Spooky Ghosts!

[Conzul]

I know I said I wouldn't (have mo ideas), but I can't help it! The other day when I was thinking of Tremulous (which is what I'm doing whenever I'm not playing tremulous), I was hit by a ray of light from the clouds, and infused with a brilliant idea that is 4 both humans and aliens, and would work 4 1.1, 1.2, future, w/e.

  What: "Ghost Layout" by team consensus, a ghost layout of transparent buildables would be displayed at the original base, both guiding noob builders and appraising other builders of the wishes of the team. Could be voted for, and individual players could vote for layouts made and kept on their computer.


  Why? The below dialogue is fictional. But it should give you the idea...

GT-Conzul joined the aliens
NubGranger joined the aliens
GT-Conzul: "EGGS! incoming!"
Egg built by NubGranger
GT-Conzul: "Oh God not all the way out there! Now I gotta kill it"
Egg DESTROYED by TEAMMATE GT-Conzul
NubGranger: "WTF?"
[Conzul pwnz 4 a bit, gets hurt, running back to base with WarLock hot on tail]
GT-Conzul: "OUta my way! Comin' through!"
Acid tube built by NubGranger
GT-Conzul was gunned down by WarLock
GT-Conzul: "FUUU**** you built a tube just to stop my pounce back into base? F U!"
NubGranger: "Chill"
GT-Conzul: "Hey where you going?"
NubGranger was gunned down by Rezyn
GT-Conzul: "Don't do that! Stay and build! Hey...What are you doing?"
Overmind built by NubGranger, replacing Overmind
GT-Conzul: "See where he put... MAD GRANGER MAD GRANGER!"
NubGranger was chomped by TEAMMATE GT-Conzul
NubGranger: "Wtf?"
NubGranger did a back flip into the lava and disconnected
GT-Kharnov: :/ conzul that wasn't very firm of you..

We don't always have time to tell nub builders about how stupid that tube is out in the middle of the room, cus we gotta fight or we'll lose anyway. Time spent telling builders what to build is time lost from getting frags.

   How: example: A game will start. A player will call a vote for a layout, but not a starting layout, a layout that must be built. During the vote, the ghost layout will be displayed in actual position so ppl can know what they are voting 4/against. If the vote passes, the ghost layout remains, and grangers or hummies new and old will have a guide for what to build where. The layout should be able to include all stages of buildables, and popular layouts (voted for often) should get uploaded to the server for easier use. When you have ckit, you will see the ghostly outlines of buidables, and you just go build right over them, whatever is at that position. It would be cool to have a "snap-to" feature, so you can build directly on the ghost template, but not necessary. The ghost could work the same way as the green outline you see when you traditionally position something to be built, but it should be white or silver. The ghost will be "satisfied" once you have built the right object at it's location, and will dissappear in a puff of spooky. Now: some positions might be hard to see (a ghost tube in a crevass, ex) so they might need little bouncing arrows over their heads pointing at them, so you don't miss any that are hard to find or are behind things. (only talked about aliens, but would work for humans too). Well?

Edit: The GhostLayout will be visible to all classes only as the vote is in progress, but once the vote passes, only builders will be able to see the ghosts.

[CorSair]

For this, I approve and give a try for this. 

As i am shy person to touch other's builds, even the noobish ones, to make one better, this would help bit guiding for newbies, and some jerks too. And even other experienced builders might learn something too. Don't got nothing more to add right now.

[Meisseli]

Maybe it fits for some newbie-friendly server/mod but not really for normal gameplay.

[Conzul]

Maybe it fits for some newbie-friendly server/mod but not really for normal gameplay.

Why not?

[Windpoison]

OMG... PErfect Idea!

[F50]

Maybe it fits for some newbie-friendly server/mod but not really for normal gameplay.

Why not?

I agree with Meisseli. This would only be annoying/obstructive for someone who wants to build even slightly differently in addition to being boring for an experienced player. This may be a good thing when you're trying to keep a rogue builder contained, and its an excellent idea for teaching building (but please use only pre-approved ghost layouts on the server). If you were to take the time to observe (by building) a bunch of (different) *good* bases, you'd get a hang of building a lot faster than by comming up with things on your own I think.

[Conzul]

I agree with Meisseli. This would only be annoying/obstructive for someone who wants to build even slightly differently in addition to being boring for an experienced player. This may be a good thing when you're trying to keep a rogue builder contained, and its an excellent idea for teaching building (but please use only pre-approved ghost layouts on the server). If you were to take the time to observe (by building) a bunch of (different) *good* bases, you'd get a hang of building a lot faster than by comming up with things on your own I think.

I agree with Meisseli. This would only be annoying/obstructive for someone who wants to build even slightly differently in addition to being boring for an experienced player.

Well the ghost layout vote should only be called when all of the experienced players jump into combat classes. I see on the public's all the time that the hotshots go fight, and the nOObs think, "Huh, I'll build and just watch until I find out what's going on..." Noob building then costs the team the match, cus they have no idea what's going on. Obviously, if an experienced player starts to build, no one needs to call for the ghost template, and therefore it won't annoy the experienced builder. Even if it was called for, there should be a command to toggle the ghost layout visibility, so it doesn't visually annoy you if you don't want it.

This may be a good thing when you're trying to keep a rogue builder contained, and its an excellent idea for teaching building (but please use only pre-approved ghost layouts on the server).

Fine.

If you were to take the time to observe (by building) a bunch of (different) *good* bases, you'd get a hang of building a lot faster than by coming up with things on your own I think.

Not sure what you mean here. The "observer" wouldn't be coming up with ghost templates, he'd have chosen to observe instead. Experienced players would come up with the templates, so they wouldn't have to wait for nOObs to observe for several games. Mind that this would be a tool that would apply most to Complete Newbs (0-20 games). Remember that all a ghost layout is, is the experienced players of a team saying, "Look, we know you're new and want to build, so here's a handout. I'd be more helpful, but I wanna fight right now and don't have time to answer every Q or coach the construction of our base. If you build on this template, watch how well it serves our team when we're doing well and when we're under attack. By building and seeing what this base does for the team, you'll both learn why it was chosen as a template, and how you can make bases similar to it..."

[F50]

If you were to take the time to observe (by building) a bunch of (different) *good* bases, you'd get a hang of building a lot faster than by coming up with things on your own I think.

Not sure what you mean here...

If you build on this template, watch how well it serves our team when we're doing well and when we're under attack. By building and seeing what this base does for the team, you'll both learn why it was chosen as a template, and how you can make bases similar to it..."

That's more or less what I mean. People don't notice how bases win and fail when they're spending most of their time in combat. To really observe a base, you have to build it. By building and observing each and every one of its components (you built them, so naturally you'll know which one is placed where) you learn what a good base looks like. And you'll be able to build one just like it.

[Conzul]

If you were to take the time to observe (by building) a bunch of (different) *good* bases, you'd get a hang of building a lot faster than by coming up with things on your own I think.

Not sure what you mean here...

If you build on this template, watch how well it serves our team when we're doing well and when we're under attack. By building and seeing what this base does for the team, you'll both learn why it was chosen as a template, and how you can make bases similar to it..."

That's more or less what I mean. People don't notice how bases win and fail when they're spending most of their time in combat. To really observe a base, you have to build it. By building and observing each and every one of its components (you built them, so naturally you'll know which one is placed where) you learn what a good base looks like. And you'll be able to build one just like it.

:/ That's exactly what I said.

[jm82792]

Good idea.
I get so sick of it how I build because it's me or the noob builder,
if I want to fight then we lose...