Weapon functions?

the_stalker

<div class="IPBDescription">?</div>will the light machinegun be able to zoom? and will the heavy machinegun will you have to stand to beable to shoot it?
and will the shotgun have a secondary attack? and one other thing, will the aliens beable to take damage when there cacooned?

Greedo

I don't believe that the LMG will have a zoom function, and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to fire the HMG while standing and while crouched.  As far as secondary fire, I believe that it was already decided that none of the weapons would have a secondary fire function, as the right mouse button would be bound to the in game menu system.  And by cocooned, I assume you mean when the aliens are evolving.  Of course they'll be able to take damage while they are in their cocoons.  This is something that the aliens will have to protect themselves against, i.e. find a good hiding spot to evolve in and don't do it in the middle of a room or hallway.  Aliens of all typ[es will be very vulnerable as they will be unable to attack for the duration of the evolution (I'm not sure if they can stop in the middle of the evolution to attack marines, though.  But if they are, then all evolutionary progress would surely be lost).

Shuvit_Viper

i don't think they can stop the evolution. Thats the tension: when you are marine firing a cocoon, you sure as hell want to destroy it BEFORE its evolved. As alien, you are praying you don't get killed and get a chance to kill all the marines standing there. This also encourages thinking before you evolve. One question: will the aliens be able to evolve everywhere in the level? i think it would be better to have 'evolve chambers' near the hive and some other locations to, that are also accesible by the marines. Otherwise all the aliens will evolve in the vents, giving them no risk.
-And what will happen if a level4 crouched alien evolves in a vent? the lev5 can never enter a vent, so it would be stuck??? i foresee some bugs...

Moleculor

Yeah, aliens should be able to evolve everywhere....

But you're right. Something evolving to a lvl5 in a vent would -not- be a good thing.

Shuvit_Viper

i don't think they should be able to evolve everywhere. Only in marine-accesible areas.

pielemuis

hmm, i think they'll be able 2 evolve anywhere, aslong there's enough room for their "destination form".

steppio

Supppppppp
I think that the aliens should be able to evolve everywhere but be vulnverable to only Heavy Weapons fire - i.e instead of a light machine gunner camping and jus emptying clips into the cacoon, he calls for heavy weapons - this would give the alien a chance instead of fearing evolution. The more evolution the more intense and frightening the game would be. The Light machine gun (i presume) would take different ammunition than the Heavy Weapons so my opinion is that you should make the cacoon carapace immune to small arms fire. Thats jus my opinion though - any think this is a good idea?
 Also i dont think that secondary fire is a good idea - many mods depend so much upon options and abilities such as secondary fire (cough cough Rocket Crowbar) that it just ends up being a frag fest instead of intense scary action. I know Rocket Crowbar was made as a joke and therefore cannot be blamed for being too silly and unbelievable - but i think the simplist ideas are the best - 1 gun 1 type of fire <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Shuvit_Viper

but the aliens have to fear evolution: its their only totally  weak spot. They have to be carefull when evolving, thinking where to evolve, maybe even put up some guards/turrets around an evolving place.

Fam

I agree with Viper, the aliens should be totally vunerable when evolving, this making a more hit and run game for them. They will need to withdraw to a safe area to evolve, and it will cost time and safety in order to become a better class. It only makes sense, or otherwise youd have to keep marines with guns trained on the evolving aliens behind you because you couldnt kill them in that state.

After all, how many films have you seen where the marines have it easy, you got to give them a chance  <img src="http://www.box7.co.uk/3l/news/images/wink.gif" border="0">

Flayra

Good thoughts everyone.  Infector is right: aliens can evolve anywhere, so long as there is enough room for your new lifeform (standing up).  This means that aliens generally won't be able to morph to the level 4 and 5 forms in vents.

As far as making evolving aliens invulnerable to light weapons fire, that just doesn't seem to warrant the complexity.  Aliens should generally want to hide to evolve, but I also think there will be times when aliens evolve right in the middle of battle.  This can happen where there are bigger enemies to worry about at the moment... <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Shuvit_Viper

can this be done? how long does the evolution process take?
and i think it would be cool to have some dod-mg like guns in, but they must be deployable by only crouching..
another way to support leapfrogging, and just a cool gun.