Simple logic puzzles to replace tedious 'E' holding sessions
peregrinus
Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72445Members
Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72445Members
I suppose a lot of you have played the free Alien Swarm game. One thing I enjoyed in it was the logic puzzles you had to complete to unlock gates and doors. The faster you can solve them, the faster you get the result. Basically the puzzles involve rearranging lines which represent cables or some such technology.
<img src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/467809-alien-swarm-windows-screenshot-the-common-hack-puzzles.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
We need to encourage team work and an important part of that is maintaining your team's structures. Making those tasks very boring is a disincentive to team orientated play. So how could that be applied to NS2 to mitigate the repetitive non skill based repair tasks and the gorge's construction boost ability?
Marines: Welding structures doesn't take long so I don't see a need to change that. Powernodes on the other hand take about a minute or more for one marine to repair. Change that into a puzzle that pops up and makes sense in the context. Make the marine put some cables together in the right way and then the power comes back on.
Aliens: The gorges could increase hive and harvester construction speed by completing a short game. Something that involves bacteria or cells....they could fire some things at cells to make the cells duplicate, and when there are enough cells then the building is completed. It could be something like a retro arcade game.
<img src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/467809-alien-swarm-windows-screenshot-the-common-hack-puzzles.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
We need to encourage team work and an important part of that is maintaining your team's structures. Making those tasks very boring is a disincentive to team orientated play. So how could that be applied to NS2 to mitigate the repetitive non skill based repair tasks and the gorge's construction boost ability?
Marines: Welding structures doesn't take long so I don't see a need to change that. Powernodes on the other hand take about a minute or more for one marine to repair. Change that into a puzzle that pops up and makes sense in the context. Make the marine put some cables together in the right way and then the power comes back on.
Aliens: The gorges could increase hive and harvester construction speed by completing a short game. Something that involves bacteria or cells....they could fire some things at cells to make the cells duplicate, and when there are enough cells then the building is completed. It could be something like a retro arcade game.
Comments
awesome Idea,
I would also suggest that there would be 3 different mini-games for each team, so that it would not get repetitive even in the long run, think of it as mass effect 2's approach; where there where file matchup and node connection styled minigames, even these two would not get repetitive, since they where quick and reflex based.
<img src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/419053-mass-effect-2-windows-screenshot-the-second-hacking-mini-game.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/419052-mass-effect-2-windows-screenshot-the-first-hacking-mini-game.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
this is stupid and does not fits in NS2
Seriously though, I'm not sure if this fits into NS.
Marines are supposed to check for aliens constantly while holding the button, instead of focusing on a mini-game.
It's not like it takes very long to build most things.
<!--quoteo(post=1852072:date=Jun 12 2011, 12:45 PM:name=Vladimir Van Vodka)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vladimir Van Vodka @ Jun 12 2011, 12:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1852072"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->+1
awesome Idea,
I would also suggest that there would be 3 different mini-games for each team, so that it would not get repetitive even in the long run, think of it as mass effect 2's approach; where there where file matchup and node connection styled minigames, even these two would not get repetitive, since they where quick and reflex based.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Those actually get hideously repetitive, to the point where I actually avoid looting because it means I don't have to do the minigames.
cinematically and immersion wise, I thought it was excellent:
you know, focus on fixing something and actually thinking while your teammates try and cover you from waves of skulks, and then sweat goes down your brow as you hear their screams and gunfire, "they're coming through the walls! they're coming through the god-damn walls!!" and there's a skinny rookie marine behind you twitching and crying that's its game over man, then you punch him and say that you need to concentrate because fixing it isn't as easy as pressing a god damn button! and the commander is screaming at you to hurry the f*** up through the radio, and you reply in a raspy breath that your trying as fast as you can, as your eyes twitch as try to distinguish something through the darkness, your eyes haven't adjusted yet through the HDR: HURRY UP MAN! the wire?.... which wire do you need to solder??? whats that? YOU DROPPED THE WELDER WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DOOO omfgaawwwddjakduiafk18947fhd891050&*W$B@
It's not like it takes very long to build most things.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you read my post you will see that I agree with you. I said "welding structures doesn't take long so I don't see a need to change that". Repairing powernodes takes at least 1 minute (haven't timed it, it feels longer than 1 minute since you're staring at a powernode and you cant really look around properly to check for aliens incoming).
