Alien Vision Suggestion
thefonz
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
Join Date: 2011-06-22 Member: 105847Members
Hey everybody, I've been slightly dissatisfied with AV for some time. I like it, I really do. The problem is I just can't see a reason NOT to use it. I'll try to be brief. I think AV should highlight people/structures based on activity/motion.
Link to suggestion page if you like this idea.
<a href="http://goo.gl/mod/6c4P" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/mod/6c4P</a>
Think:
<a href="http://youtu.be/v5Co3A3fLBo?t=1m20s" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/v5Co3A3fLBo?t=1m20s</a>
Basically I'm thinking:
- Marines stop glowing after 4-8 seconds of being still. Longer if they have been in combat.
- Structures always glow when powered. They slowly lose their glow (30 seconds?) when power is lost. Maybe fade to background color. Maybe fade to less intense glow.
- Mines only glow briefly after being placed. Fade to background color.
- Players/mines/structures always full glow when parasited.
TL;DR (stop here) Make AV similar to "T-rex vision" from Jurassic park. Give stealthy marines a chance.
Some of my reasoning stems from the following experiences:
Mines are nearly useless for even soft defense w/o a marine nearby. AV makes them far to easy to spot and navigate around. Most aliens don't even get slowed down avoiding the mines. The suggested changes would make aliens need to pay a bit more attention and encourage turning AV off so that mines stand out against the background more. Parasiting the mines would be a help to your teammates too (makes them glow in AV).
As a marine, its damn near impossible not to be noticed when hiding. If any part of you is exposed, its a bright orange kill me sign to the entire alien team. Before you say that marines should be hiding, there are many good reasons. I'll give you two examples that can be a great help to the marine team. When I know an Onos is coming to attack a base I try to hide along its path to our base and let it pass me. I dont' shoot it, I will sometimes attack any gorges/skulks following it. When my team has dealt a ton of damage and the Onos retreats, I am in a perfect position to make sure it goes down. This has been critical in some games when we've had to deal with an Onos before we had JPs and could effectively chase it. The other example is when a marine penetrates deep into alien territory. If an alien even glances his way with AV, he is spotted and any surprise you had is totally lost.
I really just don't see a time normal vision is a better choice and AV.
Link to suggestion page if you like this idea.
<a href="http://goo.gl/mod/6c4P" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/mod/6c4P</a>
Think:
<a href="http://youtu.be/v5Co3A3fLBo?t=1m20s" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/v5Co3A3fLBo?t=1m20s</a>
Basically I'm thinking:
- Marines stop glowing after 4-8 seconds of being still. Longer if they have been in combat.
- Structures always glow when powered. They slowly lose their glow (30 seconds?) when power is lost. Maybe fade to background color. Maybe fade to less intense glow.
- Mines only glow briefly after being placed. Fade to background color.
- Players/mines/structures always full glow when parasited.
TL;DR (stop here) Make AV similar to "T-rex vision" from Jurassic park. Give stealthy marines a chance.
Some of my reasoning stems from the following experiences:
Mines are nearly useless for even soft defense w/o a marine nearby. AV makes them far to easy to spot and navigate around. Most aliens don't even get slowed down avoiding the mines. The suggested changes would make aliens need to pay a bit more attention and encourage turning AV off so that mines stand out against the background more. Parasiting the mines would be a help to your teammates too (makes them glow in AV).
As a marine, its damn near impossible not to be noticed when hiding. If any part of you is exposed, its a bright orange kill me sign to the entire alien team. Before you say that marines should be hiding, there are many good reasons. I'll give you two examples that can be a great help to the marine team. When I know an Onos is coming to attack a base I try to hide along its path to our base and let it pass me. I dont' shoot it, I will sometimes attack any gorges/skulks following it. When my team has dealt a ton of damage and the Onos retreats, I am in a perfect position to make sure it goes down. This has been critical in some games when we've had to deal with an Onos before we had JPs and could effectively chase it. The other example is when a marine penetrates deep into alien territory. If an alien even glances his way with AV, he is spotted and any surprise you had is totally lost.
I really just don't see a time normal vision is a better choice and AV.
Comments
But unfortunately, not many servers allow it (most servers check the file, and if it differs from the default, then they won't allow it, and you'll be using the default instead).
So far, I've been able to use it on only 1 server (forgot which :P)
Having marines glow relative to how much they're moving might be pretty interesting. So even crouch-walking makes you a little harder to detect via alien vision, and being stationary for a few seconds makes you barely show up.
