Alien Flashlight
Solitario
Join Date: 2006-10-29 Member: 58097Members
Join Date: 2006-10-29 Member: 58097Members
<div class="IPBDescription">I use it 99% of my time</div>Everybody agrees, alien flashlight looks amazing, nice effect etc.
it's also very helpful, you can see marines highlighted and see through gas.
I use it literally 99% of my time playing alien. the 1% left is when I'm comm.
problem is, there is no really downside. nothing really negative:
<b>Solution 1</b>
alien flashlight stays as it is, but get's a negative effect:
costing adrenalin, or stopping you from gettin pRes
<b>Solution 2</b>
nerf alien flashlight, so you can't see ###### expect of some highlightes marines
<b>Solution 3</b>
emerge normal vission and alien flashlight: always highlighting marines and marine buildings,
but with the normal textured vision and sight
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/A8nKe.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/5ABnY.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
it's also very helpful, you can see marines highlighted and see through gas.
I use it literally 99% of my time playing alien. the 1% left is when I'm comm.
problem is, there is no really downside. nothing really negative:
<b>Solution 1</b>
alien flashlight stays as it is, but get's a negative effect:
costing adrenalin, or stopping you from gettin pRes
<b>Solution 2</b>
nerf alien flashlight, so you can't see ###### expect of some highlightes marines
<b>Solution 3</b>
emerge normal vission and alien flashlight: always highlighting marines and marine buildings,
but with the normal textured vision and sight
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/A8nKe.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/5ABnY.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Comments
because the game with alien flashlight allready on, and nothing really textured, I should have 100 fps
it doesn't make any sense to me, being forced to play the game in yellow untextured and seeing the enemys
in fast action or don't using the alien flashlight and getting owend hard
It makes these vision-obscuring things cease to matter:
<ul><li>flames</li><li>spores</li><li>darkness from unpowered rooms</li><li>infestation</li></ul>
Meanwhile marines are forced to suffer from all these things, with no equivalent or even remotely similar option.
It's a completely one-sided mechanic that marines players have no interaction with. It takes no effort to use it, and it's available to everyone on aliens all the time.
I just used the quick and dirty alien flashlight mod and now it's still always useful but looks good too.
Alien Vision is supposed to be good. That's not to say it doesn't already have trade-offs that force players to switch it off every once and a while if they want to be effective.
When I say it's one-sided and marines have no interaction, I really mean that - there's no way for marines players to influence how well alien vision works for someone, because it's always the exact same as long as the alien player pushes F to turn it on. This is why people are proposing ideas like "making heat shimmer exaggerated" to create tradeoffs in how useful it is, while giving marines opportunities to actually have some mechanical relationship with alien vision.
<!--quoteo(post=1928243:date=Apr 21 2012, 03:11 PM:name=Techercizer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Techercizer @ Apr 21 2012, 03:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1928243"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Alien Vision is supposed to be good. That's not to say it doesn't already have trade-offs that force players to switch it off every once and a while if they want to be effective.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What do you say to all the people who play with it on all the time and are very effective regardless?
That and visual tweaking, it's kinda boring not being able to see the textures.
a. I can't tell when I'm hidden while using the "alien flashlight"
b. I can't see marine flashlights around corners
c. I can't see spores!
I find that although I might be able to see marines better while using alien vision, I'm actually surprised by them more often, because I can't pick up on some of the cues I normally rely on. Honestly, the only time it really gives aliens a huge advantage is in pitch black, but marines should be vulnerable in dark rooms. It creates motivation to get that power node working.
Imho its much better to be able to make use of the lighting, without the alien vision i know where im hidden, i can see marines flashlight as they come around the corner, and well.. The maps get quite boring when lasermode is activated.
Imho, having alien vision on all the time is just lazy.
I use it 99% of the time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Also I just want to say that when I use it, my FPS actually decreases and the game actually becomes sluggish for some reason.
it's also very helpful, you can see marines highlighted and see through gas.
I use it literally 99% of my time playing alien. the 1% left is when I'm comm.
problem is, there is no really downside. nothing really negative:
<b>Solution 1</b>
alien flashlight stays as it is, but get's a negative effect:
costing adrenalin, or stopping you from gettin pRes
<b>Solution 2</b>
nerf alien flashlight, so you can't see ###### expect of some highlightes marines
<b>Solution 3</b>
emerge normal vission and alien flashlight: always highlighting marines and marine buildings,
but with the normal textured vision and sight<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You mean how alien flashlight in NS1 had no downside either?
