Comm customization + Supcomm + WoW
spellman23
NS1 Theorycraft Expert Join Date: 2007-05-17 Member: 60920Members
NS1 Theorycraft Expert Join Date: 2007-05-17 Member: 60920Members
<div class="IPBDescription">discuss idea in this thread</div>From the Commander's Experience thread.
<!--quoteo(post=1688701:date=Sep 23 2008, 06:52 PM:name=1mannARMEE)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(1mannARMEE @ Sep 23 2008, 06:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1688701"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Custom UI: (Every little aspect of the UI for the Commander and for the Aliens and the Marines has to be totally customizable)
- Custom colour of your UI
- Custom size of your UI
- Custom position of your UI
- Custom hotkeys: (i.e. Warcraft III / Starcraft)
q w e r
a s d f
y/z x c v
-Toggling on/off everything, if you want to.
Features:
- Add a "Supreme Commander" Minimap <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
- Add the "Supreme Commander" zoom via Mousewheel
- Shift between different levels of the map via Shift+Mousewheel so you are able to design maps with more than one level.
- The Commander might be able to take over the control of Sentries and Siege Cannons, and uses them, similar to "Dungeon Keeper" (if the commanding experience is getting too boring ?! )
- Displaying a Route for the Marines like a GPS which auto interrupts and alarms the Commander if nearby aliens are spotted by the Marine or Scanners, so the Commander knows that the Marines won't arrive in time to their Waypoints.
- The common Stuff (everything you need nowadays in a strategy game) like "Guarding", "Attack Move", "Patrol", "Hold Ground", Chaining Commands, Jump to Events via Hotkey (i.e. A marine needs HP, the Commander uses the Hotkey and auto drops a HP at the marine location), Minimaps, Zooming, Switching to PoV (of turrets, marines etc.), Beacons on the Minimap to add notes for the marines, Range Indicators for Turrets and Radar, Radar Cloaking, Fog of War, with easy and intelligent clicking or keybinds.
- Fog of War, updating the map whenever a marine goes by, so once he spots an alien RT and dies, the Commander is able to see it on its map (with fog of war over it) and if the marine comes along a second time and spots some attack chambers added to the RT, the Commanders Map gets updated again. [the common stuff <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> ]
- Chaining Events together, 'Click' on Marine => 'Shift Click' Move here, Move there, Build structure after you arrived. (Spawns a Structure automatically, after the Marine arrived at his last Waypoint, also needs to "alarm" the commander, if the Marine didn't make it, or is under attack).
- If you form squads, there should be a small "Marine" (or Armslab, or Sensory, ...) added to your UI, with multiple health bars, reflecting the health of the whole squad.
- If you get teamed up by the Commander, the Interface of the Marine should display the Other Teammates just like a Group System in any MMORPG. One person of the Squad automatically becomes the Squad Leader, a Squad Leader might get some HP or Armor boost, and the Aliens and the Marines should be able to recognize a Squad Leader (in favor of killing / protecting him), one Squad Leader is allowed per X Number of Marines, so you can't boost all your Marines ...
- the Alien Counterpart to this could be something like bonus damage, movement, ... if you stick together, depending on your "Alien-Squad" (Morale Immunity to Masses of Orks in Dawn of War or like firepower bonus for the Red Guard in C&C - Generals)
- Squad respawn problem, can be solved in two ways: The dead Marines spawn near the location of the Squad Leader (Dawn of War ... Reinforcment) this shouldn't be enabled in the early game, but can be enabled by teching. The other way of solving the Squad Problem is that the Squad has to die completly and respawns together ...
Sorry for the strange writing and formatting (couldn't stop pressing random shift (I'm from Germany ... -.-)
Just take a look at all those strategy games around, new ones and old ones and try to compare them with one another and you get a feeling of what is good or useless for your game (if you have the time ofcourse <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> )
Basically I would combine the UI from Warcraft III with the UI of Supreme Commander, and add some MMORPG Interface for the marines and aliens to recognize their teammates status easily. Also add in some special ideas from various games, like the respawning to the squad leader, probably for both alien and marine.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1688701:date=Sep 23 2008, 06:52 PM:name=1mannARMEE)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(1mannARMEE @ Sep 23 2008, 06:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1688701"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Custom UI: (Every little aspect of the UI for the Commander and for the Aliens and the Marines has to be totally customizable)
- Custom colour of your UI
- Custom size of your UI
- Custom position of your UI
- Custom hotkeys: (i.e. Warcraft III / Starcraft)
q w e r
a s d f
y/z x c v
-Toggling on/off everything, if you want to.
Features:
- Add a "Supreme Commander" Minimap <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
- Add the "Supreme Commander" zoom via Mousewheel
- Shift between different levels of the map via Shift+Mousewheel so you are able to design maps with more than one level.