To be honest I only use it in pitch dark and redlight, because to long hurts my eyes.
And Alien vision doesnt't show the beam of a flashlight around a corner, for example.
However, with that mod I keep it enabled pretty much all of the time...in bright conditions, it's hardly noticable.
Makes much more sense imo....eyes - even Alien ones - don't have a mode-switch, but try to combine best performance with sensibility-range.
So Alien eyes just revolved to what they are, in a different world, and should have only 1 switch (open/close).
Giving alien vision a downside (e.g. half energy regeneration, like what they tried in the beta) means alien vision is pretty much always kept off.
The former is the better option, as sometimes the colour palette of the game can be quite muddy, and it hard to distinguish between marines and background environment whilst in close-quarters combat, as fast paced as it sometimes can be. Therefore, AV is pretty much required, and needs to be viable to use too (i.e. no downsides).
Giving alien vision a downside (e.g. half energy regeneration, like what they tried in the beta) means alien vision is pretty much always kept off.
The former is the better option, as sometimes the colour palette of the game can be quite muddy, and it hard to distinguish between marines and background environment whilst in close-quarters combat, as fast paced as it sometimes can be. Therefore, AV is pretty much required, and needs to be viable to use too (i.e. no downsides).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you bother to read my post you would understand that my suggestion HAS NO EFFECT on AV in a combat situation. Well, one effect. "old" mines would blend in better if the marines are fighting on a mined area.
Hell, I think its a stretch to even call this suggestion a nerf. AV remains mostly unchanged for the vast majority of combat situations. I agree that AV is very important in combat. It really help you find the marines while swarming around their legs. I rely on it too and would never dream of taking that away!!
When marines are running/fighting/building/doing crap they will still glow bright "bite my ass off" orange. Marines tend to do these things 95% or the game. Yes I just grabbed that number from nowhere, its also probably correct. This suggestion mostly affects non combat situations. Such as:
Skulk harassing extractors, etc. : Forces skulks to be more careful about mines. As it is, AV makes mines practically useless for defending "cold" spots from harassing skulks.
Marine(s) attempting to sneak : A marine is in a great spot and waiting for the commander to get resources for a PG or sentries or something. If any alien runs by with AV on.... it doesn't matter if you and in the darkest corner ever and only your boot stick out. You. Are. Spotted.
TL;DR AV in combat situations would be essentially the same under this suggestion. This suggestion effects non-combat. It maintain the superiority of AV, while reducing it enough so that there are reasons to switch between modes.
What it does not do, however, is show you how bright an area is. AV is great for combat, but terrible for setting up a good ambush. I prefer to find a dark corner without AV on, then turn it on while in my ambush spot to easily target prey.
The only nerf I feel it needs is to have it very hard to see when doused in flames.
Good luck soldier.
T-Rex from Jurassic Park is obviously stupid and easy to distract by bright, moving things. Where exactly is the idea for alien vision in this video?
As a side note, I tend to get worse performance with hivesight on, so I try to fight with it off, turning it on mainly to find mines, or in dark rooms.
uhh didn't hivesight in NS1 update once every second whereas in NS2 it's basically like having wallhacks? it seems incredibly improved in NS2
I think this mod is the best solution for it. It doesn't make the map all plain, preserves the nice texture work and helps the aliens to easily see marines in chaotic combat situations.
There is no need for a drawback when AV doesn't make the world look ugly. Also sneaking as marine is possible. I don't think it needs even more of an advantage. The aliens are the sneaky ones. Marines can do this too, but don't need their hands hold with it.
I think this mod is the best solution for it. It doesn't make the map all plain, preserves the nice texture work and helps the aliens to easily see marines in chaotic combat situations.
There is no need for a drawback when AV doesn't make the world look ugly. Also sneaking as marine is possible. I don't think it needs even more of an advantage. The aliens are the sneaky ones. Marines can do this too, but don't need their hands hold with it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Huze's AV mod is my absolute favorite as well. To me it seems very much like the NS1 incarnation. Simple, effective, visually pleasing. Plus, you don't run into the problem of not being able to see projectiles & cloaked objects with it like the current AV has. (Makes me really, really sad that AV is consistency checked by default when other more crucial files are left wide open.)
Can you report other 'crucial files' and the outcome of abusing them via PM?
Thank you.