Atmosphere plays a large role in enjoyment in games for me, so I'm looking to combine a great deal of atmosphere with a well balanced map (in terms of gameplay).
For me, atmosphere = making it look and feel like you're in an Alien film. Heh. So I'm trying to recreate the kind of lighting and environment from Aliens (the second Alien film) in my NS2 map!
<!--quoteo(post=1651080:date=Sep 21 2007, 03:09 PM:name=INKEDOUT)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(INKEDOUT @ Sep 21 2007, 03:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1651080"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I really like the idea of a flare gun, maybe this could be the secondary fire for the GL?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'd see it more as an attachment to the LMG. Would bring back the use of light weapon when marines are fully upgraded. You don't need to have many of them... just one in a party of HMG/SG/GL would be enough. Sorry to the new players, but the newbie that didn't get issued a gun would feel "needed" a bit more... provided he sticks with the group and doesn't go on a one-man-lmg-spray-and-pray-suicidal-rampage...
maybe there should be dimming switchs in every room and corridor so the aliens could choose the correct settings for the ambush <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
Or another idea would be to have a timed cycle. like a day night cycle.
i know all or at least most of the maps will be indoors but you could constuct a map where most of the light came through the windows. You could have the light levels changing on a cycle. e.g game starts of light gets darker after5-10 mins then gets lighter again.
This would be mean marines and aliens could time their assults to when the lighting is most benifical to their plan.
However this maybe complex to map and come up with a good story explanation for, as days cycle longer than 5 mins but i guess the lighting systems could be faulty and have caused the cycle, or the ship/ station could be rotating so that the windows are facing the star for only a limted period of time.
when the light begins to fade the marines load their weapons a prepare to brick em selves
<!--quoteo(post=1598807:date=Jan 15 2007, 12:08 AM:name=1stdayplaying)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(1stdayplaying @ Jan 15 2007, 12:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1598807"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Skulks already have way too many spots to hide in, don't need more incentive to camp. It's not about crapping your pants, it's about having a usable flashlight to some extent.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please reply with where... I tend to get shot everytime, probably because the marines get obs every game atthe begining. If you have some supersecret spot TELL US! hehe I always die as a skulk, dark areas never helped, but with better lighting in NS2, even with obs they have to see you to shoot at you accurately!
<!--quoteo(post=1652254:date=Sep 26 2007, 02:12 AM:name=corpsman)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(corpsman @ Sep 26 2007, 02:12 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1652254"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Please reply with where... I tend to get shot everytime, probably because the marines get obs every game atthe begining. If you have some supersecret spot TELL US! hehe I always die as a skulk, dark areas never helped, but with better lighting in NS2, even with obs they have to see you to shoot at you accurately!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's because we've been playing so long, we know all the hiding spots.
Yes this is something I'd really like to see. How come there's no replies from the developers? Maybe it was meant to be a surprise...
Anyway I'll try to sum up a few points and add some of my own thoughts (mostly already been mentioned though).<ul><li>Dynamic lighting - marine controlled rooms have high brightness, infestation slowly dims the room; only hive areas with full infestation are completely dark to marines although some other areas are difficult to see in without lights.</li><li>Marine lights - some form of temporary/semi-permanent lighting for dark areas: (dim) flares, power-pack to temporarily power lights in a room not covered in infestation (while the marine base is somehow permanently well-lit so skulk/lerk attacks here are difficult). Small flashlights on some weapons, also maybe a marine could instead be equipped with a much more powerful flashlight which would do a good job of lighting up the room (increases ambient light as well as diffuse and specular) but could only be used instead of any other weapon.</li><li>HDR - adjust this so that marines and aliens can adapt their "eyes" to different levels of lighting. Thus aliens can adjust to see well in dark areas which are pitch-black to marines, and marines can see well in bright areas which are difficult for aliens to see in.</li><li>Aliens - use HDR adjustments so that aliens can adjust to see in a much lower light level than marines, but see much less well in brighter lighting, so in fact aliens can find it nearly as hard to see in an extremely-brightly lit room as marines do in a very dark room. Possibly the marines could use an upgrade/building to make their base area this bright, and shining a powerful flashlight at an alien would have a similar affect. However it shouldn't completely blind the aliens as they cannot easily make it darker like marines can use a flashlight to see in a dark area. I don't see much point in using the flashlight key to adjust this for aliens like some people have mentioned. Possibly it could swap alien vision between normal vision and heat-vision or similar, which can cope better in ultra-bright lighting, but has other problems, such as not being able to see walls except as silhouettes (could be interesting) - of course this work be a lot of extra work to implement though. </li><li>To make some attempt to defy gamma-hackers: prevent in-game gamma adjustments (at least without restarting the game) so it's not too easy to adjust that, and have aliens find it difficult to see in bright conditions as above so increasing the gamma has disadvantages too. I guess this might end up making some people just not play as aliens though. Also generally use a wide range of brightness levels so that in dark areas even large gamma tweaks won't make it possible to see. Maybe even not use darker colour tones which would be difficult to differentiate from black without gamma-tweaking anyway so the main difference tweaking the gamma up would make would be making the graphics much more ugly (since you'd then see this cut-off point).</li></ul> OK so probably not everyone will like my idea of bright areas aliens find it difficult to see in (I do realise it's aliens that have far more reason to hide than marines) but it would be one approach to (attempting to) prevent gamma-hacking.
And aliens should <i>definitely</i> get very good hiding places, at least in hive areas.
