purely cosmetic 'rank' upgrade for marines

tarquinbb

i was thinking that it would be pretty cool if, like aliens, the marines had a little more diversity amongst their soldiers. upon close inspection, one of the first things anyone will notice is that the marines are literally a bunch of clones.

obviously the marine model/skins should remain true to their traditional design/style, but wouldn't it be awesome if you were given a badass 'twist' to your character appearance as a reward for your actions in-game.

for example once you reach 50 points in a game, then your character model will gain some stripes, maybe gain an upgraded helmet. then when you reach 100 points you're so badass that you lose the helmet and gain a cigar and a few battle scars.


maybe it's just me, but helm-less is totally badass. clearly there are no badass marines enrolled with TSF, that's probably why they're getting pummeled so badly

killer monkey

I believe its planned, not 100% though

SixtyWattMan

Leveling is stupid.

ijustpwnedu96

Perhaps there can be purchasable skins for marines in the future like the pre-order armor. I doubt this is their top priority right now though.

tarquinbb

SixtyWattMan wrote: »

Leveling is stupid.

it's not 'levelling' as in an RPG. the idea is that levelling only involves subtle changes to your appearance. only enough so that if people are actually looking at you; they might notice that your playermodel looks more 'seasoned'.

aside from distracting from the cheap 'clone' vibe, i figured it would also be pretty awesome to 'see' the good players on your team without bringing up the scoreboard... as well as the reward in itself for making your playermodel more badass-looking; in return for exceptional play being an MVP etc.

ijustpwnedu96 wrote: »

Perhaps there can be purchasable skins for marines in the future like the pre-order armor. I doubt this is their top priority right now though.

i think that's a good idea too, but both suggestions can exist simultaneously. people can buy and display their 'DLC' skins all the same. i still believe it would be nice to have some sort of system for breaking up the marine clones without having to pay, and basing the 'upgrade' on performance would be a nice mini-game for marine players.

Seahunts

levelling / ranking no no no!

Female marines and marines of other races? Yeh sure. But lower priority than other things one would hope.

pendelum5

The implementation of Deluxe / Black armor was very hacky according to a dev and will only work for a small number of skins. To add more cosmetic items would need an authentication system, payment system, and creating the skins themselves. UWE doesn't plan on adding hats or anything similar from what I recall.

capn_murica

The main problem I have with this is that it incentivizes individualistic play depending on how points are earned; it's hard enough for players to break the habit of trying to get an optimal K/D spread. If the Comm. has a pool of points to reward specific players, that might be cool.

tarquinbb

capn_murica wrote: »

The main problem I have with this is that it incentivizes individualistic play depending on how points are earned; it's hard enough for players to break the habit of trying to get an optimal K/D spread. If the Comm. has a pool of points to reward specific players, that might be cool.

i'm not sure how you 'selfishly' weld stuff or kill enemy harvesters.

if points are awarded for selfish play then the point system needs to be reworked.

Narfwak

I wouldn't mind as long as it's implemented in the same way that "rank" is implemented in Starcraft. Units get a flashier name every time they pass a certain threshold of kills; for example seeing a dark templar with a bajillion kills and a cool sounding name gives a match spectator a fun and easy way to show how much damage a unit/attack accomplished.

You could basically just do the same thing in NS2 with a small icon next to a player's name (plus maybe a name for the ranks on the scoreboard, but that's visually busy enough already), but force the rank to reset as soon as the player dies. This is especially relevant for alien play as you generally want to keep a lifeform going as long as you can without losing it while at the same time racking up kills and doing damage. It would be a lot of fun for spectating competitive matches to shout out "oh NO that fade is doing so much damage up to [whatever] already and it keeps going!" etc. and could add a bit more theatrical flair to the already rather stellar match spectating system.

Anything beyond that is probably going too far. I doubt it would alter play too much to make people play too conservatively (lots of people are a bit too suicidal with their skulks anyway). I've never seen anyone try to play for a score/K:D maximizing strategy in public games before (beyond doing what they should be doing to win) and I don't think a cute little icon would change that.

SquishpokePOOPFACE

RANK UP!

SUPER MASTER SERGEANT SHOOTER SOLDIER TO THE EXTREME!

[INCLUDE BADGE ICON POPUP TO BLOCK YOUR SCREEN]

SO AWESOME

Flash8798

Squishpoke wrote: »

RANK UP!

SUPER MASTER SERGEANT SHOOTER SOLDIER TO THE EXTREME!

[INCLUDE BADGE ICON POPUP TO BLOCK YOUR SCREEN]

SO AWESOME

You forgot to mention the little silly musical drum solo that plays along with the icon, akin to how BF2 did it. With the commander congradulating you on your great work and everything.

Next in the works, Medals and Awards systems for max-ePeen status for bragging rights and macho-macho standoffs between gamer-jocks. Can't wait. *Sarcasm*

zeq

I actually agree with the OP. It serves the dual purpose of breaking up monotony among the marines, and can give a quick glance of who some of the better players are later in the game. Another to break up the monotony could also be to increase the differences based on loadout. If one were to utilize the shaders in MvM than one could make it so weapon choice applies some shaders that give certain markings, and make the marines look more diverse. Shotgun marines could have a mustache, and some stripes on their shoulder for example. It should be fairly simple to implement something like this if it was solely a shader as opposed to an altered model.

tarquinbb

lol mustached shotgunner... that's a lot of mustaches in mid-late game then - they should add some complementary taunts like "FOR BLIGHTY!" and "dieeee fritz!" :P

i was thinking more subtle and conceivable, and only when you meet 'gosu' criteria would you see the truely unique-looking visual upgrade. too unique and it looks even more like identical quintuplets.