Tremulous Forum

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Anonymous on April 07, 2001, 09:25:00 pm

Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Anonymous on April 07, 2001, 09:25:00 pm
We've been having problems coming up with weapons/forms of attack for the mid droid offensive classes.  This quote's pasted from our original post in the Team Discussion forum:


OFFENSE
1-2-2-3
1.1- no armor, fast movement, poison, wallwalking
2.1- no armor, fast movement, circular saw
2.2- low armor, fast movement, ?
3.1- low armor, fast movement, ?
3.2- moderate armor, moderate movement, ?
4.1- low armor, chainscythe, sawblade launcher, fast movement
4.2- moderate armor, chainscythe, moderate movement
4.3- high armor, scythe, disrupter grenade, slow movement

Anyone care to fill in the question marks with viable ideas? Keep in mind, there must be a balance of armor vs firepower. Keep them to melee for the rest, thats all I ask... the more devious and deadly the melee weapon, the better.



Here's a flowchart that shows the process of evolution for the Droid offensive classes.  Classes where we need weapon opinions are marked in blue.



Any suggestions well be considered and appreciated.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Anonymous on April 07, 2001, 09:35:00 pm
Thank you Ire :grin:
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Anonymous on April 07, 2001, 10:23:00 pm
Well the hierarchy had been finished for some time now I was just waiting til you had finalized the evolution process before I posted it...

...but this seems to put it to better use don't you think?  

Either way, LET'S HAVE SOME OF THEM IDEAS WE CRAVE SO MUCH!
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Timbo on April 07, 2001, 10:24:00 pm
Mmmm, yummy ideas.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 08, 2001, 05:08:00 am
I'd like to point out (in case it isn't clear) that a complex and convoluted weapon system isn't the best way to go. Of course we can have an assload of nasty stuff to play with, but when big guns (and swords) don't do big damage, and little guns do too much damage (coughgloomcough), it gets a little too messy. Just a caution to keep things as streamlined as possible and deep as possible too!

Injective Needle --> Heat Sword --> Circular Saw --> Spike Fist --> BFA (Big Fucking Axe) --> Scythe --> Chainscythe

After injective needle I'd put some sort of super-heated sword that could damage armor (and maybe burn players!) but isn't so swell at penetrating it.

After circular saw, maybe have some sort of hyrdaulic or pneumatic "spike fist" that can punch through armor rather well, but doesn't too incredible amounts of damage if you don't hit the right spot (am I right in thinking their will be locational damage?).

After that, I'd just give the droid a big ass battle axe that would incredibly slow but incredibly damaging (would be good defenders).

I don't know how well others would take it, but seeing some variation of an airfist in Tremulous would please me to a great degree :smile:.

Some special attack ideas:


Bah, me and Mister Render here will try to think of more creative things...



EDIT: well the pic was working...


[ This Message was edited by: DarkStorm on 2001-04-08 11:35 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: DarkStorm on April 08, 2001, 06:25:00 pm
Those are some damn good ideas Norfenstein.  I'm at liberty to say that none of those ever crossed our minds when we were brainstorming.  I'm discussing a lot of your weapon ideas with Timbo right now and the response is rather positive.  You see a lot of your semi-ranged weapons could be useful on our defensive classes.  As soon as Caustic shows up this is the first item I'm pointing him to.  Thanks a lot for the input Norfenstein.

[ This Message was edited by: DarkStorm on 2001-04-08 12:27 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 08, 2001, 07:10:00 pm
Glad you like, I got some more (and look at this (http://www.geocities.com/norfenstein/render.html) pic I was trying to post)



I'd also like to say that maybe it'd be a good idea for there to be a set of special skills for droids that they could select to add to the base speed, armor, and weapon of the class they've chosen. Skill selection would be limited to ones appropriate to their class (so defenders couldn't do certain things that would be better for attackers, etc.)

Also, I hope that humans will actually have to drag back dead droid bodies to their MCU to get upgrade points, rather then it just be kill droid, get frag, buy stuff with frag. This would force humans into closer range to reap their reward, and would also allow for ambushes and such (maybe droids could move around their dead for this purpose).