- The Commander might be able to take over the control of Sentries and Siege Cannons, and uses them, similar to "Dungeon Keeper" (if the commanding experience is getting too boring ?! )
- Displaying a Route for the Marines like a GPS which auto interrupts and alarms the Commander if nearby aliens are spotted by the Marine or Scanners, so the Commander knows that the Marines won't arrive in time to their Waypoints.
- The common Stuff (everything you need nowadays in a strategy game) like "Guarding", "Attack Move", "Patrol", "Hold Ground", Chaining Commands, Jump to Events via Hotkey (i.e. A marine needs HP, the Commander uses the Hotkey and auto drops a HP at the marine location), Minimaps, Zooming, Switching to PoV (of turrets, marines etc.), Beacons on the Minimap to add notes for the marines, Range Indicators for Turrets and Radar, Radar Cloaking, Fog of War, with easy and intelligent clicking or keybinds.
- Fog of War, updating the map whenever a marine goes by, so once he spots an alien RT and dies, the Commander is able to see it on its map (with fog of war over it) and if the marine comes along a second time and spots some attack chambers added to the RT, the Commanders Map gets updated again. [the common stuff <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> ]
- Chaining Events together, 'Click' on Marine => 'Shift Click' Move here, Move there, Build structure after you arrived. (Spawns a Structure automatically, after the Marine arrived at his last Waypoint, also needs to "alarm" the commander, if the Marine didn't make it, or is under attack).
- If you form squads, there should be a small "Marine" (or Armslab, or Sensory, ...) added to your UI, with multiple health bars, reflecting the health of the whole squad.
- If you get teamed up by the Commander, the Interface of the Marine should display the Other Teammates just like a Group System in any MMORPG. One person of the Squad automatically becomes the Squad Leader, a Squad Leader might get some HP or Armor boost, and the Aliens and the Marines should be able to recognize a Squad Leader (in favor of killing / protecting him), one Squad Leader is allowed per X Number of Marines, so you can't boost all your Marines ...
- the Alien Counterpart to this could be something like bonus damage, movement, ... if you stick together, depending on your "Alien-Squad" (Morale Immunity to Masses of Orks in Dawn of War or like firepower bonus for the Red Guard in C&C - Generals)
- Squad respawn problem, can be solved in two ways: The dead Marines spawn near the location of the Squad Leader (Dawn of War ... Reinforcment) this shouldn't be enabled in the early game, but can be enabled by teching. The other way of solving the Squad Problem is that the Squad has to die completly and respawns together ...
Sorry for the strange writing and formatting (couldn't stop pressing random shift (I'm from Germany ... -.-)
Just take a look at all those strategy games around, new ones and old ones and try to compare them with one another and you get a feeling of what is good or useless for your game (if you have the time ofcourse <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> )
Basically I would combine the UI from Warcraft III with the UI of Supreme Commander, and add some MMORPG Interface for the marines and aliens to recognize their teammates status easily. Also add in some special ideas from various games, like the respawning to the squad leader, probably for both alien and marine.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
<!--quoteo(post=1676752:date=Apr 24 2008, 06:28 PM:name=locallyunscene)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(locallyunscene @ Apr 24 2008, 06:28 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1676752"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Jester</b>(and <b>Pomegranate</b>), if you haven't all ready you'll want to check out <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=103925&st=0" target="_blank">this thread</a> and the podcast(19) it references. Charlie and Max talked about how the commander view in NS2 is going to work.
In a nutshell, there won't be mouse zoom and they aren't planning on supporting for the "level over level" style of maps.
The height will be "dynamic" though so you won't have as much trouble ammoing and medding your troops <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/marine.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::marine::" border="0" alt="marine.gif" /> .<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There. No mouse zoom in the plans already.
I am a fan of the ability to create custom UI, but it seems pretty superfluous for NS. Not that it's a bad idea, just that the creative juices are better spent elsewhere.
As far as controlling/first-person view for comms inside weapons/turrets, I say bad idea. You should be busy enough as it is, and I see no point in suddenly changing camera to on the ground. Even worse is controlling stuff from first person. Part of the beauty is the two different view points in NS. One from the ground to see down hallways, one to see from above to judge distance and relative placements.
More commands would be nice.
Chaining commands would be nice. Especially mapping out the way you want someone to get to a location. As far as an auto GPS system, there would have to be a lot of work to map the pathways on the map and calculate optimal path. So, use multiple waypoints instead, given by comm.
Auto-med hotkey = bad idea. Press space bar to goto the notification.
FoW is eh. Don't really care either way. I just assume stuff exists in FoW. Would help to prep siege though. The big question is making sure it shows up on the minimap so you know what icons are in sight and what are residuals.
Squad system has been talked about to death. Wait for more info from devs, imo. Or go search for squad suggestions. There are a lot, and cover what you suggested.