Night Vision / Alien Vision Tiers.

Vladimir Van Vodka

<div class="IPBDescription">A tier might come to your eye.</div>Just a suggestion, why not make it so alien vision is somewhat nerfed <i>in the beginning</i> by giving it limited vision distance, (say 15 meters then it starts to fade gradually to darkness over the next 10 meters.) but aliens start with this night vision capability, echolocation or biosonar, (I'm not really sure what it's supposed to represent ingame atm) while marines do not start with any nightvision, they have flashlights anyways, however, marines would aquire some form of nightvision later in the game, upgrade it slightly and aliens could upgrade theirs to their current state and upgrade it even <i>more</i>.

I'll try to represent my ideas in tiers:
(each tier requires the previous to be aquired.)


<b>Tier 1</b>
Aliens: "Nightvision" (the nerfed one I suggested above.)

Marines: "flashlights" (the ones currently ingame.)
<i>Each would cost nothing, they would start with this.</i>


<b>Tier 2</b>
Aliens: "Biosonar Nightvision" (the one already ingame.)
The alien biosonar nightvision would cost 15 Tres to research, your basically buying the version that is ingame. I'm not sure if it should be an assigned research to a specific building, (i'm thinking the hive or a new building they might implement later.)

Marines: "First Generation Nightvision"
The first generation nightvision would cost 25 Tres to research from an observatory or from a future building and you would need a Command Facility. It would almost be like the first tier alien vision, (limited distance vision), except worst because there would be no "entity" highlighting, be monochrome (which has worse contrast then green hue.) and have static. takes 2 seconds to activate. It would be better and preferable to the flashlight however, because your view would be your fov.


<b>Tier 3</b>
Aliens: "Smell of Fear"
The Smell of Fear would cost 25 Tres to research from the same building as Tier 2 (hive or future building) you also need a Hive Mass to research it. This alien nightvision would be the like tier 2 (the one currently ingame.) but as a big bonus it would allow aliens to see pheremone markers of marines (not their structures or robots) from a radius of 25 meters.

Marines: "Second Generation Thermal Nightvision"
The Second Generation Thermal Nightvision would cost 35 Tres to research, from an observatory or from a future building and you would need a Command Center. It would be almost like the currently ingame alien vision as you now see in green hue which adds more contrast and it highlights entities in red. except with a tiny bit of static and it would take a second to activate.


Equipe your Kritzkreigâ„¢ and give me some Critsâ„¢.

Kouji_San

No Kritzkreigâ„¢ here, I'm just using a 105mm howitzer battalion to barrage the general location of your idea :P


The idea might sound awesome and probably is in some regard, but the marines should be nerfed in dark areas simply because this is by design. They should be at a disadvantage in powered down areas. One of the big reason the powergrid exists as far as I know. Alongside the buildings not working scenario of course. I'm not even impressed with the darkness of the room currently, sure the initial blackout is quite dark, but the red glow of dewm is to light IMHO


[edit]
I do like the alien side of your plans though. As long as it is clear, you need to upgrade it (think mini hop vs running leap shenanigans)

Feha

I dont like your marine idea much, sure a nightvisio nmight be kewl, but flashlight just has <i>that</i> feel to them.
About aliens, I dont like your tier 1 idea, preferably keep it as it is now, and then scent of fear as tier 2, or revise the tier 1 to be like now, except maybe slightly darker and not highlighting entitys (or perhaps only those on di)?

Yuuki

Since the light engine is so good, why not use it more ? For example marines could buy portable lights, similar to NS1 mines, that can be placed on the ground and the walls. The maps would look different each game.