Commander controlled inside ship defenses.

xmaine

I was thinking that as soon as marines secure a certain area in the ship (powergrid), it would allow the commander to access that sector's weapons defense such as a ceiling mounted turret.

By pressing a certain button (whatever on the keyboard), it allows the commander to toggle from his classic top down view to a camera view of a turret like weapon and control it. The turret has unlimited ammo but it has a cool down wait time and damage is a bit less than the current weapons marines have (lmg, smg, assault rifle, hmg, whatever it is called now.)

Now of course, it can't be down a long hallway to pick off aliens that come by so the angle of the weapon would be away from climax areas and toward the center of rooms and also have alot of blind spots. So there should be a limited number of these commander controlled sentries. The turret would be ineffective against lifeforms larger than a lerk.

So I guess you can consider this commander micro depending on your definition of micro.

Aliens can bite the blind spots of the sentries to disable it and the marines can weld it back into repair.

Pros - Provides marines additional support with firepower early game.
Its sometimes fun to control turrets.
Allows the commander to get some FPS action on the field.

Cons - Takes away the commander's ability to macro at certain points.
Commander loses track of whats going on elsewhere.
Field of view is limited.

These turrets are not needed for marines to win but they are completely optional to use by the commander where ever he sees fit.


Right now I'm working on an idea for an Alien equivalent. Any ideas?

Dalin Seivewright

I think this idea has some merit, although not in its currently suggested form. The Commander has a job to do and babysitting corridors and hallways, isn't really part of that job (its the job of the turrets he places there). If he's off in some turret, he's probably missing some important events on the map, like a key area being attacked. Even if he was given warnings of these events while controlling a turret, the act of switching between modes is enough to make both modes completely useless as his full attention can be put on neither of them, decreasing his effectiveness as a Commander.

Something like this would be better suited for marine control similar to Unreal 2: EXpanded MultiPlayer and UT2004: Assault where players could take control of turrets with the properties that you described (ie. not overkill but can get the job done) but their bodies would be vulnerable to attack and they were likely to be killed if they weren't careful. The turrets in this case could be destroyed at which point, the player controlling these turrets would be ejected back into their normal controls.

Ultimately however, if there are going to be turrets become active if a certain part of the map is taken controlled of, then these turrets should be temporary, automated things, IMO, as having to manually take control of these turrets in a firefight (assuming the control center and turret are in the same room, or if the Commander is controlling them) won't be as effective as an actual marine.

Battle-Bug

They don't have to be turrets. Imagine a doorway with a flame thrower or high voltage electrodes.

Maybe any marine can control them if they are in a comm chair and not the commander. This way, all you need is a second comm chair (or no commander). So, while the comm is doing his thing, a second player in base can control the defenses. This also gives the bonus of a second person in base to defend.

PSA

Interesting because you could (should) tie it in with the power-grid model.

FocusedWolf

What if they are automatic, but when they start firing the commander gets a notification, and if he chooses he can see what the guns are shooting at. Sort of like an early warning thing for collecting information on the types of aliens running around. Maybe this could work with the turrets that the commander drops, so he can choose only specific turrets to get notifications.

It can literally be associated with every droppable piece of marine technology. I.e. a resource tower can complain it's being damaged, needs repairs, and show video of what's doing the damage. Ns1 sort of had this where the com could see if a structure was taking damage, but they had to manually scan to see what was doing it. But this new idea adds to the immersion-factor a bit :P

brownymaster

I'd imagine it'd be better for maps to start out with defenses inactive and need welders to activate them. But I think it's a good idea, would allow map makers to make their maps unique and have more strategic areas and stuff. This stuff is probably actually producible with the source engine/hammer for other games, so I wouldn't mind seeing the spark editor giving those capabilities too.

Heyman

I like this idea, but like Dalin said, these implementations should absolutely be temporary. And on top of that, should have a cost. I'd imagine that they would be useful during an emergency defense, and in the right hands could be life-saver. And in that case, it would have to be somewhat expensive.

spellman23

A better system is triggered events.

See Cyberworld triggered events in Dystopia and Zombie Master. Basically, have a button, when you push it something happens for a period of time, there is cooldown. Things like turning on gas vents for an area, or opening/closing certain doors temporarily would work under this scheme.

This way you don't take the commander out of the comm mode, it's quick, the mapper can be extremely creative on the trigger sequence, and the comm still has more intimate micro control over what is going on.

However, there are some requirements.
1) Make sure there's a way to label the buttons so the comm knows what the buttons do.
2) Make it clear in the comm interface where the buttons are and make them big enough. In NS1 the comm could manipulate door/elevator buttons, but often times they were so small it was too annoying/frustrating just to click on them.
3) To the mappers: don't make the entire level a comm deathtrap. Then it's a fight from invisible comm killing off opposing minions, and not a fun FPS game.

Potentially the same room could have triggers for Marine versus Alien Comm. So, the same room could have the same effect, but under different control, or different effects for different sides, or only one side gets a trigger in there. Probably tie this control into the power grid system, and contested regions neither or both get control. I would lean towards neither for "realism" but then perhaps these triggers won't be able to be used on the front lines.