Changing the Light System
AtlantisThief
Join Date: 2010-11-24 Member: 75254Members
Join Date: 2010-11-24 Member: 75254Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Adding some atmosphere to the game.</div>Hello everyone,
i made this post to discuss a thing i had realized one time by playing and that really felt somehow wrong.
If a alien manage to destroy a E-Node in a sector, the sector will get dark. (I like that flashing of the light that indicates the damaging of the E-Node)
The first moment every light is off, the sector feels so cool and makes me as a Marine fear of entering that room. But as soon as the red light (emergency light) is on, it's nothing scary anymore about joining the room.
So my suggestions for this (in my opinion) problem:
1. The Emergency Light (Red light) will be removed totally, everything else can stay.
2. The Emergency Light (Red light) will be lowered a bit. By this i want to have a more darker feeling, so that a Marine can be scared of entering a room alone.
Just to throw another suggestion up within this "Light Thread", if i'm correct, the lighting starts to flash right at the moment the E-Node gets damaged.
Could we have different "states" of damage indication?
Example: 100%-85% Light is shining like it is.
85%-50% Light starts to flash like it is right now.
50%-25% Small flicker of the light.
25%-1% Bigger flicker of the light.
Reason for that? Indication for the team. Marines within a sector that gets attacked will not see it at the very first moment a Skulk hits the E-Node. And the team will be able to see without checking the E-Node's life status, how far this is damaged and how important (or not) it is to defend this Node now until a MAC will come to repair.
i made this post to discuss a thing i had realized one time by playing and that really felt somehow wrong.
If a alien manage to destroy a E-Node in a sector, the sector will get dark. (I like that flashing of the light that indicates the damaging of the E-Node)
The first moment every light is off, the sector feels so cool and makes me as a Marine fear of entering that room. But as soon as the red light (emergency light) is on, it's nothing scary anymore about joining the room.
So my suggestions for this (in my opinion) problem:
1. The Emergency Light (Red light) will be removed totally, everything else can stay.
2. The Emergency Light (Red light) will be lowered a bit. By this i want to have a more darker feeling, so that a Marine can be scared of entering a room alone.
Just to throw another suggestion up within this "Light Thread", if i'm correct, the lighting starts to flash right at the moment the E-Node gets damaged.
Could we have different "states" of damage indication?
Example: 100%-85% Light is shining like it is.
85%-50% Light starts to flash like it is right now.
50%-25% Small flicker of the light.
25%-1% Bigger flicker of the light.
Reason for that? Indication for the team. Marines within a sector that gets attacked will not see it at the very first moment a Skulk hits the E-Node. And the team will be able to see without checking the E-Node's life status, how far this is damaged and how important (or not) it is to defend this Node now until a MAC will come to repair.
Comments
But aliens would need some kind of nightvision (On top of the very useful ns1 flashlight! xD I really like that a whole lot better then the whole screen lighting up).
And comms. No help for the marines if comm cant see and alien comm cant see where to build ;)
The idea with no light is very good. I like it! The atmosphere would be great.
But i think many NS2Player don´t like it because they are forced to turn the flashlight on and move very carefully through the rooms.
The red lighting could also become faulty when two near by power nodes go down, the middle area would then go dark with just a bit of dim flickering red light until those close by are fixed, at which point it goes full red again.
But aliens would need some kind of nightvision (On top of the very useful ns1 flashlight! xD I really like that a whole lot better then the whole screen lighting up).
And comms. No help for the marines if comm cant see and alien comm cant see where to build ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh thats what i forgot to say, players (alien and marines) would be forced to use the flashlight :)
they cant see in the dark and it will be hard to get around with the red lights off.
and if the red lights are lowered having alien flash light will be a complete certainty
this is what i suggest:
delay the time between the black out and the red emergency lights longer than it currently is (by lets say... 5 or 10 seconds longer.
OR
make an alien occupied room full of light and alien glow from the hive's orange center and gorge's belly.
and as well as hydra's orange bright parts and also the bright yellow/orange parts of the crags and whips... and make them give off enough light to guide players around the location even if their flashlight was off.
ANOTHER NOTE is that when DI is up perhaps that can solve the problem with knowing where to go if you wanted the room to stay entirely dark and scary ;D
if the problem for the aliens seeing in the room is fixed im all up for a total black out.
On the other hand, for the purpose of balance, the red lights are kinda important...
power node out->black out-> red lights on and off for like 10 seconds-> red lights on constantly
well what do you think?
I def think that the red light as it is now doesn't offer a huge dynamic change and anyone who saw the last teaser video only saw the power go out long enough for it not to come back and honestly that looked more fun.
So, emergency lights are still needed.
I do think the Alien Flashlight could use an improvement to help see in the dark as well as highlight Marines to kill. Perhaps a washed out effect like from Zombie Panic Source.
In terms of atmosphere, I imagine once DI gets put in we'll get plenty of "oh gods I'm walking into alien territory".
Anyway, nobody said it has to be "pitch black", there could be some sources for light (i can't imagine some right now), and the alien structures could also glow and lighten the area up a bit, so you will directly see the targets and not have to search for them in the dark.
In my imagination, it looks really cool, if a marines squad of 3 people, enters a dark area, everyone with flashlight on, lighting up the area.
You also see what your mates are pointing at. ^^
BUT
i suggest that this flickering would occour after the black out, then after this light process it will stay completely red so things are not too crazy.
I def think that the red light as it is now doesn't offer a huge dynamic change and anyone who saw the last teaser video only saw the power go out long enough for it not to come back and honestly that looked more fun.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah I got the beta after seeing that trailer and I had thought that the black out was permanent (well as long as the node was destroyed). I think giving the aliens nightvision similar to the Alien in AvP with maybe a light indicator to help them know if they are hiding in darkness would be great.
The red lights are cool but them just being on constantly is kind of lame. If the node is heavily damaged (25% or lower) maybe THEN the red lights come on, when it's destroyed power is out completely.
Although this could give the aliens quite a large advantage if they manage to take out a power node, so maybe a way for the marines to reinforce them. Just like building a listening outpost on a resource point in the DoW or CoH series. Little extra protection but you should use it only on the most important nodes (I'm thinking mainly home base would be the priority).
Just some thoughts, but overall I would like a way for it to be totally black like it is for those first few seconds longer and give the aliens some way to see in the dark. And make Marine flashlight more powerful/tighter beam.
EDIT: Or just thought of something else. Maybe the full blackout could be more of a defensive strategy for aliens. Instead of it occuring on it's own, the red lights stay similar to how they are now but if a bunch of marines attack, attacking the node a few more times (I don't know, 3 more bites from a skulk?) would cause the emergency power to be interrupted and cause the blackout to occur for a good 20 or so seconds. Then emergency red lighting comes back online. This way it can fitted into gameplay as an actual tactic using the environment. Sure people could cheat and max gamma or something but personally I would love to see this mostly from a marine point of view. It's already kind of creepy first going into an unknown region with the red lighting but imagine if the aliens could get rid of that if they sense you near. This is another point for the aliens to consider, do they deactivate the power and tip off the marines that they've been detected, etc.
That's just off the top of my head, imo this would add even more tactics and strategy to the game for both sides.