Game play idea: NS and CO hybrid
Pathdrc
Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44289Members
Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44289Members
<div class="IPBDescription">To NS or to CO, that is the question - why not both?</div>(I originally put this in the General discussion group - sorry)
This idea came to me last night while playing NS1.
Someone said they hoped that Combat (CO) would not be included in NS2 (WHILE we were in the middle of playing CO, mind you - but I digress).
Then it came to me, how about taking a combination of the two and putting them together?
How about having a commander in the chair and instead of him (or her) cranking out the weapons and upgrades, the commander would assign resource points to a specific task and the soldiers that perform that specific task would get those resource points.
That would also help motivate a marine team that is not particularly into following orders - which happens a lot in NS.
The marines could then use the points to buy upgrades and weapons that fit their personal playing style.
I know the com chair is real busy already (which is why I almost never com) so maybe points could be pre-assigned to specific tasks. Like RT building is pretty important so set the reward points for building that (just pulling a number out of the air) at 20. (One thing to iron out is would each person get the 20 or divide amongst all who participate?)
...and maybe 5 or 10 for building a Phase gate.
A couple other things to iron out is would you allow the player to instantly receive the upgrade (like the current CO) or would they have to go to a station/armory to 'purchase' upgrades?
Of course upgrades would cost more than one point - but maybe instead of distributing resource points (the resource gathered by the RT's) for tasks completed, maybe a seperate "pay" points. Leave the "resource" to build and run the equipment.
By making the individual soldiers responsible for getting their own upgrades - that frees up the com to concentrate on other things.
In fact, if you keep CO's Resupply upgrade option, the com wouldn't have to worry about dropping ammo and med packs either.
(That would leave more time to allow the com to assign what they think a particular task is worth.)
So for this hybrid idea - think of it as Com Chair lite. :-)
...which is what CO was designed for, right? Designed for training purposes?
The more I think about this idea the more I like it. :-)
Just like the current CO you would get points for killing alliens and hitting the hive.
To lean the hybrid back toward the NS side, maybe not allow purchasing of some equipment until the COM has reasearched it?
What do ya'll think?
This idea came to me last night while playing NS1.
Someone said they hoped that Combat (CO) would not be included in NS2 (WHILE we were in the middle of playing CO, mind you - but I digress).
Then it came to me, how about taking a combination of the two and putting them together?
How about having a commander in the chair and instead of him (or her) cranking out the weapons and upgrades, the commander would assign resource points to a specific task and the soldiers that perform that specific task would get those resource points.
That would also help motivate a marine team that is not particularly into following orders - which happens a lot in NS.
The marines could then use the points to buy upgrades and weapons that fit their personal playing style.
I know the com chair is real busy already (which is why I almost never com) so maybe points could be pre-assigned to specific tasks. Like RT building is pretty important so set the reward points for building that (just pulling a number out of the air) at 20. (One thing to iron out is would each person get the 20 or divide amongst all who participate?)
...and maybe 5 or 10 for building a Phase gate.
A couple other things to iron out is would you allow the player to instantly receive the upgrade (like the current CO) or would they have to go to a station/armory to 'purchase' upgrades?
Of course upgrades would cost more than one point - but maybe instead of distributing resource points (the resource gathered by the RT's) for tasks completed, maybe a seperate "pay" points. Leave the "resource" to build and run the equipment.
By making the individual soldiers responsible for getting their own upgrades - that frees up the com to concentrate on other things.
In fact, if you keep CO's Resupply upgrade option, the com wouldn't have to worry about dropping ammo and med packs either.
(That would leave more time to allow the com to assign what they think a particular task is worth.)
So for this hybrid idea - think of it as Com Chair lite. :-)
...which is what CO was designed for, right? Designed for training purposes?
The more I think about this idea the more I like it. :-)
Just like the current CO you would get points for killing alliens and hitting the hive.
To lean the hybrid back toward the NS side, maybe not allow purchasing of some equipment until the COM has reasearched it?
What do ya'll think?
Comments
Another issue I have is that as the game progresses, and you use a levelling up system in CO on top of the res structure in classic NS, is that the players would all be very high level and remain very high level through the game. In a NS game, you can have a sudden rush of JP or fades but if they die, they're gone. Sticking to the CO type, your upgrades will remain with you and as the game goes on, you will just find that it will be harder to finish the game since everyone will most likely have the highest level of upgrades. In CO, it wasn't too bad because there was a timelimit. In NS maps, without timelimits, this can drag on for hours and hours, in a total standstill.
Lastly, I would like to say integrating the two would make commanders on both sides redundant. I have no idea what the alien comm is supposed to be doing yet but I think this system would still make i useless. CO style gives the player a lot of individual choice and lets them manage what they want. If this happens, what point is there for having a comm? Especially if you want to have resupply for the marines. On the marine side, the most useful thing that the comm would do is drop buildings. And tying in with my first point, since RTs are not so critical in a level based system, the comm would not even have to concentrate on base expansion. He can just drop base buildings, and go and be a soldier until he is needed again for seiging a hive. I cannot comment on the alien side.
If I have misunderstood on how you want to implement CO in NS, please clarify.