Tremulous Forum

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: sirshiz on June 15, 2011, 04:17:08 am

Title: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 15, 2011, 04:17:08 am
I know it's just a game but I like games to have some sort of logic to them.

So riddle me this:
How the hell is a dretch supposed to be able to bite someone's head from the floor?

Discuss.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Meisseli on June 15, 2011, 04:26:15 am
You're five years late... (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=2301.0;all)

As per that topic, it's not realistic, it's required for gameplay. No need to redo the discussion.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 15, 2011, 04:39:49 am
You're five years late... (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=2301.0;all)

As per that topic, it's not realistic, it's required for gameplay. No need to redo the discussion.

I know you're trying to be helpful but nothing in that topic goes into any great detail about valid logical reasons for headbites from the floor.
It's mainly about whether it's a feature or not.

What I'm wanting are some rationalizations for how this could happen in the Tremulous universe.

Thank you for your input, though.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 15, 2011, 04:42:59 am
As per that topic, it's not realistic, it's required for gameplay. No need to redo the discussion.

So topics that have been discussed five years ago can't be reevaluated?..
Either way it's not the same topic because I don't want headbites changed and I know it's a feature and not a bug.
I'm asking the community for their ideas behind the mechanics of floor headbites.

So if that's not something you're interested in please just don't reply.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Meisseli on June 15, 2011, 04:50:11 am
Well, we can of course insert demotivational posters, post "funny" youtube videos, murmur some "good" internet memes and MSPaint some .jpgs about the topic, which obviously seems to be what you had in mind.

Heh, funny how contradicting two replies you produced.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 15, 2011, 04:58:18 am
Well, we can of course insert demotivational posters, post "funny" youtube videos, murmur some "good" internet memes and MSPaint some .jpgs about the topic, which obviously seems to be what you had in mind.

Heh, funny how contradicting two replies you produced.

What. are. you. fucking. talking. about.

How are my two replies contradicting? They ask for the same thing: how (in the Tremulous universe) could headbites feasibly be achieved from the distance of the floor?

pre·ten·tious
Adjective: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.
see: meisseli

Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Plague Bringer on June 15, 2011, 06:12:08 am
What. are. you. fucking. talking. about.

How are my two replies contradicting? They ask for the same thing: how (in the Tremulous universe) could headbites feasibly be achieved from the distance of the floor?

(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2739/1305529898022.jpg)

IN OTHER WORDS:

NO. It is NOT logically/physically/technically/feasibly possible for a dretch to get a headshot.

Now, STOP.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: F50 on June 15, 2011, 08:58:01 am
I used to think of it more as a "spit" rather than a "bite". I would be more inclined to think that were "bitten" not so clearly printed on the kill messages.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Odin on June 15, 2011, 10:19:22 am
Amazing how everyone attempts to avoid the question. It's a very simple problem: A dretch is less than one foot high, yet it can reach a human player's head and achieve a critical hit from the floor.

The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: vcxzet on June 15, 2011, 11:14:29 am
Amazing how everyone attempts to avoid the question. It's a very simple problem: A dretch is less than one foot high, yet it can reach a human player's head and achieve a critical hit from the floor.
If you could read you'd see that it had been answered in the very first reply

The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far.
right... stating the obvious will help
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Qrntz on June 15, 2011, 02:25:51 pm
See right part of image for the explanation, see left part of image for HERP DERP. :police:

(http://bse.sci-lib.com/pictures/16/02/285097825.jpg)
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Meisseli on June 15, 2011, 02:51:48 pm
Thank you for your input, though.
So if that's not something you're interested in please just don't reply.
Quite contradicting, other one tells me politely "thank you, but..", other one just goes straight for the STFU.

I mean, threads like this delve into posting funny images from the funny land of internet (already done), spouting some funny memes (already done), posting funny youtube videos (not yet done), kharnov making a funny picture of it with MSPaint (still yet to see) etc, all which is supposedly fun.

