motion tracking and how it affect aliens.
darktimes
Join Date: 2007-12-24 Member: 63247Members
Join Date: 2007-12-24 Member: 63247Members
<div class="IPBDescription">and many more suggestions based on the conzept arts</div>on classic. currently the skulk and the lerk are the most used lifeforms there, they can just win when they ambush people.
but sadly, i meet commanders, who could research motion tracking in atleast 2 minutes.
motion tracking is just a researchable wallhack. nothing more.
and what bugs me, really bugs me, is that the marines dont need to do <i>anything</i> to get intel
the aliens need to parasite the marines, which is crutial, and risky. or get scent of fear, but its limited.
you dont need to do anything for motion tracking, and you know on the <i>whole</i> map where ALL aliens are. this, people, make skulking extremely hard, and its skill needed to attack, the bonus of surprise is gone.
my suggestions are:
1. make motion tracking really track motion. closing doors, teammates, gas vents, fans, etc etc. and make it limited just to fast moving things, like a leaping skulk, but not a walking one, AND, its range should be limited to 20-25 meters. also, motion tracking should be useless on DI, A) to make it balanced and B) the DI is a organism, and its constantly spreading and doing something, so that MT will show on the entire DI random movments. i think thats better as just disabling MT when in it.
2. change it to a map/radar-ish additional HUD display, who show movments 200° infront of you as white points. like 1. it should really track motion, but whit 35-45 meters range. same effects as 1. in DI.
the second thing is the alien spawning.
after looking the old news from the biodome or the hiveconzepts, i would consider a new way to spawn as aliens,
currently, you spawn alone, as skulk, and when there are 2-3 marines there youre lifespan is ca 0.01 seconds.
no way to get out of there, eccept youre a PC bot whit speedhack. or have gods skills.
the glowis, or floatis, could really help alot, and anyone who expierenced a 30 seconds rush whit LMGs whit the entire marine team will understand that.
you spawn as glowie. youre invincible, but you can just evolve. you can flout freely in the hiveroom, but when you leave it, you die, after 2 seconds. like other aliens you can evolve in the skulk, but way way way faster as normal, as would you spawn directly there.
this will couse 2 things. first. players know where the enemy is, and can spawn where they want. second: teamplayers wait for theyr mates to spawn, and evolve all together.
but there are the 15 other AI glowies who never evolve and just work as light source and hive defends, defends? jes you heard right, when the hive is attacked all glowies surround the marines to distract them. they cant die, but are noclip, so you can still shot through them, but when 15 flirring, blinking, glowing thingis fly wildly in youre aim it will help the alien players to spawn.
first sort are player glowies who can choose where to spawn, are invinceble (no hitboxes? ) but can evolve to skulks.
the seconds sort is AI controlled glowies who just fill the hiveroom,give it nice moving lights, and when attacked swarm the marines to flying fast around them, distracting them.
how do you like my suggestions?
but sadly, i meet commanders, who could research motion tracking in atleast 2 minutes.
motion tracking is just a researchable wallhack. nothing more.
and what bugs me, really bugs me, is that the marines dont need to do <i>anything</i> to get intel
the aliens need to parasite the marines, which is crutial, and risky. or get scent of fear, but its limited.
you dont need to do anything for motion tracking, and you know on the <i>whole</i> map where ALL aliens are. this, people, make skulking extremely hard, and its skill needed to attack, the bonus of surprise is gone.
my suggestions are:
1. make motion tracking really track motion. closing doors, teammates, gas vents, fans, etc etc. and make it limited just to fast moving things, like a leaping skulk, but not a walking one, AND, its range should be limited to 20-25 meters. also, motion tracking should be useless on DI, A) to make it balanced and B) the DI is a organism, and its constantly spreading and doing something, so that MT will show on the entire DI random movments. i think thats better as just disabling MT when in it.
2. change it to a map/radar-ish additional HUD display, who show movments 200° infront of you as white points. like 1. it should really track motion, but whit 35-45 meters range. same effects as 1. in DI.
the second thing is the alien spawning.
after looking the old news from the biodome or the hiveconzepts, i would consider a new way to spawn as aliens,
currently, you spawn alone, as skulk, and when there are 2-3 marines there youre lifespan is ca 0.01 seconds.
no way to get out of there, eccept youre a PC bot whit speedhack. or have gods skills.
the glowis, or floatis, could really help alot, and anyone who expierenced a 30 seconds rush whit LMGs whit the entire marine team will understand that.
you spawn as glowie. youre invincible, but you can just evolve. you can flout freely in the hiveroom, but when you leave it, you die, after 2 seconds. like other aliens you can evolve in the skulk, but way way way faster as normal, as would you spawn directly there.
this will couse 2 things. first. players know where the enemy is, and can spawn where they want. second: teamplayers wait for theyr mates to spawn, and evolve all together.
but there are the 15 other AI glowies who never evolve and just work as light source and hive defends, defends? jes you heard right, when the hive is attacked all glowies surround the marines to distract them. they cant die, but are noclip, so you can still shot through them, but when 15 flirring, blinking, glowing thingis fly wildly in youre aim it will help the alien players to spawn.
first sort are player glowies who can choose where to spawn, are invinceble (no hitboxes? ) but can evolve to skulks.
the seconds sort is AI controlled glowies who just fill the hiveroom,give it nice moving lights, and when attacked swarm the marines to flying fast around them, distracting them.
how do you like my suggestions?
Comments
As for the spawn camping, only the marines find it fun. If there was some method of not spawning between them and the hive I'd like it. Maybe the glowies control you suggested might not be the best idea, but it's something.
