring would have extends resembling computer terminals the teams compete for as resource. Rines would either weld or build a structure on it (i suggest the former <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />), and the kharra infest it.
Teams controlling these terminals would also be given access to some kind of features of the room: the DI which grows around them automatically contains these for khaara i suppose, as for the marines access to doors, vent-mechanisms, lighting(!) etc...
Maybe the teams should compete for a more banal thing like oil? xD
Comments
Let's keep the original resource model but add "electricity". Electricity needs to be linked from a source to something which stores or utilizes it, if a link somewhere is broken between those two areas you cant harness its energy. Now lets say both teams still get resources from unlinked RTs but it isn't maximal as if it was linked. Marines and Kharaa alike start out with 1 RT each, which is linked to the CC/Hive, this one will always operate at 100% efficiency as it is closest to cc/hive, unless it or the hive is destroyed ofc.
"X" = Hive/CC
"1, 2, 3" and so on = RTs
"-" "_" "|" = links
"Y" = dead RT
X-1-2-3
Now let's say you build 2 more RTs, total amount is 3 (see pic above). If RT number 2 is destroyed, it will cut off the link from RT 3, lowering how much resources nr 3 generates (NOT shut it off completely, just lowering efficiency). Like so:
X-1-Y-3
This would reward those who take risks to take out RTs further back, nearer respective teams base. It would both divert marines/gorges to replace it swiftly and lower the team's income until the link is fixed. So taking out a base RT will kill the link for RTs on both sides (most maps, or all, have 2 sides to build RTs on, linked from the first one). However, it can also be fixed, although with more risk, by building together the link from the severed RT from the other side, like so:
___6___
4_ _5
| |
Y 3
| |
1
|
X
RT 4 on above picture would normally be severed from the link but the clever marines/kharaa have linked it to the RIGHT side through a middle RT(6) (instead of rebuilding RT 2, shown as Y) so it still operates fully and is linked to X (CC/Hive). NS2 maps will likely be bigger then NS1 maps and thus have more RTs and more ways of connection to play with.
Edit: gah my "pictures" wont stay as I make them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
This also makes me think of the supply lines game play that was brought up in the Territory thread, where Company of Heroes (CoH) was referenced. <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=103512&st=20&start=20" target="_blank">(link)</a>
More seriously, I think you need to keep these kinds of things simple, so no second resource. While it adds a level of complexity, it doesn't really add anything new. NS is already quite complex, and adding complexity for the sake of complexity, won't help it.
I get the 'encourage taking RTs further back' idea but won't it be too much of a loss for one team and a gain for the other?
As for using a different resource, well, I always thought that the Marines made use of generic nanites, which are pumped from the res nodes. While the aliens (the bacteria) 'feed' on the nanites and use them for nutrition. I thought there might also be the allusion to the idea that the Kharaa were created by humans themselves, or perhaps mutated from exposure to the nanites / res nodes. But that's speculation on my part. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
<b>edit</b>: there's another quote: "It should be considered that the visible Kharaa "units" are actually simply the spawn of the real Kharaa (aliens) which are microscopic life-forms according to the NS story line."
This quote describing NS gameplay sums the game and the themes up quite well: "The game ends when one side has destroyed the other's ability to survive."
It's why it isn't a territorial control game like battlefield, or a deathmatch game like UT - even though it has similar aspects to both. I think the important part is to stay true to the above idea.
I'm not quite following here, would it not increase the effort to find "which hive/res tower are they at"? If they rush for the first RT in the hiveroom they take a huge risk just to criple the Kharaas res for a while and it almost guarantees the aliens some kills, so the destroyed res can be replaced rather quickly. It's all about how alert the team is and can react to such threat. If marines succeed with few casualties, they will still need to run to other places on the map all the way from a hive, which almost always is on the other side of the map. So while you can press hard to get the first RT, and cripple a team, you always leave yourself open somewhere else. Because of this the marines wont use the entire team to get a single RT but try to sneak in with few men every now and then (create diversion by shooting other hive etc). Also, aliens can have 3 hives (I guess this is same for NS2), so they can use up to three different sources to link to.
"You would always know where the fades would be attacking"
You mean going after the first RT? That would be foolish, as the fade would have to retreat back through the entire marine area to escape, fades also do little damage to RTs.
"the gorges couldn't get anything out of sneaking into an area and building"
Yes it would, while the RT doesn't deliver in full capacity they still can shut off the area, or slow marines down at least. This would be particually useful if marines link their structures more on one side then the other, the gorge would be in the way and hinder them from building linked RTs, maybe even forcing them to go around and get safer RTs instead of the better one.
One thing I thought of myself is how this would work with relocated CCs, perhaps it auto links with the closest RT in range. Yet again, I dunno if this is the case for NS2.
This is my thought too. On a space ship there are only so many avenues of attack and this could increase the number of chokepoints dramatically. There was a topic recently that included restricting flow of resources through territory control{<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=103512&hl=" target="_blank">link</a>}.
Both ideas have been proposed in this thread.
I tried to, through my explanation/speculation, explain why the resource nodes already make sense.
And they already work, from a gameplay perspective.
What's been suggested by corpsman (in summary) is to change the resource node capturing (through 'links'), and make the focus more on capturing CERTAIN points, rather than any points. I guess some pros to that, would be that it would theoretically make the gameplay more dynamic, and strategies more complex. But as local has said "On a space ship there are only so many avenues of attack and this could increase the number of chokepoints dramatically." And also, again, it adds an increased level of complexity to NS, which already has an abundance of complexity. So my overall feeling is no.