Light effects and flares
Ahab
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7851Members
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7851Members
<div class="IPBDescription">How can the gameplay make use of the engines light effects?</div>Since NS1 and as it seems also NS2 are rather 'dark' games, the gameplay could profit from the new engine. Aliens could make use of the darkness while the marines have a couple of devices to lighten up the battlefield, for example:
Marines:
0) The flashlight of course.
1) Flares: very cheap, very bright, very red and available from the beginning of the game. Maybe the babblers are afraid of a burning flare which could be used to wall them off (would also keep the flares from becoming useless during the game).
2) Big flashlight on heavy armor which has a broader light cone than the normal flashlight.
3) Shining structures: Alle marine structures produce more or less light. Defensive/strategic structures produce more light than offensive ones.
4) Spotlight: New structure, quite cheap but only available in the late game. Huge light cone and able to blend aliens.
Aliens:
1) Infestation can suck light. Light level is drastically reduced in infested areas.
2) Faster health regeneration in the dark.
3) Nightvision
What do you think?
Marines:
0) The flashlight of course.
1) Flares: very cheap, very bright, very red and available from the beginning of the game. Maybe the babblers are afraid of a burning flare which could be used to wall them off (would also keep the flares from becoming useless during the game).
2) Big flashlight on heavy armor which has a broader light cone than the normal flashlight.
3) Shining structures: Alle marine structures produce more or less light. Defensive/strategic structures produce more light than offensive ones.
4) Spotlight: New structure, quite cheap but only available in the late game. Huge light cone and able to blend aliens.
Aliens:
1) Infestation can suck light. Light level is drastically reduced in infested areas.
2) Faster health regeneration in the dark.
3) Nightvision
What do you think?
Comments
And with that the marines should be able to handle light better, not beeing blended as easy etc.
<a href="http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm" target="_blank">Powerstrip</a> (unsure if this is the actual tool from back then) and friends ruined the eerie and dark atmosphere in NS1, they will do it in NS2, too.
Yeah, but you cant just turn the brightness up to full if you have lightsources everywhere.. that'd just make you blind.
This can be usefull.
It's important for every player to have the option of a level playing field. Some players like dark corners and suspense in their multiplayer games and others don't. To force one method upon either group would be a mistake.
The issue for me with making lighting a 'big factor' is that whilst I would like it that way, my computer can not handle it.
I am playing on a laptop, and it is not bad. I can run all the source games rather well... I'd hate for NS2 to be excluded to a small percentage with FX7600s or whatever number gfx cards have reached now. It absolutely beasts my computer at the moment, and considering that UWE set out to make a game that is 'playable by a majority' (if I remember rightly) I will be quite disappointed.
My suggestions shouldn't lead to a high end engine for rich owners of grapic workstations. But since the new engine has definitely nicer graphics than HL1 it would be rather absurd not to introduce new gameplay aspects. Otherwise there could be simply a large update for NS1 to give us the new content.
Its not about switching lights on or off but about quantities and reducing a bit of light here and increasing it there + a few small gameplay aspects.
Think about throwing a flare into a dark room and all of a sudden sense the skulk above you head... just until a gorge comes and puts out the flare with his heal spray ;-)
In the end the mappers will decide how bright/dark the optics are.
Now for me only one question remains: Will they give us flares, too?
Maybe they can be used for balancing the game because the aliens only need to destroy the power nodes to make it dark and switch the buildings off. Again i'd like the gorge to be able to spit out flares.
Also, this has been debated many times before with the general conclusion of "omg i haz external video settings that light everything up like a christmas tree... lolz."
Also, this has been debated many times before with the general conclusion of "omg i haz external video settings that light everything up like a christmas tree... lolz."<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, yeah. That'd be cool but it'd require additional mappingwork (tracers, flags, etc), not to mention what strain this could put on the already stressed engine.
On a side note, the Alien's view should be illuminated, so they still see in the dark.
they're vicious predators after all and it'd be evolutionary favourable and therefore a simple, logic consequence.
I figured it could be worked into the dynamic lighting system somehow. I'm not sure how it was implemented in FEAR, but in NS2 perhaps all non-dynamic-actor shadows (ie. player model, projectiles, etc.) can be this sort of "baked" shadow which means extra work by the mapper might not be needed. Of course there would be areas you might not want this type of effect to be active though, I guess.
And yeah, something like that would have to be implemented once the engine is far more stable. :)
Marines come up to a room that is blacked out and instead of just running in and gunning, they actually stop, group up, and prepare to enter. Two throw in a flare, and the rest of the team storms in once the room is lit up like the fourth of July. Could possibly make it also that the flares would cause a very, very short blindness, if they don't look away, as the aliens eyes adjust to the flood of light.
I think this is freaken great and would make this game very unique. There really sin't any games where lighting actually controls the flow of the game itself.
Also couldn't Dynamic Infestation automatically cover and disable the power node?
is the alien ns1 flashlight. it makes both enemies and allies and structures glow
without flashlight
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'><img src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9769/cocore0002.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></span>
with flashlight
<img src="http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9113/cocore0003.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />