Mac Behavior Suggestions
TaylorFactor
Join Date: 2004-05-01 Member: 28362Members
Join Date: 2004-05-01 Member: 28362Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Ideas to improve Macs in-game</div>The following suggestions are made out of love for this game. I also considered how they could be employed with as little effort from the Commander as possible for full effect.
Suggestion #1
I believe the Mac requires more micromanagement than necessary. Currently the Macs seem to ‘chase’ whoever needs repairing. This can lead to the Mac ending up places the Commander may not have expected or desired as the mac doesn’t return to it’s original destination automatically. I believe the resolve is a classic ‘guard mode’ typical of RTS gameplay.
Possible Change #1
When the Commander selects a mac and *simply* right clicks on a building or player, the Mac will automatically be in ‘guard mode’. This means that the Mac will auto repair anything damaged in that area but only within a specific, smaller radius.
Example: the Commander right-clicked on an armory to order a Mac to guard it. The mac will repair the armor whenever necessary, but when a passing soldier walks by the mac will start repairing that soldier. But if that soldier continues to walk and gets too far from the guard-assigned armory the mac will stop repairing the soldier and return to the armory.
This behavior would be extended to the Commander assigning the mac to guard a basic frontiersman, an Exo, or any location on the ground for that matter. The Mac would prioritize any building or player it had been ordered to guard, and would still repair other players and buildings nearby provided the guarded entity was at full armor. Naturally if assigned to place on the open ground would have any more of a priority then it does now.
Suggestion #2
Allow the Mac to patrol a specified area would provide a plausible, but minor counter to skulks hit & run tactics across multiple resource towers by allowing for repairs along a specified path.
Possible Change #2
With a Mac selected the Commander can right click and drag over a specific area. Instead of a “lasso†like we’re used to seeing when using Windows or OS X, a straight line would form between the two points. To ensure this wasn’t accidentally performed, the right mouse button would need to be held down for at least 1 second before the line between the origin and the cursor's current position would appear.
Suggestion #3
I suspect the Mac’s hull is preventing it from building/repairing structures. I've noticed that when the building the mac wants to repair is in a tight corner, and the mac doesn't have enough room to rotate sufficiently it will not begin building but will not give an error message either.
Possible Change#3
Either reduce the hull size of the mac as at least with the human eye appears to be the problem, or have the mac give an error message if it tries to repair/build something but remains stationary for a few seconds as its prevented from moving.
I hope these ideas are of interest to the Devs. I’ve been following NS2’s development since its conception given my passion for playing NS1. And as I’ve joked on the servers, NS1 was probably the single biggest reason I didn’t get laid in High School. Thanks Max and Charlie. ;P
Suggestion #1
I believe the Mac requires more micromanagement than necessary. Currently the Macs seem to ‘chase’ whoever needs repairing. This can lead to the Mac ending up places the Commander may not have expected or desired as the mac doesn’t return to it’s original destination automatically. I believe the resolve is a classic ‘guard mode’ typical of RTS gameplay.
Possible Change #1
When the Commander selects a mac and *simply* right clicks on a building or player, the Mac will automatically be in ‘guard mode’. This means that the Mac will auto repair anything damaged in that area but only within a specific, smaller radius.
Example: the Commander right-clicked on an armory to order a Mac to guard it. The mac will repair the armor whenever necessary, but when a passing soldier walks by the mac will start repairing that soldier. But if that soldier continues to walk and gets too far from the guard-assigned armory the mac will stop repairing the soldier and return to the armory.
This behavior would be extended to the Commander assigning the mac to guard a basic frontiersman, an Exo, or any location on the ground for that matter. The Mac would prioritize any building or player it had been ordered to guard, and would still repair other players and buildings nearby provided the guarded entity was at full armor. Naturally if assigned to place on the open ground would have any more of a priority then it does now.
Suggestion #2
Allow the Mac to patrol a specified area would provide a plausible, but minor counter to skulks hit & run tactics across multiple resource towers by allowing for repairs along a specified path.
Possible Change #2
With a Mac selected the Commander can right click and drag over a specific area. Instead of a “lasso†like we’re used to seeing when using Windows or OS X, a straight line would form between the two points. To ensure this wasn’t accidentally performed, the right mouse button would need to be held down for at least 1 second before the line between the origin and the cursor's current position would appear.
Suggestion #3
I suspect the Mac’s hull is preventing it from building/repairing structures. I've noticed that when the building the mac wants to repair is in a tight corner, and the mac doesn't have enough room to rotate sufficiently it will not begin building but will not give an error message either.
Possible Change#3
Either reduce the hull size of the mac as at least with the human eye appears to be the problem, or have the mac give an error message if it tries to repair/build something but remains stationary for a few seconds as its prevented from moving.
I hope these ideas are of interest to the Devs. I’ve been following NS2’s development since its conception given my passion for playing NS1. And as I’ve joked on the servers, NS1 was probably the single biggest reason I didn’t get laid in High School. Thanks Max and Charlie. ;P
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