Anyway, enough of the grumbling on my part. On topic:
The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far long.
There's the brilliant answer in my humble opinion.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Lecavalier on June 15, 2011, 05:55:05 pm
I think it's because the in-game model isn't very accurate. Nux did a much more accurate drawing of what it should look like:

(http://i.imgur.com/RcSMC.png)
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Dracone on June 15, 2011, 06:16:43 pm
It's a pretty bad underlying "issue" with the game really. If you're not getting headshots, you're going to be terrible at the game on aliens because it's actually near impossible to easily kill any human that isn't a complete noob without getting them. Unless it's a movement attack like the goon's pounce or the tyrant's charge, anything that isn't a headshot is essentially unrewarded, relatively speaking, since the damages for anything other than a headshot are so ridiculously low.

If you were to solely modify the dretch's attack range, or all of the aliens' attack ranges for that matter, so it was "realistic" for the model, you'd fuck up the game on a tremendous level.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: F50 on June 15, 2011, 06:26:28 pm
The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far.

Unfortunately, it would be somewhat difficult to maintain the game rules with a reasonable looking bite range. The current dretch damage would have to be increased, but then if a dretch *did* manage to land a headshot, that could be very, very nasty. There are several situations in which it would still be very possible, however to land a headshot, quite possibly including simply jumping at the human's head. While that is more dangerous than dretching on the floor, the damage increase from a pitiful 0.5x on the ground to 1.5x for a head bonus would simply be too good to ignore. The really question is, would that be more fun? Now, actually doing all of this would certainly be an interesting experiment, and an experiment easily written up, but I'm not too optimistic about the results, and you would need players willing to test it.

Thus, avoiding that particular answer is perhaps the point of the question.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: David on June 15, 2011, 06:28:27 pm
Headshots are 1.5x torso shots.  So important but not the biggest deal ever.

I agree it shouldn't change though,  all of the melee attacks have stupid ranges, same thing happens in all game.  No one cares.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: kharnov on June 15, 2011, 07:38:09 pm
I think it's because the in-game model isn't very accurate. Nux did a much more accurate drawing of what it should look like:

(http://i.imgur.com/RcSMC.png)

Is that a dretch, or are you just happy to see me?
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: vcxzet on June 15, 2011, 10:00:37 pm
long bite range emulates a dretch entering your pants and biting your *** off
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: RAKninja-Decepticon on June 15, 2011, 11:23:47 pm
The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far.

Unfortunately, it would be somewhat difficult to maintain the game rules with a reasonable looking bite range. The current dretch damage would have to be increased, but then if a dretch *did* manage to land a headshot, that could be very, very nasty. There are several situations in which it would still be very possible, however to land a headshot, quite possibly including simply jumping at the human's head. While that is more dangerous than dretching on the floor, the damage increase from a pitiful 0.5x on the ground to 1.5x for a head bonus would simply be too good to ignore. The really question is, would that be more fun? Now, actually doing all of this would certainly be an interesting experiment, and an experiment easily written up, but I'm not too optimistic about the results, and you would need players willing to test it.

Thus, avoiding that particular answer is perhaps the point of the question.

hey now, i do fairly well jumping for the head.  it's even better as a basi from a frontal grab.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 16, 2011, 12:01:23 am
I used to think of it more as a "spit" rather than a "bite". I would be more inclined to think that were "bitten" not so clearly printed on the kill messages.

Best explanation so far.

Thank you for your input, though.
So if that's not something you're interested in please just don't reply.
Quite contradicting, other one tells me politely "thank you, but..", other one just goes straight for the STFU.

I mean, threads like this delve into posting funny images from the funny land of internet (already done), spouting some funny memes (already done), posting funny youtube videos (not yet done), kharnov making a funny picture of it with MSPaint (still yet to see) etc, all which is supposedly fun.

Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: sirshiz on June 16, 2011, 12:08:45 am
It's a pretty bad underlying "issue" with the game really. If you're not getting headshots, you're going to be terrible at the game on aliens because it's actually near impossible to easily kill any human that isn't a complete noob without getting them. Unless it's a movement attack like the goon's pounce or the tyrant's charge, anything that isn't a headshot is essentially unrewarded, relatively speaking, since the damages for anything other than a headshot are so ridiculously low.

If you were to solely modify the dretch's attack range, or all of the aliens' attack ranges for that matter, so it was "realistic" for the model, you'd fuck up the game on a tremendous level.