Will we have an encumbrance system for humans? If so, how will it work exactly?
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 08, 2001, 07:20:00 pm
As a defensive/siege ability, how about a directional power shield? You charge it up, then release. This creates a translucent wall made up of various forms of energy contained by a magnetic field.

Now, this 'wall' would block projectiles, as well as players, from passing through. It would provide only a limited resistance to explosive weaponry. The shield would be slightly larger than the droid class that is equipped with it, so that teammates can use it to thier advantage.

In order for the shield to remain stable, the player must stand there, feeding it energy. As soon as you run out of energy, the shield fails. As the shield recieves damage, it drains energy faster. Thus you could block a doorway, or provide cover for your teammates in an otherwise open field. The user can turn off the shield, but it takes a few seconds to deactivate. While the shield is active, the player cannot move.

[edit]AI familiar, eh? Playing a little bit of PSO? :smile:[/edit]

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-08 11:24 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Carcinogen on April 08, 2001, 08:10:00 pm
Norfenstein:

<Timbo> blind spot stuff is pretty easy
<Timbo> just calculate angles and see the alpha/visibility appropriately


I was thinking, that we could postpone this idea, and when Tremulous is released and refined, we add another branch called "Stealth" or something to that nature, along with the normal Offensive, Defensive, etc. Or, we could just have a droid with this ability, if we REALLY want this ability added.



"This chemical, called "Necrotoxin-A", is administered through melee or certain projectiles. This toxin then becomes active through chemical signals in nerve cells, effectively making the toxin only become active in live hosts. Once dead, when a droid infests, "Necrotoxin-B" is administered to the corpse. Both Necrotoxin type "A" and "B" chemically react to melt the corpse into a malleable form, to then be added on to existing flesh."

As you can see, the problem with this ability would be the same problem we came across deciding that all droids would have melee weapons; if the droids were so smart, why not just blow the humans away with long range, instead of risking getting up close? So DarkStorm and I came up with the Necrotoxin idea to explain. Maybe, the downside to this is that you cannot infest that in which you killed. The assimilation of a powerfull weapon is a  suburb ability any droid would want, but to keeping it from being too powerfull... it wouldn't be able to create "primed" dead humans for infestation. Kinda like a mech in gloom not getting any frags for its kills, heh.

This could actually be plausible if we really want to limit infestation of corpses. The Necrotoxin idea was used to explain why the droids do what they do, not to limit what they do (but the latter is becoming more frequent).
[/list]
In conclusion, you kick ass norf.

Cybernetsam:

Directional Power Shield: If you had this shield block only from the front, the human players would quickly find a way to the other side of the droid and attack it from the side or back. I would suggest having it cover the droid completely.

Considering the maps in Tremulous will be more dependent of layout than what some maps from some certain mods... (*coughgloomcough*) you need to find the question, what exactly does this do for your teammates? I can see where this can work, for instance, being in a long hallway and you deploy a shield... then small droids behind you will most likely not be shot unless they ran from the cover of the shield. Multiple shields in strategic positions could make a bullet proof hallway for smaller droids, yes.

Then there is the question where it WOULDN'T come in handy. In more open areas, it wont protect teammates from projectiles. All the shield will do, is make the droid a sitting duck while humans cut off any means of escape, then shoot the immobile creature. The shield will run out sooner or later, and the droid takes off... only to quickly be shot down. Theoretically, you have teammates, but also hypothetically they are non-existent when you need them most. Times like the above could really cause some frustration for those who simply want to help teammates out, I would suggest defining the shield. How tall/wide/deep will it be? Will it be surrounding the player, or will it only protect from the front? Should the droid actually be able to move slightly, possibly able to protect a small amount of droids under this cloak, right through human defenses?

If you want my opinion, I would suggest a large sphere that would provide a very large degree of blocking player bullets, if that were what you aim to do. If otherwise, please explain what else it could possibly be used for.

[ This Message was edited by: Carcinogen on 2001-04-08 12:17 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: DarkStorm on April 08, 2001, 08:32:00 pm
Quote
Theoretically, you have teammates, but also hypothetically they are non-existent when you need them most.


Thanks for explaining that, I've been trying to figure out a way to say that in a straightforward easy to read manor but didn't come up with anything.

