A question on kill messages
BFishman
Join Date: 2002-05-04 Member: 579Members
Join Date: 2002-05-04 Member: 579Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Regular hl-style or something new?</div>Hello everyone.
I've been reading over the NS FAQ's and the Board, and I've come upon somethign that i think has not been answered so far. How is NS going to handle Kill Messages? I.E. normally in HL, when someone kills someone else, an icon will appear in the top right of the screen saying 'Xplayer (weapon used) ZPlayer'. This method is great for games like CS, but NS is obviously quite different. I believe that it would detract from the 'unknowing' atmosphere presented, as all of a sudden that 'Tiny' charging down the hall slaughtering your buds is now called '133tdood6969!!!!XXXXX!!!!'... Also, if, through deductive reasoning, some marines determine that the only 'Blinky' in the game is named 'Flayra' <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> and is in Corridor X, then all of a sudden the kill messages read "Flayra killed XMarine", the entire marine team knows that there is a level-4 alien in Corridor X. This is knowledge that the marines probably would not normally have.
So how is the NS team going to deal with this all-to-important issue? Personally, I think that it would be very cool and atmospheric if when a team member dies a crackly radio message and scream is heard, then silence. Or perhaps a text message saying simply 'XMarine has been killed', or "We've lost XMarine!".... Something less informative than the original style. (Frankly, the crackly radio message [and screaming, and gunfire, and explosions, growls, shouts, etc...] would be SUCH a cool effect, but possibly pushing the limits of content control... hey, I dont mind!! )
Nonetheless, I have complete faith in the team to come up with something stunning and innovatinve that none of us have even thought of. NS is going to be amazing, I can hardly wait.
See you in the hole!
-Fishman
I've been reading over the NS FAQ's and the Board, and I've come upon somethign that i think has not been answered so far. How is NS going to handle Kill Messages? I.E. normally in HL, when someone kills someone else, an icon will appear in the top right of the screen saying 'Xplayer (weapon used) ZPlayer'. This method is great for games like CS, but NS is obviously quite different. I believe that it would detract from the 'unknowing' atmosphere presented, as all of a sudden that 'Tiny' charging down the hall slaughtering your buds is now called '133tdood6969!!!!XXXXX!!!!'... Also, if, through deductive reasoning, some marines determine that the only 'Blinky' in the game is named 'Flayra' <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> and is in Corridor X, then all of a sudden the kill messages read "Flayra killed XMarine", the entire marine team knows that there is a level-4 alien in Corridor X. This is knowledge that the marines probably would not normally have.
So how is the NS team going to deal with this all-to-important issue? Personally, I think that it would be very cool and atmospheric if when a team member dies a crackly radio message and scream is heard, then silence. Or perhaps a text message saying simply 'XMarine has been killed', or "We've lost XMarine!".... Something less informative than the original style. (Frankly, the crackly radio message [and screaming, and gunfire, and explosions, growls, shouts, etc...] would be SUCH a cool effect, but possibly pushing the limits of content control... hey, I dont mind!! )
Nonetheless, I have complete faith in the team to come up with something stunning and innovatinve that none of us have even thought of. NS is going to be amazing, I can hardly wait.
See you in the hole!
-Fishman
Comments
Personally, I hate the messages, and hope that Flayra rips the code out for them, twists it into a pretzel, and shoves it back in in a way that isn't so 'Deathmatchy'.
No clue yet what will be done about them though.
Ok here's my idea. When a marine dies, he still registers on the radar. It's assumed his radar computer is still working, it's just he's not moving. If a marine is killed in a certain way(melted, or torn limb from limb by a high level alien for example) then he disappers on the radar all together.
There is no kill messages in the corner. Sometimes(not always) you'll hear an automatic death radio message.
The aliens on the other hand get kill messages. It's like a telepathic communication thing. They'll know if a friend died or if a friend killed an enemy.
Anyway, while I'm here I might as well do something useful, so here's a summary of what that post said.
When a marine kills an alien, there is no announcement for it to the marines. If one or more marines approach the corpse, they will see an indication of who that player is (was) so that the killer(s) would know who they just wasted.
When a marine is killed, the commander will automatically make an announcement about his death (and possibly his last location?), but no killer will be announced.
When an alien kills a marine, his teammates will be alerted that he has killed a marine (including his player name), as this will be possible using the hive mind.
When an alien is killed, his teammates will be alerted (also due to the hive mind), but no name of the killer will be given.
This system not only deprives players of normally unknown information, but also supports the two different syles of play. The marines are a coordinated team, thus individual kills (and scores -- an individual kill count wont be present, or so i read) are irrelevant, thus individual credits are unnescesary. The alien team is more of an individual team (heh..), and so more competitive. Thus, the other aliens will know when one of their bretherin has been victorious. Yay!
I don't think I've ever loved a game so much before even playing it. Wow.
-Fishman
Besides, think of this scenario:
You're in a hallway with 5 other buddies, who are all standing behind crates or something, fighting against some flyers or something. You duck behind a crate to reload. All of a sudden you hear this great chargin sound and lots of screaming. You check your radar, and see the 5 little dots that were your squademates sequentially blink out of existence, [blink] [blink] [blink].... This kind of suspense and knowledge of impending doom is what will really make NS stand out. Dont you think?
The way it should be handles by marines...is either like in CS, just more...complicated or something. OR perhaps instead of doing a CS - Like Radar, the could do something simiar to the motion tracker in AvP, since that tracker picks up everything from sharpel to broken objects to aliens...you get the point i take it? <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->
The way it should be handles by marines...is either like in CS, just more...complicated or something. OR perhaps instead of doing a CS - Like Radar, the could do something simiar to the motion tracker in AvP, since that tracker picks up everything from sharpel to broken objects to aliens...you get the point i take it? <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Don't forget, it also picks up hamsters. That way, the marines will know exactly when and where their hamsters are being slaughtered.
The score consists of:
Average accuracy
Shot accuracy % for weapon A, B, C etc.
LEV 1 alien damage inflicted
LEV 2 alien damage inflicted
LEV 3 alien damage inflicted
LEV 4 alien damage inflicted
LEV 5 alien damage inflicted
Total alien damage inflicted
Alien damage score(Basically 1 point per point of damage inflicted. However the points per damage doubles with each class of alien. So LEV 2 is 2 points, LEV 3 is 4 points, LEV 4 is 8 points and LEV 5 is 16 points)
Deaths
Total score(a combination of accuracy, deaths and alien damage score, not total damage score. The accuracy and deaths has a major effect on this score)
In addition, the minutes you've played the game affects your total score. Because you may play a 20 minute game, or an hour game.
Your score is saved on your computer. So it's kinda like a personal high score to see how efficient a marine you are and how you've improved from 5 months ago.