NS3 Musings
Ohnojojo
Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
If UWE were secretly working on NS3 and it suddenly appeared in the Steam Store tomorrow, what would you want the game to have?
I'm imagining Planetside 2 style gameplay within the NS2 Universe.
HUGE dynamic Open world with massive amounts of players.
Attempting to capture large facilities the size of a single NS2 map, with multiple Hives or Command Chairs.
Commander/Khammanders build and reinforce each large facility, when there is no commander/khammander, an AI takes over.
Skulks, Gorges, Lerks and Onos are all much larger.
Jetpacks are actually efficient enough to allow you to fly at high speed over long distances.
ARCS are now the size of a car and have to be driven like a vehicle and deployed with a button.
Marine commanders can drop building, vehicles, and ammo/health caches.
Marines now ahve more vehicles. ATV's, Rovers, Tanks, Dropships.
Marines have Shotguns, Pistols, Snipers, Mines, Grenades, Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Flak Cannons, Railguns, Miniguns, Lasers, Nukes.
Skulks are able to leap 80 feet into the air. They have xenocide, bite, parasite, leap, burrow.
Gorges are the size of cows, tanky and poop infestation and unlimited structures for P-Res.
Lerks are the size of pteradactyls, their spikes shoot slower but deal massive damage (flying sniper). Lerk spore ability is completely revamped.
Lerks have to fly into the clouds to use spores. When activated, spores will change the weather system in a 1 mile radius, reducing armor in a 1 mile radius by 33%. Any marine outside of a facility will take 10 damage per second. Lerks can shoot a projectile that explodes and releases a cloud of umbra.
Fades are still the size of an average human but hunched over. They have Acid Rocket, Blink, Swipe, Shadow Step, Focus, Vortex and Redemption (an NS1 ability that allowed you to teleport back to the nearest hive when you drop below a % threshold of health.)
Onos are the size of 5 cars stacked on top of each other.
Onos has bone wall, stomp, gore, charge, Primal Roar and Siege.
Primal Roar is an NS1 ability that increased the attack speed of all nearby aliens for a short period of time.
Siege would be a passive ability that would allow all targets hit by a charge to take a damage value of (base gore damage) x (# of seconds the onos was charging) This can be used to break down walls.
I'm imagining Planetside 2 style gameplay within the NS2 Universe.
HUGE dynamic Open world with massive amounts of players.
Attempting to capture large facilities the size of a single NS2 map, with multiple Hives or Command Chairs.
Commander/Khammanders build and reinforce each large facility, when there is no commander/khammander, an AI takes over.
Skulks, Gorges, Lerks and Onos are all much larger.
Jetpacks are actually efficient enough to allow you to fly at high speed over long distances.
ARCS are now the size of a car and have to be driven like a vehicle and deployed with a button.
Marine commanders can drop building, vehicles, and ammo/health caches.
Marines now ahve more vehicles. ATV's, Rovers, Tanks, Dropships.
Marines have Shotguns, Pistols, Snipers, Mines, Grenades, Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Flak Cannons, Railguns, Miniguns, Lasers, Nukes.
Skulks are able to leap 80 feet into the air. They have xenocide, bite, parasite, leap, burrow.
Gorges are the size of cows, tanky and poop infestation and unlimited structures for P-Res.
Lerks are the size of pteradactyls, their spikes shoot slower but deal massive damage (flying sniper). Lerk spore ability is completely revamped.
Lerks have to fly into the clouds to use spores. When activated, spores will change the weather system in a 1 mile radius, reducing armor in a 1 mile radius by 33%. Any marine outside of a facility will take 10 damage per second. Lerks can shoot a projectile that explodes and releases a cloud of umbra.
Fades are still the size of an average human but hunched over. They have Acid Rocket, Blink, Swipe, Shadow Step, Focus, Vortex and Redemption (an NS1 ability that allowed you to teleport back to the nearest hive when you drop below a % threshold of health.)
Onos are the size of 5 cars stacked on top of each other.
Onos has bone wall, stomp, gore, charge, Primal Roar and Siege.
Primal Roar is an NS1 ability that increased the attack speed of all nearby aliens for a short period of time.
Siege would be a passive ability that would allow all targets hit by a charge to take a damage value of (base gore damage) x (# of seconds the onos was charging) This can be used to break down walls.
Comments
The melee vs ranged bit would be an issue. The thing that could balance it out would be similar to how L4D does it, having cannon fodder aliens and the boss aliens alongside those (Skulk, Gorge, Lerk, Fade, Onos)
I would have so much fun with that game.
I'm sure that Cory has some scrapped alien concepts that he could use as the alien horde.
And the special aliens would be the skulk, gorge, lerk, fade, onos
Skulks could act like Hunters
Gorges are Boomers
Onos is Tank
Fade is Jockey (but with teleport and invis)
Lerk could fill the same role as a Spitter (long ranged area denial with spikes and projectile spores)
Marines are built from the Infantry Portal
The armory researches weapons.
You can manually choose which marines wield what type of weapons.
Jetpack marines = SC2 Reapers
EXOs = SC2 Thor
Flamethrower = SC2 Hellbat
Shotgun marines = SC2 Marauder
Mines = SC1 Spider Mines
MACs = SC2 SCV's
Skulks = SC2 Zergling
Gorge = SC2 Infestor
Lerk = SC2 Mutalisk
Fade = SC2 Hydralisk
Onos = SC2 Ultralisk
done and done, you're welcome UWE
Good
Bad
I was thinking more on the scale of Planetside 2, except entirely within the same kind of environment NS2 maps are currently set. Sprawling space stations with so many interwoven vents and corridors that it would be infeasible for a player to learn a map regardless of how long they had played the game. Marines could only navigate quickly with the aid of the commander, otherwise through the use of a clunky and slow 3D blueprint UI. Aliens would have true hive sight, allowing them to see through distant walls, able to navigate only through pinpointing and attacking encroaching marines.