_________________
(http://tremulous.sourceforge.net/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_mech.gif)

[ This Message was edited by: DarkStorm on 2001-04-08 12:33 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 08, 2001, 09:31:00 pm
Damn. I guess you are right. Supportive abilites that rely on other players don't really work well in reality.
(sighs)

Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 08, 2001, 10:26:00 pm
I'd like to suggest streamlining the weapon system in order to make it easier for the developers to make and the newbies to get used to. Having certain classes resistant or immune to certain weapons wouldn't be a bad gameplay twist (and one which I doubt will be avoided), unless the resistances were confusing and hard to comprehend. Thus, I would divide all weapon damage into categories.

Weapons could damage in more than one way. For example, I'd classify a rocket launcher as both energy (the heat) and concussive (the impact and blast). Concussion grenades would be the same and would probably also have energy damage. Actually, nearly every weapon could do some amount of concussive damage, just from being jarred around when hit forcibly.

Now certain armors could be better suited to different damage types. "Miscellaneous" damage (couldn't think of a better name) wouldn't be protected by armor at all. For example, kevlar armor could be the best choice against piercing and slashing, but not so effective against energy. A power shield could be just the opposite, useless against slashing and piercing and exceptional against energy. Maybe some sort of inertial dampening field could help versus concussive damage (as well as probably affecting your gravity and knockback).

Also, it might be beneficial to simplify status effects into distinct categories like "sick", "poisoned", "deafened" so players can react to their state more efficiently and generally be more aware of themselves.

I'm a big fan of simplicity mostly because it makes things a lot easier to create and to figure out. From a simple foundation incredibly deep and seemingly complex things can be made while still being fundamentally understandable (easy to modify too, this mod could actually be balanced :eek:). Hope you can get something out of this.

[ This Message was edited by: Norfenstein on 2001-04-08 14:32 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 08, 2001, 10:39:00 pm
About different armor types; I was thinking of a nano-tech energy vest which could be configured to provide optimum damage resistance depending on the current situation. In other words, a little knob for 'slashing', 'piercing', 'explosive', ect.
This way if you recognize a certain droid coming toward you, you can set it to the type of damage that droid's weapons do.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 09, 2001, 03:55:00 am
Now some thoughts on the how the builders could work (and progressively, how the other droid classes should work too :wink:)

I see the droid builder classes as being the matriarchs of the droid hive. The way the droid builders advance should reflect the overall orientation of the hive towards offense, defense, or mixed strategy. Therefore the top three builder classes should each be geared toward one of these orientations. The defensive hive mother should special in creating defensive structures, be slow but hardy, and have minimal offensive capabilities. The offensive hive mother would be able to create structures more suitable to supporting and augmenting offensive droid classes in their attacks, while also being nimble and offensively strong enough to advance fronts. The third classification, the hybrid, would be suited to directing troops dynamically between offense and defense, while having structures available for both cases. The best way to go, then, would be to create a host of different droid structures that would be available to different builder classes based on their appropriateness. The second level of droid builders would be merely an advancement of the base class, with a larger sampling of the structures available (so the second level builder could determine which path to choose next for advancement).

So basically the builder classes are each a template of speed and endurance and abilities, accompanied by a set of structures they can build appropriate to their type.

And since that's so delightfully simple, why not make the other droid classes the same way? Each class on the advancement tree would have a base speed, endurance (health/armor) and weapon set appropriate to its type (offensive vs. defensive, with speed vs. endurance being used to balance things more so than weapons given), as well as a number of abilities both appropriate to its type but also to its level. With this nifty little system all we'd have to do is first balance the class templates then start adding in a buttload of cool abilities. Neat and efficient. If you wanted to give more freedom to the players, then you could allow them to choose which abilities they wanted to go with their new class (only, of course, out of the ones appropriate to their level and type).

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention, maybe the way a builder directs a hive would determine abilities available to other classes. So if a builder made a largely defensive base then high class defenders would have a larger set of defensive skills available (possibly some only available if the hive mind is steered this way) and high class attackers would have more defensive skills than normal. This way certain really awesome defensive and offensive abilities would only be available if the nest is built appropriately, and those going for a middle road "hybrid" base would lose out on some of the coolest abilities for the sake of variety.

Also, I was wondering: If you die as a droid are you thrown completely back to the base class? Maybe just demoting you one or two levels would be best...