I agree with drone, adding a new tactical location, a power generator. Just as the devs had said that as infestation moves into rooms, the lights go out, and you need to get rid of the infestation in order to get the lights back, it would be great if there was a power generator in the center of the map, and who ever controls that controls the overall lighting. If the marines had it, they could turn on some of the lights of infested rooms, while if the aliens had it, with infestation for balancing mabey, most of the map, except for mabey comm chair room and a few others would have the lights out. THis would be a huge tactile point! and spice up the game!
This could add a new dimension instead of hive or comm chair rush, they would rush to this, which would give them an advantage throughout the game. (for balance, if marines took this, they wouldn't need to invest in night vision)
Also, maybe the marines could use both flares and night vision. They would start with a flare, then as comm upgrades through a tech tree, they could eventually get night vision.
Comments
For me, atmosphere = making it look and feel like you're in an Alien film. Heh. So I'm trying to recreate the kind of lighting and environment from Aliens (the second Alien film) in my NS2 map!
I'd see it more as an attachment to the LMG. Would bring back the use of light weapon when marines are fully upgraded. You don't need to have many of them... just one in a party of HMG/SG/GL would be enough. Sorry to the new players, but the newbie that didn't get issued a gun would feel "needed" a bit more... provided he sticks with the group and doesn't go on a one-man-lmg-spray-and-pray-suicidal-rampage...
Or another idea would be to have a timed cycle. like a day night cycle.
i know all or at least most of the maps will be indoors but you could constuct a map where most of the light came through the windows. You could have the light levels changing on a cycle. e.g game starts of light gets darker after5-10 mins then gets lighter again.
This would be mean marines and aliens could time their assults to when the lighting is most benifical to their plan.
However this maybe complex to map and come up with a good story explanation for, as days cycle longer than 5 mins
but i guess the lighting systems could be faulty and have caused the cycle, or the ship/ station could be rotating so that the windows are facing the star for only a limted period of time.
when the light begins to fade the marines load their weapons a prepare to brick em selves
Please reply with where... I tend to get shot everytime, probably because the marines get obs every game atthe begining. If you have some supersecret spot TELL US! hehe I always die as a skulk, dark areas never helped, but with better lighting in NS2, even with obs they have to see you to shoot at you accurately!
That's because we've been playing so long, we know all the hiding spots.
Anyway I'll try to sum up a few points and add some of my own thoughts (mostly already been mentioned though).<ul><li>Dynamic lighting - marine controlled rooms have high brightness, infestation slowly dims the room; only hive areas with full infestation are completely dark to marines although some other areas are difficult to see in without lights.</li><li>Marine lights - some form of temporary/semi-permanent lighting for dark areas: (dim) flares, power-pack to temporarily power lights in a room not covered in infestation (while the marine base is somehow permanently well-lit so skulk/lerk attacks here are difficult). Small flashlights on some weapons, also maybe a marine could instead be equipped with a much more powerful flashlight which would do a good job of lighting up the room (increases ambient light as well as diffuse and specular) but could only be used instead of any other weapon.</li><li>HDR - adjust this so that marines and aliens can adapt their "eyes" to different levels of lighting. Thus aliens can adjust to see well in dark areas which are pitch-black to marines, and marines can see well in bright areas which are difficult for aliens to see in.</li><li>Aliens - use HDR adjustments so that aliens can adjust to see in a much lower light level than marines, but see much less well in brighter lighting, so in fact aliens can find it nearly as hard to see in an extremely-brightly lit room as marines do in a very dark room. Possibly the marines could use an upgrade/building to make their base area this bright, and shining a powerful flashlight at an alien would have a similar affect. However it shouldn't completely blind the aliens as they cannot easily make it darker like marines can use a flashlight to see in a dark area. I don't see much point in using the flashlight key to adjust this for aliens like some people have mentioned. Possibly it could swap alien vision between normal vision and heat-vision or similar, which can cope better in ultra-bright lighting, but has other problems, such as not being able to see walls except as silhouettes (could be interesting) - of course this work be a lot of extra work to implement though. </li><li>To make some attempt to defy gamma-hackers: prevent in-game gamma adjustments (at least without restarting the game) so it's not too easy to adjust that, and have aliens find it difficult to see in bright conditions as above so increasing the gamma has disadvantages too. I guess this might end up making some people just not play as aliens though. Also generally use a wide range of brightness levels so that in dark areas even large gamma tweaks won't make it possible to see. Maybe even not use darker colour tones which would be difficult to differentiate from black without gamma-tweaking anyway so the main difference tweaking the gamma up would make would be making the graphics much more ugly (since you'd then see this cut-off point).</li></ul>
OK so probably not everyone will like my idea of bright areas aliens find it difficult to see in (I do realise it's aliens that have far more reason to hide than marines) but it would be one approach to (attempting to) prevent gamma-hacking.
And aliens should <i>definitely</i> get very good hiding places, at least in hive areas.
This could add a new dimension instead of hive or comm chair rush, they would rush to this, which would give them an advantage throughout the game. (for balance, if marines took this, they wouldn't need to invest in night vision)
Also, maybe the marines could use both flares and night vision. They would start with a flare, then as comm upgrades through a tech tree, they could eventually get night vision.
It could go
Flare
Flashlight
Flamethrowers (weapon)
2 Flare
Night vision level 1 (1 min)
NV level 2 (4 min)
NV level 3 (indefinite)