aliens need their their flash light back

luns

as the title says, marines have their flash light which helps them, but aliens, referring to players, must try to see through the dark? how does that make sense? how does the dark help aliens if we the players can't hardly see through it at all.

as marine I like having my flash light in dark spots, but honestly as alien, i can't see through the darkness. why don't aliens have their alien flash light? I'm turning over the power nodes but it ruins MY vision in the darkness when fighting. i'm sorry if i sound like this but its becoming really annoying problem. Aliens need their flash light from ns1.

Ashes

I amagine the aliens will have some form of low-light vision?

luns

they have to their alien flash light back, it makes no sense for marines to have flash light while aliens have nothing to improve their vision in the dark. Honestly what's the point in cutting the lights in the room if aliens have problems seeing in the dark, shouldn't the darkness be our ally not our enemy? its currently very stressful to fight in the dark as alien, we need to get our alien flash light back.

Quovatis

Aliens have parasite and hivesight from the start. I can't say I've ever missed seeing an marine in the dark because they have a sprite on them. I think that makes up for the lack of the old-style alien flashlight.

luns

darkness suppose to give the aliens the advantage but currently it does not. Hive sight isn't really doing much when you're in the dark fighting them, and I never liked it. Being in the dark and trying to make out where they are constantly as alien is becoming too stressful. I never had issues in ns1, and its really killing the whole being sneaky thing.

I trade in hive sight for alien flash light any day, darkness suppose to be our ally not something I have to adjust y gamma to try to see marines. Its hard being sneaky honestly, really hard to see anything. And we have no walking button!!

Obraxis

Agreed. Alien flashlight should be implemented, at some point. More important things for the programmers to work on atm.

luns

totally agree. I'm just really stressed without alien flash light.

Thaldarin

I'd like to see instead of alien flashlight, the ability to put on a nightvision of somesort that can see more clearly through the destroyed power light phase.

luns

their was nothing wrong with ns1 alien flash light, it worked perfectly for years, and it should be adapted into ns2!

Thaldarin

It was nice but for NS2 will it be useful?

Almost every room will be an action zone. Your hive is clearly defined by a tech point position, all alien elements will be surrounded by alien infestation so you know where they are and that they're functioning before you even have time to look over in that direction.

The way I see it, alien flashlight just highlights where your team mates are which isn't what you want to be doing. You want to highlight your prey, your enemy, gain your advantage over them.

The red dampened lighting right now doesn't give aliens a huge advantage like it should, both sides still see exactly the same thing and the lighting is still brighter than I expected and hoped for in all honesty. If that gets darkened quite a bit, you then have a better way to give cover for aliens, however we're still both using the same sets of eyes, being able to see your prey easier would be a much bigger advantage over them; and a much bigger advantage than knowing your friend is running out the room.

luns

<!--quoteo(post=1821823:date=Jan 6 2011, 12:50 AM:name=Thaldarin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thaldarin @ Jan 6 2011, 12:50 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821823"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It was nice but for NS2 will it be useful?

The way I see it, alien flashlight just highlights where your team mates are which isn't what you want to be doing. You want to highlight your prey, your enemy, gain your advantage over them.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

alien flash light highlights the marines, so you can see them in the dark. So while fighting them in the darkness you can't ever not see them, they are highlighted, always. And they cannot hide in the darkness because they can be seen by aliens. I have no idea what you're talking about, i'm sorry.

this ability is MUST for every alien, marines have flash lights, and aliens have to adjust their gamma? this ability must be added.

Thaldarin

It highlights marines too? Oh, it's been that long since I've played NS D=

Something more than fullbright model then please.

NoOtherDestiny

Maybe it will be some sort of new system. Rather then making enemies/friendlies glow and still having the room dark (not low light vision) perhaps a proper low light vision that increases the brightness of everything, whether it comes on automatically when you enter a dark room or is toggled by a button.

Norton

Instead of alien flashlight, your eyes should just slowly adjust to the darkness like an animal's might.

schkorpio

aliens should have a colour corrected view so that everything is visible, and so it lookslike you are viewing stuff thru alien eyes (not too much to annoy people though).

also para and hive sight should be a silouette like in left for dead :D


edit : cause you want to be able to see geometry as well as friends and enemies, but you don't want it to be fullbright or anything that would ruin the graphics and atmosphere

Heroman117

I've never had an issue spotting marines as an alien even when the power is out, marines are actually easy for me to spot because they all have the distinctive HUD blue light display over their eyes, which if they can see you, you can see them, always even in the dark. Both the standard and special edition character models have it and the female marine concept clearly shows that when she is implemented she will have it too which is very noticeable in the dark since the light/teal blue color contrasts sharply against the black/dark red color that powerless rooms have. The only distinctive feature that makes the aliens very noticeable is the bright yellow eyes, which does really stand out in red as blue does.

While i agree that aliens should have the advantage sight wise in powerless rooms, i don't think it negatively effects the aliens in any way the way it is right now.