[ This Message was edited by: Norfenstein on 2001-04-08 20:17 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: DarkStorm on April 09, 2001, 04:12:00 am
:blink:  That... might... require us to change a lot.  But it's certainly not out of the question.  I'd leave it up to Carcinogen to affirm or negate this one, cause it sounds just, and sounds cool, but then so does the way we have it now, and I see no reason to change.  I think I'd just like to hear more opinions on this subject before I arrived to a decision of my own.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 09, 2001, 04:22:00 am
Really? Cuz I didn't think it would be so much different at this point, just a different way of looking at things to build up from (maybe more has come along that I don't know or haven't really thought about). From just reading the plan I thought what you already had (at least for the non-builder stuff) would fit into this system well (It was just meant to streamline things really)...if you were just referring the builder stuff then, I see your point.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 09, 2001, 09:56:00 pm
More ideas for Droid abilities and special attacks

I've come to realize that one thing people universally enjoy in games is movement. People like things fast and being able to do special things with their game selfs. Sooo, some attacks could be extrapolated from this notion that people would probably enjoy:

Someone had mentioned building structures on walls, to which the concern of how these structures would be built was brought up. Builders with wall walking? Maybe one of the highest level ones...

Also I was thinking of some sort of human projectile weapon that would slide across surfaces (not just flat surfaces, but up walls and over ramps) until it encountered a threat (at which point it would explode) or a degree of ascent greater than 90ยบ (think bombchus from Zelda: Ocarina of Time).


As usual, hope some useful can be gleamed from my ideas, even if it's what not to do :grin:.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 10, 2001, 01:23:00 am
Gas Mines. You set one, and when it goes off it fills the area with gas. Nerve gas, knockout gas, teargas, what ever works.

Rapid-Fire Miniblades. Like a buzzsaw launcher, only the blades are smaller (think throwing stars), do less damage, and fire faster. This way you can fill a small hallway or room with the boucing bastards, a guarentee that you will do some damage, but you can't expect to kill someone quickly, if at all.

Mace. Hey, it works.

And an idea gotten from Norf's reflecto-shield:
Projectile Collection Field. A cannon fires an energy "shell"; The shell is in fact a high density field contained within a magnetic ball. Upon contact with solid matter, the magnetic shield shorts out, and the field is released. This field fills a small area, and any shits that fire through it, stop. Be it missile or bullet. Energy still passes through, and so can large objects such as people and droids with difficulty.

Another idea I got from this was a "bubble" that lets shots in, but not out. If a human or droid is inside and fires, he could very well kill himself from rounds bouncing around the litte globe o' death. The shots would do less damage than normal though; they lose velocity as the shield redirects the direction of the momentum.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-09 17:26 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 10, 2001, 02:09:00 am
I was thinking some sort of mace weapon might be good too, since the droids really don't have any bludgeon weapons. Hook a big spiked ball to a chain and you've got a weapon with lotsa possibilities.

I mentioned in the chat room yesterday having human builders being able to create mech suits that lightly or unequipped humans could pilot and share when not using them (although I think people would tend to want to stay in them...). There could be a few varieties, like a defender (with big weapons that wouldn't be so good at killing eggs) and an attacker (more precise weapons, plus some explosives) type. With kickass controllable turrets (and maybe even remote control robots for scouting and such) and these mechs humans could be potrayed as adequately advanced with enough cool gadgetry to compliment the droids. Shweeet...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Saig on April 10, 2001, 02:31:00 am
That was a sweet render back there. Looks like a bio-mechanical Drone kind of. Of course, we don't want Tremulous to be like Gloom, yes? Eh, whatever, just testing out my registration to make sure it works. :smile:
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 10, 2001, 03:39:00 am
Negg-F Cannon. The Negative Gravitational Force Cannon fires specially charged rounds composed of Element-11033. Once charged, the rounds are extremely unstable, and contact with any matter produces a reaction that creates a strong negative gravity well. Anything near the detonation points is very quickly removed from being near the detonation point. Does concussion damage, as well as throws things away from the epicenter. This could be used to smear a small room with human innards, or to clear defenses out of the way. A short charge-up time is required, since Element-11033 cannot be stored charged.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-09 19:40 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 10, 2001, 04:15:00 am
I picture of the Negg-F Cannon round. The round travels forward, as indicated by the green arrow.
(http://www.mommalannsplace.com/images/Negg_Cannon.gif)