I agree completely. Rather than change any core gameplay mechanics I thought it would be fun to rationalize the odd attack range. F50's "spit" example is one that I find rather interesting.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Demolution on June 16, 2011, 03:49:16 am
If anything, could you at least not double post? Just edit the previous post. Thank you.

Carry on~
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Anonymoose on June 17, 2011, 03:58:38 am
Well, we can of course insert demotivational posters, post "funny" youtube videos, murmur some "good" internet memes and MSPaint some .jpgs about the topic, which obviously seems to be what you had in mind.

Heh, funny how contradicting two replies you produced.
[img]
IN OTHER WORDS:
NO. It is NOT logically/physically/technically/feasibly possible for a dretch to get a headshot.
Now, STOP.
If anything, could you at least not double post? Just edit the previous post. Thank you.

Carry on~

Funny how the ones quickest to indicate that the topic is just going to de-rail and become full of useless posts...
Are the ones filling it up with useless posts...

On topic: i have always visualized it like the headhumpers on Half Life or the egg-layers from the James Cameron Alien movies.
As in the headbites from the floor are a result of the dretch quickly springing upward and lashing out (not hugely important to visually implement)
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Plague Bringer on June 17, 2011, 06:08:22 am
On topic: i have always visualized it like the headhumpers on Half Life or the egg-layers from the James Cameron Alien movies.
As in the headbites from the floor are a result of the dretch quickly springing upward and lashing out (not hugely important to visually implement)
Considering that dretch bite in the killfeed and every other alien has an animation for their attack, that's unlikely. If you guys really want to argue about realism I think that it'd be incredibly interesting if you compiled a wiki page or ten outlining the biology of all the alien classes.

Edit: How poison works, the connection to the overmind, how grangers build things, the specifics of the mara zap, etc.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Relish on June 22, 2011, 12:38:59 am
Amazing how everyone attempts to avoid the question. It's a very simple problem: A dretch is less than one foot high, yet it can reach a human player's head and achieve a critical hit from the floor.

The answer is that the dretch's attack range is too far.

With Obama's new socialized food-care system (Obamafarms), there will be no need for the dretch to stretch the boundaries of physics, the average human will only be fed enough to be three feet tall!  When little humans bend down to pet/eat them BAM!  Head eats.  If you're wondering why they wouldn't shoot them before they eat them, it was just published in an EPA study that guns are harmful to the environment and therefore must all be outlawed.  Why did this all happen you ask?  Stop asking questions and remember: it always makes more sense if you don't think about it.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Undeference on June 22, 2011, 01:40:25 am
A dretch is less than one foot high, yet it can reach a human player's head and achieve a critical hit from the floor.
Assuming humans are 1.8m tall, dretches are just shy of 1m tall. A dretch can "stretch" itself so it is 23cm longer than the distance of a human's chin from the floor.

A dretch's range is actually a bit longer than that, but well within the distance a frog-like tongue could account for (ignoring the fact that dretches bite—but not through their bodies).
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: kharnov on June 22, 2011, 01:47:34 am
If F50 is interested, I'd love to try out a modification on the Brindus server in which the dretch attack range is drastically shortened in exchange for making them harder to hit by being smaller and/or faster.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: David on June 22, 2011, 08:34:08 am
They have a frog-like tongue, with their mouth on the end of it.
Alternately, they shoot their entire mouth at the enemy, which then dissolves on contact and they grow a new one.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Plague Bringer on June 22, 2011, 03:42:42 pm
Alternately, they shoot their entire mouth at the enemy, which then dissolves on contact and they grow a new one.
Laughed out loud. Get Norf in here.

If F50 is interested, I'd love to try out a modification on the Brindus server in which the dretch attack range is drastically shortened in exchange for making them harder to hit by being smaller and/or faster.
Too much faster and the dretch will become a bottleneck for alien players. I feel like the more speed you add the more difficult it is to play dretch, because dodging is certainly not an inherent skill. Making the dretch the size that it looked in 1.1, or even a tiny bit smaller, would be really interesting.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: UniqPhoeniX on June 23, 2011, 08:54:17 am
IMO making dretch hitbox slightly smaller is a bad idea, because:
1. players with really good aim will still hit you about as easily while newbies will fail even more, increasing the skill gap
2. if you can't dodge, it doesn't matter much even vs average players,
3. dretches may be able to fit to places they currently can't, maybe even get outside the map.
IMO increasing hp and speed are better options.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Asvarox on June 23, 2011, 05:54:44 pm
Increasing speed can also lead to increasing skill gap.

