Portable Intervention Mac Prototype
philroi
Join Date: 2007-01-01 Member: 59371Members
Join Date: 2007-01-01 Member: 59371Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Support your inner MAC lover!</div>I've read a bunch of threads about the MAC and it seems to be evenly split on lovin or hatin on the MAC.
1. Some ability to assist MAC's in construction or complete construction in the field seems to be desired. I totally support the idea and want it as something that is researched. I also agree that it should be a SLOW process. Perhaps a "toolkit" that upgrades the welder. but the benefit of going this route has to be SLOW, you can work on things that have had their construction started and perform minor field repairs, but thats about it. every marine can carry a welder/toolkit. All will know how their equipment functions and be able to perform small maintenance tasks on them. All warriors throughout history have performed maintenance on their own equipment and i see no reason why the future would be different. it is not however their direct specialty and so they are SLOW at it.
2. I really LOVE the idea of a man-packable MAC for runs thorough trouble. Why do this? sure you can escort a MAC but MACs are slow and get targeted easily. A player carrying it has the potential to be smarter(or idiotic) about staying out of trouble on the way. (more tactical options has got to be a good thing right?) The down/upside to this is that the MAC is carried by a player but still controlled by the Commander.
3. I also thought about a MAC-control PDA/Interface as a researchable item that would allow a non-commander to issue commands to MAC units. but implementing something like this kind of depends on how many MAC units are expected to be in use and how automated their behaviors become. if there are only 5 MAC's in the game having a player mess with 1 is huge. if there are 20 then it is trivial. the commander will get overwhelmed by things to do as the game progresses. A bad commander will hurt his entire team. This gives an overwhelmed commander an option to take another player and task them with taking care of a certain hot spot. The user gets the top down view of a commander, but isn't in a commanders chair and vulnerable to any aliens that happen to wander by. The PDA would also have a very limited sphere of influence say 5-10 meters in any direction. thus preventing a player from screwing with too much at one time(no mini-commanders running things across the entire map!) then i realized while it seemed like a good idea it was too prone to abuse in this form...
Thus i submit for you consideration and derision, the PIMP or "Prototype Intervention Mac Programmer". (I can hear it now on comms. "Hey, gimmie a PIMP!!!" hehe)
Picture this. A Packable mini-MAC with limited range that is combined with a control PDA that interfaces with the users Helmet HUD. Give it a limited amount of resources that it can use to build and do things, that slowly recharges over time. When deployed it functions like the PDA described above. The player enters a top down commanders like view that they can use to manipulate their single MAC to perform actions inside a limited zone centered on the player. As an upgrade, give it the ability (for a resource cost) to broadcast a local emergency Overide Signal that allows the user to control all the MAC's inside the sphere of influence for a limited time. ( Or if you prefer, give the commander the option to send out an emergency Override pulse to ALL his MAC's enabling them to accept PIMP commands for either a predetermined time or as a toggle. when De-activated the mini-MAC homes in on the player and returns to the pack. The model used can be a scaled down version of the current MAC so there is no need for a new model. Perhaps a glow or different colored light/skin is sufficiency to differentiate it from other MAC's. needless to say any player using it is a sitting duck while it is in use...
I can go on and on about the potential benefits and impact on game play that something like this could have.
There several ways to balance this.
Slow the users movement. perhaps to heavy armor speeds?
limit the resources carried in the Pack for the prototype to use. recharges slowly over time, perhaps fast(er) recharge at a resource station?
limit the number of new models required. scale down the MAC model and hang it on the players back? the MAC itself is already done, just need shrinkage. A PDA model to hold (IPAD like device) is simple.
top down view already coded. commanders interface is coded already. modify... and viola PIMP interface!
user immobile while in use so that they are easy skulk meat....
limit range
cost of emergency override.
control of emergency override by PIMP or put it in the commanders toolkit. ( i thought about on a per MAC toggle-able basis but that is messier to implement. so i dismissed it.) personally i lean towards PIMP control and the question simply lies in cost.
any thoughts?
1. Some ability to assist MAC's in construction or complete construction in the field seems to be desired. I totally support the idea and want it as something that is researched. I also agree that it should be a SLOW process. Perhaps a "toolkit" that upgrades the welder. but the benefit of going this route has to be SLOW, you can work on things that have had their construction started and perform minor field repairs, but thats about it. every marine can carry a welder/toolkit. All will know how their equipment functions and be able to perform small maintenance tasks on them. All warriors throughout history have performed maintenance on their own equipment and i see no reason why the future would be different. it is not however their direct specialty and so they are SLOW at it.
2. I really LOVE the idea of a man-packable MAC for runs thorough trouble. Why do this? sure you can escort a MAC but MACs are slow and get targeted easily. A player carrying it has the potential to be smarter(or idiotic) about staying out of trouble on the way. (more tactical options has got to be a good thing right?) The down/upside to this is that the MAC is carried by a player but still controlled by the Commander.
3. I also thought about a MAC-control PDA/Interface as a researchable item that would allow a non-commander to issue commands to MAC units. but implementing something like this kind of depends on how many MAC units are expected to be in use and how automated their behaviors become. if there are only 5 MAC's in the game having a player mess with 1 is huge. if there are 20 then it is trivial. the commander will get overwhelmed by things to do as the game progresses. A bad commander will hurt his entire team. This gives an overwhelmed commander an option to take another player and task them with taking care of a certain hot spot. The user gets the top down view of a commander, but isn't in a commanders chair and vulnerable to any aliens that happen to wander by. The PDA would also have a very limited sphere of influence say 5-10 meters in any direction. thus preventing a player from screwing with too much at one time(no mini-commanders running things across the entire map!) then i realized while it seemed like a good idea it was too prone to abuse in this form...
Thus i submit for you consideration and derision, the PIMP or "Prototype Intervention Mac Programmer". (I can hear it now on comms. "Hey, gimmie a PIMP!!!" hehe)
Picture this. A Packable mini-MAC with limited range that is combined with a control PDA that interfaces with the users Helmet HUD. Give it a limited amount of resources that it can use to build and do things, that slowly recharges over time. When deployed it functions like the PDA described above. The player enters a top down commanders like view that they can use to manipulate their single MAC to perform actions inside a limited zone centered on the player. As an upgrade, give it the ability (for a resource cost) to broadcast a local emergency Overide Signal that allows the user to control all the MAC's inside the sphere of influence for a limited time. ( Or if you prefer, give the commander the option to send out an emergency Override pulse to ALL his MAC's enabling them to accept PIMP commands for either a predetermined time or as a toggle. when De-activated the mini-MAC homes in on the player and returns to the pack. The model used can be a scaled down version of the current MAC so there is no need for a new model. Perhaps a glow or different colored light/skin is sufficiency to differentiate it from other MAC's. needless to say any player using it is a sitting duck while it is in use...
I can go on and on about the potential benefits and impact on game play that something like this could have.
There several ways to balance this.
Slow the users movement. perhaps to heavy armor speeds?
limit the resources carried in the Pack for the prototype to use. recharges slowly over time, perhaps fast(er) recharge at a resource station?
limit the number of new models required. scale down the MAC model and hang it on the players back? the MAC itself is already done, just need shrinkage. A PDA model to hold (IPAD like device) is simple.
top down view already coded. commanders interface is coded already. modify... and viola PIMP interface!
user immobile while in use so that they are easy skulk meat....
limit range
cost of emergency override.
control of emergency override by PIMP or put it in the commanders toolkit. ( i thought about on a per MAC toggle-able basis but that is messier to implement. so i dismissed it.) personally i lean towards PIMP control and the question simply lies in cost.
any thoughts?
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