[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-09 20:20 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 10, 2001, 04:18:00 am
Broken image, you might need to put it on a HTML page and just put a link to it here like I did, although I thought the problem for I had was just Geocities...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 10, 2001, 04:23:00 am
Bah, the damn thing is supposed to loop.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Carcinogen on April 11, 2001, 05:58:00 am
Norf, for your first post in this thread (which I rudely did not answer)



Norf, for your second post:



Well, this idea came up before, suggested and presented as an alternative to the class based system which you ultimately decided on and what exists today. The system was basically about infesting, and choosing certain abilities you wanted, like 3 from a list of 8 (for instance). Then you upgraded, infested another corpse, and had the ability to gain more abilities. The abilities you had before are retained, so you really cant change your droid totally around. A very neat idea, its interesting to see it make a comeback in a different form.

Having a "Mixed" system, which you proposed, might actually work wonderfully. For instance, you upgrade to a certain "class" with the basic weapon, the basic armor, and basic speed, but you could choose one or two abilities from a list. I prefer this idea to both class systems, and would be interesting to see the outcome. The only complication I can see from this, is newbies asking stupid questions because they don't understand the system (doh!), and the coding in itself. A large list of abilities would take some time to code. Lets see what Timbo thinks, he had no comment on this last time I asked :wink:



Norf, for your third post:



That about sums it up. Great ideas norf.

Cybernetsam:

I think this covers it all. Thats so very much for your input, norf and cybernetsam!

[ This Message was edited by: Carcinogen on 2001-04-10 22:01 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 11, 2001, 01:33:00 pm
Yeah, outward. Wouldn't need any special coding tricks, just a small "explosion, with little damage and hell of a knockback.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 11, 2001, 01:43:00 pm
How about gnifty combos? You have a list of moves; Slash, charge, leap, ect., then you make a line in your config to the affect of:
Bind c "combo;slash;slash;leap;spincut;combodone"

When Tremulous recieves the "combo" command, it listens for a list of possible other commands, untill it recieves "combodone", when it assembles and executes the list into a gnifty combo move. Only one or two droids could have this ability, most likely offensive. But it would rock.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-11 05:44 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Veda on April 11, 2001, 06:01:00 pm
Cybernetsam : You can already do "combo" moves with aliasing. All of the Quakes have supported this.

I had a funny alias for Q2 that would spin you around real fast shooting. It would print out DEATH BLOSSOM (the uber attack in The Last Starfighter.) And no, it didn't work well at all. Just made you disorientated and rarely hit anyone.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: koredump on April 11, 2001, 06:14:00 pm
lol Veda thats the coolest thing i have ever heard
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 11, 2001, 06:35:00 pm
Yes, you can setup combos like that, but I was talking not about simply linking moves, but actually having special combo thingies.
Kinda like Killer Instinct.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 11, 2001, 07:49:00 pm
Now that would be cool...I don't know how well it'd fit in with the mod or how practical or open to abuse it would, but it'd definitely be neat...

[ This Message was edited by: Norfenstein on 2001-04-11 17:59 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 12, 2001, 08:15:00 pm
By all means the droid melee attacks should give the feeling of actually holding a blade and using it, rather than "I'm tapping a mouse button that makes things hurt"

There was some mod I tried that had an alternate firing mode for the lightning gun that surround the user in a spherical shell of electricity. The electrical discharge idea I had could either be like that (strong enough to hurt, but wouldn't last more than a few seconds, and couldn't be done very frequently at all) or actually be touch-range that would disrupt energy projectiles (so it would like a shield against these weapons) and also damage things it touched. Just a thought...

I still like the idea of kamikaze attacks, but only if you get the sense that you're really "taking one for the team" and not just getting an adrenaline rush from flying into the human base and exploding because you saw a group of more than 2 grunts nearby, er...It'd be cool if the damage and radius of the blast was based on health and this could only be done by high up classes.

The "roar" idea was a carry-over from the gloom 2 idea I had. I wanted it to be something droid leaders could use to rally lesser troops for attacks and not just something that would disorient humans. The "morale boost" admittedly makes more sense for aliens, but maybe some sort of substitute or excuse could be used...

