Phase Gates Priorities
slowJusko
Join Date: 2010-12-24 Member: 75922Members
Join Date: 2010-12-24 Member: 75922Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Comm choice</div>I tried search multiple times and kept getting a database error (error 134 -> class_db_mysqli_client.php, line 611).
If this has been discussed before, please delete.
The need to cycle through each phase gate in order to reach your final destination is frustrating.
It often leads to messed up attempt to reinforce a push or save a base.
<i>For example, your heliport base is about to be overrun.
You call over the mic for people to phase in.
People at the marine start base walk through the phase gate and appear at crossroads, then surface access, then at the gate you forgot about just outside surface.
By the time they should port over to heli, the phase gate is already down and half the alien team are chuckling away while their new hive goes up.</i>
A simple priority system would help reduce this considerably.
<b>1. Click on a gate.
2. Select its priority from menu.
3. Profit.</b>
<i>For example, your heliport base is about to be overrun.
You click on the heli PG, select 'emergency' from the priority list and then calls over the mic for people to phase in.
People at the various marine bases walk through the nearest phase gate and appear at Heliport in time to give a fade a shotgun lobotomy.
Much cavorting and chortling ensues.</i>
If this has been discussed before, please delete.
The need to cycle through each phase gate in order to reach your final destination is frustrating.
It often leads to messed up attempt to reinforce a push or save a base.
<i>For example, your heliport base is about to be overrun.
You call over the mic for people to phase in.
People at the marine start base walk through the phase gate and appear at crossroads, then surface access, then at the gate you forgot about just outside surface.
By the time they should port over to heli, the phase gate is already down and half the alien team are chuckling away while their new hive goes up.</i>
A simple priority system would help reduce this considerably.
<b>1. Click on a gate.
2. Select its priority from menu.
3. Profit.</b>
<i>For example, your heliport base is about to be overrun.
You click on the heli PG, select 'emergency' from the priority list and then calls over the mic for people to phase in.
People at the various marine bases walk through the nearest phase gate and appear at Heliport in time to give a fade a shotgun lobotomy.
Much cavorting and chortling ensues.</i>
Comments
Commander sets the priority in the following order: B, A, D, C (highest priority is B).
You are at C, you walk through, you end up at B. That's fine. You walk through again, you end up at A, still fine - you were at B already, you should go somewhere other than B. You're at A now, you walk through again, do you end up at D, or back at highest-priority B? Knowing that D is lower in the priority, why would you end up at D? How would anyone ever get to C, being the lowest in priority?
The current system definitely needs work, not gonna argue against that.
So far two other suggestions (that have come up a number of times) have been made regarding this:
The first is for the commander to choose the order that phase gates cycle, but you still end up with the same issue as we've already got, just in a different order.
The second is for the player to be able to choose a phasing-in location from a minimap, but this slows down the phase gate system to some extent.
default, the gate will be linked to the last build one, like now. but the commander have an ability on the gate change the link to any other gate.
and maybe a panic button to link all gates to the selected one temporarily (until pressed again, then it reverts back to the old settings)
when hovering over the gate it could look like this: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=113844" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=113844</a> (2nd post)
and in the future maybe add some other sort of indicator, or ability for commander to rename the gate and overwrite the room-name on the mouse over text.
Alternatively, to avoid the problem of one gate only ever having one other leading to it, the commander could specify an 'entrance' Gate, and give it an 'exit' Gate, so several Gates could all lead to one 'exit'.
Does the opposite at the moment.
The last gate built links to the first, but the first still links to the second, the second to the third and so on.
That means when you drop a new gate near the alien base to rush in, you would have to cycle through any earlier gates first.
The ability to simply say "This is number 1 gate, this is number 2 etc" would remove that problem, as would the "all gates lead to here" emergency kind of deal.
However it doesn't turn them off, so players still in that room can use them, but players will no longer cycle through it from other PGs.
Example, the commander has placed PGs A->B->C->D.
A is at the IP/main base.
D is where hes want players to go (due to an emergency).
He deactivates B and C, and tells everyone to go to the PGs to help at room D.
Players at rooms A,B and C can all phase to D in one go.
Deactivating removes PGs from the cycle, and reactivating places them at the end of the cycle. That way commander can reorder the cycle, placing higher priority PGs towards the start of the cycle.... lower priority PGs at the end.
All you would need to add to the UI is a single 'reactivate/deactivate' button.
Seconded.
I don't think re-ordering is mutually exclusive to outlaw's idea.
Prefer the suggested list idea.
Either way, it would seem the basics of the idea - a way to direct phase gate traffic - is sound.
If you do that all PG get red for 15s or so and will phase you to the PG that is sending a "SOS".
It would use energy from the PG and a PG on DI couldn't send a SOS. It also should also have a big cooldwon like 1min so too late us still too late.
And the Marines could sneak a PG and call "SOS" and plop Hive gone!
It would be cool, for example I'm getting ammo at the armory suddenly I see the PG turning from blue to red so Marines easy can see the Com wants em now phasing.
I think working with a list like that would be the ideal method.
I went with a single button to have a minimalist UI method of doing so.