Mini-discuse About The Infamous Flamethrower
NightfireTG
Join Date: 2002-12-24 Member: 11508Members
Join Date: 2002-12-24 Member: 11508Members
Comments
you mean that in a vent, the flame shoudl *in his mind* travel further and deal more damage?
In the open, they fire and spread out giving a very short range, but a large spread.
In something like a vent, they go a long way vey fast and follow the path of the vent.
*thinks about the TFC flamethrower* **<i>shudder</i>**
man if they can figure out how todo it it would be so cool <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
agreed, the RTCW one is the best so far.
But even that one doesn't make sense in terms of range either. Let's face it, it's best use will be
A) Clearing WoL.
B) Clearing vents.
D) Clearing webs (presuming it would burn away webs).
that is so not true. 1 marine with nade launcher in support= fades/lerk run for thier lives. a single 33 res weap easily takes out a bunch of 33 res lerks + 54 res fades. now THAT is unbalanced.
if the flamethrower is as powerful as it sounds right now it better cost a lot of res, or the aliens better have a decent counter to it.
And the naders (unless they're HA, and even then they better have HMG friends) just aren't scary. The Lerk can zip in after that magical 4th round, and eat the GL nicely.
Sure, the marines can beat them back, but not with equivalent expenditure.
that is so not true. 1 marine with nade launcher in support= fades/lerk run for thier lives. a single 33 res weap easily takes out a bunch of 33 res lerks + 54 res fades. now THAT is unbalanced.
if the flamethrower is as powerful as it sounds right now it better cost a lot of res, or the aliens better have a decent counter to it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Jeese.
We have precisely <b>one</b> fact in our possesion regarding flamethrowers. If a volumetric flamethrower can be included without too much of a performance hit, it will be.
Anything else about flamethrowers is purely conjecture.
However, a decent 'counter' would be to stay away from the damn thing and rocket/spike the carrier. Am I a genius or what ? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
sorry but if you die to grenade launchers (that have a freakin 5 or 6second timer till explosion)
you are either:
1) AFK
2) just screwing around
3) happen to be unlucky and face one of the 1per300 marines who can use the GL effectively to hit people straight on
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=23569' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...=ST&f=5&t=23569</a>
Flayra's reply:
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I'm not going to get in a big discussion about this, but the only real problem with implementing a flamethrower (besides the fact that it isn't necessary right now), is client performance. Remember the frame rate hits people got when looking at smoke grenades in CS? The same thing happens with the particle systems in NS. This is going to be about 3 times as bad with a flamethrower.
It's not too much work to create a flamethrower that looks good. It's much harder to make one that looks good, does damage properly, and doesn't noticeably affect the frame rate on a P2-400 with any old graphics accelerator, under the HL engine, with more then OpenGL compatibility. To my knowledge, no mod has shipped a decent looking flamethrower that fits these requirements (though there are plenty of screenshots showing nice looking flamethrowers that work on higher-end systems).
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
sorry but if you die to grenade launchers (that have a freakin 5 or 6second timer till explosion)
you are either:
1) AFK
2) just screwing around
3) happen to be unlucky and face one of the 1per300 marines who can use the GL effectively to hit people straight on <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
So you've never died to a nade as a lerk ? Never, ever, ever ?
In NS you could simplify this by using the clipping hulls...
A particle just needs to know in what clipping hulls it is.
(the largest clipping hull is for the onos, it needs much space..., the second largest is for Marine/Fade and the smallest is for Skulk/lerk...)
Now set a dynamic speed factor for each particle dependding on the clipping hulls its inside of AND depending on the distance to its nearest particle neighbour.
If it is in all 3 clipping hulls it is FAR away from any solid wall. -> make it slower and larger because its in open space (low pressure)
If its in no clipping hull its close to a wall -> make it faster ans smaller because its in a "vent" or near a wall (high pressure)
You could use the size of the leaf, or the ammount leafes visible from that leaf, as indicator if its open space or a vent.
-> you get the needed effect, but it may look werid in open halls with particles changing their speeds.
(you could make them just getting slower and not getting faster by coming close to a wall)
Therefore particles could give a part of their own speed to their closest particle neighbour (like billiard-bowls) . the ammunt of given speed depends on "1/distance^2" (and on time of course).
Ignoring the vectors for this makes it faster.... the vectors just get changed by collisions.
-
Another simplification is "distance friction" in adition to a particle source that spreads its particles not at a straight line.
It just means that particles have a high speed at the start (and getting spread in a wider angle).
The more far a particle is away from its (nearest) neighbour particles, the more "distance friction" they get -> particlesat the border loose their speed faster because their nearest neighbor is far away.
But if they collide with a wall they may stay close to each other and have less "distance friction". (higher pressure -> higher speed)
-
Apart from this I want to see (realtime and fast changing) transparent low polygon <a href='http://www.angelcode.com/source/files/metaballs_exe.zip' target='_blank'>metaballs</a> in HL!
2 different transparent metaballs (without texture) one dark red for the border and one bright yellow for the inside could make a nice volumetric flame effect.
you are either:
1) AFK
2) just screwing around
3) happen to be unlucky and face one of the 1per300 marines who can use the GL effectively to hit people straight on <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
4) Got stuck trying to back away by that n00b Fade that was standing behind you shooting Acid Rockets into your back thinking he was killing the marines.
In NS you could simplify this by using the clipping hulls...
A particle just needs to know in what clipping hulls it is.
(the largest clipping hull is for the onos, it needs much space..., the second largest is for Marine/Fade and the smallest is for Skulk/lerk...)
Now set a dynamic speed factor for each particle dependding on the clipping hulls its inside of AND depending on the distance to its nearest particle neighbour.
If it is in all 3 clipping hulls it is FAR away from any solid wall. -> make it slower and larger because its in open space (low pressure)
If its in no clipping hull its close to a wall -> make it faster ans smaller because its in a "vent" or near a wall (high pressure)
You could use the size of the leaf, or the ammount leafes visible from that leaf, as indicator if its open space or a vent.
-> you get the needed effect, but it may look werid in open halls with particles changing their speeds.
(you could make them just getting slower and not getting faster by coming close to a wall)
Therefore particles could give a part of their own speed to their closest particle neighbour (like billiard-bowls) . the ammunt of given speed depends on "1/distance^2" (and on time of course).
Ignoring the vectors for this makes it faster.... the vectors just get changed by collisions.
-
Another simplification is "distance friction" in adition to a particle source that spreads its particles not at a straight line.
It just means that particles have a high speed at the start (and getting spread in a wider angle).
The more far a particle is away from its (nearest) neighbour particles, the more "distance friction" they get -> particlesat the border loose their speed faster because their nearest neighbor is far away.
But if they collide with a wall they may stay close to each other and have less "distance friction". (higher pressure -> higher speed)
-
Apart from this I want to see (realtime and fast changing) transparent low polygon <a href='http://www.angelcode.com/source/files/metaballs_exe.zip' target='_blank'>metaballs</a> in HL!
2 different transparent metaballs (without texture) one dark red for the border and one bright yellow for the inside could make a nice volumetric flame effect. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
A particle is a BIG sprite, not the tiny one I suppose you imagine.
I know what sprites are, where is the broblem?
And it was pretty ugly for a brand new game IMO.