The "dash attack" could be like what you said about "pouncing" rather than just rushing (or rushing and sliding like in the slide attack). The droid would prepare for a split second then burst forward or up (wherever it's looking) and damage anything it touches.

It'd also be nice if droids could something like a "super jump" by crouching down first than releasing with a jump.


I like the idea of powering up melee attacks. It could be like the alien's tail attack in AvP, just applicable to any droid melee weapon. Maybe powering up would slow your movement down and the length of time you spend powering up would determine how much faster and stronger your attack was.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 13, 2001, 04:35:00 am
Maybe with certain weapons, you could have multiple types of attacks. For example the scythe could do a cutting slash, an overhead swing that bring it down as a piercing attack, a sideways piercing swing, ect.

This could be controlled by holding down the +attack, and flicking the mouse in a certain direction. Flick the scythe down for the overhead attack. Flick it to the side for a normal slice. This way, you get the feel of actually using the weapon.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-12 20:38 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: kanin on April 13, 2001, 01:20:00 pm
hehe TREMULOUS crewers i like what i hear i hate explosions......and that you whant skill in the game is just grate i hate games where som laamer just pics upp some big weapon and gets a easy frag

keep up the good work
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 13, 2001, 11:59:00 pm
That's a really good idea Cyber...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: DarkStorm on April 14, 2001, 04:12:00 am
Keep in mind.  The mouse is bound, usually for look movement.  In order for attack to work, people would no longer be able to change their point of view while they were holding the attack button, and Q3 would instead wait for the mouse command, if any.  It'd cause skips in your movement that I think players wouldn't appreciate.  However, the attack button in combination with some other bind might be a good idea (however people would just probably end up making seperate binds for EACH different attack combination so they wouldn't have to hold down anything, at least that's what I'd do).
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Carcinogen on April 14, 2001, 04:49:00 am
1    2    3

or

Del  End  PgDn

Depending on your move binds.. easy to access for different types of attacks.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Norfenstein on April 14, 2001, 05:49:00 am
Maybe the attack used could depend upon the view angle of the player. If he's looking up, an overhead slash, middle: sweeping cut, and if he's looking down a quick jab. Something like that, I've seen that before in a quake 1 mod, but I've also seen the system Cybernetsam described in a quake 2 mod...not really sure how much quake 3 can do though.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 15, 2001, 01:35:00 am
"Day of Darkness" or something like that.
And it wouldn't cause too much of an interruption. It takes you what, 100ms to click, flick, and release?
(Heh heh, that's catchy)
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Psylo on April 18, 2001, 07:39:00 pm
I guess you mean Dawn of Darkness...
there was only a playable demo.
Then the team saw that the whole thing was going to be so good that they could make a whole game out of it instead of a mod..but i have never heard any news about it afterwards...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: DarkStorm on April 19, 2001, 05:03:00 am
I might be getting a lil' cocky here but I think Tremulous will be so good that we could market and sell it.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on April 22, 2001, 02:52:00 am
Two new Droid ideas:

Structure: Mantrap:
The "Mantrap" lays on the ground, and in it's passive state it looks like a simple metal ring. When a human steps over it however, it snaps closed as a large mouse trap. This action instantly divides an unarmored Marine into halves. Against an armored (AKA "smart") marine however, it simple leaves a large dent, before it snaps down into the passive position. The mantrap takes little damage before it becomes inoperative.

Weapon: Big fucking scissors.
(Working title)

Ok, this is a melee weapon, resembling, um... Well, think of a cigar cutter, or something like that. Two curved blades, that close and cut things. This slices right through flesh, but isn't really that effective aginst bone and metal. Kinda like safety scissors.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-21 18:53 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Roach on May 04, 2001, 05:50:00 am
I thought the droid power shield idea was cool, but instead of being an item/ability, how about making it a droid structure that makes a bubble-type shield that keeps out projectiles (fast-moving objects) but allows droids AND humans (slow-moving objects) to pass through (guess I kinda stole this from Dune...). Maybe it should require a builder to stay running under fire and/or be in proximity of a power supply to keep this from being too powerful.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Timbo on May 05, 2001, 11:39:00 pm
Yeah I like that idea a lot :wink:

I'll add it to the concept docs at some point...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Lazysam on May 06, 2001, 03:16:00 am
hey i was thinkin about this for a while but how about making the shield a usable item for the drones, so lets say mouse buton 1 is attack while mouse button 2 is shield, so the drone attacks but when its gettin shot at it has to engage its shields manually, thus requiring some skillz to do i gues i duno u could carry this over to a general block comand just something i came up with a while back
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on May 06, 2001, 03:33:00 am
Most droids are melee fighters, so if you engaged the shield, the human next to you would be inside with you, so it wouldn't work that well.