As for the spawn camping, only the marines find it fun. If there was some method of not spawning between them and the hive I'd like it. Maybe the glowies control you suggested might not be the best idea, but it's something.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
the possibility to choose moment (an position) of respawning would be nice, but I dont want to loose game atmosphere.
exactly! you spawn directly on the hive (or <i>in</i> it, and you moving out through a tube! ) as a glowie, flying around the room, land somewhere, and evolve to a skulk! i think that this have way more atmosphere as just get randomly teleportet as fully growen skulk in the hiveroom
comon people! POST
However, I would argue that this weaker form of MT should have 1) lower res cost and 2) shorter research time than as it stand now. It's a pretty steep cost as it is now, not to mention you can't use the Obs while it's researching, but this is to counter its binary nature. Especially if you add in more upgrades to it to strengthen it, the basic nerfed level should cost maybe around 15 res and 1 minute research time.
As far as the spawn system, the real trouble will be mapping the range of what is technically the "Hive". Most likely you need a new brush, and leaving the region will cause your UI to turn red as you die. However, beyond that, I like it. It helps solve the individual spawning (you can coordinate to all try to become skulk at the same time) and you don't pop into existence not knowing where you are. Plus, if you're stupid and all Skulk at the same place, a few GL shots will make short work of your noob lives. Benefits and risks!
I'd say removing the alien dots from minimap and giving only a rough direction of the alien would be better for the overall gameplay.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->However, I would argue that this weaker form of MT should have 1) lower res cost and 2) shorter research time than as it stand now. It's a pretty steep cost as it is now, not to mention you can't use the Obs while it's researching, but this is to counter its binary nature. Especially if you add in more upgrades to it to strengthen it, the basic nerfed level should cost maybe around 15 res and 1 minute research time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The whole RTS tech tree needs heavy rework. Especially the early game is a mess of 3-7 minutes (maybe 10 in large games) and you'll need to squuese most of the essential upgrades and pressure to that. Hopefully they can suit the different MT in the new marine tech tree somehow.
this will couse 2 things. first. players know where the enemy is, and can spawn where they want. second: teamplayers wait for theyr mates to spawn, and evolve all together.
but there are the 15 other AI glowies who never evolve and just work as light source and hive defends, defends? jes you heard right, when the hive is attacked all glowies surround the marines to distract them. they cant die, but are noclip, so you can still shot through them, but when 15 flirring, blinking, glowing thingis fly wildly in youre aim it will help the alien players to spawn.
first sort are player glowies who can choose where to spawn, are invinceble (no hitboxes? ) but can evolve to skulks.
the seconds sort is AI controlled glowies who just fill the hiveroom,give it nice moving lights, and when attacked swarm the marines to flying fast around them, distracting them.
how do you like my suggestions?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How about instead of the glowie suddenly becoming an egg and hatching a skulk you spawn as a ghost and then you fly into one of the many eggs scatered around the hive...
This would mean that marines would still be aware of where you "might" spawn so you cant spawn on thier heads or directly behind them and yet the aliens still get some choice of where to spawn.
but isnt it a bit complicated to have 15-20 dynamic, player sensitiv entities around the hive?
so u can understand, the egg hatches, and blows acid in all directions to deture marines from following the glowys to where they land and kill the skulk coming out.
- Make MT a primary weapon (like a shotgun)
- Limit its range
- Create a penumbra/umbra through too many walls (Say x units of distance hitscanned through a brush) so that it would only notice extreme movements (like leaps and fast jumps using airspeed control) when 1/2 of that distance had been covered with brushes, and would become totally useless after, say, 25 feet of total brush thickness. This wouldn't mirror AvP2's system, but I think it would be good gameplay.
- Create false positives on other marines, doors, Dynamic Infestation, physics objects, hanging wires, etc.
- Limit its arc to ~45 degrees, maybe a little more.
- Reduce the upgrade time/cost
Then, there would be a variable (but determinant) amount of time before the alien spawns. Like parachuting, not flying.
PLUS, this system would give the marines complete knowledge of where the alien will spawn (unless there are random floaty things just for confusion effect).
OR, you could have it so that an alien who recently spawned near a hive shares half its hit points with the hive. So, if it gets hit, the hive takes half damage (essentially doubling the hit points of the skulk) This effect lasts 3 seconds.
Well, you want them to know to a certain extent so a match can have a conclusion, but I do understand what you are saying, no one wants a spawn camped situation. Remember, in NS1, this a problem for the marines as well, when Kharaa would not kill Infantry Portals and just kill them one at a time as they popped out till the match ended when they F4.
In both the case of Kharaa and Marines, it was always considered good form for the opposing side if they had the upper hand in a spawn area to end the match with all speed possible to allow a new match to begin. Would definitely be of benefit if there was better spawn mechanics that predicated that it would be of more benefit to attack the source(s) of spawn than to attack those coming out of it.
revamping the spawn systems for aliens could include creating a transition between "nothing" and a "complete model". Like, the skulk "grows", or, is flung out of the hive.
Here's an idea -- make the skulk spawn inside the hive, fully formed. This will completely shield the skulks from ranged combat. There can be up to... say... four skulks occupying a hive at a given time. 4 at once in there. (jetpackers can fly in, but they take damage because of the hive's viscous walls). So, to counter the marine spawn campers, the skulks can organize, waiting for two or three to respawn. Then, they all rush out at the same time. This would give the aliens the numbers advantage and the ability to choose when the conflict takes place. Possibly give the skulks some cute options like being "flung" out by the hive at a high velocity, making it extremely difficult for marines to react (especially considering the hive has 1 static exit "trunk", which would be the primary focus of the marine's attention).
then, for infantry portals, make them a little less exact. have it so the marine can spawn in a larger area, so skulks don't know exactly where they will respawn.
say, the infantry portal "circle" is 1 unit. Make is a 5x5 circle, or a 10x10 circle. This creates a little more diversity in defensive situations for the marines.