This would be really awesome. On top of that, I feel like the RTS version of this game could be of limited enough in scope to translate really well to the mobile market. I would love to be able to play some Natural Selection on my Tablet or Phone. This wouldn't be NS3 naturally, but more of a spin off, so Natural Selection Tactics or something like that.
I think planetside is technically more unique than an NS style game, mainly because I can't think of another game like planetside.
Multiplayer RTS Style gameplay on the tablet alone OR connect to server with your steam account and get a live Map of the NS2 (3?) game you are currently playing from your PC. Maybe even with an interactive menu. Think WiiU/SmartGlass type functionality. Also maybe as the Comm have available Tech Upgrade buttons or quick select icons for your team displaying location, health and ammo.
Yeah, but diaherrea sells.
Besides some diarrhea deserves more credit than you give it.
Nearly every game has somehow contributed to the thought processes and development of every other game.
For example: Platforming games were basically born from Jump Man, the earliest incarnation of Mario.
Elements of platforming then became incorporated with shooting mechanics to give birth to Megaman.
Megaman drew influences from other games during that time.
The concept of platforming and shooting became integrated with a new perspective viewpoint, first person.
First person platforming games + shooting mechanics gaves birth to games like Doom and Duke Nukem and Quake and Halflife.
Many of the elements of these games eventually spread through other genres and etc. etc. etc.
Until finally we come to NS2, a mixture of FPS/RTS.
What I'm trying to say is, you can knock Halo or CoD for being bad games (really bad games) but certain game mechanics, genres, game elements and etc. found in these terrible games are actually quite brilliant.
Like shield regeneration or iron sights and etc. And while these mechanics don't fit into every game or genre, they've all contributed somehow in making the gaming industry as a whole better.
I don't think its fair to just making sweeping judgements about anything or anyone.
For example:
If you go to r/athiesm on reddit, you often see threads or comments saying things along of the lines of... "religion has contributed nothing to humanity ever throughout all of history."
And although I myself am a nonbeliever, I recognize that such a sweeping statement is completely and utterly false. Gregor Mendel the founder of the mendelian theory of heredity experimented with pea plants to see if he could find a pattern. A pattern that he could use to produce better yields of crops or heartier crops. He did this for the greater good of the people, fueled by his religious values to do good.
ANYWAY... getting back to the subject...
I'd love to see an entire NS universe be contructed about multiple games, crossing over multiple genres.
The gaming industry doesn't seem to do that as much these days, except when attempting to milk people with subpar, buggy titles.
I like to think of Warcraft as a good example of expanding a gaming universe.
RTS - Warcraft Series
MMORPG - World of Warcraft
MOBA - Dota
Warcraft related novels.
With social networking.
And micropayments.
EDIT: Actually I think it would be more interesting if things were switcheroo'd and you start out as an insignificant skulk that survived the extermination of a hive. You want to save & avenge your fallen brethren by cleansing the humans. And your 'loot' could be certain DNA sequences, enzymes, calories from your victims, and evolving at milestone points in the game.
you are a happy go lucky gorge that spends his day designing plushies, in the hopes that one day they will actually be manufactured. Single, shy, and a bit of a loner you find solace in your weekend nanite harvesting hobby on the small patch of infestation you call home. This idyllic world is ROCKED when Evil Co investors send the TSF to set up a mining operation. Evil Co has cornered the market on nanites & will do anything to ensure no one jeopardizes their dominance - not even a chubby gorge. All seems lost until that fateful belly slide into a female TSF marine carrying medpacks. Awkwardly helping her gather her things - your eyes meet - instant inter-species kismet. Hilarity ensues as you work together to bring harmony to the universe.
Except that PS2 has imho awful performance, mindless zerg victories, repetitive environments, sluggish vehicle controls and unsatisfying gunplay (which is a bad thing for a shooter especially). Stopped playing it quite a while ago.
I agree with all your points, but it doesn't really make it any less unique.
<sarcasm>I would buy that.</sarcasm>
Planetside plays very similarly to the Battlefield 2 (Ive not played 3) but on a larger scale. The map size and player count makes PS2 unique but not better, especially because of the client side hit detection (you can 1v1 from 5m apart and both kill each other with rifles because of the lag) and because of the delay in loading new areas particularly with aircraft. The 'large scale battles' novelty wears off pretty quickly when you see how one-sided or stalemate they generally become.
Awesome! Oh I do hope I will get TSA-Smart-not-the-one-from-alien-Gun if I pre-order, will I? Oh, oh! What about DLC's? Surely you could make some small parts of the game DLC only. Like winning. A DLC for winning. That would be awesome!
When will the kickstarter begin? Do I get to rename Skulks if I pledge 100$? I always wanted to call them SPACE DOGS! I think it's a great name!
See you in NS3!
If you pledge 10k$, you may create a level for the game.
That's an awful deal.
It would be hilarious at that point when people complain that it should be balance for 6v6. hehe.
NS players very similarly to CS, with the exception of their being an RTS element.
Planetside plays similarly to Battlefield, with the exception of their being 20 times more players.