This was only for marine powernodes and alien hives (take 3 minutes to build without gorge help) and harvesters (haven't timed them).
So, like I said, this is only for THREE structures out of how many, 20? 30?
Do people really prefer staring at a hive and holding E for 2 minutes more than playing a minigame for 20/30 seconds? What else can be done to make the minutes long E holding sessions interesting? I cannot think of another game where the player completes a task by holding a single key down for an extended length of time and doing nothing else.
Brink.
And there you sometimes don't even have the freedom to interrupt it for a second to defend.
COD games.
Counter Strike.
The more players involved, the less puzzles a single player needs to do. If their's more players then puzzles then everyone gets a crack at a puzzles and the first one to finish causes the build to be completed.
For one thing it makes attacking marine start a little more hairy then the typical suicide-attacks-on-ips. Or it makes it very easy, because if no ones around then it shouldn't take you that long to complete the puzzle... and probably a lot less then the time to chew it. You MIGHT need teamwork to distract the marines :P
The next point that comes up is how do we covert %-of-puzzle-completed to %-of-damage-to-structure. And my approach would be, if their's 3-sub-puzzles (like in that alien-swarm pic in original post), then each puzzle completed does approx 33.3333% worth of damage, or (#-of-puzzles-completed)/(#-of-puzzles-for-that-structure) * 100%. And for each puzzle completed/damage-percent-dealt, the marines would need complete that many puzzles to repair.
And instead of adding a "Welder", it can be a toolbox/diagnostic-terminal.
Or is this a game for people that don't want to think? Where people that prefer aliens also don't want to be bothered with reloading? xD
currently pushing E to weld is rather laughable and cheap.
every marine by default has this ability, no research no upgrade no tool even used - just push E, pretty laughable wouldn't you say?
allow the commander to research welders, than welders can be bought from the armory by the marines.
the welder can replace the axe, or just add an extra weapon slot. Welder should NOT replace any guns.
most reasonable solution, and by far better than pushing E.
no but you must be, if you think pushing E is perfectly fine.
This was only for marine powernodes and alien hives (take 3 minutes to build without gorge help) and harvesters (haven't timed them).
So, like I said, this is only for THREE structures out of how many, 20? 30?
Do people really prefer staring at a hive and holding E for 2 minutes more than playing a minigame for 20/30 seconds? What else can be done to make the minutes long E holding sessions interesting? I cannot think of another game where the player completes a task by holding a single key down for an extended length of time and doing nothing else.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The solution to hives and powernodes is marines should take rooms in groups/with mac support so repairing goes much faster, and hives are generally not worth E building.
As gorges should build with heal spray anyway rather than E, make it so that dropping gorge infestation causes any building on it to grow faster as long as the infestation lasts. That way gorges can do something else while the hive grows.
Although like I said, hives generally aren't worth building faster, because either way they take a long ass time to build, and a long ass time is a long ass time regardles of exactly how long ass it is.
Not sure if welding doors is still an option: since we can lock them
1) Awareness of sound and watching entrances to not get ambushed.
2) Awareness of minimap, chat and speech to know what your team is doing.
If all you're doing is holding E, you're doing it wrong.
You do it for about ten seconds tops.
Your life is not so important you can't take ten seconds out of it to build an extractor.
I disagree, you shouldn't be taken out of the game, ever, let alone for the purpose of holding a button down.
Pressing the generic use key to perform actions is what is generally described as unobtrusive, whereas pressing the generic use key to activate the out of context minigame is what is generally described as incredibly annoying.
but the idea itself isnt bad, I can imagine a couple of stacked rings and you have to allign an opening in them one after another to a certain direction to lock it in and go the next ring.
Basically I'm saying take it slower, you don't need to rush constantly in NS, there is a lot of room for more considered actions and oftentimes, building an extractor or patrolling for skulks will be more beneificial than running to a hive and shooting it up. There isn't any rush to die, playing conservatively and intelligently is just as valuable. You won't die tomorrow so you don't need to cram as much in at once as you can.