New idea: Combustable gas. Humans, like, release a canister that clouds up an area, then they can ignite it for a cool heatflash of an area.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Lazysam on May 06, 2001, 04:04:00 am
Thats the best part of it, u dont engage a shield instead just use it to block attacks as if a it were actually a phisical shield back in the medival times, or in those capcom fighitn games where back = block, so mouse 2 = block, just so its not all so passive and gives you something to think about when you playing.

[ This Message was edited by: Lazysam on 2001-05-06 07:51 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on May 06, 2001, 09:46:00 pm
That would be cool. Run up to a human, drop the shield,kill 'im, then bring it back up to block the shots of the dead guy's teammates. Nifty.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Sandy on July 06, 2001, 05:33:00 pm
Quote

On 2001-04-08 11:10, Norfenstein wrote:
  • Blind Spot Manipulation: Basically any droid with this ability would be totally invisible when looked at directly (which you'd need to do to aim at it) but would be more visible when looked at out of the corner of your eye (I assume shaders could allow for varying degrees of invisibily for each player). This would require humans to "guess" their shots at these droids, and also forcing the droid to be in the sights of humans it wants to fool. Just a neat twist on vision tricking...


Damn where do you guys get your ideas from? Thats such a good idea ....
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Roach on July 08, 2001, 11:41:00 pm
I know this is an old post, but I've been out of the loop for a while:
Quote

On 2001-04-12 20:35, Cybernetsam wrote:
Maybe with certain weapons, you could have multiple types of attacks. For example the scythe could do a cutting slash, an overhead swing that bring it down as a piercing attack, a sideways piercing swing, ect.

This could be controlled by holding down the +attack, and flicking the mouse in a certain direction. Flick the scythe down for the overhead attack. Flick it to the side for a normal slice. This way, you get the feel of actually using the weapon.

[ This Message was edited by: Cybernetsam on 2001-04-12 20:38 ]


I think this is a great idea. This was used in Daggerfall, one of my favorite RPG's on the PC. For those of you not familiar with the game, it played somewhat like a first-person shooter- arrow keys for movement, mouse to look/aim. Anyway, this method of controlling attacks worked extremely well and definitely gave you a sense of using the actual weapons. I don't think it would interfere too much with movement, and would definitely add something to gameplay. Unfortunately, I have no idea how you would go about coding something like that...
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Saig on July 09, 2001, 02:09:00 am
Well, you remember that Q2 modification "Dawn of Destruction" or whatever? It was kind of like an RPG almost, and the weapon system they used for sword/melee fighting was along the lines of holding the attack button and moving the mouse to the left or right to produce a slash and forward to produce a thrust. It was a little buggy though, but worked generally well. This was also used in the Thief games (Looking Glass game). It would be a bit more work, and would probably make fighting a bit more complex than most average gamers would like. Course you could just have secondary fire modes for the melee weapons to create a different slash.
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Roach on July 10, 2001, 01:29:00 am
Yeah,  I remember that. "Dawn of Darkness". I'd forgotten that the weapon system worked like that in the mod, but now that you mention it I do. It did work pretty well. I agree, it does make the fighting a little more complex, but I think it's something most people would enjoy. Maybe this could even be an option so that those that don't like it can turn it off.

[ This Message was edited by: Roach on 2001-07-09 17:31 ]
Title: Help from the masses
Post by: Cybernetsam on July 10, 2001, 03:45:00 am
Photon WebDroid Defense
Small round orb-looking structure, which can be attached to any flat surface. A single enemy cannot set this off, but when two or more come within range it activates three or four solid photon streams which wave around the area of effect, cutting up anything unfortunate enough to get struck. The attack lasts for three seconds, after which there is a recharge period before attacking again.