location hits on aliens.
devil-fire
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7912Members
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7912Members
the topic about recoil got me thinking about how much of ns is balanced around the attack system (biting and shooting). i realized that this system has the rest of the game balanced around how well the average players and master players are able to use this system and that changes in this system can emphasis a need for group organization or the viability of the 1-player army.
personally im more a fan of the need for group organization so i was thinking that it would be cool if attacks on the flanks and backsides of aliens did more damage or bypassed more armor then attacks to the front. this way it would be more important for marines to stick together to be able to better surround enemy aliens and discourage people from being combat effective by themselves.
for example it would be difficult for 1 player with an hmg/jp to kill an onos because the onos could just keep his good face to the marine at all times, whereas 2 marines would be able to distract the onos while at the same time attacking the rear or flank. this would generally lower the effectiveness of solo marines, while increasing the effectiveness marines in groups. it would also increase the ability of aliens to close the gap with marines while not necessarily increasing their combat effectiveness.
personally im more a fan of the need for group organization so i was thinking that it would be cool if attacks on the flanks and backsides of aliens did more damage or bypassed more armor then attacks to the front. this way it would be more important for marines to stick together to be able to better surround enemy aliens and discourage people from being combat effective by themselves.
for example it would be difficult for 1 player with an hmg/jp to kill an onos because the onos could just keep his good face to the marine at all times, whereas 2 marines would be able to distract the onos while at the same time attacking the rear or flank. this would generally lower the effectiveness of solo marines, while increasing the effectiveness marines in groups. it would also increase the ability of aliens to close the gap with marines while not necessarily increasing their combat effectiveness.
Comments
terrible idea imo, with the amount tha hitregistry and luck already factors into getting kills in NS, I'd hate to imagine the amount of complaints people would start getting if location based damage was put in.
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Complaints from you?
In my opinion, this would add a whole new element to NS. Now ankle-biters wouldn't be as effective as the aliens who stealthily sneak up on a marine and bite the back of their neck. Likewise, a good shot could down a skulk, gorge, etc very quickly.
This would also add into a team play element. Marines alone would be easier to pick off, and aliens would have to stick together, to a point, to cover higher life forms' weak points. If not, the alien will be much easier to kill.
For example...if an onos was weak on the sides, strong on the front, then perhaps two fades, or lerks, or even gorges or skulks, could position themselves by the onos to strike at those who are attacking the exposed flanks, and a gorge healing them all the while.
On the marine team, two marines could go back to back to cover their vulnerable points, each firing at aliens approaching from their side.
etc...
Ie hitting an armor plate would do reduced damage, hitting anywhere else would do normal damage.
If location damage is added, I would only want to see it in the form of damage reduction, not damage bonuses.
Ie hitting an armor plate would do reduced damage, hitting anywhere else would do normal damage.
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Come to think of it. I like that point. Kudos Revenge.
Damage reduction for hitting 'armor' (or carapace . . .) would definatley be the best way to show that. This is why suggestion forums are a good idea, Revenge might not have thought of it like that had this topic been posted!
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I couldn't agree more. Natural-Selection is community powered in a large respect. To be honest I'm not sure the NS developers have ever fully realized how much creative potential the community can truely offer. It's like drilling for oil, hard to find and efficently draw out, but once you do you end up with solid gold. And best of all it's adaptive. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
A big problem with this IMO, regardless of gameplay issues, is that it would rely too heavily upon the direction that the alien model is facing, which isn't always in the direction that the actual player is facing for alien models. And it isn't realistically feasible to make them always have a uniform direction without really messing up the animations.
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Perhaps, then to match things up and balance, the onos would have a slow turn speed that was fixed? He is supposed to be giant, strong, and mean...
I could see generalized locational damage (Onos takes less damage from frontal attacks, getting hit from behind does more damage, etc), but I'm not sure if I want to see anything beyond that.
According to my PT contacts, they've actually tried locational damage for skulks before in a test build. The result was skulks getting slaughtered because headshots gave a damage multiplier.
I could see generalized locational damage (Onos takes less damage from frontal attacks, getting hit from behind does more damage, etc), but I'm not sure if I want to see anything beyond that.
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i'd think that skulks would be more damage resitat from the front, and only soft on their underneath rather than head
EDIT : also i did like it in avp how you could blow off limbs on the aliens, how it would be cool to have that as part of the death animation - say just when a skulk gets to 0 HP, most people keep shooting another 2-10 bullets before they register its dead - so have it so once the skulk or other alien is considered dead the model would active a thingy which lets if be shot apart.
A big problem with this IMO, regardless of gameplay issues, is that it would rely too heavily upon the direction that the alien model is facing, which isn't always in the direction that the actual player is facing for alien models. And it isn't realistically feasible to make them always have a uniform direction without really messing up the animations.
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That is how the current alien models are animated, but there's nothing stopping the NS2 models from being animated differently. The only time this concern would apply is when you are discussing four-legged aliens that are large enough for locational damage to have a point (ie onos), and I see nothing wrong with onii strafing more slowly just so the animation will look right.