Vents and particle systems

aeroripper

<div class="IPBDescription">its all about vents</div>Anyone else hoping that vents will be more than just red boxes connecting areas of the map? I'm hoping there will be more intricate lighting along with particle steam (steam, gas, flamethrower etc...) that winds its way down the vent. I am hoping that alien abilities like gas/umbra or whatever the new ones will be will allow them to travel down vents. Imagine how cool it would be to fill a vent full of particle-based umbra, and the marines on the other side shooting wildly as 3 skulks come churning out of the vent in a mist of umbra ventilated away from the vent.

If this is possible, any vent connected to a fan (which is common in NS, but not in all vents) can push particles through it at a rate determined by the mapper (fan speed). Imagine all the different strategic opportunities this would open up. In a pivotal area of the map you have a high speed fan and venting system above a major battle, and a lerk shoots his umbra into it, and the exit of the vent into the room is now covered with umbra for exiting lifeforms.

Or conversely, a couple of marines are being sneaky moving through a slow fanned vent, so a lerk gasses the vent and it slowly engulfs the entire vent killing the marines instead of quickly blowing by.

StarClaws

<!--quoteo(post=1710657:date=Jun 6 2009, 02:13 PM:name=aeroripper)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (aeroripper @ Jun 6 2009, 02:13 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1710657"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Anyone else hoping that vents will be more than just red boxes connecting areas of the map? I'm hoping there will be more intricate lighting along with particle steam (steam, gas, flamethrower etc...) that winds its way down the vent. I am hoping that alien abilities like gas/umbra or whatever the new ones will be will allow them to travel down vents. Imagine how cool it would be to fill a vent full of particle-based umbra, and the marines on the other side shooting wildly as 3 skulks come churning out of the vent in a mist of umbra ventilated away from the vent.

If this is possible, any vent connected to a fan (which is common in NS, but not in all vents) can push particles through it at a rate determined by the mapper (fan speed). Imagine all the different strategic opportunities this would open up. In a pivotal area of the map you have a high speed fan and venting system above a major battle, and a lerk shoots his umbra into it, and the exit of the vent into the room is now covered with umbra for exiting lifeforms.

Or conversely, a couple of marines are being sneaky moving through a slow fanned vent, so a lerk gasses the vent and it slowly engulfs the entire vent killing the marines instead of quickly blowing by.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The fan and airflow ideas would add a major idea to be integrated into the engine and it would make an interesting addition to the map designers arsenal. But another thing would be rather than making the umbra/gas in a circular radius. If it is in a confined space, it would condense the radius and then instead push through the vent making a more narrow and lengthened gas cloud.

These fans would then be enhanced by back lit dynamic lighting that create slow/fast moving shadow changes in the vents... Oh sexy yup yup

MrRadicalEd

This is something I am looking forward to trying with the engine, but only in moderation. From what I gather, the environment should hint and aid to the difficulty of the environment. So if map out a vent to be used a shortcut to another room then having some sight impairing smoke effect within this shortcut is the risk marines would have to be willing to take. Some aesthetics is nice, but not to confuse the player.

afratnikov

I've thought about the gameplay impact that a particle system could on NS2. I think that fog and steam that blocks vision would add greatly to both gameplay and atmosphere of NS2.
In terms of how sophisticated the particles system will be and how great it will look - it is secondary to me. I'm more interested in how it could affect gameplay.

Here's an image i made a while back with further <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=105340&view=findpost&p=1696394" target="_blank">discussion of the idea</a>.
<img src="http://s5.tinypic.com/2alvkj.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

EDIT: This is just one way that the particle system could be employed. It could also be used as a mist generated in the hive, it could be part of lerk's abilities, it could be affected by infestation and many more... Also, the extent to which the particles block vision could wary from simply an atmospheric effect to game-changing block of vision.

Kalabalana

I'd like the idea of aliens having a toggleable night vision mode.

Marines : Some sort of light, flashlight, helmet light, etc

Aliens : Night vision mode. would look something like the gestation filter, and colors would be drained, by you could see in all directions of FOV.

BadMouth

I think gases or fire from flamethrowers moving down a vent would be a good idea. However, I would it move down only a portion of the vent, and not the whole vent, which would be decided by the mapper.

schkorpio

<!--quoteo(post=1710657:date=Jun 7 2009, 05:13 AM:name=aeroripper)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (aeroripper @ Jun 7 2009, 05:13 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1710657"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I am hoping that alien abilities like gas/umbra or whatever the new ones will be will allow them to travel down vents. Imagine how cool it would be to fill a vent full of particle-based umbra, and the marines on the other side shooting wildly as 3 skulks come churning out of the vent in a mist of umbra ventilated away from the vent.

If this is possible, any vent connected to a fan (which is common in NS, but not in all vents) can push particles through it at a rate determined by the mapper (fan speed). Imagine all the different strategic opportunities this would open up. In a pivotal area of the map you have a high speed fan and venting system above a major battle, and a lerk shoots his umbra into it, and the exit of the vent into the room is now covered with umbra for exiting lifeforms.

Or conversely, a couple of marines are being sneaky moving through a slow fanned vent, so a lerk gasses the vent and it slowly engulfs the entire vent killing the marines instead of quickly blowing by.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

yes YES and.... YES!!! that would so many optiosn to the game <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

anything that doesnt restrict the game to the typical things you are forced to do in all of these recent source based games is great.

ljcrabs

Has this sort of volumetric particle effect been confirmed?

Underwhelmed

Neat idea, but pretty computationally intensive if you're going to try and simulate this accurately.

S!K

MORE VENTS. Not only should their be more vents, but make them intricate enough to the point where an alien can come out from various spots. Maybe even brake through any location depending on the material. If it's thin and you can see through grates and what not. It's just that when you hear a skulk moving and you know there is a vent around, then you know that that skulk is usually going to come out of two to three places, and you can usually tell where he's going so there is really no surprise. Just patience on letting him get out or try to get out.

I think that this should be changed as to having a lot more options, vent wise. Make it unpredictable, I guess.

2_of_Eight

Absolutely yes, both to having realistic vents (meaning way more of them) and having volumetric attacks such as spore, umbra, flamethrower, whatever you have. This would be amazing.