Maybe when time allows it the aliens might get their own unique vision, kind of like the infected vision is in Left 4 Dead where if you ever turned on third person while infected you clearly saw you had a broad highlighted brightness, which combined with the outlines provided by the survivors made it easy to know their location. Right now the programmers and other designers defiantly have bigger priorities right now it seems likely they'l implement a feature like you are requesting sometime in development, just not right now because i would definitely prefer they work on making the game more playable and feature complete.

Zek

I don't think the old flashlight needs to come back, marines glowing all the time was silly. But aliens should have night vision of some kind so they have an advantage in the dark like they're supposed to. That goes for the alien comm as well.

Scythe

<!--quoteo(post=1821852:date=Jan 6 2011, 11:09 AM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Jan 6 2011, 11:09 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821852"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I don't think the old flashlight needs to come back, marines glowing all the time was silly. But aliens should have night vision of some kind so they have an advantage in the dark like they're supposed to. That goes for the alien comm as well.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I concur. The old alien flashlight was functional but awful. I'd like to have aliens just have better vision in the dark, simple as that.

--Scythe--

schkorpio

plus you still want to be able to tell if you are "in the dark" or not as an alien

echs

I can't help but be intrigued by the idea of aliens having no flashlight. To be totally dependant on hive sight and parasite. But ofcourse, aliens being aliens, as hunters, they should have some kind of 'Predator' vision enhancement or something like you see in the AvP games.

The NS1 alien flashlight was awful though, can't wait to see what will be added.

Squeal_Like_A_Pig

This is something we've discussed. I think we'd prefer a more elegant solution, of having it be automatically brighter for aliens in dark areas, rather then alien players needing to turn on their "flashlights". No ETA on implementation yet, though.

--Cory

luns

thanks for your reply cory.

can you please explain how this would work? how will same dark rooms get brighter for aliens?

Slycaster

Just a thought, but maybe while marines are in LoS there is a slight orange outline on the marines/buildings models. Parasite esque but obviously only remains when in LoS of that particular alien.

peregrinus

As an alien I want to see the dark areas as dark, its only the marines i wanna see illuminated. Otherwise you dont get the feeling of being a sneaky alien :P

twiliteblue

The Infected in the L4D series can see perfectly in the dark. I wonder if that is what Cory had in mind.

luns

<!--quoteo(post=1821891:date=Jan 6 2011, 05:10 AM:name=peregrinus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peregrinus @ Jan 6 2011, 05:10 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821891"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As an alien I want to see the dark areas as dark, its only the marines i wanna see illuminated. Otherwise you dont get the feeling of being a sneaky alien :P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

yup, this is what I'm talking about. darkness should be our friend, where we can be stealthy, sneaky and force marines to use flash lights. aliens should look into the dark rooms and see the marines easily.

i just wonder how will alien vision get brighten up in dark places but not marines.

Zek

<!--quoteo(post=1821891:date=Jan 5 2011, 11:10 PM:name=peregrinus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peregrinus @ Jan 5 2011, 11:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821891"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As an alien I want to see the dark areas as dark, its only the marines i wanna see illuminated. Otherwise you dont get the feeling of being a sneaky alien :P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Problem is that navigating dark areas is very difficult without night vision. NS1 wasn't nearly as dark as rooms without power are in NS2, and that's how aliens want the whole map to be. Aliens need to be able to see vents etc so running around in pitch blackness is not an option.

Mkilbride

Is there anyway to edit the brightness in the current beta? Cause I spent hours calibrating my monitor and it looks wonderful in alot of games, but in this, even when the power is destroyed, I can see it incredibly bright, still.

Warmonger

<!--quoteo(post=1821889:date=Jan 5 2011, 09:09 PM:name=Slycaster)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Slycaster @ Jan 5 2011, 09:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821889"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Just a thought, but maybe while marines are in LoS there is a slight orange outline on the marines/buildings models. Parasite esque but obviously only remains when in LoS of that particular alien.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This was mentioned a while back in another thread and IMO is a great solution. Parasited marines and marines in line-of-sight could have an outline as in L4D.

<!--quoteo(post=1821895:date=Jan 5 2011, 09:28 PM:name=twiliteblue)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (twiliteblue @ Jan 5 2011, 09:28 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821895"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The Infected in the L4D series can see perfectly in the dark. I wonder if that is what Cory had in mind.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This would work well too. I think the option above would look & work much better though. With the outline you wouldn't have to lose the atmosphere of the darkened room and it would be obvious to the alien(s) how hard it is for the marine to see (ie. completely dark room as opposed to red lighted room).

Warmonger

<!--quoteo(post=1821914:date=Jan 5 2011, 10:50 PM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Jan 5 2011, 10:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1821914"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Problem is that navigating dark areas is very difficult without night vision. NS1 wasn't nearly as dark as rooms without power are in NS2, and that's how aliens want the whole map to be. Aliens need to be able to see vents etc so running around in pitch blackness is not an option.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
True, but once you learn the lay of the maps it's obvious where the vents and other hiding spots are. Sure, there will be a slight learning curve when you're first learning a map but that's half the fun.

peregrinus

I just want aliens to see marines illuminated. I think that should be the default. As a compromise, aliens could have a flashlight which lights up the room too, as an option, so people who find it hard to manouvre in darkness wont be disadvantaged, and people like me who like the feeling of being the scary alien creeper dont lose it :D