What about nerfing the rifle?
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Plague Bringer on June 23, 2011, 08:13:26 pm
Increasing speed can also lead to increasing skill gap.

What about nerfing the rifle?
Nerfing the rifle would have an greater effect on the game than increasing dretch HP.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Asvarox on June 23, 2011, 09:58:33 pm
I do realize that, but I believe that currently rifle is simply too powerful for it's cost. For a free weapon it's really effective against not only dretches, but also against maras and even goons. Pack of two rifflesuits is capable of killing a tyrant without that much effort. Maybe I'm going offtopic here, but there were (and are) discussions about underpowered dretches. Note that dretch seems balanced in fight against lasgun, shotgun, whatever. The rifle is the problem.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: baybal on June 24, 2011, 09:04:12 am
I think dretches have too big amount of credits in them, 180 is enough to buy psaw + armour. 1 dretch is certainly not an equivalent to 1 rifleman.
If humans push-on early in the game with riflemans, as a rule they get to S2 earlier.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: RAKninja-Decepticon on June 25, 2011, 12:56:16 am
i think too many things nigh instantly kill dretches.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: /dev/humancontroller on June 25, 2011, 02:36:58 am
i think of the dretch bite as a median-ranged ultrasonic sound wave (which ruptures flesh).
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: ULTRA Random ViruS on June 25, 2011, 02:11:42 pm
Amazing how everyone attempts to avoid the question. It's a very simple problem: A dretch is less than one foot high, yet it can reach a human player's head and achieve a critical hit from the floor.
Uhh i kinda measured the dretch hight, and it being 30 units high and a human 54, that totally is NOT less than a foot high. In fact, that's the size of my lego table! (half as big as me, and i'm slightly short for a 15 yr old). Also, it was kinda hilarious how the old 1.1 granger was only a few units shorter than a dragoon and taller (and fatter) than a adv marauder. Good old fat times.
i think of the dretch bite as a median-ranged ultrasonic sound wave (which ruptures flesh).
Shouldn't every human within the dretches range be killed?(e.g. the dretch bites a human, while sitting on a human's head (not biting).
I think dretches have too big amount of credits in them, 180 is enough to buy psaw + armour. 1 dretch is certainly not an equivalent to 1 rifleman.
If humans push-on early in the game with riflemans, as a rule they get to S2 earlier.
Dretches aren't as good in dretch storms, especially againts things like shotgun, painsaw, luci and flame thrower. Rifle storms usually rape dretches unless they don't know how to aim or they got screwed up mouse sensitivity (e.g. the mac's mouse is REALLY dodgy, it has its own version of cl_mouseaccel and accelerates in squarish numbers, and also, the sensitivity gets turned down to default when in the game so system settings don't interfere with it unlike windows, so no point of me turning up the sensitivity.

______________________________________

Was that last paragragh too long? Read this instead:
Point 1: Rifle raids rape dretch storms unless the riflemen are noobs.
Point 2: Relates to point one, complaining about how shit the mac mouse is.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: Qrntz on June 25, 2011, 02:26:20 pm
Shouldn't every human within the dretches range be killed?(e.g. the dretch bites a human, while sitting on a human's head (not biting).
Broadcasting ultrasonic waves to all directions is a total waste of cellular energy, unless it was developed as an evolutionary trait in dretches that were grown up in the conditions of some invincible godmode marines constantly raping them in packs of 10.
the mac's mouse
lol.
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: vcxzet on June 25, 2011, 02:49:40 pm
its saliva contains flesh eating hook worms
it spits them on your face
Title: Re: Dretch Floor Headbites
Post by: /dev/humancontroller on June 25, 2011, 08:47:11 pm
sp4m: