Oh this just hit me
TheOriginal10Round
Join Date: 2006-11-11 Member: 58528Members
Join Date: 2006-11-11 Member: 58528Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Docking points</div>Why not , rather than having a set spawn point, a comm may choose a point of entry onto a infested ship. With no prior knowledge, since the aliens 1st hive will be at random, a rescue ship docks at 2 or more points on a ship and the docking vehicle acts as the marine spawn.
Could be an instant clash or a chance to cap res. In the original NS maps were restricted by many limitations, this may be over come now with the new engine.
Just imagine, you spawn in the belly of a rescue vehicle and here the thud of the attaching magnets locking onto the hull, the seal being created between the two ships, the sound of the hull being breached........and then your task is laid before you. The Docing vehicle offers little more room than enough area for a comm chair and maybe 2 I.P's.
All the while, the aliens spawn at that instant, leaving little time to find the breach.
Could be an instant clash or a chance to cap res. In the original NS maps were restricted by many limitations, this may be over come now with the new engine.
Just imagine, you spawn in the belly of a rescue vehicle and here the thud of the attaching magnets locking onto the hull, the seal being created between the two ships, the sound of the hull being breached........and then your task is laid before you. The Docing vehicle offers little more room than enough area for a comm chair and maybe 2 I.P's.
All the while, the aliens spawn at that instant, leaving little time to find the breach.
Comments
The docking points would be quite easily placed by the level designer with an entity to specify where the shuttle would join. The point could be selected by team vote or by a player that starts as comm rather than a regular rine.
I'm not so sure the kharaa being able to choose would fit very well with the back story, but I know that the marines being able to choose would fit nicely.
and the docking points would be randomly chosen just like hives
If you guy ever played perfect dark zero, there is something called a ready room - could be another ship (Not the actual F4 ready room). In the ready room you are given 10 seconds to choose a weapon and stock up on ammo. There is also a teleporter that you can take to bypass the wait time (I'm guessing the teleporter would take you through and to the infantry portal). The 10 second rule would prevent people from camping in the ready room. I mean in the NS storyline, infantry portal is just like a one-way PhaseGate reinforcing troops from another ship. Marines aren't robots, they aren't made by the infantry portals.
This has a few benefits. First, people who first appear in the ready room have a chance to get a gun from the commander and get some ammo before aliens have a chance to kill them. I think it could solve the spawn camping problem. The more IPs you got, the more people can go through at once. People inside the ready would would appear in waves kinda like in Day of Defeat, not one, not two, not three, but maybe 5-6 people at once. Right now, if you start building more than 3 IPs, it becomes useless because the rate of spawn doesn't change, but I think it should change it.
Second, I don't know what the second benefit could be, but I know that Marines need a FLAMETHROWER.
The bad part is that playing public would sometimes be unbareable since it would rely so much on the competens of te commander, wich it already does.
but it poses other problems too I think. For instance, how many different MS points do you want? If you want the possibility of starting in the first hive (which is a killer[good] idea imo), you have to make every hive a possible MS, or the aliens will know "we don't have to worry about getting MS right here" in a specific hive or two.
in addition, you'll want some MS-only locations. i say locationS because otherwise all we've really added is the ability to start in the hive locations. so now we have at LEAST 5 MS locations, maybe more.
I understand I'm presenting problems without solutions, but at least you can start thinking about it too. I also want to make it clear I think gameplay will not be adversely effected by this. In fact, I believe it would cause it to be more varried and thus more fun. Sometimes you get short, highly frantic battles, but also have the chance of getting long seige battles. It can go both ways, so people who like both types of gameplay will enjoy playing.
Would they create extra load on the server if they are pointless rooms ?
Could the spare MS rooms be ghost rooms that arnt drawn if they are not selected as the MS ?
MS always has a res point and tend to be designed as a defendable room would this not create extra res nodes that marines can exploit ?
The docking ship it self could serve as the MS , like a map I love and cannot remember the name....but for the longest time one of the hives was unnamed.....the marines spawn started in the cockpit of the ship. Like wise, the docking ship could server the same purpose.
Aliens spawn to hive, although exits blocked. As soon as marines weld open a spawn point the hive exits open. Game begins.
Marines spawn to a 'holding pen'. They have the option of welding only two doors and it opens up one spawn or the other which then transports them to that spawn and uses that spawn for the whole round/game. *EDIT* Obviously one spawn would become inaccessible/blocked off for the whole game*/EDIT*
May require some entity coding though although not too complex?
This is, imho, a FANTASTIC IDEA!
And while players are joining TSA team at round start, you are inside hat dropship/vehicle....
Any mappers have some input on this or have mappers already posted? I would like to hear what they have to say because this would add such a dynamic to the game.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'm a mapper, but. a beginner, Not really that good, but I do know quite a bit.
Myself, I think that random docking points is a good idea, would make maps more interesting. get a bit of diversity in there.
Thaldarin's idea for the current ns, is acctually possibble. have 16 welders in a holding pen that the marines origanally spawn in (if the welders cant be placed. maybe 2 buttons instead?), 2 seperate closed off one way phase gates (or doors/teleporters WTHe) in both of the MS locations there is one CC, whatever teleporter the marines weld open first, cancels acsess to the other one (for everybody, blocking of passages.), and unblocks all passages around the hives. and opens up the area the marines have selected, marines teleport in, and game proceeds like a normal ns_ game.
Damn, I want to map that now.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=4890090158205197312&showtopic=98654" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....showtopic=98654</a>
Both of these would add to the game and atmosphere and make each round on each map a new challenge and dynamic.
The real question would have to be whether it makes sense to force mappers to balance their maps so that any combination of dockings or hives would be balanced.
Personally, I think that it would add too much confusion and too much variability between the balance of maps (in a game where balance is already so map-dependent).
And why would 'IT' force mappers do anything when in fact this probably would give them more freedom and be a little more creative when creating a map.
As far as I understand balance isn't the issue here, in fact, it greatly increases balance. Simply put...............oh the hive is here, quick lock down the hive on the other side of the map...........that's what I call imbalance and it is FAR too predictable.
The marines could have a short sequence in the docking vehicle, while the aliens watch infestation start and the hive growing.
It would have to be random, otherwise every map would always have a "best" starting point that everyone would choose.
Sounds great though.
the intro part will certainly( if they were too long, 15+ secs?) become annoying, so if it gets to the ns2 it should appear once in the first round on the map, next rounds should skip it or just play the last few seconds of the full into ( like few second hold on start in ns1 ) not to mention sv_allowintro 0 ;d
Different marine start locations could have already be done in ns1, if they liked to, but they don't.
Marines and Aliens are supposed to be different and alternative start-locations clearly belongs to aliens.
Moreover marines walking-route through the map and forward phasegates or mini outposts already serve the purpose of marines doing different approaches, depending on their strategy and the alien game.
Considering that it is already a though job to balance all 3 hives and their enviroment equally, it would be even harder to balance 3 hives and 3 possible marine starts.
It would all be random, depending on where either team starts dictates what is going to happen. Map balance should not be the issue here, it's about random starts and a sudden battle or a time to build and expand.
And why would 'IT' force mappers do anything when in fact this probably would give them more freedom and be a little more creative when creating a map.
As far as I understand balance isn't the issue here, in fact, it greatly increases balance. Simply put...............oh the hive is here, quick lock down the hive on the other side of the map...........that's what I call imbalance and it is FAR too predictable.
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So rather than re-typing this i'll just quote myself be cause psykoman, no map would be played the same way ever. Read the entire thread..............and quit using balance as a fallback......the maps are imbalanced in nature as it is now, how do you balance ADVANTAGE?