/thread
You gotta realize, maybe everything is 100% fine right now with alien vision. Maybe the fact that you use it 99% of the time means there is actually something wrong with normal vision. Maybe normal vision isn't alien enough, maybe normal vision could use a buff so that players have two really great options for seeing the game.
So how do we buff normal alien vision? Why don't we approach this by making it distinctly different from the human vision, something beyond just peering through a mouth. Perhaps aliens could have a trait ability of seeing how much health a marine has in normal vision, but take this away with alien vision.
It's just suggestion for the sake of argument. If you'll notice, I've balanced the equation in a positive way. I didn't tack on a negative attribute to balance it out.
Just some food for thought.
You can't see parasite/hive sight with alien flashlight on,
that is a huge downside to using it, and using parasite is huge.
I actually see myself using normal vision a lot more these days... simply because DI is kind of OP in the way that you can see all marines walking on it with alien vision turned off.
I also get slightly better performance (Mouse lag seems decreased) when I am not using alien vision.
There should be more drawbacks to using alienvision... perhaps add some effects that makes it harder to see details... since enemies are bright as heck.
You can't see parasite/hive sight with alien flashlight on,
that is a huge downside to using it, and using parasite is huge.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Parasited marines/structures still appear on the minimap. If you use the minimap as often as I do, then there is no downside to dark vision.
That and visual tweaking, it's kinda boring not being able to see the textures.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
+1 vry elegant indeed
Irrelevant, there is a downside to the alien vision, that you cannot see parasite/hivesight through the walls, like I stated.
Side note: I never mentioned using the minimap © key, which I probably have up 80% of my games as well.
On top of that, never using the alien vision and using the minimap key like insanity, will result in you being even more overpowered, if you have amazing eyesight that is :P
THEY ARE ALIENS, for goodness' sake...
Solution? Just make a prettier more convienient A-Vision...
In an attempt to reconcile balance, aesthetics, and fun, I've come up with a couple ideas:
Let's say the kharra can consciously adjust their irises to allow a greater amount of light in. Doesn't seem too far fetched. The result is a manually activated "flashlight" that can see in the dark (increase brightness and contrast of regular visuals), and the drawback is that the kharra are blinded by flashlights pointing directly at them, and maybe slightly by flame (not a lasting effect, or it would be too big of a liability).
Another idea is that the kharra can see motion. Make it a passive ability that draws pulsing outlines around moving objects whenever in the presence of flame, mists/gasses, or in low light. This has no drawbacks, but interferes minimally with the look of the game. This could also lead to some tense moments in the dark with marines trying to minimize their movement.
Kharra have sonar: same as above, but not just for moving things. Basically a passive, low-visibility only version of the current a-vision where color either varies by depth, or doesn't vary at all.
I can't think of a way to make heat vision make sense and be unintrusive at the same time.
THEY ARE ALIENS, for goodness' sake...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This isn't how anyone should design game mechanics. This is why you're a forum nerd and not a game designer.
Because I want Aliens to feel alien-y? - Even without that sentiment, I am still fully convinced that having a trade-off is just adding junk.
And no one can prove me that having no trade-off for a better A-Vision would affect balance in a dramatic way. Unless it is tested in at least one build.
(P.S:: Sure, a game designer just guesses these things... and because the people in the office have this "consensus" that A-Vision should have a trade-off, does absolutely mean it should be that way... No question about that. That is how you design game mechanics.)
Don't you know? Many if not most game designers evolve out of forum nerds and forum-nerd-equivalents.
I don't really buy that alien-vision should have a downside. If it's something that is going to make aliens have an advantage in the dark, then no amount of drawbacks is going to change that. Therefore, I can only conclude that, knowingly or not, people are trying to give alien-vision a skill-curve. I don't really think alien-vision fits into the schema of abilities-that-require-skill because skillfully using it can only ever constitute turning it on/off/on/off/off/off/on/on and so on - pretty dull and pretty repetitive. Leave the alien-vision out of all the asymmetry, skill-based, balance, tradeoff debate because it shouldn't exist there. It's a simple mechanic that's supposed to give aliens an advantage in the dark and that's the end of it. The discussion should really be about how to make it look good enough that people actually enjoy using it.